Issue 82
January 2003
Contents
University challenge
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Universities are struggling to cope with the expansion of higher education. Should students pay more for the benefits? Can you have excellence in a mass system? Does Britain really need world-class universities?
Bill Hamilton
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
He was the greatest biologist of the 20th century yet, to the dismay of his many friends and admirers, he believed that only a radical programme of infanticide and eugenics could save the human race
Love thy clone
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
I hate my father, I'm ambivalent about my son and I dislike myself. But I want to be cloned as soon as possible. It is the only consolation that science has to offer me against death
Why Italy matters
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Berlusconi is no longer merely a threat to Italian democracy, but a warning to the rest of Europe
Liberal Islam?
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Islam's reformers of the 19th century failed to reconcile their faith with modernity. Is there any more hope today for the emergence of political liberalism in Islamic states?
Free trade fallacy
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Rich countries didn't follow free trade rules when they were developing. They now insist: do as we say, not as we did
What the world's poor watch on TV
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Is television an outpost of cultural imperialism? More than two billion people in poor countries now have access to a set. But, rather than envying the west, they are increasingly tuning in to local programmes
Lula's Latin America
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
If Lula delivers reform alongside financial stability, Brazil could become the social democratic model for Latin America
Liberation theology
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Disestablishment of the Church of England is a no-lose policy: It is radical, it is right and virtually no one opposes it
Slow motion land
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Germany is a much less federal country than most people think. Its "consensual centralism" makes reform very hard to achieve
Ratify or quit
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
The EU's constitutional convention must take a tough line on small countries that fail to ratify treaty changes
Being Brendel
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
The great pianist's life seems to have passed him by without emotional impact. But he turns out not to be the "intellectual" pianist that people imagine.
Death in Sydenham
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Cicely Saunders, founder of the hospice movement, has dedicated her life to preparing people for death. Kate Kellaway has a chat with her about the best way to go
Where the trail goes cold
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Travel literature has had three great periods, the last being the 1980s. Now it is finished. Edward Marriott examines his own part in the downfall of the romantic wanderer
On the playing fields of India
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
As England's cricketers are thrashed in Australia perhaps some reverse colonisation by Indian cricket is in order. The origins of cricket in the subcontinent
What a pity
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Anna is dumbstruck by a Soviet newspaper report which eulogises the achievements of her father
Matters of taste
20th January 2003 — Issue 82
Screwtops may be better but we still prefer to pop a cork