CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
FRAN ABRAMS

has written about education for 15 years

ROBERT ALTER’s

most recent book is The Five Books of Moses (Norton)

contents
Issue one hundred and seventeen December 2005

PAUL BARKER’s Arts in Society will soon be reissued by Five Leaves Publications IAN BLACK is a Guardian leader writer and former middle east correspondent ANDREW BROWN CARL M CANNON

writes for the Guardian

COVER STORY

covers the White House for the National Journal is a freelance writer

46
Better behaved
FRAN ABRAMS

TOM DE CASTELLA

and journalist is the author of The Story of Film (Pavilion Books)
MARK COUSINS EMMA CRICHTON-MILLER

is a writer and

journalist
RICHARD DOWDEN is the director of the Royal African Society STEPHEN EVERSON

is writing a book on metaphysics and the mind books include Environmentalism: A Global History is a television producer

RAMACHANDRA GUHA’s

Reports of rising violence and bad behaviour in British schools are routine in the media. But when I spent a year observing an outer London comprehensive, I found a surprisingly ordered environment and wellbehaved children.

DAVID HERMAN

DAVID JENKINS is a former chief technology adviser to the BP group OLIVER KAMM

OPINIONS

DEBATE

is a Times columnist

10 A French Brixton
TIM KING

is general secretary of the Fabian Society
SUNDER KATWALA TIM KING

22 When will the oil run out? And what happens then?
JEREMY LEGGETT
VS

is a writer living in France

The riots call into question the republican approach to minorities.

DAVID JENKINS

DAN KUPER

works for London Underground is CEO of

12 Cameron’s challenge
SUNDER KATWALA

If there are 3 trillion barrels left, we should have the time to find alternatives to oil. If there are only 1 trillion, then we are in trouble.

JEREMY LEGGETT

Solarcentury
BEN LEWIS

David Cameron cannot emulate Tony Blair, but he will change New Labour. ESSAYS

presents BBC4’s Art Safari is a Labour peer

14 Valuing the Tate
EMMA CRICHTON-MILLER

26 Too much choice
DAVID LIPSEY

DAVID LIPSEY SIMON LONG

is south Asia correspondent for the Economist

Should the Tate have bought an Ofili?

OLIVER MORTON

is the author of Mapping Mars (4th Estate)

15 Hands off our subs
LEWIS PAGE

Most of Labour’s public service reforms make sense. But the focus on individual choice is based on a false analogy with the private sector.

There is no alternative to Trident.

first book Send in the Idiots (Bloomsbury) is forthcoming
KAMRAN NAZEER’s

30 An Indian fall 16 In praise of hedges
OLIVER KAMM RAMACHANDRA GUHA

is director of the Centre for Defence Studies, KCL
PETER R NEUMANN LEWIS PAGE ALI SMITH

Financial markets need hedge funds.

is a former naval officer

is a novelist and writer

18 Tough on trade
JACK THURSTON

In the mid-1950s, Jawaharlal Nehru’s reputation was unassailable. But it later began to tumble. Could he be making a comeback?

IAN STEWART

is professor of mathematics at Warwick University is a fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the US

What will happen to the Doha round?

36 Life force
OLIVER MORTON

JACK THURSTON

19 Inquire within
PETER R NEUMANN

We need a public inquiry into 7/7.

A new book challenges the genecentric view of life by placing energy back at the centre of the story.

2 PROSPECT December 2005

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

40 Ambitious failure
ROBERT ALTER

Zadie Smith’s third novel, On Beauty, has its moments. But its satire of the academy is laboured and its imitation of EM Forster unsubtle.

arts&books
68 King Google
ANDREW BROWN

SPECIAL REPORT

50 Can Hillary win in 2008?
CARL M CANNON

Google’s clever advertising model will kill the newspapers. But it isn’t always the best search engine.

Conventional wisdom says Hillary Clinton is too polarising a figure to take the White House in 2008. Conventional wisdom is wrong.

70 Africa’s moderate extremist
TOM DE CASTELLA

For a moderate, Thabo Mbeki has taken some very odd policy positions.

COLUMNS

COLUMNS

8 These islands
PAUL BARKER

61 Widescreen
MARK COUSINS

Welcome to the fun-box.

The best kiddie flicks.

20 Letter from Kashmir
SIMON LONG

62 Private view
BEN LEWIS

India and Pakistan are still squabbling.

FICTION

What should be called ephemeralism.

56 True short story 44 Washington watch
TUMBLER ALI SMITH

72 Cultural tourist
The battle for “Paki.” Plus Under the radar.

The Republican elite’s weird scribbles.

Without the cancer drug Herceptin, this is how short the story of a life might be.

53 Out of Africa
RICHARD DOWDEN

77 Smallscreen
DAVID HERMAN

Africa has big political storms ahead.

REVIEWS

Broccoli television. FORTHCOMING Dennis Ross on the prospects for peace in the middle east Catherine Fieschi on symbolic legislation Denis MacShane objects to Christopher Meyer’s memoirs
THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 22ND DECEMBER POLITICAL PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR
Political Studies Association

64 Watching them die 54 Brussels diary
MANNEKEN PIS IAN BLACK

A former Manneken Pis triumphs.

80 Notes from underground
DAN KUPER

Robert Fisk is a great war reporter and a partisan chronicler of western abuses in the middle east. But do not expect political insight.

How I became the bigots’ best mate.

65 Auster’s scrapbook
KAMRAN NAZEER

REGULARS

4 Letters 6 News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 13 Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 73 Classifieds 78 The generalist DIDYMUS 79 The list

Paul Auster makes little distinction between fictional and real life stories. His literary world is a scrapbook.

66 Abbado on film
STEPHEN EVERSON

The move from CD to DVD in classical recordings can mean seeing more of the orchestra than we want.

PROSPECT December 2005 3