September 2018

September 2018 issue

Donald MacIntyre reports from the West Bank on how the two-state solution is dying, while Avraham Burg proposes a bold one-state solution. Plus: a new Life section and remembering VS Naipaul

Past issues

Essays

The dark side of early diagnosis

Michael Blastland

Illustration by Tim Mcdonagh

Can Ruth Davidson save the Tories?

Is is right to call Trump a fascist?

Lavin, Stuttaford

The bank that nearly broke Europe

It's handed out to commuters every day—but how did Metro become so successful? Photo: Prospect composite

How Metro became the most read paper in Britain

Illustrations by Ben Jennings

Elizabethan Brexit: today's crisis bears an uncanny resemblance to that which faced Elizabeth I

Matthew Dimmock

"Everything is now pushing against a two-state solution and the compromises from Israel that it would require". Photo: Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The one state solution

Palestinians run away from tear gas fired by Israeli forces to disperse them. Photo: Getty

A Palestinian voice on the "one-state solution"

A member of the Palestinian security forces stands guard during a visit by Palestinian prime minister in the village of Susya, south-east of Hebron. Photo: Getty

Why hope of a two state solution is dying

Donald Macintyre

The Centre for European Reform with the Think Tank of the Year Award (and winner’s tank top)

Think Tank Awards: results 2018

Regulars

Lord Byron by Henry Pierce Bone. When Byron

The way we were: arriving at university

Yes, but have you read Piketty' "Capital"?

Frances O'Grady: "The root of almost all of our problems is inequality"

Inter-generational inequality in data. Photo: PA

In data: The (wage) gap of ages

Click to enlarge

Stephen Collins's cartoon: witch hunt

Stephen Collins

The Prospect Puzzle: September 2018

The Prospect Crossword: September 2018

A picture taken on August 9, 2018 shows a smoke billowing during an Israeli air strike on Gaza City. Photo: PA

The Prospect editorial: When the facts change

Hannah Berry's cartoon: reconnecting with nature

The future of transport

Opinions

Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats, a hard-right party with neo-Nazi roots. Photo: Stefan Sollfors / Alamy

Could Sweden fall to the far right?

Terminal decline: it's time for Britain to get more air capacity

Chris Grayling: Let's capitalise on the tech revolution

Pension freedom pitfalls

David Hume by Allan Ramsay, 1766. At some point there

Should we abolish property rights?

A second referendum is beginning to look like Britain’s only way out of the maze. Photo: Rex/shutterstock

Dominic Grieve: It's time for MPs to put country before party

Mosley started the New Party in 1930

A new party sounds attractive—but the oddballs who start them spell trouble

The Angel of the North: are efforts to regenerate the region at risk of being defined by its detractors?

A Mayor asks: What has the northern powerhouse ever done for us?

I'd rather be in Yorkshire

Caroline Flint: come to where the rich life is

The Northern Powerhouse was George Osborne's pet project. Photo: DIRK WAEM/Belga/PA Images

The Northern Powerhouse problem

“Climate change isn’t gender-neutral”: Mary Robinson and Maeve Higgins on their positive, feminist vision for climate justice

Stephanie Boland

Arts & Books

Kirsty Wark hosts Women and Power

Country music and how to fail successfully—best podcasts of September 2018

Charlotte Runcie

Poles apart: Franz Schubert and Mary J Blige Photo © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo, Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Essence

What the Classical devotees get wrong about modern music

A camp take on Vanity Fair and Angela Carter's strange brilliance—television highlights of September 2018

AM Homes in 2007 © David Shankbone

AM Homes's horror of a higher sort

Brady Jandreau in The Rider

The troubles of a rodeo rider and the life of a pop star provocateur—the best films of September 2018

Rest for the wicked: why new talent Ottessa Moshfegh refuses to simplify desire

Rest for the wicked: why new talent Ottessa Moshfegh refuses to simplify desire

Jade Anouka as Queen Margaret © Lee Baxter

Pinter shorts and Shakespeare's bitter hag—the best theatre in September 2018

Michael Coveney

The Paris Opera House opened in 1875

The men who destroyed Paris—and then rebuilt it

Zoe Apostolides

Ian Hislop at the British Museum

Ian Hislop objects and the art of Spanish violence—the best exhibitions in September 2018

Emma Crichton-Miller

The British burning down the White House in 1814 Source: Wikipedia

Just how special is the Special Relationship?

Leonidas Kavakos violin Yo-Yo Ma cello Emanuel Ax piano

Wagner's feuding gods and a star trio play Brahms—classical and opera highlights, September 2018

Alexandra Coghlan

David Lynch with his school teacher. Image from Room to Dream

Sculptor of nightmares: David Lynch's memoir offers a glimpse behind the curtain

Aristotle comtemplating a bust of Homer by Rembrandt

How Aristotle can change your life

Welfare claimants too often get lost in a complex system © Gareth Fuller/PA Wire/PA Images

How to fix the welfare state

Nicholas Timmins

Pro-EU 'People's Vote' march held in London © David Cliff/SOPA

Want to kickstart Britain? Stopping Brexit isn't enough

De Gaulle in uniform. Photo © Lebrecht Music & Arts / Alamy Stock Photo

The last warrior: behind the self-made myth of Charles de Gaulle

Naipaul in 1982. Photo: Stefan Lindblom/TT/TT News Agency/Press Association Images

For all his flaws, VS Naipaul was a pioneering genius

Society and Culture

Parenting experts speak of "robot-proofing" children. Illustration: Kate Hazell

My daughter is a child of the future—conceived by artificial insemination with the help of an app

Hephzibah Anderson

Is Boris Johnson a "patrician cynically whipping up the mob to gratify his own ambition"? Illustration: Kate Hazell

From Catiline to Boris—the Roman lessons for Brexit Britain

Charlotte Higgins

"My eyes went dark, I could hear blood in my ears." Photo: Australian Paralympic Committee

What's the point of getting worse at something? Why we all—eventually—quit playing sport

Benjamin Markovits

Lighting a fire is really, really, really hard

The simple, yet exasperating, art of lighting a fire

Twitter is bad for your mental health. Illustration: Kate Hazell

Want to have faith in humanity? Delete the news apps from your phone

Cathy Rentzenbrink

I'd rather be in Yorkshire

Caroline Flint: come to where the rich life is