Dec 2007 - Jan 2008 2007 Archive 

Surveillance Society From telephone records to biometric passports, from travel patterns to shopping details, it is now possible to build an unimaginably detailed picture of our private lives. Gathering this data without our express permission is not just unaccountable, argues Ben Hayes, but poses a threat to the fabric of our democracy

Generation ID: lessons in kiddyprinting Thousands of children across the UK have had their fingerprints and DNA taken without explicit informed parental consent. Tamanna Kalhar speaks to Terri Dowty of Action on Rights for Children

American interest John Mersheimer and Stephen Walt’s The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy offers a brilliant account of US economic and military support to Israel, writes Richard Kuper. Its flaws lie not in an alleged anti-semitism, but in overstating the influence of the lobby over a US administration that is out of step on a broad range of foreign policy issues

Blue grits and the Penthouse Party As Hillary Clinton sews up the Democrats’ election campaign at the top, on the streets the ‘blue grits’, as Laura Flanders calls grass-roots Democrat and ex–Democrat activists, are reinventing electoral politics

Keep throwing stones From the CAST theatre company to New Variety and the Hackney Empire, Roland and Claire Muldoon have been at the heart of cultural dissent for the past four decades. By Jane Shallice

Democratic deficits Gordon Brown is urging a debate on Britishness. But Britain is an essentially imperial project sustained today by subservience to the US, argues David Beetham, and judging by the new green paper on governance a democratic Britain is not about to be born

Babes without spice Laurie Penny explains what it means to have hopes dashed twice, first by the Spice Girls and second by Blair’s Babes

You’re booked Sports books fill the bestseller lists every Christmas. Anne Coddington and Mark Perryman examine the rise and rise of the new sports writing

Booktopia Comedian Mark Thomas on his top books

Cleaner minded

Dear Auntie,

I live in a house with several friends and while I enjoy the ritual weekly clean they are lazy, so have suggested we hire a cleaner. I am uncomfortable about the idea of hiring someone to be our servant when we have plenty of time and are perfectly capable of doing our own cleaning. Does Auntie have a cleaner? And what does she think of the idea of hiring one? Ms Spick and Span

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