18 August 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

How fat became a political issue

Obesity will soon be the biggest problem facing the National Health Service, costing us all billions of pounds a year. Shouldn't the government take action, asks Richard Reeves

By Richard Reeves

Features

From rags to rags (and riches to riches)

By Wendy Piatt

Labour came to power with a mission to improve social mobility. But the chances of a bright child from a poor family becoming a high-flyer have worsened

The hidden people

By Alex Stephens

Illegal immigrants in Norfolk take on the jobs no one else will do. One of them tells his story to Alex Stephens

Divide and teach

By Francis Beckett

Amid the clamour over A-levels, Labour is quietly carving up education into a two-tier system. By Francis Beckett

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

Watch everyone cover their backs

Diary

Diary - Philip Kerr

By Philip Kerr

I obtain a ticket for a front seat at the local corrida. My children almost choke on their beefburgers when I tell them I am intending to go to a bullfight

Politics

Politics - Anne Perkins on the dark arts of news management

By Anne Perkins

The dark arts of news management have been practised for years and by all parties. Yet Alastair Campbell and a paranoid Labour administration have taken them to new heights

John Pilger investigates US plans for mini-nukes

By John Pilger

With the United States spoiling for further fights across the globe and prepared to consider the deployment of "mini-nukes", there is no doubt which is the greatest rogue state of all

Darcus Howe on police getting away with racism

By Darcus Howe

So now our police officers are to be forgiven for not understanding inner-city culture

This England

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Arts & Culture

Demolition

Heritage I - Is restoration necessarily a good thing? A new BBC series asks us to vote on which historic building should be preserved. But what would we most like to see destroyed?