13 October 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 awakening of liberal England

Ye are many, they are few. Millions have broken their customary silence to rescue the noble ideas of freedom and democracy from Tony Blair's diminishing court

By John Pilger

Features

The case that alarms health ministers

By Jo Revill

Labour and Tories may argue about the future of the NHS, but the British public is voting with its feet, hiring lawyers and looking overseas for treatment

Get your bypass operation on the IHS

By Alice O Keeffe and Katharine Hibbert

By Alice O'Keeffee and Katharine Hibbert

Young authors go beyond the protest mode

By Edward Russell-Walling

The mystery of our man in Tashkent

By Nick Cohen

A UK ambassador spoke out against tyranny and infuriated the US. Now he faces disciplinary charges and is receiving medical treatment. Coincidence? Nick Cohen investigates

An unperson in Texas

By Michael Lind

Michael Lind on how he and his books were banned from Laura Bush's book festival in his home state

How America makes terrorists of its allies

By Lutz Kleveman

Kudair Abbass was happy to see the US army keeping the peace in Iraq - until troops killed his brother for violating the curfew. Now, like so many in the region, he wants revenge

Commentary - A prize for the underrated genre of literary reportage

By Isabel Hilton

Despite its distinguished pedigree, literary reportage has never been publicly celebrated with a prize - until now. Isabel Hilton reflects on the problems of judging this underrated genre

Essay

NS Essay - Competition in public services has the moral virtue of encouraging respect for their users

By Julian Le Grand

Are teachers, doctors and civil servants "knights" whose altruism will be destroyed by market-based reforms? Or are they really "knaves" who act only out of self-interest?

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

There's money in that shame

The Politics Column

Politics - John Kampfner finds the parties short on ideas

By John Kampfner

The leadership battles of Labour and the Conservatives might be crucial, but a much longer-lasting struggle is taking place over ideas, and all the parties are floundering

Darcus Howe predicts Diane Abbott is here to stay

By Darcus Howe

Black candidates for supposedly safe seats have a habit of ending up in the Lords

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

A stitch in time

By Kathryn Hughes

Postcards, teacups, badges and buckles - the suffragettes used every available medium to bring their message home. Kathryn Hughes on how women turned needlework and painting into campaigning tools

La dolce vita

By Lilian Pizzichini

Cinema - Lilian Pizzichini discovers sex, murder and all of Italy's history in its film posters

Dance of death

By Peter Conrad

Opera - Peter Conrad loses his head to the ignited, audacious Karita Mattila in Salome

Agony and ecstacy

By Richard Cork

Art - Richard Cork on a peace-loving diplomat inspired by conflict

Film

Director's cut

By Philip Kerr

Film - Philip Kerr wades through blood and tedium in the latest violent Tarantino offering

Television

The stylish dictator

By Andrew Billen

Television - Andrew Billen is unmoved by a drama that portrays Hitler as all too vulnerably human

The Fan

The fan - Hunter Davies thinks women make nicer football fans

By Hunter Davies

You find girls' sizes, thongs in club colours, knickers with cockerel patterns

Books

NS Profile - The white South African novelist

By Jason Cowley

Despite a Booker nomination and a Nobel Prize, these writers, unheard in their own land, feel oppressed by emptiness. The white South African novelist profiled by Jason Cowley