06 December 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
Blunkett: new Labour's fallen icon
The Home Secretary has always occupied a special place in Tony Blair's government: he is the man who can reach the people his boss can't
Features
Our boy soldiers
The army looks for many of its teenage recruits in deprived areas. But international agreements categorise under-18s as children. Should the forces try to enlist them at all? By Tom Wall
The devil's in the detail
Tom Burke takes a gloomy view of new talks on climate change and calls on Blair to translate ideals into action
NS special report - Cricket's shame: the inside story
How did England's cricketers end up playing in Zimbabwe, where a tyrant rules and millions starve? Des Wilson blames Jack Straw, as well as the game's amoral leaders
It's now or never for Washington
America's real aim in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics is to seize control of vital resources before China and India can challenge US dominance
The defeat of the pork-eaters
In Israel, Orthodox Jews are not only winning the demographic war against their secular enemies - they are changing the nation's culture, too
Regulars
Amanda Platell warns against flings with footballers
The perils of doing it with footballers, and mums crippled by their Jimmy Choos
Darcus Howe on black men dying in police custody
A young black man dies in police custody, and a judge criticises his family's campaign
Mark Thomas reveals UK sales of torture equipment
The law is clear that shock batons are instruments of torture. So why are they featured, together with stun guns, as items for sale on a UK website?
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Cover story
In a sea of bikini-clad models and vacant celebrities, the hand-drawn illustrations of Germany's Der Spiegel magazine have a unique appeal
Read your roots
Encounters - As a child in the 1970s, he was called Golliwog and Sambo. Kwame Kwei-Armah talks race and history with Aleks Sierz
Sparring partners
Visual art - Degas repainted one ambitious scene time and again. Richard Cork on the work's eroticism and emptiness
Pure doggerel
Poetry - The prize-winning writer Don Paterson recently despaired of the amateurs in his profession. Andy Croft despairs of him
Theatre
Michael Portillo - Art of appearances
Theatre - A compelling, tragic tale of two men and their muse, writes Michael Portillo The Earthly Paradise Almeida Theatre, London N1
Film
Mark Kermode - Roller-coaster ride
Film - Technological feast of seasonal thrills has little substance, writes Mark Kermode The Polar Express (U)
Television
My oh my
Television - Griff Rhys Jones fails to rescue this hoary old guff, writes Zoe Williams Mine All Mine (ITV)
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies hires a chauffeur - well, taxi - for his match visits
I thought I'd solved the parking problem, but I ended up fuming again
Books
Ancient grudge. Anglo-French hostilities go beyond politics. The bad faith that exists between the two countries is the result of longstanding cultural divisions. Andrew Hussey on why we should not celebrate the entente cordiale
Friend or Foe: an Anglo-Saxon history of France Alistair Horne Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 428pp, £25 ISBN 0297848941
The corporation
Uncertain Vision: Birt, Dyke and the reinvention of the BBC Georgina Born Secker & Warburg, 564pp, £17.99 ISBN 0436205629
Wot not to say
Lost for Words: the mangling and manipulating of the English language John Humphrys Hodder & Stoughton, 192pp, £14.99 ISBN 034083658X
Good old days
The Welfare State We're In James Bartholomew Politico's, 402pp, £18.99 ISBN 1842750631
View from below
The Transformation of Ireland (1900-2000) Diarmaid Ferriter Profile Books, 884pp, £30 ISBN 1861973071
Buried treasure
New Labour's Old Roots: revisionist thinkers in Labour's history (1931-1997) Edited by Patrick Diamond Imprint Academic, 263pp, £14.95 ISBN 0907845894
Half and half
The In-Between World of Vikram Lall M G Vassanji Canongate, 439pp, £14.99 ISBN 1841955388
