Introducing.... The State of the Nation Issue of Shift Control If aliens landed in Britain with the aim of finding out what's up these days, they'd be in for a confusing time. Politicians - our leaders - are being chased by headless chickens and hacks on smack, while other hacks rage against "sleaze" and try to be politicians themselves. Unemployment figures are down, though they might be up. Ministers disagree with their parties while simultaneously agreeing with their parties. When we think we're eating lamb we might be eating beef. And millions of people buy Spice Girls records. It'll take more than a fancy spaceship to figure out the state of the nation these days. Undaunted, we decided to have a go anyway in this week's issue of Shift Control. We've asked Johnny Foreigner to give us an outsider's view of Britain; citizens of Middle Britain send us postcards profiling life in their home towns; Robin Hunt tries the statistical approach in the hope of finding some coherent indications as to where the country's heading; and Rada Petrovic explores her local haunt - Kentish Town, London - as a microcosm of the nation. Plus our quiz asks: how wild are you about Britain? Also this week: the usual mountain of humour and perspicacity, including more memoirs from Freebee (our resident rock historian), new fiction from Miles Gregory, and, if you're quick, details on how to obtain free tickets to the fourth annual Unconvention in London. Shift Control: in a fine state and waiting for you at: http://www.shiftcontrol.com Shift Control is produced by the Guardian's New Media Lab with help from Boddingtons and Stella Artois Dry. To unsubscribe from this mailing list send e-mail to shiftcontrol-request@nml.guardian.co.uk with the following text in the body of the mail message: unsubscribe