05 July 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

Iraq now has the keys, but do they work?

Iraq handover - Lindsey Hilsum in Baghdad learns where to buy a CD-Rom on how to make a bomb, and argues that Iraqis will support their new rulers if they succeed in tackling the law and order problem

By Lindsey Hilsum

Features

The stooge of Baghdad

By Kevin Toolis

Iraq handover - Puppet regimes have had a poor record over the past 2,000 years. Allawi is unlikely to improve on it

Now Dubbya shifts into reverse gear

By Andrew Stephen

Iraq handover - The Bush administration, having lost control of events, is unravelling, with even members of top Republican families saying they will vote Kerry. Andrew Stephen reports from Washington

God's own chosen meat

By Nick Cohen

In failing to ban ritual slaughter, ministers aren't respecting Jewish and Muslim wishes, but comforting the reactionaries in their communities

Don't sell the NHS like shampoo

By Richard Reeves

The choice debate 1 - When it comes to public services, Britons are genuinely altruistic, valuing collective good over personal value. Why won't Labour believe this?

Education out of a hat

By Philip Collins

The choice debate 2 - Philip Collins proposes an alternative to the notorious "postcode lottery" that determines where your child goes to school: a straightforward ballot

How we can woo the middle class

By Ken Livingstone

Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, argues that he won re-election last month because he retained the support of the capital's new professionals

Why Labour should campaign for Kerry

By Sunder Katwala

Blair can't keep out of the US elections. When he is pictured shoulder-to-shoulder with Bush, he gives implicit support to the re-election effort. Both he and his party should openly back the values that the left truly believes in

Where there's a will, there's a way

By Robert Colvile

London, the country's economic motor, is powering ahead with broadband. The problem is how to ensure no one is excluded from this brave new world

Interview

NS Interview - David Blunkett

By John Kampfner

The Home Secretary says of his colleagues ''we sink or swim together'': none should presume on taking another person's job. David Blunkett interviewed

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

How to give parents real choice

Darcus Howe fears English nationalist passions

By Darcus Howe

The English display nationalist passions as though they were an insecure new nation

Mark Thomas joins Colombia's human rights activists

By Mark Thomas

In Colombia, right-wing paras once played a football match against the military using the severed head of a local community leader. Things have improved since then, but not much

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

Queer eye for the straight guy

By Ian Smith

Cary Grant was without question one of the Hollywood greats in an era when Hollywood really was great. But does his legacy offer more than eye candy and some popular black and white films? In Grant's centenary year, Ian Smith suggests that he represented much more than just a suave leading man

Women beware women

By Jonathan Rowson and Owen Phillips

Cinema - The Stepford Wives, the 1975 horror movie in which independent-thinking women were turned into subservient clones, has been remade into a comedy starring Nicole Kidman. We asked women from various walks of life, from Scotland to Switzerland, whether the bleak feminist message of the original is still relevant today. Interviews