Why Britain can't do The Wire
21st October 2009 — Issue 164The critically acclaimed US television drama could not be made here. We have writing talent in abundance, but its output is controlled by a stifling monopoly—the BBC. Plus, an interview with The Wire's creator David Simon
Comment (22)
How power changed a president
21st October 2009 — Issue 164A year after his election, Obama's promise of change remains unfulfilled, and his country as divided as ever. But he could yet be one of the greatest presidents America has ever had
Through a story, darkly
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
David Vann’s violent treatment of his father’s suicide moves novelist Julie Myerson to rethink her own father’s death and the dangerous borderlands that lie between fiction and memoir
Paul Anderson: the software giant has suddenly begun to embrace its rivals' free-to-use software. Is Microsoft opening up at last?
Lewis Page: the next government should save the armed forces—and leave weapons makers to sink or swim
James Lovelock, Bjorn Lomborg, and Zac Goldsmith argue about why the Copenhagen climate change summit matters
So, what's the big plan?
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
One year on, Obama's foreign policy seems to be vacillating—allies both at home and abroad are proving uncooperative
Twenty years in the making
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
Despite the grumblings of a few sidelined intellectuals and the lingering sense that east Germans are second-class citizens, the former GDR has come an amazingly long way
Writing is a team sport in the US
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
Interview with The Wire’s creator David Simon
Is Microsoft opening up at last?
30th October 2009 — Issue 164
The software giant has suddenly begun to embrace its rivals' free-to-use software. What's really going on here?
Is Britain's future renewable?
28th October 2009 — Issue 164
The financial crisis has cast a shadow over the future of Britain's renewable industry. It will need a lot of government help to stay afloat
Hungary's house of terror
27th October 2009 — Issue 164
Hungary's public arraignment of its 20th-century crimes marks it out from the rest of Europe. But remembering the past can be divisive
A farewell to arms
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
The next government should save the armed forces—and leave weapons makers to sink or swim
Remember Netscape, Bill?
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
Rich philanthropists have the power to fund risky, long-term projects. So why don’t they?
How we got the Soviets wrong
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
Cold warriors like myself badly overestimated the attractiveness of Marxism
Temperature: where is the tipping point?
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
Emissions are a cumulative game
A mountain to climb
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
The coal industry is trying to reinvent itself by capturing and burying carbon emissions deep underground. But it’s proving a struggle
The human time bomb
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
To cut emissions we have to curb world population. So why isn’t this Copenhagen’s top priority?
Who's afraid of the avant-garde?
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
There's a reason why we find it easier to "get" modern art than avant-garde music, and it's not just about our natural conservatism and love of Mozart
The bestselling persuaders
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
Behavioural economics has been the toast of both politicians and publishers in recent years. But the emperor’s new clothes are starting to look threadbare
Imagine there's no Stalin
21st October 2009 — Issue 164
Two new biographies help us to ask one of the great unanswered questions of the last century—what would have happened had Trotsky led the Soviet Union?
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