17 February 2003
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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
As the world protests against war, we hear again the lies of old
"A painful decision," say the supporters of an invasion. But it is not they who will feel the pain: it will be the Iraqi infants writhing in the dust when the cluster bombs fall
Features
Why a war against Iraq would be illegal
The UN Charter does not justify an invasion
How Islington man became a trigger-happy Prime Minister
Five wars in five years: why is Blair so bellicose? Because his vision of "international community" makes him at least as much of a hawk as Bush
A nation split down the middle
The Britometer poll
A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal For Preventing Torturers in Liberal Democracies From Being Abused, and For Recognising Their Benefit to The Public. By John Gray (with apologies to Jonathan Swift)
Suede boots, pink ladies
Lindsey Hilsum finds some curious visitors on the streets of Baghdad
A Victorian idealist in the White House
The left opposes the war for the wrong reasons. Bush is not a dumb hick who wants to fight the Iraqis for their oil; he is a clever man motivated by righteousness
In the wake of Robert Lowell
Can today's poets seize the moment as their great predecessors did during the First World War and the fighting in Vietnam?
What happens if Saddam fights back with chemical and biological warfare?
London and Washington insist the Iraqi dictator has weapons of mass destruction. If so, war planners may have to hope the Republican Guard stops him using them
The left discredits itself by pursuing the wrong target
The anti-war movement, argues John Lloyd, is guilty of the worst kind of moral equivalence, equating Bush and Blair with Saddam and Bin Laden. It has been seduced by anti-Americanism
Interview
NS Interview - David Hare
Our most important political playwright thinks the cabinet has far too many ''deadheads'', but he still respects Blair. David Hare interviewed by Mary Riddell
Regulars
Cristina Odone no longer wants a Stepford husband
Today's men are motivated by insecurity, the women by ambition
Darcus Howe will make an arthritic stand against war
The English were out of time and out of place at cricket's World Cup
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Sex and the stiletto
At £700 a pair, Manolo Blahnik shoes are the latest celebrity love token and status symbol. But, writes Suzanne Moore, they tell us more about shopping and lifestyle than desire
Modern Madonnas
The tits and bums of soap stars and page-three girls are familiar sights, but the pregnant woman remains a mystery. Rachel Cusk welcomes an artistic rethink of a taboo
Dramatic response
Witness to war - Michael Kustow argues it's time that theatre and TV were put on "quick reaction alert"
Arrested beauty
Photography - Hephzibah Anderson on the Victorian lady who invented the close-up
Film
What a hooter
Film - Philip Kerr can't keep his eyes off Nicole's nose in the overhyped The Hours
Theatre
Through Indian eyes
Theatre - Sheridan Morley on two very different journeys into the history of the subcontinent
Television
Goodbye to the Resurrection
Television - Andrew Billen enjoys a bang-up-to-date life of Christ that's neither satire nor fantasy
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies buys a star for 40p
Now the refs are selling advertising space on their bodies - to opticians
Books
The agony of a 21st-century Muslim. "Islam is a religion that devours all that is most humane and open-minded." How has this happened? Ziauddin Sardar on the delusion and intolerance of his fellow believers
Islam Explained Tahar Ben Jelloun, translated by Franklin Philip The New Press, 120pp, £9.95 ISBN 1565847814 The Prophet Muhammad: a biography Barnaby Rogerson Little, Brown, 240pp, £14.99 "Believing Women" in Islam: unreading patriarchal interpretations of the Koran Asma Barlas University of Texas Press, 272pp, £16.95 pbk
A giant peach
The Man with the Dancing Eyes Sophie Dahl Bloomsbury, 75pp, £9.99 ISBN 0747563721
Novel of the week
The Light of Day Graham Swift Hamish Hamilton, 244pp, £16.99 ISBN 0241142040
