NEW HUMANIST VOLUME 123 No 2 Tel 0207 436 1151 Fax 0207 079 3588 Email info@newhumanist.org.uk Editorial Offices 1 Gower Street, London WC1E 6HD

Editor Caspar Melville Commissioning Editor Laurie Taylor Associate Editor Sally Feldman Editorial Assistant Paul Sims Designer Nick McKay Cover Martin Rowson Business Manager Judith Walker Subscriptions Jillian Gibbins Subscriptions enquiries jillian.gibbins@newhumanist.org.uk Tel 0207 436 1171 Advertising info@newhumanist.org.uk Website www.newhumanist.org.uk ISSN 0306-512X

Published by the Rationalist Association RA President Jonathan Miller Vice presidents Baroness Susan Greenfield, Paul Kurtz, Laurie Taylor Honorary associates David Aaronovitch, Peter Atkins, Lord Birt, Harold Blackham, Colin Blakemore, Alan Brownjohn, Colin Campbell, Philip Campbell, Noam Chomsky, Bernard Crick, Helena Cronin, Richard Dawkins, Sanal Edamaruku, Paul Edwards, Ekow Eshun, Winston Fletcher, Michael Foot, AC Grayling, Stuart Hall, Tony Harrison, Simon Heffer, Christopher Hitchens, Eric Hobsbawm, Richard Hoggart, Ted Honderich, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sir Ludovic Kennedy, Richard Leakey, Sir Michael Levey, Sir John Maddox, Haydn Mason, Edwin Mullins, Conor Cruise O’Brien, John Postgate, Claire Rayner, Amartya Sen, David Starkey, Ralph Steadman, DJ Stewart, Ian Stewart, Claire Tomalin, David Tribe, Baroness Turner of Camden, Arnold Wesker, Francis Wheen, Lewis Wolpert

4 New Humanist

16

32

42

RegulaRs 3] Editorial Toxic mix 6] Parish news 8 ] Yours sceptically Readers’ letters 49] Howzat? Chris Maslanka’s quiz 50] Endgame Laurie Taylor can’t hear it through the grapevine

featuRes 10] Russian roulette Putin’s grip on power is great for the Orthodox Church, says Michael Binyon 12] True confessions What can we learn from extremist memoirs? asks Stephen Howe

16] Rush hour of the gods India’s middle classes are becoming increasingly pious, says Meera Nanda 21] Tea and empathy Martin Rowson on how the imagination helps us make the world in our own image 24] Interview: Craft works Richard Sennett tells Laurie Taylor why he believes in a job well done 28] Forced to be free The French ban on headscarves is no victory for secularism, says Joan W Scott 32] A Tsar is born Sally Feldman celebrates Catherine the Great 36] Spongers Why shouldn’t people have to work for their council houses? asks Julian Baggini

10