05 July 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
Rise of the four-star deities
David Petraeus, George Bush’s “main man” in Iraq and an American military icon, is now expected to win what many consider to be the unwinnable Afghan war. Is the US once again succumbing to the cult of the generals?
Features
Meditation rescued me from misanthropy
Religion is an easy target for atheists, but, as Tim Parks discovered, there’s no escaping that there’s more to life than rational thinking and the material world. He found the key on a Buddhist retreat in the countryside.
The high cost of sporting glory
Events such as the World Cup and the Olympics are not the economic juggernauts that their promoters claim they are. How do host nations benefit from them?
Beware those Black Swans
The bestselling economist Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues that we can’t make the world financial system immune to shocks –– but we can make sure it’s much more robust by building randomness into our planning.
The Tory stealth attack on the NHS
If the Tories have their way, they will break apart the health system, just like our schools. This is a strange kind of “big society”.
Interview
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Leader: We must talk to the Taliban and end this war
The Americans and British must seek a negotiated political settlement immediately.
First Thoughts
Death, taxes and football
Dodgy deficits, fickle focus groups, royal abuses, class rules and more football truths.
The Politics Column
The coalition: a pact signed in blood
As a demonstration of his commitment to the coalition, David Cameron is considering reversing his opposition to electoral reform.
Culture
Theatre
Through a glass darkly
Andrew Billen is perplexed by a perverse rereading of Ingmar Bergman.
Books
High Financier: the Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg
Siegmund Warburg, scion of the great banking dynasty, founded his own financial house with the aim of doing much more than grow for growth’s sake. Niall Ferguson’s biography is a fascinating portrait of a figure central to Labour’s attempts to rebuild Britain in the 1970s.
