26 July 1999
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Cover story
I took tea with Pinochet
Christina Lamb visits an ex-dictator in Surrey and finds him insisting that he was always too busy to torture anybody
Features
The barrow boy with no manners
Simon Heffer argues that, by paying all the bills from his own bank account, Michael Ashcroft has shown that he isn't much good as a Tory treasurer
Iranians hold a dress rehearsal for revolution
President Khatami wants to modernise his nation and Islam. He has powerful allies
Kidneys for sale at $500 each
In Iraq, people walk barefoot, and doctors have lost interest in ethics. ByPeter Kandela
America learns to hate Wal-Mart
Soon, the world's biggest supermarket chain may be here in Britain. But in the US it faces growing opposition. Maurice Walshreports
Do the workless have to be idle?
Donald Hirsch argues that the government's welfare policy, based on the idea that paid work is the answer to everything, is hopelessly unmodern
Who really influences new Labour?
Mark Watts and Rob Evans find that lobbying by the US embassy gets results
They dance; I take the dog for a walk
Southern Europeans seem to enjoy themselves more than northerners, who regard even pleasure as a duty. Theodore Dalrymple explains why
How the good news hit the spike
When a reporter found a successful NHS service, the editor didn't want to know
Regulars
Diary
"I want you to read the news wearing ripped denim shorts," demands a viewer from Sutton Coldfield
A family of royals just like us
The Kennedys may be a monarchy but they are wholly American in style. By Cristina Odone
Arts & Culture
Visions of another America
Native American art is finally getting the recognition it deserves. John Henshall is captivated by the British Museum's newest gallery
Smooth talk
Jazz byRichard Cook
Mood music
Classical byDermot Clinch
A city divided
Film byJonathan Romney
Porter's progress
Theatre byKate Kellaway
Utopian visions
Architecture byHugh Aldersey-Williams
Books
For the love of Stalin. The Anglo-Saxon world has been a bystander to the century's great passion: communism. What was its appeal to Continental intellectuals? And can we be sure that it won't return?
The Passing of an Illusion
Francois Furet University of Chicago Press, 561pp, £27.95
ISBN 0226273407
Silly Winnie
Fisher, Churchill and the Dardanelles
Geoffrey Penn Leo Cooper, 282pp, £25
ISBN 0850526469
The view from outside
Thirty-Three Moments of Happiness: St Petersburg Stories
Ingo Schulze Picador, 306pp, £12.99
ISBN 0330373412
Novel of the week
Fictions and Lies
Irina Ratushinskaya, translated by Alyona Kozevnikova John Murray, 288pp, £16.99
ISBN 0719556856
Will to power
Morgan, American Financier
Jean Strouse Harvill, 796pp, £25
ISBN 0375501665
Lost illusions
Flight Patterns
Alan Mahar Gollancz, 285pp, £9.99
ISBN 0575067217
Commentary - Why I love Bridget Jones
Helen Fielding has created a contemporary Molly Bloom
Water, water, everywhere . . .
Privatised water: who's paying the price?
How to weigh the cost of water
The regulator is setting five-year price caps for the water companies. Neil Summertonexplains the labyrinthine process
Not every bucketful is equal
For the sake of fairness we need a new charging system
Divining the profits
Consumers have been paying over the top since privatisation, argues Anna Bradley, director of the National Consumer Council
No let-up in the quest for quality
Just because price cuts are imminent, argues Michael Meacher, don't imagine environmental standards will be allowed to slip
Creating local waves
Regional government, greater competition and climate change add up to an opportunity for water companies to take a lead
Public, private or a bit of both?
No one has yet found the answer to water industry control
Observations
Letters to the Editor
New Statesman readers give their views - see what they said and find out how to contribute yourself by going to our letters pages
