26 March 2001

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

Jason Cowley, Editor, New Statesman

Cover story

How the rich rule politics again

Oligarchy is back. In Italy, a media magnate looks set to become PM; elsewhere, the wealthy wield more influence than ever

By John Lloyd

Features

Among Asians, bakshish is just another word

By Ziauddin Sardar

We call them bribes, but Indians may regard them just as a way of cementing social relations

My client deserves a better deal

By Geoffrey Bindman

Geoffrey Bindman, Keith Vaz's lawyer, argues that parliament flouts the rules of natural justice

Bush makes things hot for Americans

By Tom Burke

The US president has renounced Kyoto, but he could live to regret it, argues Tom Burke

A degree? Still no job if you're black

By Lee Elliot-Major

Lee Elliot-Major reveals shocking levels of discrimination against ethnic minorities

Everything is in Blair's favour

By Ivor Crewe

With an election announcement expected within days, Ivor Crewe argues that all Labour's fears about the result are unfounded

The end of Paris as we love it?

By David Lawday

To take the French capital, the left had to strike a deal with the Greens. The price may be the loss of what makes the city special, argues David Lawday

Shakespeare, Scrooge of Stratford

By Katherine Duncan-Jones

Was our greatest dramatist a stingy hoarder who gave no money to the poor of his parish? Katherine Duncan-Jonesunearths damning truths about the Bard

They're selling off your council

By Judy Hirst

Libraries, leisure centres, home care: such local authority services are being handed over to private firms on an astonishing scale. Judy Hirst reports

Essay

The New Statesman Essay - How we let more mean worse

By Alan Ryan

Alan Ryan argues that, by pretending that the second-rate is as good as the best, British higher education has betrayed the egalitarian project

Interview

The New Statesman Interview - Michael Wills

By Jackie Ashley

Blair's envoy of patriotism wraps new Labour in the Union Jack and says ethnicity has no role in Britishness. Michael Wills interviewed

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

Keep out of the Balkans

Paul Routledge

By Paul Routledge

Leave the Caribbean and play better cricket

By Darcus Howe

Ye olde Brits, don't give up on the Mickey Mouse image

By Cristina Odone

Lady C wore curlers to the Savoy. On the council estate, she'd have been sectioned

By Lauren Booth

Competition - Win a bottle of champagne

Culture

Plenty

By Dominic Dromgoole

Theatre has recently been awarded its biggest ever subsidy by the Arts Council. Artistic director Dominic Dromgoole urges companies to put the money on the stage

Out of this world

By Michael Waterhouse

Coffins - Michael Waterhouse checks out alternative routes across the Styx

Seriously sublime

By Richard Cook

Music - Richard Cook is transported by The Divine Comedy

Film

Goodbye to all that

By William Cook

Film - William Cook welcomes the return of our favourite romance and its famous station

Television

So PC

By Julie Nightingale

Television - Julie Nightingale on how police dramas are cleaning up their act

Television

Upstaged by a prop

By Andrew Billen

Television - Andrew Billen is less than happy with Paul Whitehouse's new comic creation

The Fan

A quiet word on the side about a Sugar'd deal

By Hunter Davies

Books

The shame of the nation. John Simpson reported from Belgrade during the Nato raids on Serbia. Two years later he delivers his definitive verdict: Tony Blair was wrong. There was too much suffering

By John Simpson

A New Generation Draws The Line: Kosovo, East Timor and the standards of the West Noam Chomsky Verso, 160pp, £16 ISBN 1859847897 To Kill A Nation: the attack on Yugoslavia Michael Parenti Verso, 160pp, £16