14 May 2001
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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
We Tories must change, or face eternal oblivion
Election 2001 - Giles Marshall, chairman of the Tory Reform Group (president: Ken Clarke), argues that his party is riddled with bigotry, mediocrity and incompetence
Features
The Mystic Megs polish their crystal balls
Election 2001 - Nick Cohenargues that opinion polls, which have a dismal record in predicting election results, are just another way of keeping the proles in their place
Oooh, suit you for the polls, sir
Election 2001 - To assess a politician, look at the lapels, the buttons and the vents
When it's just a demotion to get elected
Election 2001 - Top Blairite advisers are struggling to get seats, but most don't care, reports John Kampfner
Keep out! By order of the squirearchy
If foot-and-mouth is beaten, why are many footpaths still closed? David Coxinvestigates
The digital divide is rubbish
Lack of internet access is one sort of exclusion that shouldn't worry us, argues James Crabtree
Blair and Hague face jail . . .
. . . well, they probably would if they were French. The story of how politicians got into trouble across the Channel should be a salutary warning
Some very strange business in the City
Big investors sided with activists at a firm's AGM. Or so it seemed. Mark Thomas reports
A sword over Europe
At its torchlit rallies, immigrants to Italy are branded as disease-ridden criminals. Yet the Northern League could win a share of power in a few days. Peter Semler reports from Milan
Essay
The New Statesman Essay - Can Blair kill off Britain's Tory state at last?
Election 2001 - He may not be a socialist, but no Labour leader has ever been more anti-Conservative. And that is the key to his second term, argues David Marquand
Interview
The New Statesman Interview - Ian McCartney
Election 2001 - He calls himself a socialist, but his closest friend is Peter Mandelson. Meet Labour's secret weapon. Ian McCartney interviewed
Culture
Life lines
Biography 1 - Biography, once considered a second-rate genre, has never been so fashionable. Kathryn Hughes welcomes the thaw in relations between life-writing and the academy
Secrets and lies
Biography 2 - Biography, once considered a second-rate genre, has never been so fashionable. Anne Chisholm debates the ethics of telling the truth
Moving pictures
Photography - Tom Rosenthal admires the work of a major artist and social commentator
King Henry
Lounge music - Stephen Smith takes the score of the man who brought jazz to the movies
Television
Family business
Television - Andrew Billen on a politely lavish drama a little lacking in grit
Books
Show us the papers, Hitchens. Henry Kissinger has finally met his match in Christopher Hitchens. But do they deserve each other? Frances Stonor Saunders goes into battle with two mighty egos
The Trial of Henry Kissinger Christopher Hitchens Verso, 160pp, £15 ISBN 1859846319
Orange-tinted specs
The Prime Minister's Wife Susan Crosland Robson Books, 233pp, £16.95 ISBN 186105386X A Clouded Peace John Cole Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 265pp, £12.99
Apocalypse now
A History of Bombing Sven Lindqvist Granta, 224pp, £14.99 ISBN 1862074151
Hendrix played Ilkley
On Ilkley Moor: the story of an English town Tim Binding Picador, 335pp, £16 ISBN 0330369962
I spar, you spar
Fight the power Colin McMillan M Publicity (available on 020 8599 6823), 201pp, £9.99 ISBN 095397880X Looking for a fight David Matthews Headline, 310pp, £14.99 The Boxer's Heart: how I fell in love with the ring Kate Sekules Aurum Press, 238pp, £12.99
Novel of the week
He Kills Coppers Jake Arnott Sceptre, 327pp, £10 ISBN 0340748796
The lowest politics
Just Capital: the liberal economy Adair Turner Macmillan, 406pp, £20 ISBN 0333900715
