Issue 109
April 2005
Contents
Britain's front line
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Lunar House in Croydon is the dump where most asylum seekers and other migrants have their claims processed. For Britain to have robust and fair border controls, it has got to work better
Britain rediscovered
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
The British have traditionally had a rather weak sense of identity. Politicians of the left now want to construct a more visible, inclusive national story. What should it be based on? Can it be done top down?
London witness
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Nikolaus Pevsner wanted his guides to show that English architecture could match anything in Europe, even though some of its finest was tucked away in unfashionable London suburbs. His guide to east London, now revised, opened my eyes in the 1960s. It's a pity more urban planners did not read it too
The Yukos affair
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
The dramatic arrest 18 months ago of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, then Russia's richest man, marked the end of the first, positive, phase of the Putin regime and the return of fear to Russian politics. But thanks to Kremlin errors and in-fighting, there is a new spirit of resistance to creeping authoritarianism
Power and morals
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Realists argue that foreign policy is necessarily amoral. Liberals contend that there is no distinction between the moral standards that apply in domestic policy and those in international politics. Both views are flawed. Morality does count in foreign policy, but it is usually the morality of the lesser evil
Conservative futures
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
There are five roads the Tories must avoid: Fortress Britain, Libertarian Paradise, Thatcherism Revisited, Local Everything and Scepticism Rediscovered. Success lies in a partial emulation of New Labour
Europe alone
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
As the Bush administration begins to move away from unilateralism, Europe is beginning to move towards it
Nigeria neglected
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Africa's biggest country illustrates the dilemma of how to help corrupt states
Parity of esteem
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Academic and vocational education will never be equal. But vocational can be better
People, not ideas
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Scientific research can promote economic growth, but not in the way the government is doing it
Before and after
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Does giving voters the facts on issues like the NHS change their views? Up to a point
Musical notes
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Seize every chance to catch Till Fellner in Britain, but watch out for political correctness at the Royal Opera House—not in the performance; in the audience
Widescreen
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Mainstream Hollywood has never been as interesting about sex as it is in the new Kinsey film. It's a strike against the new social conservatism of America
Private view
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
After Picasso, Francis Bacon is the second most important painter of the 20th century. Why? His work inspired Gilles Deleuze to an entire philosophy of art
Design forecast
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
The age of the design prize is upon us. Is it the legacy of makeover TV or of William Morris?
Just don't call it paternalism
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Richard Layard's blend of Benthamite utilitarianism and modern psychology suggests a new mission for politics. It's a pity he can't call it what it is
A unified theory of music?
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Richard Taruskin's six-volume history of western classical music is personal and incomplete. But it offers a magnificent glimpse of the whole
Return of the social novel
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Kazuo Ishiguro's story about clones is more Henry James than Aldous Huxley. The unspoken dilemmas of our technological age have Victorian echoes
The fading of Freud
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Talking cures have their place, but psychoanalytic theory has faded into brain science. Adam Phillips's attempt to define sanity is beside the point
After a life
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
For twenty-eight years, Mr and Mrs Su have kept their daughter hidden away
These islands
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Throughout the country, front gardens are being ripped up to make way for cars. We are turning from a nation of gardeners into a nation of garagistes
France profonde
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
The French don't make biopics. The blend of fact and fiction confuses them and—as a new film about Mitterrand reveals—they are too in awe of power
Out of mind
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
I call it "Broks's paradox": the condition of believing that the mind is separate from the body, even though you know this belief to be untrue
Brussels diary
17th April 2005 — Issue 109
Many of Brussels's high flyers are dedicated sportsmen and women. Peter Mandelson sticks to walking the dog and getting as close as possible to Barroso