In this week’s New Statesman, we go inside Pakistan’s ISI, the spy network that backed Bin Laden. In our cover story, Anatol Lieven says that the west is doomed to try to co-operate with the ISI – without trusting it an inch.
Elsewhere, Mehdi Hasan considers survival strategies for the Lib Dems, John Pilger reflects on how the Murdoch press has silenced Australia’s Aboriginal people, David Blanchflower looks at Alex Salmond’s economic headache, and Alice Miles argues that Andrew Lansley’s health-care reforms do not go far enough.
Also this week, Dan Hodges shares the chaotic inside story of the No to AV campaign, Tim Montgomerie explains how Cameron will protect Clegg, and the former Labour cabinet minister Charles Falconer says Labour needs to embrace nationalism in Scotland.
All this, plus an interview with the actor and “attention-seeker” James Corden, Harold Bloom on Dr Johnson’s passion for writing, and Will Self on jargon.