25 November 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

Cover story

World at war

Terror on the Tube and plans to invade Iraq are just the beginning. Industrialisation, it was thought, would end human conflict; in fact, it leads to a fiercer battle for scarce resources

Features

Why you can't find a plumber

Forget the chatter about graduates: worry about a shortage of people to build and repair houses

The Pope's political troops

The left has less to fear from right-wing extremists than from the new centre-right which, with a streak of renewed Catholicism, now dominates Europe. John Lloyd reports

It's antisocial, but who cares?

Reckless driving causes more deaths than any other sort of street crime. But road safety is boring

Bordeaux? Just sell it like Coke

French wine, with its hundreds of varieties, doesn't suit the global market. Must it change?

Regulars

The price of oil

Mark Thomas pooh-poohs the plot to gas us

The government is trying to alarm you about terrorist attacks just as the weapons inspectors go into Iraq. But you can support legal action that may stop this war

Politics - John Kampfner unmasks Gordon Brown's enemy

Gordon Brown's allies believe that Alan Milburn is cultivating the role of supreme reformer so that he can challenge for the leadership when Blair steps down

Cristina Odone compares Myra to Marilyn

The strange ways in which Myra Hindley resembled Marilyn Monroe

Darcus Howe has an idea for stop-and-search

Most paedophiles are white. Yet there is no campaign to stop and search white men

Culture

Painting by numbers

Was the Sistine Chapel the work of a lone genius, or the collaborative effort of bickering apprentices? Ross King examines the cracks in an enduring Renaissance myth

Cartoon death

Art - Ned Denny on a delicate ballet of dismemberment and fatality

Eternal woman

Opera - Peter Conrad wonders whether he has ever before heard singing of such beauty

Bond traders

Advertising - Ross Diamond on how product placement thrives in the world of 007

Never say die another day

Film - Philip Kerr on how the new Bond movie takes pastiche and self-parody to new heights

The problem with map-reading

Theatre - Sheridan Morley runs into navigational difficulties with two plays that fail to chart their proper course

To he who set the golden standard

Television - Andrew Billen notes a landmark of a distinguished life in broadcasting

The Fan - Hunter Davies discovers Arsene is a Nancy boy

The latest gossip from Paris is that Arsene Wenger "feels" his players, writes Hunter Davis

Books

An excess of goodwill. Pankaj Mishra is disappointed by a respected writer's journey into bland provincialism

India in Slow Motion Mark Tully Viking, 302pp, £17.99 ISBN 0670885584

The road to Westminster

Number Ten Sue Townsend Michael Joseph, 336pp, £15.99 ISBN 071814368X

Devil's advocate. Neil Clark challenges "one of the most effective demonisation campaigns of modern times"

Milosevic: a biography Adam LeBor Bloomsbury, 386pp, £20 ISBN 0747560900

Novel Thoughts

Matthew Jennings on fiction by Helon Habila, Damien Wilkins and Martin Cruz Smith

Observations

Goodbye, lady with the lamp

Observations on gobbledegook

An unlikely supporter

Observations on anti-globalisation

Spirit of the mill owners lives on

Observations on British management

Fidel Castro

The last revolutionary

The last revolutionary

Steve Richards

On Tory policy

Our future in their hands

James Macintyre

Miliband's dilemma

Brussels is back with a vengeance

Will Self

On Oscar Wilde

Where the Wilde things are

Science

Religion and Darwin

Since the dawn  of time

Film review

Bright Star

Bright Star (PG)

Books

Paul Auster

Invisible

Interview

Alain de Botton

The Books Interview: Alain de Botton

Vote!

Should we build new nuclear power plants?

Suggest a question

View comments

© New Statesman 1913 – 2009

Tracker