22 September 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

One man went to war

John Kampfner reveals for the first time the full story of how Blair committed Britain to invade Iraq, despite the doubts of even his closest colleagues

By John Kampfner

Features

Why we need a new Prime Minister

By Austin Mitchell

An open letter to Tony Blair by Austin Mitchell MP

Watch out! The computers will run riot

By James Harkin

The intelligence agencies, determined not to be caught on the hop as they were by 9/11, now speculate about the most improbable disasters. James Harkin reports

Will they ever understand?

By Katharine Ainger

To the ministers and corporate lobbyists at the WTO summit in Cancun, the suicide of a Korean farmer and all the other protests were just a distraction. Yet they echoed the views of millions. By Katharine Ainger

Pro-capitalists hate the arms trade, too

By Samuel Brittan

Samuel Brittan, a defender of competitive markets, supports the protests against selling weapons. The costs of doing the right thing are tiny, maybe negative, he argues

Dead in the water

By Mark Lynas

Mark Lynas listens to the Icelanders' arguments, economic and even ecological, in favour of whaling and finds himself almost (but not quite) convinced

Now French intellectuals love America

By David Lawday

Contrary as always, the philosophers and literati of France have decided that they should stick up for Bush's good ole US of A, reports David Lawday in Paris

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

When the poor stand together

Mark Thomas imagines a terrorist in a tutu

By Mark Thomas

Had any violence kicked off outside the arms fair, the dealers would have been straight in there, handing out business cards and flogging assault rifles labelled as machine parts

Darcus Howe on the dark shadows of white men

By Darcus Howe

The police hierarchy wants to turn black recruits into dark shadows of white men

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

Flesh and blood

By Richard Cork

A giant secular martyr, the apostles as cows' heads in formaldehyde and surgical cabinets named after saints . . . Despite the explicit religious iconography, Damien Hirst's exhibition more closely resembles an abattoir than a temple