Issue 37
January 1999
Contents
Opening up elite education
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
The advantages of a private education in Britain are increasing. But there is a way of opening the top careers and elite universities to all. It requires the best private schools to select according to ability, not income
A blue Christmas
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
In the mid-1980s, fear about Aids swept through Britain's prisons. Prospect's prisoner, who was then in Wandsworth, chronicles the uninhibited sexual encounters of men inside
Monica's year
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
In 1997, "Diana's year" illustrated a dominant theme of our age: that the right has won politically, but the left has won culturally. In 1998, "Monica's year" illustrates a related theme: the political problem of our age is the brutality of the right, and the dishonesty of the left
Clashing centres
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Recent clashes over European tax harmonisation have underlined the significant differences between Tony Blair's New Labour and Gerhard Schröder's New Centre in Germany. The gulf in political culture is also evident in recent books by advisers to the respective leaders - Philip Gould and Bodo Hombach
Return of sociology
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Sociology is entering a new golden age-but without much help from academic sociologists. Over the past two decades the trendy sociologist stopped being a cliché and became an oxymoron. Now the discipline is making a comeback in think-tanks and consultancies
Taming the dollar
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
The euro was born out of America's abuse of the dollar's supremacy in the global financial system. The single currency will challenge that supremacy, but will still benefit America. And until the euro acquires a political voice, Europe will continue to play a support role to the US in world affairs
Bemused Britain
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
At the end of 1998, Britain is conducting a confused national meditation on memory and forgiveness
Up with Gerry
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
I am an Ulster protestant, but I now believe that Gerry Adams is a hero of the peace process
Down with Charles
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Prince Charles may be winning his charm offensive in Britain, but on his trips abroad he can be a liability to his country
A pornographic culture
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Our culture has become tediously obsessed with sex. Instead of liberating us, the obsession with sex is enslaving us
Intellectuals in politics
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Democracy needs critical intellectuals. But can they be both office-holders and mirror-holders at the same time?
Good news from Russia
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Russians are not all mafiosi and die-hard communists. One visitor to the country is pleasantly surprised
Ulster's ghosts
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
How should the Northern Irish peace process deal with the past? Reform of the RUC is even more urgent in the light of a book published in the US
Films and morals
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Should we censor apparently amoral films such as Pulp Fiction? Or are they challenging us to repudiate their twisted morality?
Phallus in Wonderland
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Richard Jenkyns pokes fun at a Freudian analysis of children's literature
Brittan and Europe
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
The former Chancellor, falls out with his old friend Samuel Brittan over Europe, but still finds much to applaud in his latest collection
A musical Peake
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Duncan Fallowell describes how he came to write a libretto for a rock opera of Gormenghast by the German band Can
How to be an expat
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
I thought you were only going for one year, says your mother
Brussels diary
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
The real target of the majority voting row is not the Brits, but the Spaniards
Modern times
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
If you see a famous person on a train, you should approach them only in the buffet queue
Previous convictions
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
The former Tory MP on why he would rather join Merrill Lynch than the Conservative party
Babel
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Babel: Awards dinners are multiplying. Why do so many people attend them, even while grumbling about them?
The Busine$$
20th January 1999 — Issue 37
Trouble at Barclays and Marks & Spencer boils down to failures in corporate governance-again