05 December 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
The next holocaust
Islamophobia is not a uniquely British disease: across Europe, liberals openly express prejudice against Muslims. Do new pogroms beckon? Ziauddin Sardar reports from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.
Features
Panic in Whitehall
Exclusive - For three months, behind the scenes, senior civil servants have been trying to stem an outbreak of leaks on the Iraq war which are proving highly damaging to Tony Blair. Martin Bright, who has had a ringside seat, reports on a government in disarray
Preparing Iran for judgement day
President Ahmadinejad is mocked by Tehran's elite for his ugliness, stupidity and smelly socks. Yet it's his religiosity, which gives him the common touch, that worries them. Lindsey Hilsum reports from Iran
Battle of the benches
Blair and co outraged the judges by undermining their independence, but cutting their pensions may be taking things too far. Robert Verkaik on an unusual industrial crisis
For whom the decibels toll
Special report - The night before Andrew Martin took his first flight, at the age of 13, he couldn't sleep for excitement. These days he's rather less happy about the planes that keep him wide awake
Interview
NS Interview - Ruth Kelly
'You just have to take people on and show you're serious about creating a fair society'. Ruth Kelly interviewed
Regulars
Commons Confidential
Village life - Kevin Maguire doubts the Medway Mauler's truce
The PM bothered, a missing overcoat, big-money ranters and niggles in the Labour ranks
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
The emperor's new clothes
Prince Charles was roundly condemned for describing China's leaders as "waxworks", yet the state-sponsored Crouching Tiger image of the country is no closer to reality. Xiao Jia Gu looks in vain for the truth about the world's fastest-growing power
Hollywood's angry young man
Interview - Benjamin Davis discusses George W Bush and other demons with the star of The Night of the Iguana, Woody Harrelson
Wilde's child
Art - Dada's anti-hero was an outrageous boxer-conman, discovers Rachel Aspden
Theatre
Jungle fever
Theatre - As Tennessee Williams's "last great play" comes to London, Michael Coveney relates its troubled history
Radio
The radio column - Rachel Cooke
While a group of nobodies sweated it out in the jungle, the airwaves were full of real stars
Theatre
Michael Portillo - Thrill of the chase
Theatre - Hunting down a corrupt ruler creates a sinister study in fear, writes Michael Portillo The Emperor Jones Gate Theatre, London W11
Film
John Lyttle - Shoot 'em up
Film - Forget acting - cinema-going gamers just want violence, writes John Lyttle Doom (15)
Television
Andrew Billen - Royal lush
Television - A troubled princess is posthumously damned, writes Andrew Billen The Queen's Sister (Channel 4)
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies loses arm control at a footie auction
When I was 18, Mum binned my scrapbook and let out my half of the bed
Books
Our man in Washington. Christopher Meyer was always more loathed than liked by many in the Foreign Office. His memoirs show him to be a star-struck egomaniac who is still in denial about his marginal role in the build-up to Iraq. By Ed Owen
DC Confidential Christopher Meyer Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 288pp, £20 ISBN 0297851144
The press gang
The History of the Times: the Murdoch years Graham Stewart HarperCollins, 727pp, £30 ISBN 0007184387
A real mensch
Lee Miller Carolyn Burke Bloomsbury, 426pp, £20 ISBN 0747579806
Tight squeeze
Siegfried Sassoon: a biography Max Egremont Picador, 639pp, £25 ISBN 0330375261
Shelf-lives
Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: the Left Bank world of Shakespeare and Co Jeremy Mercer Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 262pp, £16.99 ISBN 0297850881
Stands of principle
My Friend Footy Richard Ingrams Private Eye Books, 124pp, £9.99 ISBN 1901784428
Fiction - Land of myths
Gate of the Sun Elias Khoury; translated by Humphrey Davies Harvill, 501pp, £17.99 ISBN 1843431033
