02 June 2003

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

Jason Cowley, Editor, New Statesman

Cover story

The new censorship

Sara Paretsky on the chilling climate in America, where a visit to a foreign-language website can get you arrested, and the FBI can search library records for dissenting books

By Sara Paretsky

Features

Charles Clarke: guilty as charged

By Francis Beckett

Francis Beckett deplores the Education Secretary's efforts to pass the buck on the schools funding crisis

Why fat cats are bad for business

By John Kay

Abnormal greed used to be thought a personality defect; only recently has it been touted as the wellspring of capitalism. Are we going back to the old attitudes?

The curse of black gold

By Nick Cohen

Oil is bad news for a country: far from bringing prosperity, it is the harbinger of poverty, malnutrition and oppressive government. Nick Cohen reveals why

1 comment

Why a boy can't be more like a girl

By Dave Hill

Dave Hill's son wore mauve and was roundly denounced for it, as he would have been for shedding tears or studying hard. How can we stop the playground gender cops?

The great toyshop of Europe

By Sadie Plant

Sadie Plant makes the case for Birmingham as judges consider its bid to become a capital of culture

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

Power to the people, not to Brussels

Cristina Odone warns that heros are dangerous

By Cristina Odone

We seem to have forgotten that heroes have usually led people to disaster

Darcus Howe says Nigerians didn't invent fraud

By Darcus Howe

Fraud is a new type of crime brought here by Nigerians? Was there none in the City?

Mark Thomas on deaths in the workplace

By Mark Thomas

Company directors whose employees die on the job because of their negligence should be jailed: the prospect of sharing a cell with Jeffrey Archer should be deterrent enough

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

Angel of the north

By Simon Armitage

As we celebrate the centenary of her birth, Barbara Hepworth's work has assumed an unexpected resonance. Poet Simon Armitage on a fellow Yorkshire artist

This charming man

By Jason Cowley

It is 20 years since The Smiths' first hit transformed the British music scene. Jason Cowley on pop's antidote to early Thatcherism

Frock and awe

By Hadley Freeman

Fashion - Hadley Freeman on why Zandra Rhodes might have the last laugh

Commentary

By C A R Hills

Although critical acclaim eluded him, W Somerset Maugham enjoyed considerable popular success during his lifetime. C A R Hills looks back on a writer whose work still resonates today

Film