01 December 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
Cover story
Why we don't give a damn
Once again, world leaders meet to hear of new threats posed by global warming. Once again, they appear unable to act. George Marshall and Mark Lynas explain why
Features
Why the Met faces a crisis over race
Black officers are close to the most dramatic police protest since the strikes of 1919. Yet the top brass were committed to anti-racism. What has gone wrong?
Russia 1 - Too big? Too cold? Or just ungovernable?
Russians go to the polls in a few days. Moscow's super-rich may give the brutal new consumer culture a vote of confidence, but millions have little to be grateful for
Russia 3 - Why the dragon will outrun the bear
Ever since he travelled to the Soviet Union and China as a young man nearly 20 years ago, Nicholas Watt has asked himself which of the two communist giants was right. Now he thinks he has the answer. Both have embraced capitalism, but only one will flourish
The rise of grey labour
It's not just young mothers who want flexible working hours. So do the over-fifties - and unless we oblige them, we face crippling labour shortages. Donald Hirsch reports
Regulars
The Politics Column
Politics - John Kampfner asks if Blair will really listen
The new Labour machine operatives are in retreat as the new-style "listening" starts. You will be able to debate votes at 16 with your MP, but not income tax or ethical foreign policy
Paul Routledge hears Mr Madonna wants a safe seat
Mr Madonna wants safe seat, Caborn's disgrace, and a revolting MP in tears
Darcus Howe on the beneficent bwana Denis MacShane
Did Denis the Menace attack Muslims so that he would get a share of the limelight? Asks Darcus Howe
Mark Thomas wonders why we don't like children
In northern Uganda, thousands of children are abducted and subjected to atrocities. Is this another case where the west doesn't care because there's no oil involved? Asks Mark Thomas
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
A four-letter word
Until recently, there was one activity that preoccupied us constantly, but which was rarely represented in culture - work. Now the taboo has been broken. Comedy, theatre and photography are all turning to the office for inspiration
Do not go gentle
Dylan Thomas died 50 years ago this month. During this year, he has become the unlikely symbol of a confident, outward-looking, modern Wales, writes Andrew Lycett
Voyage of discovery
Art - Richard Cork is transported by the Japanese minimal master of monochrome
Sleep of reason
Opera - Peter Conrad is swept up in Handel's embodiment of 18th-century hedonism
Television
Mirror, mirror
Television - Andrew Billen asks who is the biggest star of all, after two documentaries on fame
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies vows to stay alive now he's paid his Sky subscription
I'd be gutted to die in July, just after I've paid my Sky subscription
Books
Books of the year
Our critics choose their books of the year
Forgotten favourites - The wrong side of Paris. For Henry James, Balzac was the indisputable master. A S Byatt on why this visionary is not as vast and unapproachable as he seems
L'Envers de l'histoire contemporaine Translated by Jordan Stump Modern Library Classics, 272pp, £14.95 ISBN 2070370569
Forgotten favourites - Painting with words. Walter Sickert wrote as he painted - from an intellectual distance. His essays are a perfect antidote to today's ponderous art criticism, argues George Walden
A Free House! Or the Artist as Craftsman Edited by Osbert Sitwell Macmillan (out of print)
Forgotten favourites - Enchanted Isle. Tim Parks delights in a story of Mediterranean boyhood that tackles the debates of the postwar period, while seeming to exist outside history
Arturo's Island Elsa Morante Translated by Isabel Quigley Steerforth Press, 368pp, £12.99 ISBN 1586420410
Forgotten favourites - Politics of aspiration. T H Green was the first philosopher of social justice. Today's cabinet ministers would do well to read him, writes Roy Hattersley
T H Green and the Development of Ethical Socialism Matt Carter Imprint Academic, 234pp, £25 ISBN 0907845320
