11 December 2006

From the Editor…

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Cover story

How to start an arms race

How to start an arms race

Renewing Trident will be a disaster for nuclear weapons control New Statesman leader: It's not too late to stop it

Features

Promoting learning and showing respect

Promoting learning and showing respect

Cash for schools and colleges is meant to show education will be the glue of a Brown manifesto

What they didn't tell us about WMD

What they didn't tell us about WMD

As the Iraq Study Group reports on US operations to remove Saddam, Brian Jones, a former intelligence officer, gives an exclusive account of "Report X" and how the government spun the evidence in Britain

A doctor's scream

A doctor's scream

As the Prime Minister defends reforms in the health service, morale is at an all-time low. And yet more money has been poured in than ever before. So what has gone wrong?

Loadsa money, loadsa woe

For all the complaining, there is good news, argues Niall Dickson. Power is being devolved to local hospitals and signs are encouraging

Buying into a recession

Buying into a recession

America's annual spending frenzy is under way and even sub-zero temperatures won't stop people camping out to snap up bargains. But falling house prices point to trouble ahead

To Prezzagrad with love

To Prezzagrad with love

In the Thirties, planners imagined a magnificent road linking Liverpool to Hull. But the dream soured, as Joe Moran discovered

Who says the cuppa is disappearing?

Who says the cuppa is disappearing?

A nostalgic history shows that Britain's tea tradition is, in fact, alive and well Disappearing Britain Channel 5

Regulars

Trident - it's not too late to stop Blair's latest military blunder

New Statesman leader opposing a new generation of Trident

Red Dave goes slaphead

A wry look at life in Westminster

We meet at last No 3958

Set by Hank T Romein John Humphrys, on Radio 4's "Humphrys in Search of God", sought to find Him. But what if He had actually appeared before the great sceptic . . .

Culture

Year of the woman

Year of the woman

At the beginning of 2006, the prospects looked bleak for strong, idiosyncratic female pop acts. Jude Rogers meets three remarkable artists who changed all that

A mythic creature

A mythic creature

Carmen's feminine power entices audiences from Covent Garden to Cape Town

Portrait of the artist

Portrait of the artist

Damien Hirst's obsessive collecting could prove the death of his own creativity

Arts Diary

Arts Diary

Stap me vitals! We're having a ball

Stap me vitals! We're having a ball

Rollicking show brings a flamboyant 18th-century heroine back to life The Bitches Ball Hoxton Hall, London N1

One early Christmas present and one turkey

One early Christmas present and one turkey

A tale of blunt reality sparsely told and a beauty commercial relentlessly oversold It's Winter (12A)
dir: Rafi Pitts Kabul Express (15)
dir: Kabir Khan

From the old East End to the Bobster

From the old East End to the Bobster

Hidden gems on Radio 4, and Radio 2 signs a real treasure

Books

Taking sides

John Sutherland on why we couldn't care less about US book prizes

Would like to meet . . .

Would like to meet . . .

They Call Me Naughty Lola: the London Review of Books personal ads – a reader Edited by David Rose Profile Books, 192pp, £8.99

A banquet bug's blog

A banquet bug's blog

The Uninvited Geling Yan Faber & Faber, 288pp, £10.99

Bedazzled by gadgets

Bedazzled by gadgets

Margherita Dolce Vita Stefano Benni Europa, 226pp, £8.99

Here be the anti-theists

Here be the anti-theists

Letter to a Christian Nation Sam Harris Knopf, 96pp, £10

A history lesson

Observation on Lorna Arnold, Britain's official nuclear historian

Welcome to Planet Blitcon

Welcome to Planet Blitcon

Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie and Ian McEwan dominate British literature - and they're convinced that Islam threatens civilisation as we know it

Guilty pleasures

Guilty pleasures

Les Bienveillantes Jonathan Littell Editions Gallimard, 903pp, £17.50

Living the dream

Mellon: an American life David Cannadine Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 780pp, £30

Escape strategy

Time to Emigrate George Walden Gibson Square, 240pp, £8.99

Plastic fantastic

Plastic fantastic

The Best of Smash Hits Edited by Mark Frith Little, Brown, 193pp, £14.99

Observations

What the KGB did next

Observations on Litvinenko and who really killed him

Addicted to punishment

Observations on prisons

Where were you?

Where were you?

Five things you might have missed last week

Angel delight

Angel delight

A little Restoration slap and tickle at The Bitches Ball

Green heroes

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Heroes

Green villains

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Villains

Bjorn Lomborg

Cloud control

Cloud control

Interview

Omar Bin Laden

The NS Interview: Omar Bin Laden

James Macintyre

Brown at war

Like it or not, Brown’s a war leader

What if...

Hugh Gaitskell lived

What if... Hugh Gaitskell had lived

Will Self

On brands

We’re all with the brand

Film review

A Serious Man

A Serious Man (15)

Vote!

Will Baroness Ashton be an effective EU foreign minister?

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