14 April 2003
Become a subscriber and save £££
Subscribe to the New Statesman for just £82 and receive a free copy of Roy Hattersley’s In Search of England(Hardcover)
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
A crime against humanity
They have blown off the limbs of women and the scalps of children. Their victims overwhelm the morgues and flood into hospitals that lack even aspirin. John Pilger on a piratical war that brought terrorism and death to Iraq
Features
Brownism is bruised but unbowed
Remarkably, over six years, he has kept to a game plan on tax, borrowing and spending. Now, Brown wants to tackle the economy's enduring weaknesses
The end of dust and smoke
In Baghdad, the illusions created by the old regime have gone; the people await a new reality
How war coverage blanks out the past
How war coverage blanks out the past
And now, the next American war
Just when you thought the horizon was cloudless, a new conflict is coming to a head. The Pentagon has drawn up some spine-chilling plans for North Korea
Why I can no longer write for the NS
John Lloyd, a regular contributor for the past seven years, explains why this paper's anti-war stance has driven him to resign. The left, he argues, should fight for those who are repressed by their own rulers. It has thrown away the chance to do so
''Our fate is bleak''
As they watch bombs fall upon their homeland, Britain's Iraqi exiles tell May Abdalla, Adrian Cornell and Sebastian Skeaping where their allegiances lie
How the private sector failed to deliver
Business, ministers insisted, would do a better job of running the state schools than local councils. Now, it's clear that business has almost entirely failed
Wit and wisdom
Ninety years ago, when Beatrice and Sidney Webb founded the New Statesman, they pledged that their magazine would be independent of all political parties, while pursuing the ideals of a more just society. From George Orwell to Bertrand Russell and Martin Amis, some of the greatest writers of the 20th century have taken up the Webbs' challenge in this magazine
The strange case of the dangerous detergent
Whatever happened to the 16 alleged terrorists that Spain seized in January? Justin Webster reports from Catalonia
Regulars
The Politics Column
Politics - John Kampfner
The Chancellor, like the PM, has delivered himself as a hostage to George W Bush
Darcus Howe fears deportation for his recalcitrance
Britain's new nationality act threatens me with deportation
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Living dangerously
What inspires a war correspondent? More than the sense of history or heroism, TV reporters are seduced by the glamour of the job as it has been portrayed in countless films
Silent witness
Photography - Nicholas Blincoe on the shameful absence of a Palestinian perspective
Slipped discs
Music - Richard Cook has some tips for how the ailing record industry can get back in shape
Letter from New York
Jan Morris visits Manhattan for the 50th time, and finds it tinged with pathos and closer in spirit to the rest of America
Theatre
Cross-currents
Theatre - Sheridan Morley hails the rebirth of the regions and laments tight runs for two fine dramas in London
Television
Prime time
Television - Andrew Billen on the filthy language, nudity and sexual perversion of mates turning 40
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies asks if Rooney is a thug in the making
To some, Rooney may seem a thug, a thicko, a five bellies in the making
Books
The atrocity exhibition. "One artist filmed himself as he sliced off his own testicles." Andrew Hussey reads a trenchant and invigorating attack on the decadence and extremity of the contemporary visual arts
Art and Fear Paul Virilio Continuum, 115pp, £14.99 ISBN 0826460801
The cool hunters. Decca Aitkenhead on the corporate takeover of childhood
Branded Alissa Quart Arrow, 288pp, £7.99 ISBN 0099458063 Why Are They So Weird? Barbara Strauch Bloomsbury, 241pp, £10.99
The genetic future. Phil Whitaker on the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA
Watson and DNA: making a scientific revolution Victor K McElheny John Wiley & Sons, 380pp, £18.99 ISBN 0470854294 Pointing from the Grave Samantha Weinberg Hamish Hamilton, 368pp, £14.99 DNA: the secret of life James D Watson with Andrew Berry Heinemann, 446pp, £20
Here today, gone tomorrow
The Wages of Spin Bernard Ingham John Murray, 288pp, £18.99 ISBN 0719564816
Novel of the week
The Birth of Venus Sarah Dunant Little, Brown, 412pp, £12.99 ISBN 0316725498
A perfect spy
Elusive Rothschild: the life of Victor, third baron Kenneth Rose Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 338pp, £20 ISBN 0297812297
The setting sun
Madame Sadayakko: the geisha who seduced the west Lesley Downer Headline, 352pp, £20 ISBN 0755310306
