13 March 2006
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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
Britain's dirty secret
Exculsive - Secret papers show how Britain helped Israel make the A-bomb in the 1960s, supplying tons of vital chemicals including plutonium and uranium. And it looks as though Harold Wilson and his ministers knew nothing about it
Features
Tessa's friends
The Culture Secretary threw herself into the glamorous parties that come with the job. Perhaps she came unstuck on the charmed life, but why get rid of the only nice person in British politics today? asks Rosie Millard
The wary probing of the lawyers
How the David Mills drama is dividing Britain's top legal institution
Ghosts of indonesia won't lie
East Timor's history is repeating itself as Jakarta colludes with the west to crush another resource-rich land: West Papua. The world is watching as Australia decides the fate of 43 West Papuans seeking asylum
The new globalisation guru?
In the past week Eric Hobsbawm, the pre-eminent historian and avowed communist, debated the role of Karl Marx in the 21st century with the one-time international banker Jacques Attali. They came to some unlikely conclusions
'If there had been a little man waving back from Mars, we would have been right there. But there was just a rock'
Have we really lost our enthusiasm for space, or are we simply waiting for the discovery of some proper aliens? Zoe Williams reports from Nasa
Essay
NS Essay - 'We envy and admire people who negotiate shorter hours - yet there's an overwhelming suspicion that they are ''skiving off'''
The clamour for work-life balance is pitting employee against employee, argues Viv Groskop, but the thing we need to change most is our fixation with the social status that we associate with work
Interview
Witness to a grave slice of history
The outgoing German ambassador describes the animosity between Blair and Schroder. Mary Riddell interviews Thomas Matussek
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Time for a ministerial moral code
Our politics may not be institutionally corrupt. Yet there seems no reason beyond vanity why politicians should cavort with the likes of Berlusconi
Lindsey Hilsum - predicts Iranian cloned sheep
Iran has a fervour for science. Its stem-cell research is nearly as advanced as Britain's
Kira Cochrane - preferes teenage passion
We imagine teenagers will simply vote for any party that legalises drugs or changes working hours to, say, 1pm to 4.30pm
Mark Thomas - won't give the world a Coke
As Jamie Oliver whizzes around on his Vespa of health and schools knock the sale of fizzy drinks on the head, Coke is in a bind
Commons Confidential
Village life - Kevin Maguire eyes up Dave's barnet
A lettuce leaf disappoints, the Cameron hair mystery, and goodbye Annie
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
New order
European arts - Tony White on the sharp-edged culture emerging from the young Balkan republics
Film
Trailer trash
Film - Ryan Gilbey wonders why studios spoil the ending before we've seen the movie
Radio
Radio - Rachel Cooke
You don't have to be a Christian - or a Tory - to take comfort in "I Vow to Thee, My Country", wirtes Rachel Cooke
Theatre
Tomorrow's world
Theatre - A visceral portrait of dystopia both grips and mystifies, writes Michael Portillo The Cut Donmar Warehouse, London WC2
Film
Young blood
Film - In Belgium or west London, growing up is hard to do, writes Victoria Segal Kidulthood (15) L'Enfant (12A)
Television
Camping it up
Television - A scrupulous documentary fails to bring X-Ray to life, writes Andrew Billen The Road to Guantanamo (Channel 4)
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies confesses a soft spot
Wainwright was cheering Blackburn on from the fells last Sunday
Books
On the far side of the ring road. Village life used to revolve around farming and religion. But now churchgoing is dwindling and the harvesting is done by itinerant workers. Robert Winder on our changing countryside
Return to Akenfield Craig Taylor Granta Books, 288pp, £14.99 ISBN 1862078874
Loose connection
The Culture of the New Capitalism Richard Sennett Yale University Press, 224pp, £14.99 ISBN 030010782X
Peace in our times
The People on the Street: a writer's view of Israel Linda Grant Virago, 214pp, £9.99 ISBN 1844082547
The American scene
Wacko professors are the latest threat to homeland security, discovers John Sutherland
Suicide in song
Darker Than the Deepest Sea: the search for Nick Drake Trevor Dann Portrait, 288pp, £17.99 ISBN 0749950951
Far from home
Ludmila's Broken English DBC Pierre Faber & Faber, 318pp, £12.99 ISBN 0571215181
Brief lives
The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories Valerie Martin Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 192pp, £14.99 ISBN 0297848550
Parallel lines
The Railway Hamid Ismailov Harvill Secker, 224pp, £12.99 ISBN 1843431610
