The New Statesman: Heroes of our time

The New Statesman invited readers to write in with their suggestions for 'heroes of our time' and they've now published the top 50.

Showing a shameful lack of imagination they've gone for Aung Sang Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela as their top 2. No sign of Jade Goody or Vernon Kay. Most disappointing.

No.3 is Bob Geldof. Bono is on the list too, but only at No.30. Goes to show that editing the Indy isn't good for one's popularity. John 'rapacious Western Governments' Pilger got in at No.4. Mag Thatch at No.5 (clearly benefitting from the large ex-miner readership of the NS), is in at No.5

Andrew Roberts, in his paean to Thatch, says "The 1992 election victory was largely down to her legacy rather than the non-leadership of her absurd successor, John Major. " That's funny. I thought it was precisely because the Tories dumped the old witch that they scraped a win in 1992.

No.7 in the NS poll is Noam Chomsky, who is to academic rigour what Dan Brown is to literary fiction. Tony Benn, Hugo Chavez and George Galloway fill spots in the top-50 too which indicates the Euston Manifesto may have a point about the moral bankruptcy of sections of the Left. With heroes like these who needs bogey-men.

Brian Haw makes it in at No.31 and shows how 'egalitarian' the NS survey is...apparently we ask little more of our heroes than that they squat at a roundabout for five years.

Prince Charles is in at No.46. Next to his name the NS has helpfully printed 'Eldest son of the Queen'. Charlie will be disappointed that his ma finishes higher up the poll, in at No.33, yet pleased that his subscription to NS has at last paid dividends.

In his intro to the poll, Jason Cowley says that 'although we asked you to consider the living, Winston Churchill was among several of the great dead to receive multiple nominations, as were Jesus Christ and Marie Curie. Some heroes, it seems, never die'. Or, rather, some NS readers never read the small print.

Elsewhere in the NS, Robert Calderisi speculates that the worst man in the world is Paul Wolfowitz. Not Robert Mugabe. Not Osama Bin Laden. But, possibly, Paul Wolfowitz.