02 February 2004

From the Editor…

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Cover story

The Hutton report - How a judge let Blair off

To Hutton, there was no case to answer: a grubby journalist had impugned the PM's integrity. But this naive report will make it harder than ever to find out why we really went to war in Iraq

Features

The Hutton report - This was the wrong inquiry

Why did the whole of the British state get the Iraqi arsenal so howlingly wrong? Like all previous judicial investigators of the executive, Hutton missed the point

The Hutton report - Fear and loathing at the BBC

If the nation's biggest broadcaster got most of the blame for the Kelly affair, it was an accident waiting to happen. David Cox exposes the roots of a catastrophe

Nobody has the right to be a mother

Amanda Platell explains why fertility treatment is not for her

How the English became obsessed with property

The sense of individualism and fear of revolution gave rise to the cult of the home. Only now do we see the loss in civic spirit and green spaces

Essay

NS Essay - When it comes to family, sex, food and booze, people hate being told what to do

Ministers should ignore the "nanny state" taunts. They may face opposition at first but, as drink-driving shows, they can make us more responsible

Regulars

Blair's triumph will be a nine-day wonder

How Hutton provided the prime minister with an opportunity to exit

Mark Thomas - finds Indians who won't drink Coke

In India, pressures on the water supply created by a Coca-Cola plant have caused wells to dry up. Is it just a politically motivated thirst that has led local people to protest?

Darcus Howe - asks who killed 13 balck teenagers

After two decades, the question remains: who killed 13 young blacks in London?

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

Icons of evil

We do not know why people commit terrible crimes. While contemporary artists have responded with a mix of irony and pornography, the media has sought to comfort us with a succession of banal morality tales. By John Gray

Sound and fury

Opera - Peter Conrad wonders if a new Tempest will conjure music to match Shakespeare's poetry

The world stage

Foreign playwrights - Aleks Sierz on why the British are so suspicious of international drama

Identity crisis

Art - Richard Cork on an artist who never overcame his childhood insecurities

East side story

Theatre - Michael Portillo is seduced by an all-singing, all-dancing tale of forbidden Asian love

Highs and lows

Film - Mark Kermode is unmoved by the lifeless Sylvia, but finds Mike Figgis's chiller a hoot

Clinical oppression

Television - Andrew Billen finds there's no place for romance on a 12-step recovery programme

Books

The good European

After the Empire: the breakdown of the American order Emmanuel Todd Columbia, 233pp, £21 ISBN 023113102X

Painting by numbers

Marks of Opulence: the why, when and where of western art 1000-1914 Colin Platt HarperCollins, 329pp, £30 ISBN 0002571005

Elusive reality

The Holy Grail: imagination and belief Richard Barber Allen Lane, 464pp, £25 ISBN 0713992069

The last laugh

Sunshine on Putty: the golden age of British comedy from Vic Reeves to The Office Ben Thompson Fourth Estate, 459pp, £15 ISBN 0007135831

Fiction - Writer's block

Oracle Night Paul Auster Faber & Faber, 244pp, £15.99 ISBN 0571216986

Observations

The fashion photographer who hated glamour

Observations on Helmut Newton

Modern MPs go naked

Observations on moustaches

How to stop the TV cheats

Observations on media regulation by David Cox,/B>

A little bit of immortality

Observations on trends

Media screw a social democrat

Observations on the New Hampshire primary

The interview

Preview: Ken Livingstone: “The world is run by monsters”

The interview

Preview: Boris Johnson: “I’ll tell you what makes me angry – lefty crap”

On Syria

Intervention in Syria won’t work, so how do we stop Assad?

GOP race so far

Infographic: Republican primary race 2012

Mind your B-sides

Mind your B-sides

Time to rethink

Time to rethink, not reassure

Who minds?

Latter Day Taint?

Alistair Darling

Alistair Darling, the Miliband dilemma and what the party must do next
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