Volume 120 Issue 2 March/April 2005

Cover Story

Where will you put your cross?: In the run-up to the election, parties are promising the world to religious groups. But what can they offer to the average humanist? We asked the parties for their positions on key questions. First, Nick Cohen gives his view on how they measure up.

No more Mr Nice Guy: Laurie Taylor refuses to sign up
Whatever it takes: It's going to be a truly horrid election, predicts Simon Hoggart
Speak up for humanity: Once again the bullying tactics of Christian Voice are frighteningly evident.

Burning issue: Each week there are over 2,000 cases of arson in the UK, and the numbers are rising steadily. Mike Presdee analyses the nature of and motivation for this crime of passion
EU ain't seen nothin' yet: Mark Leonard argues that the future of politics lies in the European model of cooperation and rule of law
Universal Idol: How did a stateless German Jewish physicist become the first pop star of science, asks Joseph Schwartz
Get real in Madrid: Anthony Barnett and Bill Thompson look forward to a path-breaking virtual conference on combating terrorism and deepening democracy
Death to Deviants: My escape from homophobic hell in Algeria, by Ramzi Isalam
Alehouse rock: Laurie Taylor interviews Tom Baker: Tom Baker takes Laurie Taylor on a pub crawl
After the Gulag: Laura Piacentini explores the paradoxes of Russia's prisons since the fall of the Soviet Union
Bullseyes, Black jacks and Nelson's Balls: How can something that tastes so good be so bad? Sally Feldman succumbs to the secret seduction of sweets

Denouement: Andrew Tudor wonders what happened to all the arthouse cinemas
Wild Vagaries: Jim Herrick considers the two sides of August Strindberg
Hopeless Romantic: Karen Hewitt goes travelling with Turgenev
Algebraic amours: Hugh Burkhardt on how to stop worrying and love the (bouncing) bomb
Tories in trouble: Michael Binyon reviews the crisis in conservativism
Good Thinking: Jonathan Derbyshire thinks, therefore it must be Descartes
Faith kills: David Boulton examines an extreme answer to extremism
Cause without a rebel: Sally Feldman has issues with Ishiguro
Stalked by life: Chris paling is gripped by Kurkovs death in Kiev
Hell is other iPods: Caspar Melville on the loneliness of the long-distance shuffler