Issue 103
October 2004
Contents
Frederick Ashton
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
For his centenary, Ashton's work is being revived with what may be a final flourish.
Bye bye, Beijing
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
After Tiananmen I had to join the Chinese army. There I heard a song that took me to America
The Brown supremacy
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Gordon Brown is odds-on to be prime minister by 2008. How different from Blair would he be? What are his foreign policy ideas? What about his adamantine personality and his Scottishness? Admirers and critics speculate
Reforming parliament
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Stung by the fear of irrelevance and the Hutton inquiry, parliament is little by little becoming a more effective scrutineer
A liberal leviathan
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
The world needs a liberal leviathan. Can John Kerry provide it?
The price of art
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
The new boom has made art a more secure investment than property or shares, and collectors also get the chance to make history
Tories at war (still)
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
The modern Conservative party, argues a leading Thatcherite, can only be led from the right
Race and creation
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
In his new book, "The Ancestor's Tale," Richard Dawkins deals with the vexed topic of race. Humans, it seems, were predisposed to make sharp distinctions between in-group and out-group before there were any races at all—indeed, races may have evolved partly as a response to that predisposition
Migration targets?
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
We have targets and annual reports on everything else - so why not migration?
Russia's playground
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Behind Russian bellicosity in the Caucasus lies an old dream of holidays and romance
A modern sultan
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Can a historian of science breathe new life into Islam's international forum?
Friend of the Arabs
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
France's pro-Arab policies sometimes pay dividends. But popularity comes at a price
Scanner in the works
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
The British are inventive, but can't do mass production. An old cliché, but sadly still true
Smallscreen
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
We should lament the passing of The Wednesday Play and 1970s television drama. It is not TV culture that is to blame for our wasteland; it is the whole culture
Widescreen
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
It is in the nature of cinema to create empathy, and its danger lies in drawing us to places we should not go. But some great films refuse to play this trick
Musical notes
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
While Brendel was youthful as well as masterful in his farewell Prom, Simon Rattle still hasn't found a distinctive voice for the Berlin Philharmonic
Private view
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Minimalism is a style that allows the very rich to transcend vulgar consumption. It also allows the monks in a John Pawson-designed monastery to live with nothing
Jazz forecast
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Gwyneth Herbert is the latest in a popular wave of jazz vocalists doomed to plunder the old kitbag of song
Bush's barmy army
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
The American right is a coalition of millionaires and trailer park dwellers stitched together by cultural anger. It is ascendant but not invincible
Hawking the happy pills
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Drugs that increase serotonin levels are widely prescribed for depression. But their benefits have been wildly exaggerated and their side-effects underplayed
Bill grows up at last
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum was a sworn enemy of the Clinton presidency. But now that the man is out of power, and maturing fast, there may be reason to rethink
The icon
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
My mother died before she knew that I was a dwarf, yet she is with me - always
Brussels diary
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Relations between Poland and Germany were supposed to improve after Poland's EU accession, but it has not worked out like that
Technically speaking
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Don't believe BT's hype - on the indicators that matter, Britain remains stuck in the broadband slow lane. Plus why it pays to be square - ask Bill Gates
Out of mind
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Just as lightning has disabled my computer's motherboard, Sacha's brainstem is threatened by an angioma. Her brain surgeons are dabbling in both fate and science
Washington watch
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
John Danforth is the one to watch for Colin Powell's job, but he may not be as clean as he looks. And why is John McCain pushing so hard for Bush?
My top ten fears
23rd October 2004 — Issue 103
Jack Miles, 62, is senior fellow with the Pacific Council on International Policy and author of Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God (Heinemann).