11 January 2010
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Cover story
The year of living dangerously
Barack Obama called for a new politics, but during his first year in office his reforming agenda has run into bitter opposition. Something ineffable is missing. Can he recapture the thing from his campaign that gave America hope?
Features
Failed by Fianna
The Irish government rejected fiscal stimulus and slashed public spending instead. The result is economic meltdown. Is this a foretaste of life in Britain under the Tories?
Bottom of the class
In the second part of our series on poverty, Jon Cruddas and Jonathan Rutherford argue that the government has lost its way on welfare
Speaker cornered
John Bercow’s attempts to reform parliament are being threatened by a small cabal of right-wing Tory plotters
Essay
Young and wasted
The baby boomers had everything – free education, free health care and remarkable personal liberties – but they squandered it all. Now their children are paying for it
Interview
The NS Interview: John Varley
“If you’ve got thin skin, you shouldn’t run a bank” - John Varley, chief executive of Barclays
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Leader: Who has the vision to replace the discredited Brown?
Labour must decide who should lead the party - a discredited and unpopular Gordon Brown, or someone capable of renewal
The Politics Column
Brown is rocked but he won’t roll over
The only prospect of Brown's removal is for him to step down voluntarily. But there is nothing in his history or psychology to suggest this will happen
Culture
His dark materials
David Lynch’s films are hymns to bodily mutilation and dysfunction, in which prosthetic props threaten the very being of peculiar heroes.
Television
Nurse Jackie
Edie Falco’s nurse with a heart of gold is really a bit of a prig, writes Rachel Cooke
Books
Bad idea: Writing off reading
Contrary to the expectations of some, the internet has boosted the written word
The Neoliberal State
Neoliberalism has delivered not a small state, but a bloated market state in which government interference is omnipresent.
