20 May 2002

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

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

By John Kampfner

Features

Lisa Allardice on the fuss about the opera babes

By Lisa Allardice

In an aesthetic landscape of dirty knickers, outraged stuffiness creates the greatest stir

Let them all come

By Nick Cohen

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

By Bill Angus

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

By Justin Webster

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

By Natasha Walter

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

Diary

Diary - Beryl Bainbridge

By Beryl Bainbridge

New Statesman Leader

Why privatisation makes railways unsafe

Darcus Howe on Peter Hain's idea of integration

By Darcus Howe

After 40 years here, Tom and his wife have no white friends. Should they integrate?

Mark Thomas

By 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

This England

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Arts & Culture

Left, right, left, right

By D J Taylor

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?