07 October 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
In defence of Edwina Currie, the woman who dared
Alan Clark was celebrated as a loveable old rogue after the many scandalous revelations in his diaries. So why should John Major's ex-mistress be denounced as a trollop?
Features
A seismic shift in America
US voters no longer think it unpatriotic to question the wisdom of war on Iraq. Even senior Republicans are questioning Bush's policies. By Andrew Stephen in Washington
Unions? Ban them! Cyclists? Fascists!
If you think the Today programme is guilty of bias, try talk radio, where you can hear some pleasant exchanges about "Pakis". Johann Hari on how the right rules the airwaves
How gunboats can beat the refugees
European leaders want to copy Australia's policy for keeping out asylum-seekers: armed force, mass expulsions and bribes to poor nations to take them
The land of plenty runs dry
Argentina was once so prosperous that poor Europeans emigrated there. Now, children starve and thousands scavenge for food. Sue Branford reports
Regulars
The Politics Column
Politics - John Kampfner reveals how the party conference exploded in another Blair-Brown feud
Blair's supporters are delighted with what happened at Blackpool. But in the Brown camp, they're asking why the goalposts were moved while Gordon was in the US
John Pilger on fanatics who threaten murder
The Palestinians are no longer alone; Israel, despite the craven intimidation of some of its supporters, has ceased to be immune from truthful media criticism
Darcus Howe laments Paul Boateng's failure
Paul Boateng could have unified the Labour conference. He failed
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Pop goes the axis of evil
Lichtenstein, feminists and funky photography: the Iranian art scene is hotting up. Anna Somers Cocks peels the veil from one of the world's great forgotten collections
Voices of the dead
Music - Peter Conrad on a tribute to the victims of 9/11 that expresses the unspeakable
Nothing to it
Art - Ned Denny discovers great depths and subtleties in emptiness
Vinyl, vidi, vici
Gramophone - Simon Callow is overcome by the romance of recording
Theatre
Making the rounds
Theatre - Sheridan Morley enjoys three very different attempts at retranslating the past
Television
A different kind of cop
Television - Andrew Billen on why he likes nightmarish policemen despite misgivings
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies rejoices in Arsenal's black players
I shouldn't really say it, but I like Arsenal because they're a black team
Books
Mr Smith goes to . . . the second-hand bookshop
You can't sell a book by Jane Fonda or Margaret Thatcher
Everyone needs a Willie. Margaret Thatcher's trusted deputy may have appeared an amiable old buffer, but he was also irascible and "infinitely cunning". By Malcolm Rifkind
Splendid! Splendid!: the authorised biography of Willie Whitelaw Mark Garnett and Ian Aitken Jonathan Cape, 386pp, £20 ISBN 0224063111
A special relationship
On a Grander Scale: the outstanding career of Sir Christopher Wren Lisa Jardine HarperCollins, 600pp, £25 ISBN 0007107757
Wilde time
Dorian: an imitation Will Self Viking, 278pp, £16.99 ISBN 0670889962
Lunatic ideas. Colin Tudge on a key study for "anyone who wishes to understand the modern world"
The Lunar Men: the friends who made the future (1730-1810) Jenny Uglow Faber and Faber, 588pp, £25 ISBN 0571196470
A genius for inaccuracy
Glimpses of the Wonderful: the life of Philip Henry Gosse (1810-1888) Ann Thwaite Faber and Faber, 387pp, £25 ISBN 0571193285
Eat yourself fitter
Hungry Hell Kate Chisholm Short Books, 152pp, £5.99 ISBN 1904095232
Novel thoughts
Novel thoughts
