Issue 138
September 2007
Contents
Constitutional fiddling
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Many of Gordon Brown's constitutional reform plans are sensible and overdue. But it is hard to see how the package will solve the problem of mass disengagement from politics. Moreover, the thorniest constitutional problems are just ignored
Impartiality imperilled
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
A bulwark of our public discourse is threatened by cultural, economic and technological change. If we want to save it, we may have to reshape the system of public service broadcasting that currently enshrines it
India's middle class failure
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
India's 200m-strong middle class is the most economically dynamic group on the planet, but is largely uninterested in politics or social reform. Until it begins to engage politically, India will suffer from a lop-sided modernisation
Comment (4)Leaving Baghdad
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
The al-Hayalis were set to join the hundreds of thousands of middle-class families who have fled Iraq since the invasion. Just before their departure, calamity struck
Rudy Giuliani
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
If, against the odds, the Republicans hold on to the White House next year, the likely victor will be Rudy Giuliani or Fred Thompson. The famously abrasive Giuliani is hoping his 9/11 credentials will steer him to the presidency; but Thompson is nipping at his heels
Jacqueline McGlade
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
The head of the European Environment Agency explains why northern Europe should brace itself for more flooding, what role technology can play in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and why she wants to replace income tax with "pollution taxes"
The shock of human truth
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Ken Arnold, lead curator at Wellcome Collection, talks to Prospect's Tom Chatfield about museums, the joys of interdisciplinary space and why his galleries reserve the right to shock
Playing to the gallery
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
From art to live music, ease of reproduction has hugely increased the premium of the "real." What does this mean for museums? In a world overloaded with information, their dual roles as sources of culture and popular pleasure are increasingly in tension
In sickness and in hope
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
We have always told tales about suffering and healing, yet our ideas of "medical narrative"—the kind of stories we tell about illness and treatment, and the stories our society constructs around medicine—are young and evolving. Here, Michael Blastland, Francesca Happé and Neil Vickers discuss the roles of narrative in illness, care and autism.
Fred Thompson
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Former senator and actor Fred Thompson has vaulted into the top tier of presidential contenders without any executive experience
Objects from Wellcome Collection
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Reflecting the diversity of Wellcome Collection, Prospect asked a selection of experts to respond to individual objects they thought astonishing, intriguing or important within its two permanent galleries, Medicine Now and Medicine Man
Eroticising Edinburgh
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Edinburgh has hardly been neglected by writers and filmmakers. But a new film is the first to put sex into the city
Blue-skies thinking
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Our air is cleaner than at any time since the industrial revolution. But there are new challenges ahead
The Malaysian model
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
At a conference in Kuala Lumpur on Muslim economics, I was given a vision of a burgeoning "Islamic Calvinism"
My kind of politics
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Political drama in Britain usually portrays politicians as ridiculous or egotistical. My new radio series takes a different view
Beyond beach-lit
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Tessa Hadley's new novel finally sees her make the leap from popular to serious fiction. Someone should tell her American publisher
The long goodbye?
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
The SNP has performed unexpectedly well in office, it makes an independent Scotland more likely
Sarkozy's 100 days
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
France's new president has been as hyperactive in office as he was on the campaign trail. But real reform has yet to come
Winning over the Kurds
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
In the remote Turkish district of Varto, I watched as the ruling AK party attempted to expand its appeal to local Kurds
Is Britain broken?
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Marriage and cohabitation are far more complex issues than Iain Duncan Smith's report suggests
Beyond good and evil
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
For 60 years, Nicholas Mosley has written novels that are widely admired but not always understood. Rejecting realism, his work addresses symbolic truths—notably the idea that good and evil are inseparable. It's an approach that has put him at odds with the literary establishment
Drama without theatre
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Plays set in locations other than theatres—whether galleries or drill halls—have flourished in recent years. But do such works really succeed in breaking down the barrier between actors and audience?
The fall of the wild
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Nature writing is enjoying a resurgence, but the danger of mapping any wilderness is that it immediately becomes tame and dumb. Besides, are there actually any untouched places left?
Recycling Nixon
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Conrad Black's weighty new biography of Richard Nixon portrays him as a "mighty and mythic" figure who made a "dignified exit" after being unfairly hounded from office—a code it's little trouble to break
Widescreen
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Bergman gazed at humanity and found an irreducible core; Antonioni discovered only a dissolution of self. To my mind, Antonioni's vision was truer
Performance notes
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Too many country house opera festivals give out the message: "Bugger off, proles." For something more inclusive, try Sweden—or Holland Park
Smallscreen
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
It is hysterical to talk of a crisis in television documentaries. If there is a problem, it is with the way programmes are marketed, not how they are made
Infested
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
She knew it would take something special to win Best Pest. When she saw the dog, she knew she'd found it
The prisoner
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
I am on a ward full of violent criminals, including three murderers. Yet I feel love for these men, and will recall my days here as having been full of bitter sweetness
Washington watch
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
Goodbye Karl Rove—the Democrats thank you for their high standing in the polls. Alan Greenspan gets the blame for the financial crisis. Plus, the candidates' pets
Rivers of Babylon
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
The western media treated the Iraqi Asian Cup football victory as a superficial moment of euphoria in a country on its way to break-up. But it may be more than that
Lab report
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
What could we have done to protect against the recent floods in Britain? Were the rains here and the extreme weather in Asia caused by global warming?
Inefficient markets
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
The wobble in global markets illustrates the dilemma of regulation: do nothing and you face disaster; bail out speculators and you encourage more recklessness
Confessions
30th September 2007 — Issue 138
It's probably fun to get high in Holland if you can then go and look at the Van Goghs. But a stoned trip to the swimming pool with my son definitely wasn't a good idea