Issue 116
November 2005
Contents
Critical clowns
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
High culture, and the serious critics who support and explain it, have gradually become marginalised in the mass media. Critical clowns have stormed the citadel of Shaw, Tynan and Porter
A weaker world
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
The key global and regional governance bodies are all suffering a crisis of late middle age. Is this a legitimacy problem? Or is it the fault of US unilateralism?
Time for a deal
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Tony Blair's final chance to leave a lasting mark on Britain's relations with the EU is to trade in Britain's rebate for a decisive reform of the common agricultural policy
States of development
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Many have argued that the key to development in Africa is more financial aid and more democracy. But neither played a big role in the economic take-off of Asian countries like Taiwan and South Korea. What the Asian success stories have had, and what Africa has lacked, is properly functioning states
Plugging the energy gap
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Britain must start work on about 30 new power stations to stop the lights going out in 2025. Private companies now take the investment decisions, but in a context of technical, regulatory and environmental uncertainty. Can government help?
For and against Chomsky
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Is the world's top public intellectual a brilliant expositor of linguistics and the US's duplicitous foreign policy? Or a reflexive anti-American, cavalier with his sources?
Losing the south
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
When I was deputy governor of two southern Iraqi provinces last year, we tried to create a tolerant, modern society. Then the Islamic parties won most of the seats in the election and the dream collapsed
Alan Hollinghurst
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Last year's Booker prize winner does not want to be a spokesman for his generation. He reveals his favourite novel and not much more
The mythless society
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Science has not fulfilled its promise, and new fiction provides no more solace than reality television. We desperately need myth again. Can Canongate's new publishing venture provide it?
A fictitious Bacon
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Terence Kealey's essay on Francis Bacon was a misunderstanding of practically everything about the founder of modern science—from his views on progress to his predilection for S&M and torture
Why Turkey's Kurds matter
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
After five years of calm, the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey seems to be rekindling. But the government must not return to the heavy-handed methods of its predecessors. With EU membership now a real prospect, the best way to defuse the conflict is by reform
Against Kyoto
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Not only is the Kyoto approach to global warming wrong-headed, the climate change establishment's suppression of dissent and criticism is little short of a scandal. The IPCC should be shut down
Gunpowder, treason and Jonson
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
As you enjoy the 400th anniversary of the gunpowder plot this November, spare a thought for Ben Jonson, who, Prospect can reveal, was arrested after Guy Fawkes's capture and forced to prove his loyalty
India joins the west
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Last month saw a small geopolitical revolution: India backed the west against Iran
Meadow is innocent
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
The GMC's striking-off of Roy Meadow from the medical register is a travesty of justice
Angela's hour
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Germany's grand coalition has a good chance to give the reform process a shove
The new unionism
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Northern Ireland's recent violence reflects the "modernisation" of unionism
Habermas vs the Pope
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
The darling of the 68ers and Benedict XVI find a surprising amount to agree on
Perpetuum mobile?
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Social mobility does not work as most people imagine, and it's hard to do much about it
The enigma of simplicity
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Alan Bennett's deceptively conservative Englishness has made him a national treasure. The more complex he becomes, the more people love his plainness
A new model army?
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
One of Britain's finest generals hints at a radical reordering of the armed forces to equip them for modern conflicts. Unfortunately, he only hints
The evolution of insanity
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Sebastian Faulks should not be judged by his earlier books, but by the quality of ideas in this daring new novel about madness and consciousness
Widescreen
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
There have been three ages of cinema architecture: cathedral, deco and dross. The time is ripe for a return to the vitality and optimism of art deco design
Private view
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
It's very big and clever, but what exactly is "art photography"? In the case of Jeff Wall, it is an odd inversion—a revival of the ethos of 19th-century genre painting
Musical notes
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Berlioz was so good that I left before the Beethoven. St John Passion would have been better with a proper interval instead of a poetry reading
Paki
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Don't u b tellin any a us pakis dat we b pakis like our paki bredren from Pakistan
True stories
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
I broke the golden rule in criminal defence: the less evidence the better. And it is the client who pays when a barrister makes a mistake
Lab report
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Could the Kashmir earthquake have been predicted? And why are American scientists rebuilding the 1918 virus—one of the most virulent ever?
Washington watch
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
As the Republican ascendancy tumbles and the mood in the White House darkens, can George W Bush really be turning back to booze?
France profonde
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
The Nouvel Observateur, like Prospect, has published a list of thinkers to celebrate its birthday. Does it tell us anything about the state of French thought?
Brussels diary
20th November 2005 — Issue 116
Top commission officials have turned against Barroso, who is now considered a renegade Anglo-Saxon. Meanwhile, is the constitution dead or not?