15 March 2004

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

Has America begun to think again?

Iraq one year on - Until recently, George W Bush's attempts to play the patriotic card had been successful. Now, he gets an increasingly hostile reception from a public that questions his integrity. Andrew Stephen reports

By Andrew Stephen

Features

The left shrugs as Baghdad burns

By Nick Cohen

Iraq one year on - Iraq faces a fascist uprising and liberals here should back that country's democrats. Yet they still go on about Bush and the war. By Nick Cohen

The right exit

By Ken Roth

Iraq one year on - What are the responsibilities of an occupying power in its withdrawal? By Ken Roth

Rule of the death squads

By Stephen Grey

Iraq one year on - The shooting isn't just between occupying forces and guerrillas. The Iraqi Governing Council is "killing people one by one"

Nowhere to go but out

By John Kampfner

Iraq one year on - Blair has given up hope that the war be seen as a triumph. The best prospect now is a modicum of democracy and stability in Iraq

When Caprice and Meera get together

By Karen Bartlett

How did a play about gynaecology, rape and genital mutilation become a worldwide smash hit? Karen Bartlett on the rise of a phenomenon and the unique pulling power of its originator

That Budget in full (nearly)

By Donald Hirsch

Don't bother to rush to your TV screen when the Chancellor makes his annual address to MPs about the nation's finances. Donald Hirsch already has the story

Strangest of bedfellows

By David Lawday

The entente cordiale, to be celebrated by the Queen in a sentimental speech, is a lie. In 1904, it stopped Britain and France going to war, but only just. By David Lawday

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

The war that changed everything

Mark Thomas sees Foxtons taking over prisons

By Mark Thomas

Blunkett is trying to deduct the cost of B&B from compensation for wrongfully convicted prisoners. So why not now introduce the right for inmates to buy their own cells? Asks Mark Thomas

Darcus Howe finds war clouds in the Caribbean

By Darcus Howe

Scouts and Girl Guides are mobilised as the Caribbean trembles on the brink of war

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

Archivists of the obvious

By James Fenton

What turns a humble object such as the postcard into a collector's item? Through accumulation, even the most meaningless mementoes become significant

Unholy trinity

By Matthew Collings

Art - Matthew Collings on why the older yBas still appeal to the higher class of philistine

The last word

By Stephanie Merritt

Music - Stephanie Merritt is surprised to find the "Quiet Beatle" making lots of noise

A martyr to his art

By Sebastian Horsley

Cinema - Sebastian Horsley brings painful personal experience to Mel Gibson's The Passion

Radio

The president steps down

By Jan Morris

Radio - Jan Morris has been waiting 40 years for Alistair Cooke to do the decent thing

Theatre

Michael Portillo - Nothing like a dame

By Michael Portillo

Theatre - Judi Dench makes a less popular comedy a pleasure, writes Michael Portillo All's Well That Ends Well Gielgud Theatre, London W1

Film

Mark Kermode - School for scandal

By Mark Kermode

Film - Dead Poets Society for girls, and pseudo-artsy masturbation. By Mark Kermode Mona Lisa Smile (12A) The Principles of Lust (18)

Television

Andrew Billen - Prenuptial disagreement

By Andrew Billen

Television - The only unusual thing about this comedy is that it is funny writes Andrew Billen The Worst Week of My Life (BBC1)

The Fan

The fan - Hunter Davies thinks footballers don't need breaks

By Hunter Davies

Why do footballers need a mid-season break? They have an easy life

Books

The spy who came in from the cold. Vladimir Putin's re-election as president will be the end for any hope of liberal democracy in Russia. Is he a smooth-talking charmer, as he likes to present himself, or is he, as those critics who dare speak out suggest, still essentially a KGB thug?

By Rachel Polonsky

Inside Putin's Russia Andrew Jack Granta Books, 350pp, £20 ISBN 1862076405 Putin's Progress Peter Truscott Simon & Schuster, 370pp, £17.99 Putin: Russia's choice Richard Sakwa Routledge, 208pp, £15.99 Black Earth: Russia after the fall Andrew Meier HarperCollins, 511pp, £25