31 January 2005
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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
An election riven with contradictions
It is supposed to be the Iraqis' chance to decide their destiny, but what if a new Shia-led government decides to cosy up to America's axis-of-evil adversary, Iran? Lindsey Hilsum looks beyond the vote
Features
Labour's contemptible election trade-off
Ministers have written off free speech as collateral in the Iraq war. By proposing to make it a crime to incite religious hatred, they hope to keep Muslim votes
The sad decline of the policy wonks
Rob Blackhurst finds that London's think-tanks, enslaved by corporate sponsors, no longer have a significant influence on the political parties
Interview
The NS Interview - Peter Hain
The Leader of the Commons says Blair has done better than Attlee, and we can still vote Labour even if we opposed the war. Peter Hain interviewed by John Kampfner
Regulars
The Politics Column
Politics - John Kampfner observes Operation Bush Dance
As the government gently distances us from Washington, Jack Straw's low-key diplomacy in Iran has become crucial to the future of British foreign policy
Mark Thomas calculates our torture quota
The Conservative plan for an annual asylum-seeker quota is brilliant. What the Tories need now is some imaginative ideas on how to make it work
Darcus Howe escapes to "Little England"
The Barbados PM is quite clear: he just couldn't swear allegiance to King Harry
Mark Kermode - Old soaks
A treat to be savoured and a rash of rehashes. By Mark Kermode Sideways (15) Meet the Fockers (12A) Assault on Precinct 13 (15) Creep (18)
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
West End boys
The king of theatreland, Andrew Lloyd Webber, seems on the verge of abdicating. Is he feeling restless yet again, or has he been given no choice? Michael Coveney turns a spotlight on the drama going on behind the scenes
Empire building
Architecture - America's new fortress embassies are symbols of its power
Flower power
Visual art - Richard Cork is seduced by the visual pleasures of the Ottoman courts
Theatre
Michael Portillo - Force fed
Theatre - An overdramatised meal fails to satisfy. By Michael Portillo Bites Bush Theatre, London W12
Television
Andrew Billen - Class act
Television - An adaptation of Jonathan Coe's novel is a surprising delight. By Andrew Billen The Rotters' Club (BBC2)
Books
Death and glory. A new film humanises Hitler; Prince Harry wears a swastika to a party; a musical pokes fun at the Fuhrer. There is always something we have to remember, writes George Walden, except the enormity of Nazi evil itself
The End: Hamburg 1943
Hans Erich Nossack University of Chicago Press, 87pp, £14
ISBN 0226595560
Labour pains
So Now Who Do We Vote For? John Harris Faber & Faber, 172pp, £7.99 ISBN 0571224229
Touch of evil
Britain's Gulag: the brutal end of empire in Kenya Caroline Elkins Jonathan Cape, 475pp, £20 ISBN 022407363X Histories of the Hanged: Britain's dirty war in Kenya and the end of the empire David Anderson Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 406pp, £20
Life of exile
Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah diaries Suad Amiry Granta Books, 194pp, £12.99 ISBN 1862077215
Monastic peace
Father Joe: the man who saved my soul Tony Hendra Hamish Hamilton, 255pp, £16.99 ISBN 0241143144
Colour-blind
Anti-Apartheid: a history of the movement in Britain Roger Fieldhouse Merlin Press, 546pp, £20 (paperback) ISBN 085036549X
Fiction - The idle rich
All For Love Dan Jacobson Hamish Hamilton, 272pp, £16.99 0241142733
