03 March 2008
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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
Gas & gangsters
Energy is the key to Europe's new relationship with Russia - and supposedly Moscow's weapon of choice in its plan for European domination. Yet this new Cold War is not inevitable
Features
Why I left Hizb ut-Tahrir
For almost ten years Umm Mustafa affiliated herself with the controversial Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. Last year, she quit. This is her story
Interview
Animal rights, human wrongs
As he takes up his new role at the Food Standards Agency, Colin Blakemore talks about animal rights, research and "pseudo-Buddhism" plus check out our debate on this controversial issue
Regulars
The Politics Column
Class war in the House
The Michael Martin affair has exposed a raw tribalism that still separates the two major parties
Commons Confidential
The whispers
The Wapping Wallet and Comrade Dave - all the gossip from the Westminster Village
Head to the beaches No 4016
Set by J SeeryWe asked you for Sun/Mail-type rants on the outrageous regulations Europe is about to impose on Britain - eg, a tax on people who do not sell the undersides of their toilet seats as advertising space, a ruling that all children should have names appropriate to either gender, a requirement that all scissors must have blades of two different metals . . . the more ludicrous, the better
Culture
Favela fabulous
The dynamic cultural movement AfroReggae is restoring a sense of pride to communities torn apart by Rio de Janeiro's bloody urban conflict.
Hollywood reborn
This year's Oscars signal a remarkable cultural renaissance for America in the twilight of the Bush era, writes the NS film critic, Ryan Gilbey
Television
An old story behind every door
Sue Bourne's documentary turns her neighbours into tired stereotypes
Books
Cities of dreams
Fifty per cent of the world's population now lives in cities. By 2050 it will be 75 per cent, so considering the urban future is important. We need more than platitudes
Benazir's tragic failure
Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West Benazir Bhutto Simon & Schuster, 336pp, £17.99
Tangled up in blue
Fugitive Denim: a Moving Story of People and Pants in the Borderless World of Global Trade Rachel Louise Snyder W W Norton, 329pp, £15.99
Sobering thoughts
Cleaning Up: How I Gave Up Drinking and Lived Tania Glyde Serpent's Tail, 241pp, £10.99
Dog beneath the skin
The Sacred Book of the Werewolf Victor Pelevin. Translated by Andrew Bromfield Faber & Faber, 333pp, £12.99
