09 August 2004
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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 terrorists love Britain
Is this country really threatened by violent attack? After talking to potential martyrs, Jamie Campbell wonders if our rulers have hit on a clever way to keep us safe
Features
Why animal research is bad science
The government is wrong to support vivisection - and not only because of the suffering caused to non-human creatures. Most human diseases are unique to us, and testing on other species is downright misleading
Arafat loses his balance
The rebellion in Gaza shows that, when Israel leaves, the most likely result will be a bloody Palestinian power struggle. Graham Usher reports
A ga-ga-ga bureaucracy
If a hospital invites babies to take part in its consultation process, the NHS must be unwell
A nation of paedophiles
If sex with children is so wicked, why are we relaxed about under-age pregnancy?
The global trade in muscle
Once, the rich world plundered Africa for mineral wealth. Now, as we shall see at the Olympics, it steals athletic talent and gives very little in return.
Regulars
Darcus Howe toasts the Brixton boxer who beat Tyson
At my local pub, we toasted the victories of a Brixton boxer and a Jamaican sprinter
Mark Kermode - Eastern promise
A dazzling, befuddling prequel and a visually poetic work. By Mark Kermode Infernal Affairs II (15) 16 Years of Alcohol (18)
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Bums on seats
London theatres are dumping their loyalty to the traditional Victorian playhouse and going in for radical refurbishments. Change or die, writes critic Michael Coveney. But will the feverish rebuilding leave one of our national companies out in the cold?
Super creeps
Visual arts - Richard Cork is chilled by the disquieting canvases of Luc Tuymans at Tate Modern
Blame it on the boogie
Popular culture - A hundred people dancing on a station concourse? Dan Hancox explains
Theatre
Michael Portillo - Murder most foul
Theatre - A dark musical about a man bent on personal revenge. By Michael Portillo Sweeney Todd Trafalgar Studios, London SW1
Television
Andrew Billen - Talking heads
Television - US coverage of politics is most watchable when it takes sides
Books
Lost in translation. Most English-language editions of the Qur'an have contained numerous errors, omissions and distortions. Hardly surprising, writes Ziauddin Sardar, when one of their purposes was to denigrate not just the Holy Book, but the entire Islamic faith
The Qur'an Translated by M A S Abdel Haleem Oxford University Press, 464pp, £14.99 ISBN 0192805487
Natural rhythm
Pablo Neruda: a passion for life Adam Feinstein Bloomsbury, 497pp, £25 ISBN 0747571929 Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair Pablo Neruda, translated by W S Merwin Jonathan Cape, 65pp, £6.99
My holiday read
For the professional reader, it is always tough deciding which book to take abroad
How to heckle
A Summer in the Park: a journal of Speakers' Corner Tony Allen Freedom Press, 205pp, £8.50 ISBN 1904491049
Death by demography
Oblivion David Foster Wallace Abacus, 336pp, £7.99 ISBN 0349118108
