Issue 81
December 2002
Contents
Is there a pensions crisis?
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
Longer retirements, falling markets and closing company schemes means that private savings will have to fill the gap. Is means testing a problem?
Harold Bloom
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
His work is portentous, his ideas useless. Bloom's reputation needs puncturing if literary criticism is again to be taken seriously
All things must pass
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
George Harrison's death, one year ago, triggered memories of a rollercoaster ride of childhood infatuation and adolescent denial. I have finally made peace with the Beatles fan within
Operation Anaconda
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
The failures of the only pitched battle the US army fought against al Qaeda in Afghanistan provide grounds for anxiety about a future conflict in the streets of Baghdad
Silence of the critics
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
In the 1960s, literary theory boasted the death of the author. But it was the critic who really died. Who killed him?
Grand strategy
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
With weapons of mass destruction in private hands, will American power and European co-operation give way to a global police state?
The next Pope
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
Popular in the developing world, John Paul II is a liability for Catholicism in the west. Will the new Pope be liberal or conservative, Italian or, even, black?
Tired of London
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
London is the sickness. Is the cure to get government out and create a new capital?
Imperial values
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
The proposal to create a super-university in London would only benefit Imperial College; what UCL needs is a proper provost
Is Europe big enough?
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
Turkey's Muslim party is now more democratic than its secularists
A Kazakh drama
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
On the oil-rich steppes of Kazakhstan the return of Stalinist show trials is destroying central Asia's most promising country
Rein in Greg Dyke
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
Dyke's BBC has rarely been so powerful, but friend and foe alike say it has lost its public service purpose. The governors must act
North to Elizabetha
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
The original 1962 article, published in The Economist, making the case for a new capital
An army of one
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
In the war on terrorism, alliances are not an obstacle to victory - they're the key to it. So says the American who ran the Kosovo war
Move the capital?
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
Responses from Norman Macrae, Trevor Phillips and others
Widescreen
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
British digital film gets its first number one box office hit
Rainbow technology
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
Colour is a language not just of the senses, but of the various substances - animal and mineral, cheap and priceless - which have produced them
Sensationally smug
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
Jeffrey Archer persuaded prisoners to open their hearts to him and then wrote prurient nonsense that will not advance the cause of reform, says the Prospect prisoner
Making Daniel Deronda work
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
The television adaptation of Daniel Deronda shows that some of the best costume drama is based on flawed works that few people have heard of
Post-conceptual Britain
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
The Turner Prize is for conceptual art without concepts. It reflects a distinctly British art form - accessible, slight and full of cheerful hedonism
Previous convictions
20th December 2002 — Issue 81
I used to like people. Now there are too many of them