26 May 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
Blair was told it would be illegal to occupy Iraq
John Kampfner reveals that the Attorney General warned the PM nearly two months ago that, without a specific UN mandate, attempts at postwar reconstruction would be unlawful
Features
Special Report - Behave responsibly, by order of the law!
Corporate Social Responsibility - Should companies be legally required to consider social and environmental issues as well as the interests of their shareholders?
Special Report - How to ruin your saintly image
Corporate Social Responsibility - Are charities socially responsible? Mat Smith finds some of them strangely careless about where they invest
Essay
NS Essay - 'The main Continental European powers will no longer jump to attention and salute when Washington blows the trumpet'
The world cannot tolerate a lawless hegemon. It needs an alternative pole of power. But thanks to Tony Blair, it will not be the EU
Interview
NS Interview - Matthias Kelly
The chairman of the Bar Council wants to scrap the Lord Chancellor and bring the Queen under the rule of law. Matthias Kelly interviewed by Mary Riddell
Regulars
John Pilger argues that Britain supports terrorism
The official version is that Britain's foreign policy is basically benevolent: that it promotes democracy, peace and human rights. The truth is that Britain supports terrorism, argues John Pilger
Darcus Howe has a job for Valerie Amos
Baroness Amos should intervene in Guyana, the island of her birth
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Closet Queen
What does Her Majesty keep in her handbag? And why should we care what she wears on her head? Jennie Bond on a royal wardrobe that defines moments in history
The old-lady aesthetic
East Enders - Lilian Pizzichini is moved by a celebration of age and wisdom in Aldgate
Bad impressions
Art - Ned Denny is relieved by the lack of prettiness in Pissarro's suburban landscapes
Theatre
Double takes
Theatre - Sheridan Morley on Spain's answer to the Bard, and why Shakespeare's a hit with teenagers
Television
Hold the front page
Television - Andrew Billen watches a tense "political" drama about hacks from central casting
Books
Armageddon myths. Suicide bombing is the weapon of the weak. Killing from the air is the approach of the rich and powerful. Mary Kaldor on why the disaffected of the earth will never be suppressed by war
Terror and Liberalism Paul Berman Norton, 216pp, £14.95 ISBN 0393057755
Into the void
Mountains of the Mind Robert Macfarlane Granta, 291pp, £20 ISBN 1862075611
Moronic inferno
Cosmopolis Don DeLillo Picador, 209pp, £16.99 ISBN 0330412760
The yellow gloom of sleepless nights. A powerful memoir of addiction forces Julian Keeling to recall his own experiences of rehab
A Million Little Pieces James Frey John Murray, £16.99, 383pp ISBN 0719561000
Queenly devotion. S J Houston on a fine new study of a homosexual king
Elizabeth I David Loades Hambledon, 410pp, £25 ISBN 1903365430 The Cradle King: a life of James VI & I Alan Stewart Chatto & Windus, 438pp, £20
The brave knights of the skies
Fighter Boys: saving Britain 1940 Patrick Bishop HarperCollins, 434pp, £20 ISBN 0002571692
School for scandal
Ahead of the Class: how an aspiring headmistress gave children back their future Marie Stubbs John Murray, 260pp, £16.99 ISBN 0719563356
Novel of the week
Notes on a Scandal Zoe Heller Viking, 244pp, £14.99 ISBN 0670914061
