Issue 118
January 2006
Contents
The RSC showdown
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
After years of decline and mismanagement, the Royal Shakespeare Company is staking it all on a cycle of the complete works. But is it now too late to regain the one principle that gave the RSC meaning—a national ensemble of actors working in contemporary theatre through the Shakespearean example?
Reading Iran
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Over the past decade, Iran's clerical conservatives have defeated their reformist rivals. But the summer election of populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is generating new conflicts among the networks that control the state. How will this affect Iran's relations with the west? Is liberalisation really dead?
Turner gets it right on pensions
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The Turner pensions commission rightly considers greater longevity not as a problem but as part of the solution. Its recommendations of a higher state pension with less means-testing, paid for by later retirement and more saving are right too
A Chinese homecoming
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
A railway contract brought my Russian family to Manchuria 110 years ago. Now that China's European past is unfreezing, I am welcomed back like a long-lost son to my birthplace, Harbin
Broken Hearts?
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The rise, and possible fall, of the Edinburgh football club Heart of Midlothian is a morality tale of modern soccer. It is also a story about Scotland's relationship with the beautiful—and cruel—game
Women in black
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Since my bereavement I have come to appreciate the old uses of wearing black
John Krebs
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The scientist who steered the Food Standards Agency through a turbulent five years on the role of experts in a hyperdemocratic age, openness in public life, and what the state can do to prevent obesity
After Iraq's election 1
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The parliamentary elections in Iraq represent the conclusion of one of the most successful processes from tyranny to pluralism in history
Happy ending
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The opening of accession talks with Turkey and the new EU budget settlement add up to a resoundingly successful British EU presidency
Mother mercantilism
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
There was a small measure of progress at the WTO Hong Kong conference, but negotiators still see trade as an arm of politics
After Iraq's election 2
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The election managed to mobilise all Iraqi groups into political participation. But it also entrenched the country's increasing ethnic polarisation
Immature democrats
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Politics has been unable to withstand the assault of naive individualism
Buckley at 80
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The journalist who helped to create the "southern strategy," transforming the Republicans
Too little choice
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
One of the main architects of Labour's public service reforms defends choice
We are all complicit
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The world's top public intellectual responds to accusations of dishonesty
Number-crunching
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
How can we have a "knowledge economy" if no one learns maths or physics?
No, ambassador
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Aside from the gossip, does Christopher Meyer's Washington memoir tell us anything useful about British foreign policy? A former Europe minister considers
From lad-lit to lit
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Despite Nick Hornby's popularity in Britain and credibility in America, serious critical appreciation of his literature of self-doubt is still overdue
Return of the Turk
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Neither truly European nor middle eastern, Turkey's real affinities lie with other Turkic peoples. But claims of a unified Turkic identity are not realistic
Private view
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Paul McCarthy's horror art has influenced a younger generation, through its embrace of perversity, its use of different media, and its obviousness
Widescreen
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Youssef Chahine made the first great African film. He deals fearlessly with Arab themes. The Anglo-Saxon film world knows nothing about him. Why not?
Musical notes
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Iván Fischer's Budapest Festival Orchestra prove that Bartók was the 20th century's greatest. And why is Radio 4 encouraging us to fast-forward Beethoven's 9th?
Smallscreen
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Never tell a television critic to cheer up. If you must have the best of 2005, here are some highlights. Just don't expect them all to be good
Tomorrow is too far
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Only your cousin Dozie knows who killed your brother Nonso
Tillyard's tales
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
In next year's Italian election, the line dividing church and state will become a battlefield. Britain has never had an anti-clerical tradition; do we need one now?
Washington watch
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Rumsfeld is not much longer for the Pentagon, and might his replacement be Joe Lieberman? And did Prospect get it wrong about Hillary Clinton?
France profonde
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
The English invasion of France continues, but where we once wanted holiday homes, now we seek work. It does not make us popular with the natives
Lab report
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Could we be heading for a repeat of the Younger Dryas cold snap, which was last seen 12,000 years ago? And are quantum computers finally becoming a reality?
These islands
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
A runty man who survives by picking through dumps convinces me that to throw away an old horseshoe would be bad luck. I used to think I was rational
Brussels diary
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
An unexpected election result in Poland has thrown Chirac a lifeline. Speaking Portuguese is suddenly fashionable. And farewell John Palmer
Notes from underground
22nd January 2006 — Issue 118
Love on the underground is a tricky business. The anti-social hours are not good for marriages or for dating—but is it a hotbed of homosexuality?