08 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
Way out
The occupation is turning Iraq into a weak, violent state, but we shouldn't just call for a handover of sovereignty. Mary Kaldor on how to escape the mess we're in
Features
Sugar daddies and revolutions
Georgia's revolt was something to celebrate. Does it matter that it was funded by a billionaire?
Global warming: make the guilty pay
Countries and corporations that belch out carbon emissions and shun Kyoto might think again if they were taken to court
Another nice friend for President Bush
Oil could make a tiny African country, plagued by poverty and disease, as rich as Kuwait. But a US-backed tyrant pockets the spoils. Lindsey Hilsum reports
Your college needs you, Mr Moneybags
US graduates are eager donors to their old universities. Is this the answer to Britain's funding crisis?
Stop knocking Richard Desmond
It's simple snobbery that makes the Telegraph toffs scorn the owner of Horny Housewives
Interview
NS Interview - David Miliband
The minister for schools says "I'd want to send my kids to a state school''. What does this odd choice of words mean? David Miliband interviewed
Regulars
The Politics Column
Politics - John Kampfner finds Blair at Brown's mercy
Blair has deliberately raised the stakes and put his leadership on the line over tuition fees, convinced that Brown will save him. Will the Chancellor offer one more lifeline? Asks John Kampfner
Darcus Howe faces a threat to break his legs
I try to interview a group of Pakistanis, and they threaten to break my legs
John Pilger has some news for Greg Dyke
When Greg Dyke attacked American television's cheerleading coverage of Iraq, how did he manage to keep a straight face? The BBC gave even less voice to opposition views
Paul Routledge enjoys and MP's erotic verse
PM's health for sale, Fiona tries to disown Cherie, and an MP's panting verse
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
The promised land
Israeli town planners hoped to entice people to "instant cities" in the desert hills, but instead created militarised outposts. Mark Mazower examines the role of architecture in the Middle East conflict
Paradise lost
Art - Richard Cork follows Gauguin's doomed but fruitful pursuit of happiness
Mad about the boy
Pop - Jason Cowley remembers the voice of a generation of alienated young men
Sax and the city
Jazz - Richard Cook on a young musician making his mark in Chicago
Television
There's nowt so queer as folk
Television - Andrew Billen on a sketch show that is less bitingly satirical than benignly silly
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies fears deep-vein thrombosis for football fans
You could get deep-vein thrombosis from watching too much football
Books
The lost disciples. The position of the teacher has become awkward and anomalous. The title "master", with its reactionary and illiberal connotations, seems at odds with modern ideals of education. Yet the desire for intellectual submission remains
Lessons of the Masters George Steiner Harvard University Press, 198pp, £12.95 ISBN 0674012070
Ghost writer. Compared to so many white male novelists with their vapid posturing, Toni Morrison has lost none of her power, argues Hilary Mantel
Love Toni Morrison Chatto & Windus, 202pp, £16.99 ISBN 0701175109
Victorian queens
Strangers: homosexual love in the 19th century Graham Robb Picador, 342pp, £18.99 ISBN 0330482238
Mean streets
Random Family: love, drugs, trouble and coming of age in the Bronx Adrian Nicole LeBlanc Flamingo, 408pp, £17.99 ISBN 0007163444
Love, again. It might not be clear what we are to make of the artificiality of Doris Lessing's stories, but they convey greater human truths, writes Claire Messud
The Grandmothers Doris Lessing Flamingo, 311pp, £15.99 ISBN 0007152795
Old wives' tales
My Invented Country: a memoir Isabel Allende Flamingo, 199pp, £18.99 ISBN 0007163096
Daddy's girl
Diana Mosley Anne de Courcy Chatto & Windus, 432pp, £20 ISBN 1856192423
Vintage years
Ancient Wine: the search for the origins of viniculture Patrick E McGovern Princeton University Press, 365pp, £19.95 ISBN 0691070806
