17 January 2005

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

Coronation, Texas-style

With US soldiers dying in Iraq, he could have kept it low-key. Instead, he wants $40m worth of balls, parades, bad food and military display. It says a lot

By Andrew Stephen

Features

Blair's flagship schools and the money that never was

By Francis Beckett

Private bodies, we are told, are putting millions into Labour's new city academies. In return, they get control of the teaching. But Francis Beckett finds the largesse curiously elusive

A different take on what not to wear

By Nick Cohen

As new textile trade terms threaten Asian workers with even longer hours and lower wages, can ethical consumers buy any clothes at all with a clear conscience?

The landlord who set my flat on fire

By Sebastian Cresswell-Turner

If you think victims of crime have a hard time in England, it's nothing to what can happen in Italy, as Sebastian Cresswell-Turner discovered

Hidden solidarities that span the globe

By Ray Pahl

As the past few weeks have shown, we are not the selfish, atomised individuals of modern media myth. But the government would like us to think we are

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

Why we need a strong state more than ever

The Politics Column

Politics - John Kampfner wants to know a secret (or two)

By John Kampfner

What was the Attorney General's advice on Iraq? How does Blair get all those free holidays? Now is our chance to ask - and your chance to join in

Darcus Howe calls an Asian an Asian

By Darcus Howe

To refer to Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, rather than Asians, undermines secularism

Mark Thomas writes a column offensive to Christians

By Mark Thomas

Why are evangelical Christians so upset at a musical that shows Jesus calling himself "a bit gay"? According to the Bible, he was arrested for kissing a man in a public park

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

Boys on film

By Charlie Scheips

David Hockney has taken a break from painting to select a show of photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe. He talks to Charlie Scheips about his old friend and their shared interest

Battle of the brands

By Ekow Eshun

Hip-hop - As rappers name-drop more and more labels, Ekow Eshun finds the true meaning of bling

The world's a stage

By Rachel Halliburton

Encounters - Rachel Halliburton meets the nomadic intellect behind the theatre of Complicite

Beam me up

By Richard Cork

Visual art - Richard Cork feels trapped by the work of an artist preoccupied by fragility

Theatre

Michael Portillo - Sledgehammer

By Michael Portillo

Theatre - Gripping journey into the mind of a man who has lost it all. By Michael Portillo Patience Finborough Theatre, London SW10

Film

Mark Kermode - It's a knockout

By Mark Kermode

Film - Clint Eastwood is back in the ring with a swanky number. By Mark Kermode Million Dollar Baby (12A) Closer (15) Team America: World Police (15)

Television

Andrew Billen - Sunny delight

By Andrew Billen

Television - Men get the women they deserve in a hot new drama, writes Andrew Billen Desperate Housewives (Channel 4)

Books

Diary - Robert Peston

By Robert Peston

A foreign firm may be about to take over the London Stock Exchange but its French chief executive still regrets the refurbishment of the Savoy Hotel grill room