20 May 2002
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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
The riddle of the porn baron's cheque
Nobody at Labour HQ knew anything about Richard Desmond's donation. Or so they say. But the party is so broke that it needs cash - any old cash. John Kampfner reports
Features
Lisa Allardice on the fuss about the opera babes
In an aesthetic landscape of dirty knickers, outraged stuffiness creates the greatest stir
Let them all come
It's not a soft touch welfare system that makes Britain a magnet for immigrants; it's our need for cheap labour. Nick Cohen reports
From Russia with uplift
The order came from Moscow via Amsterdam. But why did the customers want to pay £90,000 for a job that need cost barely £50,000?
Hello again, Mr President
Justin Webster meets Hugo Chavez, the in-out-in ruler of Venezuela, and finds he still fears for his life. And with his army opponents saying he is supported by a layer of thin air, he has every reason to worry
Essay
The NS Essay - How my father spied for peace
Forty years ago, activists, among them Nicolas Walter, found secret government plans for the British elite to survive nuclear war. Natasha Walter argues that their story can be an inspiration for today's protesters
Regulars
Darcus Howe on Peter Hain's idea of integration
After 40 years here, Tom and his wife have no white friends. Should they integrate?
Mark Thomas
President Bush has declared a War on Hormones and is set to do battle with every teenage erection, secretion and moistening in the world reports Mark Thomas
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Left, right, left, right
Orwell has been co-opted to defend almost everything, including the US Star Wars programme and the Falklands war. Is it time to rescue him from his friends?
World of interiors
Art - Ned Denny discovers magic in a genre that is old hat
In bed with Madonna
Opera - Peter Conrad on the ENO's latest sexual romp
Roar of approval
Jazz - Sholto Byrnes exposes a conspiracy of niceness among the critics
Television
Deja vu
Television - Andrew Billen on a new but spookily familiar spy drama that fails to thrill
Books
Return of the history man. What will it mean to be human in the new genetic future? Kenan Malik takes issue with the messianic pessimism of one of the world's great controversialists
Our Posthuman Future: consequences of the biotechnology revolution Francis Fukuyama Profile Books, 256pp, £17.99 ISBN 1861972970
Made in Govan
The Boss: the many sides of Alex Ferguson Michael Crick Simon & Schuster, 612pp, £17.99 ISBN 0743207483
The girl pretenders
Ungrateful Daughters: the Stuart princesses who stole their father's crown Maureen Waller Hodder & Stoughton, 454pp, £20 ISBN 0340794615
Sucking Mr Hill. Peter Bradshaw on a biography of a neglected master of seaside-postcard naughtiness
Funny, Peculiar: the true story of Benny Hill Mark Lewisohn Sidgwick & Jackson, 515pp, £16.99 ISBN 0283063696
An enormous yes
The Birth of Pleasure: a new map of love Carol Gilligan Chatto & Windus, 253pp, £18.99 ISBN 0701162392
Holocaust hoaxer
A Life in Pieces Blake Eskin Aurum Press, 245pp, £16.99 ISBN 1854107623
The lads' laureate
Bedtime Clare Pollard Bloodaxe Books, 64pp, £6.95 ISBN 185224593X Spanish Fly Neil Rollinson Jonathan Cape, 47pp, £8
Novel of the week
Thin Skin Emma Forrest Bloomsbury, 210pp, £6.99 ISBN 0747557357
