08 October 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
Don't panic: it's safer than you think
War on Terror: The Biological Threat - The biological terrorist has replaced the nuclear warrior as our worst bogeyman. Yet the facts don't bear out our fears
Features
History and social democracy start again
Labour Conference 2001 - The PM laid on an inspirational performance in Brighton. The trouble was that Labour didn't have many delegates there to hear it. By Jackie Ashley
Gee, have you heard? There's a world out there
War on Terror: Washington - The US was so insular for so long that State Department buildings got tattier and tattier. Now, its eyes are opening. Andrew Stephen reports
A tool to fight bigamy, not terrorism
War on Terror: Identity Cards - The ID card is not just illiberal; it is also, as British history shows, very ineffectual. John Agarreports
A socialist guilt trip too far
War on Terror: Anti-Americanism - The left may go in for Yankee bashing, but for the Irish, as for Britain's blacks, the US is heaven. By Patrick O'Flynn
What you get for backing a tyrant
War on Terror: Africa - By supporting President Mobutu in the Congo, the US fuelled the rise of terrorism there, reports Victoria Brittain
A cosmic gaffe, but do we secretly agree?
War on Terror: Berlusconi - Despite later denials, the Italian premier meant it when he said that the west is superior to Islam. And the left, argues John Lloyd, implicitly holds similar views
In the dead zone, a hope for peace
Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots have been foes for almost 30 years. But some of the islanders have decided to end the civil strife - in defiance of their leaders
Essay
The New Statesman Essay - Before the pith helmets
India's early contacts with the British were benign and mutually beneficial, argues Maria Misra. All that changed when the Victorians decided to "improve" things
Interview
The New Statesman Interview - Bernard Kouchner
France's health minister says Britain is wrong about the NHS - too little money, too much talk of privatisation. Bernard Kouchner interviewed
Culture
American beauty
The enigmatic Jackie Kennedy expressed herself through her wardrobe. James Marquand queues up to see an exhibition of her clothes, and finds nostalgia not only for America's queen, but also for an unfractious moment when corporations were not disdained
Dirty brushes
Art - Alexander Walker on the salacious but exquisitely executed work of Balthus
Knotty problem
Art - Deborah Levy discovers an Iranian artist who lifts the veil on issues of race and gender
Orgy and mess
Opera - Patrick O'Connor is not shocked by a sleazy new production of Rigoletto
Television
The true drama of war
Television - Andrew Billen on a costly portrayal of heroism that is being undersold
Books
An elegy for the modern world. Jan Morris's Trieste is built for introspection and memories. In this incorrigibly subjective portrait of the city, Robert Winder discovers imperial nostalgia, a defence of the bourgeoisie . . . and kindness
Trieste and the meaning of nowhere Jan Morris Faber and Faber, 194pp, £16.99 ISBN 0571204430
Superwoman
Cherie: the perfect life of Mrs Blair Linda McDougall Politico's, 286pp, £17.99 ISBN 1902301870
Achievement famine
Celebrity Chris Rojek Reaktion Books, 208pp, £12.95 ISBN 1861891040
Novel of the week
Legacy Alan Judd HarperCollins, 265pp, £16.99 ISBN 0002259400
Who killed Bravo?
Death at the Priory: love, sex and murder in Victorian England James Ruddick Atlantic Books, 202pp, £14.99 ISBN 1903809045
Faking it. Frank McLynn on the life of Prince Charles's celebrated guru: a fraud, liar and crazed right-winger
Storyteller: the many lives of Laurens van der Post J D F Jones John Murray, 505pp, £25 ISBN 0719555809
His own journey
Politics and Progress David Blunkett Politico's, 170pp, £8.99 ISBN 1842750240
Paperback reader
Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury HarperCollins, 172pp, £7.99 ISBN 0006546064
The end of an empire
The Rise and Fall of Marks & Spencer Judi Bevan Profile Books, 269pp, £16.99 ISBN 186197289X











