01 November 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

Dictator of Downing St

Tony Blair does not have rivals murdered, nor is Belmarsh the Gulag, but Robert Service, Stalin's biographer, finds some surprising parallels between the PM and the Soviet tyrant

By Robert Service

Features

My generation

By Derek Draper

Derek Draper psychoanalyses his former new Labour mates to explain why they are hooked on politics

A Bush that burns

By Mark Dowd

Who does Dubbya think he is? Moses? St John? Or Jesus himself? Mark Dowd, after an extended study of the president's religious faith, has some alarming answers

On the brink of another crisis

By Andrew Stephen

There is a more than even chance that this US election will be as close as the last. If it is, 30,000 lawyers will be ready to dispute the result. Andrew Stephen reports from Washington

What good the pink ribbon?

By Alice O'Keeffe

The huge PR behind breast cancer awareness may raise the profile of a dread disease, but mislead women about what is really best for their health. By Alice O'Keeffe

Blair ruins the French dream

By David Lawday

With Britain at its heart, the EU isn't what it once was - and now France is just as vitriolic about "English Europe" as the Tories are about Brussels. By David Lawday in Paris

The great liberal betrayal

By Nick Cohen

The left, in the form of the Stop the War Coalition, has fallen out even with Iraqi comrades who opposed the war. Why? Because those comrades don't see hostage-takers and decapitators as resistance fighters

The ties that bind

By Liam Vaughan

NS & Fellows' Associates round table - The decline in manufacturing and 9/11 are just two developments that have threatened social harmony in recent years. Liam Vaughan reports on the search for solutions

Essay

NS Essay - The left must open up more clear water between itself and its opponents

By Anthony Giddens

Why are social-democrat parties in such trouble in so many European countries? Have they been too quick to break with their traditional policies, or too slow?

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

Casinos: tasteless, greedy and philistine

The Politics Column

Politics - John Kampfner on tactical voting against Tony

By John Kampfner

Downing Street strategists fear that voters may be so eager to get Tony Blair out of No 10 that, for the first time, Lib Dem-inclined people will vote for the Tories

John Pilger denounces Americanism

By John Pilger

"Anti-Americanism" has long been a pejorative, used to denigrate critics of an imperial system. But it is the opposite, "Americanism", which threatens a war on the world

Darcus Howe takes two Trevors to task

By Darcus Howe

What do integrationists want us to do? Sing songs of sixpence?

Amanda Platell misses out on a great opportunity

By Amanda Platell

I wanted to be a judge on the new Richard and Judy's Wine Club - it's my specialty subject

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

And the Oscar/Turner/Whitbread goes to . . .

By Louise Jury

From the Booker in October to the Orange in May, the arts calendar is dominated by prize ceremonies. The award-night aficionado Louise Jury asks whether they help or hinder us in assessing contemporary culture

The angel Raphael

By Richard Cork

Visual art - The astonishing force of the third master of the High Renaissance makes Richard Cork mourn his early passing all the more

Frieze! You're alive

By Russell Thoburn

Contemporary art - The headiness of the Young British Artists might be over, but Russell Thoburn finds that the London market is still electric

The Dreyfuss affair

By David Benedict

Showbiz - A star exiting stage left is nothing new for the West End, writes David Benedict, but losing its leading man might cost The Producers dear

Theatre

Michael Portillo - Thought crimes

By Michael Portillo

Theatre - A play that does not cater for Thatcherite chauvinist pigs. By Michael Portillo Attempts on Her Life Diorama Arts Centre, London NW1

Film

Mark Kermode - The devil's work

By Mark Kermode

Film - Hollywood may cause despair, but Britain offers hope. By Mark Kermode Exorcist: The Beginning (15) Vera Drake (12A) Enduring Love (15) Millions (TBC)

Television