Issue 117
December 2005
Contents
Too much choice
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Most of Labour's public service reforms make sense. The new focus on individual choice does not. The "super-modernisers" who are pushing it make a false analogy with the private sector
An Indian fall
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
In the mid-1950s the reputation of Jawaharlal Nehru, free India's founding prime minister, was unassailable. But from the mid-1970s, thanks in part to the actions of his daughter, Indira Gandhi, it began to tumble. In recent years he has been widely reviled, although a revaluation may finally be under way
Life force
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
A new book challenges the gene-centric view of life by placing energy back at the centre of the story. It has some of the freshness and originality of "The Selfish Gene," but don't expect an easy read
Ambitious failure
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Zadie Smith is a talented young writer who may yet produce great fiction. Her third novel, "On Beauty," has its moments but its satire of the academy is laboured and its imitation of EM Forster unsubtle
Can Hillary win in 2008?
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
As Bush's Republican coalition begins to fray, the Democrats can look forward to the 2008 presidential election with confidence. Conventional wisdom says Hillary Clinton is too liberal to take the White House. Conventional wisdom is wrong
Better behaved
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Reports of increasing violence and bad behaviour in schools are routine in the media. But when I spent a year observing an outer London comprehensive, I found a surprisingly ordered environment
When will the oil run out?
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
If there are 3 trillion barrels left, we should have the time to find alternatives to oil. If there are only 1 trillion, then we are in trouble.
Beirut on the brink
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Many Lebanese hoped that the demonstrations that followed the assassination of Rafiq Hariri would lead to a Ukraine-style revolution. But other than the departure of Syrian troops, those hopes have been dashed. What now for Lebanon?
Goodbye Gerd
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
As Gerhard Schröder hands over the reins of power to Angela Merkel, one of his British friends looks back over his seven-year term as German chancellor
Climatic clarity
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
The IPCC summarises scientific knowledge; it doesn't recommend policy. Why are Dick Taverne and Nigel Lawson clouding the issue?
A French Brixton
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
The riots call into question the republican reluctance to acknowledge ethnic difference
Cameron's challenge
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
David Cameron cannot emulate Tony Blair, but he will change New Labour
Valuing the Tate
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Chris Ofili's relationship to the Tate is part of a benign, not a vicious, circle of value
Hands off our subs
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
There is no cost-effective alternative to Trident, apart from nuclear disarmament
In praise of hedges
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Financial markets need regulation—they also need high-risk hedge funds
Tough on trade
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
The Doha round will not fail, but neither will it live up to expectations
Inquire within
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Was 7/7 an intelligence failure? We need a public inquiry, as in the US
Watching them die
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Robert Fisk is a great war reporter and partisan chronicler of western abuses in the middle east. But do not expect political insight
Auster's scrapbook
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Paul Auster makes little distinction between fictional and real life stories. His literary world is a scrapbook in which anyone's biography can be pasted
Abbado on film
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
The move from CD to DVD in classical recordings can mean seeing too much of the orchestra. Not so with Claudio Abbado conducting Mahler
King Google
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Google is worth billions because it delivers readers to advertisers better than any other media outlet—despite not always being the best search engine
Africa's moderate extremist
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Thabo Mbeki is a moderate politician but he has become defined by extreme positions on Zimbabwe, Aids and internal party dissent
Widescreen
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
The new wave of kids' cinema is remarkable but limited. Children of the future should be donated films of the past so that they know what's really out there
Private view
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Jonathan Monk's ICA show is the best of a type of work that is not meant to last. If the art world still liked isms, this idea would be called ephemeralism
Smallscreen
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
The BBC's Bleak House and Rome have drawn huge audiences. But, like most attempts to put the classics on television, they don't work. Television is best at the new
True short story
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Without the cancer drug Herceptin, this is how short the story of a life might be
These islands
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
There are many reasons to leave West Bromwich; few to go there. Could Will Alsop's new building prove that the arts can lead urban regeneration?
Letter from Kashmir
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
After the earthquake, the one glimmer of hope was that India and Pakistan might hasten their reconciliation. Sadly, they're still squabbling
Washington watch
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Now that Scooter Libby has been dealt with, is Richard Perle next for the Fitzgerald treatment? Plus the strange scribblings of the Republican elite
Out of Africa
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Three of Africa's big leaders—Mbeki, Obasanjo and Museveni—need a successor. Is it time for more women leaders on the continent?
Brussels diary
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
Further blows to French standing in the commission as Barroso promotes more free-market Brits and Irish, and even sacks his French spokeswoman
Notes from underground
17th December 2005 — Issue 117
The underground is ethnically diverse, and we like to believe that we all get along. But after I was accused of racism, the bigots came out of the woodwork