CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

PHILIP BALL ’s most recent book is The Devil’s Doctor (Heinemann)

ANDREW BILLEN is a feature writer for the Times . He was named critic of the year at the UK magazine awards

BARTLE BULL is international editor of Prospect

RACHEL COOKE writes for the Observer

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

JASON COWLEY is a senior editor at the Observer

ROBERT DRUMMOND is a psychiatrist

LARA FEIGEL is the editor of A Nosegay: A Literary Journey from the Fragrant to the Fetid (Old Street Publishing)

JAMES FERGUSSON ’s book The Vitamin Murders will be published next year by Portobello Books

MICHAEL FRY is a historian and the author of The Union: England, Scotland and the Treaty of 1707 (Birlinn)

ÁNGEL GURRÍA-QUINTANA is a historian, translator and literary journalist. He writes regularly for the Financial Times

PERVEZ HOODBHOY is professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University

JEREMY ISAACS is the author of Look Me in the Eye: A Life in Television (Little, Brown)

JOHN KEEGAN is defence editor of the Daily Telegraph

TIM KING is a writer living in France

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

ALEXANDER LINKLATER is associate editor of Prospect

MAGNUS LINKLATER is a columnist for the Times

ADAM MAREK is a novelist and short story writer

DAVID OMAND is a visiting professor at King’s College London. He is a former permanent secretary at the home office

MICHAEL PREST is a freelance writer specialising in business and economics

PAUL SKIDMORE is a fellow at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson school of public and international affairs

IAN STEWART is a professor of mathematics at Warwick University

HENRY TRICKS is finance editor of the Economist

ADAIR TURNER is a former director general of the CBI

4PROSPECT December 2006

contents Issue one hundred and twenty-nine December 2006

COVER STORY

24Scotland alone

MICHAEL FRY

Devolution was meant to give Scotland the ability to solve its own problems. But since getting its own parliament, Scotland’s dependency on England has increased. A former Scots Tory explains why he has come to see independence as the solution—and why it would benefit England too.

OPINIONS 12Security dilemmas

DAVID OMAND Secret intelligence and an adversarial court system don’t live easily together.

13Winner takes all

MICHAEL PREST Since the “big bang,”the City has boomed. Has anyone else benefited?

14Too much reality

JEREMY ISAACS What kind of programmes should Channel 4 show?

18What is a civil war?

JOHN KEEGAN & BARTLE BULL Lessons from history suggest that Iraq has not yet reached civil war.

20Hands offthe arts

MAGNUS LINKLATER Is the “arm’s length”approach to public funding of culture over?

ESSAYS 28Disengaged democracy

PAUL SKIDMORE The Blair era is ending in a crisis of disengagement. Most accounts of this problem, including the Power inquiry, are unsatisfactory. Consider instead the “1 per cent solution.”

32Change ofclimate

ADAIR TURNER The key point about the economics of climate change, as the Stern review shows, is how little it costs to cut emissions sharply. Despite attacks from Bjørn Lomborg and others, Kyoto remains a good place to start.

38Turning up our noses

LARA FEIGEL Intellectuals have delighted in denigrating the sense of smell. In doing so they have dampened the boundless pleasures of the olfactory. It is time we rediscovered our noses. www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

INTERVIEW 46Orhan Pamuk

ÁNGEL GURRÍA-QUINTANA The novelist began 2006 facing prison and ends it a Nobel laureate. Here he discusses the benefits of having both a western and an eastern soul.

MY STORY 52River kings

JAMES FERGUSSON In a secret gorge, I discover what I feared no longer existed—a pool full of leaping salmon.

SPECIAL REPORT 54The biggest bets in the world

HENRY TRICKS Since the glory days of the early 1990s, hedge funds have lost much of their lustre. Yet they remain the most dynamic part of the financial world.

COLUMNS 10Out ofmind

ROBERT DRUMMOND &

ALEXANDER LINKLATER Victor’s Brixton psychosis.

22Washington watch

TUMBLER The new right-wing Democrats.

51France profonde

TIM KING Le Pen in endorsement crisis.

59Brussels diary

MANNEKEN PIS Discontent in eastern Europe.

REGULARS 6Letters 8News & curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 13Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 78The generalist DIDYMUS 79The list

arts&books

70The Shah ofPakistan

PERVEZ HOODBHOY While enjoying American support and largesse, Pakistan’s president Pervez Musharraf has crushed domestic opposition and done little to combat religious extremism.

FICTION 60Testicular cancer vs the behemoth

ADAM MAREK Austin Weaver’s mission is to forget his balls and save his girlfriend from a monster.

REVIEWS 66Laughter and forgiveness

ANDREW BILLEN In Peter Morgan’s domestic-sized dramas, our leaders emerge as fallible, even loveable figures. But his work is not as reactionary as it seems.

68The DNA computer

PHILIP BALL Scientists are attempting to create an entirely new kind of computer, one based on the building blocks of life.

69Ways ofseeing

RACHEL COOKE Robert Hughes embraced 1960s excess, but it was his Jesuit upbringing that made him the critic he is.

COLUMNS 72Widescreen

MARK COUSINS Film festivals and the lure of glamour.

77Private view

BEN LEWIS Scotland’s answer to Damien Hirst.

80Between the lines

JASON COWLEY Books and the blogosphere.

WEB EXCLUSIVES

Arthur Aughey reviews The Progressive Patriot by Billy Bragg

John Ware on the fall of the Muslim Council of Britain

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

FORTHCOMING

Joshua Kurlantzick on the US Democrats’ foreign policy

Charles Leadbeaterconsiders the legacy of Ivan Illich

Trevor Dolby charts the phenomenon of celebrity memoirs

THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 14TH DECEMBER

PROSPECT December 2006 5