Issue 126
September 2006
Contents
Michael Jay
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
The Lebanon crisis has once again shown that foreign policy is made in Downing Street, not the foreign office. The recently retired head of the diplomatic service tries to explain why the FCO matters
Shearer's paradox
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Like most big football clubs, Newcastle United doesn't understand the magic it works—as the official club tour proves
Vasily Grossman
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
The Russian writer's novel "Life and Fate"—often compared with "War and Peace"—was first published in English in the mid-1980s. But only now is interest taking off among a wider public
The right dialectic
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Despite the appearance of consensus between the two main parties, the contest between equality and liberty has not disappeared. Instead, it has become a dispute about who owns the ground of "fraternity" and whether the state (Gordon Brown) or the individual (David Cameron) will lift its banner there
The unfinished war
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Why did the proxy war in Lebanon happen and whose interests did it serve? What is Hizbullah, and how independent is it from its sponsors in Damascus and Tehran? And what is life like for the Shia population of Hizbullahstan?
What were the causes of 9/11?
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Five years on, everyone has a theory about the real causes of 9/11. They range from the nutty (it was the US government) to the plausible but flawed (a response to foreign occupation) to the credible (collateral damage from a clash within Islam)
Comment (1)A brief history of air-conditioning
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Air-conditioning has avoided the opprobrium attached to cars and planes, but as use of the technology grows rapidly so does its contribution to climate change
Leadership troubles
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
It's time to move on from the idea of British Muslim "community leaders"
Campus radicals
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Universities are fertile recruiting ground for extremist Islamist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir and al-Muhajiroun. Vice-chancellors need to start paying attention
British Islam bounces back
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Britain is in the grip of rampant Islamophobia. But their response to the recent alleged terror plot shows that British Muslims are getting stronger and wiser
The Cuba connection
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Why was America so obsessed by Fidel's recent health scare? Look to the "battleground" state of Florida for an answer
Betjemania!
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
On the centenary of John Betjeman's birth, Michael Horovitz rounds up the recent collections and biographies
Nuclear demonstration
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
By scrapping Trident, Britain could make a real difference to global non-proliferation efforts
Hidden solidarities
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
The death of solidarity in Britain has been greatly exaggerated. Most of us live in solid, long-standing "micro-social" communities
James Lasdun
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
An interview with the winner of the inaugural National Short Story prize
Threat to the net
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
"Network neutrality" is good, but enshrining it in law is not
Labour's good book
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
"The Future of Socialism" was the last important book written by a Labour politician
Scramble for China
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Africa is desperate for Chinese investment, but only South Africa will get much
Bipartisan disaster
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Americans' growing unease at US foreign policy is not reflected by the two parties
Pakistani puzzles
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Pakistan is full of conspiracy theories about the recent terror plot in Britain
Musical notes
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Why can't the world's greatest classical music festival manage to arrange a visit from the world's most exciting orchestra? Plus Abbado's vintage Mozart
Private view
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Between the work of Holbein and Ron Mueck, many different styles have been used to define the "real" in art. Now we seem to want a reality that dwarfs us
Widescreen
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Sean Connery has carried the torch for masculinity in cinema like no one since Gary Cooper or Henry Fonda. He is the man without neurosis
History and human nature
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Niall Ferguson's "punk Gibbon" account of the horrors of the 20th century is enjoyable—until his semi-educated foray into evolutionary psychology
A masterful failure
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
John Updike has tried and largely failed to convey the interior life of an Arab-American terrorist. Still, it is always a pleasure to watch a master at work
Accidental revolutionary
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Christopher Hitchens has come round to Tom Paine's view that things would have been far better if the French revolution had been more like the American
The dog
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Born into the life of a stray, Pestrushka finds herself being trained for spaceflight
Notes from underground
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Misusing language is practically company policy on the tube. Staff may know what "severe delays" means, but there's no way they're telling the public
Lab report
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Britain may stand shoulder to shoulder with the US on geopolitics, but not on stem-cell research, where Blair is exploiting the US's self-imposed weakness
Brussels diary
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Peter Mandelson stands up for the free market on mobile phone roaming fees; Jacques Chirac praises Vladimir Putin. Plus David Miliband's sex appeal
Washington watch
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
What does the defeat of Joe Lieberman mean for the November elections? And are the Republicans really playing the race card again?
Matters of taste
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
The public's appetite for organic produce has created a huge incentive for fraud. It's time to regulate the industry properly. Plus the pre-poached egg
Inefficient markets
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Disappointment at Doha, but it wasn't all America's fault. Is BP having too much bad luck? And Wolfowitz demands that the World Bank stops corruption
France profonde
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
Founded by Jean-Paul Sartre, the left-wing newspaper Libération was once the smart radical's essential reading. But its values no longer reflect modern France
Common law
24th September 2006 — Issue 126
I don't believe my client is guilty of drug dealing, and the manner of her arrest is suspicious. Has she been set up by the police? And can I prove it in court?