28 July 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
Features
Now nobody is safe
At the top of government, there is a sense that, after David Kelly's death, anything can happen. Almost inevitably, someone will be sacrificed
The difference a day made
The government was cleared of "sexing up" the September dossier. But did we all miss the obvious?
Mr Blair, you're no Clem Attlee
Francis Beckett compares a government that made a revolution with one that merely tinkers
Can we trust our rulers ever to tell the truth?
It was the great lie of the first Gulf war: that flight BA 149 to Kuwait City, from which civilians were taken hostage, had landed before the Iraqi invasion. Stephen Davis reveals the true story
Greenland surveys its icy options
The choice is stark. The Inuit homeland can be a missile defence base or lose its Danish subsidy
Regulars
Mark Thomas can't wait to hear Archer's freedom story
I can't wait to hear Archer's own version of how he gained his freedom, which will probably involve a maze of tunnels, a vaulting horse and hundreds of well-wishing prisoners
Darcus Howe judges the evidence in the Dr Kelly case
Down at my local, the jury sits and weighs the evidence in the Kelly case
Culture
An anatomy of ideas
From Raphael's Three Graces to Star Wars, cultural representations of the human body owe more to natural history than we might think, argues Michael Sims
Les miserables
There is more at stake in the cancellation of the Avignon Festival than simply the death of a French institution
Elysian fields
Art - Richard Cork is seduced by old visions of paradise, serpents and all
Simply divine
Opera - Peter Conrad confesses to carrying a torch for the enchanting Renee Fleming
Film
The big comeback
Film - Philip Kerr on the return of two implausible relics - Hulk and Arnold Schwarzenegger
Television
Kiss and sell
Television - Andrew Billen is shocked and amused by the latest antics of Britain's most notorious cad
Books
Socialism's first lady - Barbara Castle was exasperating, insecure and determined to the point of obsession. But, as a minister, her achievements were impressive. Jack Straw remembers Labour's most successful female politician
Red Queen: the authorised biography of Barbara Castle Anne Perkins Macmillan, 499pp, £20 ISBN 0333905113
A charming despot
Stalin: the court of the Red Tsar Simon Sebag Montefiore Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 693pp, £25 ISBN 842127268
Postcard from the edge
Lanzarote Michel Houellebecq Heinemann, 87pp, £9.99 ISBN 0434009180
Bad air
The Miraculous Fever Tree: malaria, medicine and the cure that changed the world Fiammetta Rocco HarperCollins, 348pp, £16.99 ISBN 0002572028
Behind the scenes at the museum
The Murder Room P D James Faber & Faber, 371pp, £17.99 IBSN 0571218210
Novel of the week
The Taxi Driver's Daughter Julia Darling Viking, 264pp, £12.9 ISBN 0670914193
