New StatesmanBritain's award-winning current affairs magazineTrains and classes- August 7, 2008 During the Second World War, the novelist J B Priestley was seen as the national voice of common sense. A regular contributor to the New Statesman, he wrote perceptively about the British popular mood. In this wartime article, Priestley identified a growing resentment among railway users over the distinction between first- and third-class seats. In their irritation, he saw an expression of changing attitudes towards the concept of classThe New Statesman 25 July 1942 During the last two years I.http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2008/08/third-class-seats-resentment Why Prudence needs Justice- August 7, 2008 Labour could again become the party of justice, but not while inequality is on the increase and social mobility stalledOver the summer, as new Labour's "Prosecco plotters" plan the overthrow of Gordon Brown from their Tuscan villas, they could do worse than plan a day trip to nearby Siena to visit the city's town hall, a symbol of civic autonomy since the 14th century. There, spread across three walls of the so-called Sala della Pace (Room of Peace), is a magnificent fresco by Ambrogio...http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/08/labour-party-city-justice PR scum are human, too- August 7, 2008 The Fame Formula: How Hollywood's Fixers, Fakers and Star Makers Created the Celebrity IndustryMark Borkowski Sidgwick & Jackson, 391pp, 16.99I have no idea what publicists call journalists in private, but I can reveal that we hacks refer to our promotional colleagues as "PR scum". Now that Nick Davies has exposed the gullible and corrupt nature of contemporary journalism in his scaremongering work Flat Earth News, we might need to adjust our address. Mark Borkowski goes one better. His history.http://www.newstatesman.com/film/2008/08/borkowski-hollywood-formula Up close and personal- August 7, 2008 Despite my being in this remote region, I wasn't alone: people were travelling with me through the words of my blogThe American journalist Jeff Jarvis has come by my house to interview me. Here I am, face to face with one of the most incisive technology journalists of today - via his blog BuzzMachine - and he is asking me what I think of the internet. I find the idea mind-boggling, to say the least; it would have been unthinkable a decade ago, when Google was a fledgling search engine ...http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2008/08/readers-film-internet-despite Truth is awkward- August 7, 2008 Barbara Gunnell on why we prize honesty, yet hate to challenge those who lieAnne Darwin was a "lying bitch", according to her son Mark. He and his brother had grieved and supported her over the disappearance and likely death of their father - her husband - only to learn, six years later, that their parents had enacted an elaborate hoax. How could the sons not have known, some have asked. Folk wisdom has it you can tell when people are lying. They scratch ...http://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2008/08/lie-honesty-challenge-truth Looking back on Doha- August 6, 2008 UK minister Gareth Thomas looks back on the failure of world trade talks in Geneva that he believes could have brought huge benefits for the poorest nationsAfter 10 days of trade talks in Geneva between ministers from countries ranging from Burkina Faso and Lesotho to the US and China, the latest attempt to get agreement in the current Doha Development Round of world trade talks broke up with no agreement. The questions now ministers are beginning to think through, individually here in the UK,.http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/08/trade-talks-world-burkina-faso A philosophy, not a religion- August 6, 2008 Becer Gul says that for Alevis God is more about love then fear... I consider Alevism to be a philosophy and not a religion. That is because in most religions the believers say that one has to do good things, that a person must do this and that they have to do that. However when it comes to actual practise you can't see it. This is not the case in an Alevi society where one must practise what one preaches. There exist ...http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-faith-column/2008/08/alevis-god-person-fear-love My Absolute Favourite Post Ever- August 6, 2008 Red Harry is one of my regular anonymous posters. I hope you enjoy this parody of his style from Jonny MacBright: "What a lovely bit of sun and blue sky we had earlier this summer." redharry: "Typical neo-fascist bollix from the Islamophobe Bright, promoting Tory blue over other minority colours in a frankly sickening racist display that is comparable only to the ravings of the lunatic anti-immigrant Anthony Browne. What a disgrace that the once proud NS published this right wing,...http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/martin-bright/2008/08/enjoy-hope-parody-style-mac The Other Conservative Ads- August 6, 2008 The Tories' ad campaign is well-judged - right down to the traditional dog-whistle policies they are playing down I have to take my hat off to the designers of the Conservative Party's sunny uplands website. Lots of smiling young faces and the verve of a party that thinks it's heading back into power. The slogans of the pop-up adverts are great, showing the Cameroons' capacity for empathy. Who in middle Britain could possibly argue with the following: A Neighbourhood I Feel Safe InA Home of My..http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/08/dog-whistle-policies-tories Tories sail into stormy waters- August 6, 2008 What's going on on newstatesman.com plus devastating news of a Tory split. Or is it just a big Cameron PR cook-upThis week on newstatesman.com the Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov writes exclusively on Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, who related the terrible truth about Soviet totalitarianism in his Gulag Archipelago. Kurkov observes: "Alexander Isaevich outlived his era and never truly accepted the new post-soviet epoch. "Having sincerely dedicated his life to a desperate struggle against communism, in.http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/ben-davies/2008/08/tory-split-dave-cameron-cake |