Issue 127
October 2006
Contents
Myths of British ancestry
Everything you know about British and Irish ancestry is wrong. Our ancestors were Basques, not Celts. The Celts were not wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons, in fact neither had much impact on the genetic stock of these islands
Comment (191)Thatcherism's final triumph
21st October 2006 — Issue 127The complaint from the left against Blair is that he missed the chance to push Britain further leftwards. His failure to build a new consensus, plus the collapse in trust over Iraq, means the chance has now gone
The Brown revolution
21st October 2006 — Issue 127It is July 1994. Gordon Brown has just been elected leader of the Labour party. Tony Blair becomes shadow foreign secretary, with a mission to reform Britain's relationship with Europe. What happens next?
Lies, spin and deceit
Tony Blair is charged with lying and deceiving the public with "spin." But spin is just the reaction of politics to a more aggressive media. And on Iraq, it is Blair's judgement, not his integrity, that is at stake
New Labour odyssey
From the back streets of Birmingham via Oxford to election as an MP in 2001, I have been at the heart of New Labour. It was never a middle-class coup—it grew from the core of Labour's traditions
The next middle class
21st October 2006 — Issue 127I spent a year observing pupils at an Ilford comprehensive and met the new generation of upwardly mobile Britons. Family values, hard work and religion are all back—but not politics
Lula’s second breath
In 1980 I travelled to São Paulo to meet Lula, a firebrand trade unionist. Twenty-six years later, a wealthier and more democratic Brazil is preparing to re-elect him to a second presidential term
What happens next?
The government has run out of steam. Where should the party go from here?
Labour's real leadership problem
Tony Blair is not the cause of the Labour party's fundamental problems. Their roots go back to constitutional changes made in 1981
Prospect Think Tank of the Year Awards 2006
On 20th September Prospect held its annual Think Tank of the Year Awards at the Savile club in Mayfair
Playwrights of the north
Will the recently established National Theatre of Scotland give rise to a new golden age of Scottish contemporary drama?
Crowding out
Danny Kruger's "fraternity" is little more than a PR exercise. Here's a real Big Idea for David Cameron to get his teeth into
The decline of Kofi
Kofi Annan's ten years as United Nations secretary-general have left the organisation in worse shape, politically and adminstratively, than it has ever been
Reich at 70
America's greatest living composer helped dig classical music out of its mire of discordance, and reunited serious and popular traditions. Happy birthday Mr Reich
After the bomb
What does North Korea's nuclear test mean for the country's neighbours?
Baby bomber
21st October 2006 — Issue 127How a one-liner on mumsnet triggered a national controversy
Summer of discontent
21st October 2006 — Issue 127A year ago, Israelis felt in control of their destiny. Now the future looks bleak
An Afghan opium deal
21st October 2006 — Issue 127While we destroy Afghan poppies, the world is short of opiates. The solution is clear
Growth is good
21st October 2006 — Issue 127Don't believe everything you read—getting richer does actually make you happier
The penny drops
21st October 2006 — Issue 127Blair ran rings around us, but we have finally learnt to deal with New Labour
Musical notes
Can there really be people out there who will be turned on to classical music by inane interval chatter and mindless interviews? The BBC should know better
Between the lines
He didn't make the Booker longlist because he disdains literary prizes, but John le Carré remains one of the most under-rated of postwar British writers
Widescreen
Penélope Cruz has appeared in 14 American films without being memorable. Yet Almodóvar takes her back to Spain, gives her curves—and she is immortal
Dawkins the dogmatist
21st October 2006 — Issue 127Incurious and rambling, Richard Dawkins's diatribe against religion doesn't come close to explaining how faith has survived the assault of Darwinism
Tales of old cities
21st October 2006 — Issue 127What does "psychogeography" mean? In the hands of Paul Auster and Iain Sinclair it is little more than a return to old routines
The art of Simenon
21st October 2006 — Issue 127Georges Simenon's 76 Maigret novels are studies in the art of watching the world go by—and a homage to carefully nurtured intuition
Dangerous ideals
21st October 2006 — Issue 127Andrew O'Hagan's fictional account of a wayward and dysfunctional priest is most striking for its discussion of the importance, and trap, of idealism
Private view
Prophecies that the art market bubble would burst have proved empty. Yet some of us keep making them. How long can an idea of the "contemporary" last?
The conversation
21st October 2006 — Issue 127A child soldier leads Father Angelo to speak with the devil in the African bush
Notes from underground
Why is the Northern line worse than the others? No one seems to be quite sure, but it does mean plenty of "crowd control" practice for us tube workers
Lab report
The alleged transatlantic bombers were planning to mix liquids in aeroplane toilets to form instant explosives. Is the chemistry really that simple?
Brussels diary
Nicolas Sarkozy's plans to revive the EU constitution may not be to everyone's taste. Plus, why the French are dreading the prospect of Gordon Brown as PM
Out of mind
Schizophrenic states of mind seem to deny either access or empathy. What does it mean to know how someone else feels?
Washington watch
Gordon Brown's praise for Tony Blair's foreign policy in the Sun was about more than Labour's squabbles. It was an attempt to get the American right on side
Inefficient markets
Apple's threat to sue companies that use the word "Pod" in product names is reminiscent of the bully-boy tactics that made Microsoft so unpopular in the 1990s
France profonde
Although Blairism is withering away in Britain, it drives the presidential campaign in France, as I saw during Ségolène Royal's recent visit to a local village
