CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

is professor of politics at the University of Ulster
ARTHUR AUGHEY PHILIP BALL’s most recent book is The Devil’s Doctor (Heinemann) JOE BOYD is the author of White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s RODRIC BRAITHWAITE

contents
Issue one hundred and twenty-five August 2006

is the author of Moscow 1941 (Profile Books)

DEREK BROWER is a journalist. He covers Russia and energy politics

COVER STORY

was foreign minister of Mexico from 2000 to 2003
JORGE CASTAÑEDA TAMARA CHALABI

26
Lives of crime
DAVID ROSE

is the author of The Shi’is of Jabal ‘ mil and the New A Lebanon (Palgrave Macmillan)

MARK COUSINS is the author of The Story of Film (Pavilion Books) RICHARD DOWDEN

is the director of the Royal African Society is writing a book on metaphysics and the mind is the author of The Siege of Derry (Abacus)

STEPHEN EVERSON

CARLO GÉBLER

DAVID HERMAN is a contributing editor to Prospect JOHN HORGAN

Blair’s “tough on the causes of crime” and Cameron’s “hug a hoodie” speeches reflect a sociological model of crime. But new research suggests some people from troubled backgrounds are far more likely to offend than others.

is director of the Centre for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology, New Jersey

CHRIS HUHNE

MP is Liberal Democrat shadow environment secretary is a former MP

OPINIONS

DEBATE

ROBERT JACKSON TIM KING

10 A normal hatred?
TONY KLUG

is a writer living in France

20 Should Britain renew the Trident nuclear deterrent?
LEWIS PAGE
VS

TONY KLUG

is vice chair of the Arab-Jewish Forum

Most modern anti-Jewish feeling is a world away from “traditional” antisemitism.

RODRIC BRAITHWAITE

ADAM KUPER is author of The Reinvention of Primitive Society (Routledge) DAN KUPER works for London Underground PHILIPPE LEGRAIN is the author of Open World: The Truth about Globalisation BEN LEWIS

Britain’s Trident submarines will last until 2025. Should they be renewed or can we survive without them?

12 Numbers matter
BOB ROWTHORN

It is time for mainstream politics to debate the scale of British immigration.

ESSAY

32 A tale of two lefts
JORGE CASTAÑEDA

presents BBC4’s Art Safari is a writer and is a criminal barrister

13 Primitive errors
ADAM KUPER

KENAN MALIK

broadcaster
ALEX MCBRIDE LEWIS PAGE

The “primitive” is a figment of the western mind. Someone tell Chirac.

is a former naval officer is a Conservative MP

14 Genetic revisionism
PHILIP BALL

Andrés López Obrador’s failure to win the Mexican election masks a trend: Latin America’s left turn. But there are two lefts in the region: one reformist, with its roots in hardcore leftism; the other authoritarian, born of the Latin populist tradition.

MALCOLM RIFKIND DAVID ROSE

writes for Vanity Fair and The Observer

BOB ROWTHORN

is a professor of economics at Cambridge University is warden of New College, Oxford is professor of mathematics at Warwick University

The human genome is not a book, and this metaphor is now becoming an obstacle to understanding.

SYMPOSIUM

38 English questions
ARTHUR AUGHEY, ROBERT JACKSON, MALCOLM RIFKIND, CHRIS HUHNE

ALAN RYAN

15 Gazprom’s triumph
DEREK BROWER

IAN STEWART

Liberalised energy markets have brought Europe to the edge of a gas supply crisis.

World Cup flag-waving and the prospect of Gordon Brown as prime minister have revived the English question. Will it be politicised?

2 PROSPECT August 2006

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

WITNESS

50 Educating Akello
RICHARD DOWDEN

A small girl I encounter outside a Ugandan refugee camp somehow persuades me to pay her school fees. I soon find myself caught up in an ambiguous African story of doubt, mistrust and guilt.

arts&books
69 States, citizens and trust
ALAN RYAN

The authors of two new books on politics should learn to speak to our ideals as well as our needs.

COLUMNS

8 Common law
ALEX MCBRIDE

COLUMNS

My client is obviously guilty, but won’t answer questions. What do I do?

62 Widescreen
MARK COUSINS

Watch out for China.

16 Letter from Beirut
TAMARA CHALABI

71 Private view
BEN LEWIS

Most Lebanese still want Hizbullah to disarm, despite Israel’s attacks.

Kandinsky the figurative abstractionist.

18 Washington watch
TUMBLER

72 Smallscreen
DAVID HERMAN

Hillary Clinton’s mensis horribilis. FICTION

And it’s goodbye from me.

47 France profonde
TIM KING

56 Toothache
CARLO GÉBLER

77 Musical notes
STEPHEN EVERSON

The grandes écoles gradutes who turn against the system.

Sol can either go to the dentist, or play poker with an old friend from his past.

A very dreary Tosca. WEB EXCLUSIVES Philippe Legrain replies to Robert Wade
www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

48 Inefficient markets
PHILIPPE LEGRAIN

Misguided EU populism.

REVIEWS

64 Illusions of identity 55 Brussels diary
MANNEKEN PIS KENAN MALIK

Good news for British Europhiles.

80 Notes from underground
DAN KUPER

An interview with Amartya Sen, whose new book claims that the British approach to multiculturalism undermines individual freedom.

FORTHCOMING Paul Skidmore on politics and participation Robert Colls on Shearer’s paradox Ray Pahl replies to David Goodhart on nationalism Adair Turner considers Bjørn Lomborg’s plan to save the world
THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 24TH AUGUST

The ticket office is shut. Oh joy.

66 The madcap laughs no more
JOE BOYD

REGULARS

4 Letters 6 News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 11 Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 73 Classifieds 78 The generalist DIDYMUS 79 The list

Syd Barrett appealed to a romantic idea of doomed genius—but also went on to live an ordinary life.

67 Stringing us along
JOHN HORGAN

The tide seems to be turning against string theory and its attempts to produce a theory of everything.

PROSPECT August 2006 3