Issue 157
April 2009
Contents
They run your school, your mum and dad
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The Tories are winning admirers with plans for new Swedish-style schools, with parents in the driving seat. But will they work here? And is it wise to let parents set up and run Britain's schools?
After capitalism
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The era of transition that we are entering will be disruptive—but it may bring a world where markets are servants, not masters
Comment (3)No, he can’t
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The wheels are already coming off Obama's Trojan horse revolution. Will he, like Jimmy Carter, be seen as a one-term disaster?
Goodbye, homo economicus
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The economics profession must bear a lot of the blame for the current crisis. If it is to become useful again it must undergo an intellectual revolution—becoming both broader and more modest
Europe’s last dictatorship
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Since 1994, when Belarus first elected Alexander Lukashenko as president, the country has stagnated as a Russian client state. But the global financial crisis may finally force change on the regime
Travels with the mango king
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
In search of my father and my Pakistani roots I went on a journey to rural Sindh, befriending a mysterious landlord who drank heavily and brandished an AK-47
Kureishi on the Rushdie affair
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Kenan Malik talks to Hanif Kureishi about the Rushdie fatwa and why no one would write such a book today
British Islam after Rushdie
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
As I found out in a journey across Britain, the central conflict in Muslim communities is not between secular and Islamic values, but between the generations of the Muslim families who live here
Citizenship First?
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Frank Field and James Crabtree's call for compulsory civic service for all young people has provoked some heated debate. Here is a selection of the responses
The economics of the madhouse
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
We live in difficult times, but protectionism is not the answer
The return of Netanyahu
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Benjamin Netanyahu has diffused the right-wing element of his government by teaming up with Labor. But hopes for a two-state solution lie elsewhere
Armando Iannucci in profile
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
As his first feature film appears, just how seriously should we be taking Britain's pre-eminent satirist?
Lula's big moment
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The summit of the Americas may not attract much attention as the G20. But it's a key opportunity for Obama to push a new direction in US foreign policy, and for Lula to elbow out Chavez
All together now?
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The London G20 summit was hailed as a success, but much more will be needed if we are to make the world a more stable and fair place
All together now
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The G20 meeting will fail if solvent countries don't boost the world economy and fix the IMF
Rebels without a cause
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Liberal over-reaction makes it harder to have a rational debate about the database state
Nasty, brutish and long
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Northern Ireland apart, many new civil wars drag on because we don't let anyone win
Licence to kill
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The excitement of jihad attracts bored youths. Governments need to make al Qaeda look dull
A play on paedophilia
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Writing a play about child abuse isn't easy. But it helped when the home office asked me to stop
Left said Fred
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Marx is enjoying a revival. But it's his sidekick who would have seen the crunch coming
More coups, please
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Poor nations will remain trapped until their bad leaders shape up. Letting a few topple would help
It’s good to share
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
A new plan to give away trade secrets could improve big pharma's awful reputation
A magic age?
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
We've got rules for ads targeting kids. But what if "supraliminal" marketing gets to them first?
Clickstream journalism
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The internet is transforming media. But just how much will it warp editorial values?
No laughing matter
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
As a third world doctor, I thought I'd seen it all. Until I signed up for a British medical survey
Beckett begins again
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Is the work of Ireland's greatest dramatist being ossified by reverence? Colin Murphy watches three productions on tour and asks Beckett's first British publisher what the future holds
Can evolution explain aesthetics?
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
A new book argues that our appreciation of art is innate and universal. It's clever, controversial stuff, but it may also be a dangerous development for the humanities
The writer who wasn’t there
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Graham Swift is one of Britain's most successful living literary authors. Yet in a new collection of non-fiction the man himself is almost invisible
A beautiful shame
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
In 1989, British football hit rock bottom. Twenty years later, Jason Cowley has woven a fresh, moving memoir around its nadir and subsequent transformation
The French disease
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
It has taken an American to crystallise what France doesn't want to admit: that French culture is no longer an international force to be reckoned with
Picking Jane’s brains
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
What do regency romances and horror movies have in common? More then you might think, judging by the latest bizarre development in the cult of Austen
Widescreen
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
From a distance, Hong Kong cinema can seem thin. But up close there's a depth to it and a dizzying, kaleidoscopic aesthetic
Smallscreen
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The BBC's Iran and the West, by acclaimed producer Norma Percy, is a timely reminder of why we pay the licence fee
Performance notes
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Bernard Haitink is wrongly pigeonholed as an Austro-German specialist. There's much more to this great conductor than that
Cultural notebook
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Looking to hone your appreciation of culture's cutting edge? Try Street Fighter 4: a sublime mix of art, skill and utter silliness
Lab report
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Does religious belief activate different parts of the brain to other types of thought? Plus Nasa's new space telescope has a mission
Brussels diary
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Will Barroso fall victim to the global economic crisis? And Silvio Berlusconi accidentally talks sense, but soon recovers
China café
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
I lived in Shanghai for seven years and I was last in the city six months ago—yet downtown is already completely unrecognisable
Crisis watch
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Just because many banks have been around forever doesn't give them the right to exist. Let's ditch them, and get new banks instead
Sporting life
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Platini has plans for European football—and they include Britain, whether we like it or not. Plus The Damned United tells it like it is
Washington Watch
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Congress shows Obama who's boss. How bad is the US economy? So bad that Summers and Geithner are skipping tennis camp this year
Political notes
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
David Cameron's new green paper talks of a radical Tory localism. But he will find the centralising habit hard to break
The life & opinions of Julian Gough
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
Opinion columns about Jade or whatever are the dominant media form. In fact, opinions are now the dominant form of life on Earth
Letter from Riga
26th April 2009 — Issue 157
The financial crisis has hit Latvia hard. But its medical care remains excellent—it's just a shame there are so few Latvians to benefit