Issue 119
February 2006
Contents
Grayson Perry
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Since winning the Turner prize in 2003 for his illustrated pottery, the transvestite Perry has become a pantomime figure of the British art scene. Is this just celebrity transgression, or something more?
The great divide
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Cinema, literature and other aspects of western culture are increasingly open to Asian influence. Not so western philosophy, which remains almost entirely sealed off from eastern traditions. Why? Institutionalised parochialism on the part of western philosophers and a loss of nerve among Asian thinkers
Return of the constitution
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
The second phase of constitutional reform in Britain is sending further waves of change through Wales and Scotland, parliament and the legal system. Tony Blair remains uninterested or suspicious, but Gordon Brown is ready to take up the cause
The mystery of development
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
2005 was a big year for international development. But there are strict limits on what outsiders can do to help poor countries. People develop themselves with the help of functioning legal systems and states
Drinking the Kool-Aid
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Was the Iraq adventure doomed to fail or did the US administration mess it up? A new crop of books suggests that the nation-builders of Iraq were fighting the right war in theory but not in practice
Digital exuberance
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Digital technology hands more power and convenience to the individual consumer. But technologies of connectivity can threaten stability and community. We need a new ethics of inconvenience
The beauty of choice
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Julian Le Grand effectively squashed David Lipsey's arguments against the introduction of choice to public services. But he failed to explain why it is that choice works
Gazprom and the snarling bear
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
The Kremlin's taste for using energy assets to play politics and concentrate power is worryingly reminiscent of the Soviet era. What is Putin's next move?
Davos diary: day one
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Incredibly cold temperatures, a bland lunch with Fifa, and a disgusting soundbite from the head of BT. Not quite what I'd expected
Davos diary: day two
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
The self-congratulatory celebs have hit town, bringing back memories of a terrible U2 concert in Camden Town nearly 30 years ago
Davos diary: day three
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Bill Clinton remains a huge draw at Davos—unlike me
Fall of orientalism
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Arab and Islamic scholarship is dying in the west. Edward Said must share the blame
Cameron's Europe
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Blair failed to get Britain to come to terms with the EU. Could David Cameron do it?
Myths of appeasement
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Appeasement did not spring from military weakness. 1930s Britain was well armed
Symbolic laws
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
More and more legislation is about sending signals. What's wrong with that?
The rise of Hamas
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Hamas and the Fatah radicals will transform Palestinian politics
Private view
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
A feature of the art market boom is the abandonment of local and national affiliations among collectors. So why can't Saatchi move further than SW3?
Smallscreen
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Stephen Poliakoff became one of the great television dramatists by keeping faith with a certain idea of the past, even as it was made redundant by Thatcherism
Widescreen
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
One of the great themes of film history has been the growing rivalry between Hollywood and Asian cinema. This is the real cultural clash of east and west
He played for Arsenal
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Patrick Vieira's life story, from humble beginnings in Senegal to triumph with France, shows that football is the world's most globalised industry
In bed with the neocons
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Oliver Kamm has made a brave attempt to reconcile left-wing idealism with US neoconservatism. But can non-Americans really be neocons?
The Beatles laid bare
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
From Lennon's childhood to the devastating breakup, Bob Spitz's illuminating 850-page Beatles biography is almost certain to become the standard work
Revering Rembrandt
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
The idealisation of Rembrandt on his 400th birthday is inevitable, as is the reaction against it. None of this helps us to look at the paintings
The girlfriend
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Leo needs to know just the few, final details of his daughter's murder
Beautiful madness
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Psychiatric drugs restored Nia's sanity and destroyed her beauty, and she doesn't mind
Notes from underground
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Tube union members only have to look at their underpaid colleagues on the buses to see what union weakness means in practice. Strikes mean pay rises
Lab report
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
The Woo Suk Hwang stem cell scandal is shaping up to be the most significant case of scientific misconduct in years. How badly does it set back the science?
Brussels diary
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
All of the EU's big, awkward decisions are now being postponed until 2009. Perhaps by then there will also be agreement on having fewer commissioners
Out of Africa
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Neglectful rulers and faddish aid policies have led to the steady decline of African universities. Are they now due for a rebirth? Plus the truth about remittances
Letter from Serbia
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Serbs have a big nostalgia problem. Things are slowly getting better but they refuse to believe it and still hanker for the good old days of Tito
Tillyard's tales
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Modern English towns display little of the bustling enterprise that led Napoleon to declare us a nation of shopkeepers. But in Italy, local shops are thriving
Washington watch
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
As the supreme court tussles continue, is Roe v Wade turning into an albatross around the Democrats' neck? Plus the return of Scooter Libby
France profonde
26th February 2006 — Issue 119
Why do the French need laws to dictate the right interpretations of the past? It is because of the confusion in French minds between history and memory