ISSUE 135 JUNE 2007

Contributors to this issue

JULIAN BAGGINI is the author of Welcome to Everytown (Granta Books)

PHILIP BALL is a science writer and the author of The Devil’s Doctor (Arrow)

DEREK BROWER is a journalist who covers oil, gas and energy politics

LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN is the author of Nietzsche in Turin (Quartet)

NICHOLAS CLEE is a former editor of the Bookseller

PAUL COLLIER is sub-warden of St Antony’s College, Oxford University

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

JASON COWLEY is a senior editor at the Observer

WILLIAM DAVIES is a sociologist and policy analyst

ROBERT DRUMMOND is a psychiatrist

PETINA GAPPAH is a writer and lawyer. She lives and works in Geneva

CARLO GÉBLER ’s play Henry & Harriet premiered at the Cathedral arts festival

AC GRAYLING ’s most recent book is Against All Gods (Oberon Books)

ROBERT HAZELL is professor of government and the constitution at UCL

CHRISTOPHER HIRD is joint managing director of Fulcrum Productions

ERIC KAUFMANN is a lecturer in politics and sociology at Birkbeck College

NIBRAS KAZIMI is a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, Washington

TIM KING is a writer living in France

RICHARD LAYARD was director of the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

SHIV MALIK is a freelance journalist. He is writing a book on British terrorism

DAVID MCWILLIAMS is the author of The Pope’s Children: Ireland’s New Elite (Pan)

PHILIP OLTERMANN co-edited How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors (Rizzoli)

MICHAEL PREST is a freelance writer specialising in business and economics

JONATHAN RÉE is a freelance historian and philosopher

WILLIAM SKIDELSKY is deputy editor of Prospect

IAN STEWART is author of Why Beauty Is Truth: The History of Symmetry (Basic)

ERIK TARLOFF is a novelist and writer

BELLA THOMAS is programme director at the Ax:son Johnson Foundation

contents

Coverstory My brother the bomber What turned Mohammad Sidique Khan,a softly spoken youth worker,into the mastermind of 7/7? Shiv Malikspent months in a Leeds suburb getting to know Khan’s brother.A complex and disturbing story of the bomber’s radicalisation emerged.

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Opinions

14March of the HiBrits For 50 years, the children of Irish immigrants have been the most important innovators in England’s popular culture. DAVID MCWILLIAMS

15Gordon’s go Tony Blair’s departure leaves much constitutional business unresolved. It’s up to Gordon Brown to finish the job.

ROBERT HAZELL

16Against unhappiness Paul Ormerod splits hairs over methodology. People want to be happy, politicians should help them. RICHARD LAYARD

17Defending Hodge The belief that those who have lived in a community longest should have housing priority isn’t racist.

JULIAN BAGGINI

18Challenging Chomsky Universal grammar is the most important theory in linguistics. Has the language of one tribe now disproved it?

PHILIP OLTERMANN

19An unusual oilman John Browne turned BP into the oil industry’s leanest machine, but his costcutting now looks like a liability.

DEREK BROWER

Essays

42For richer and for poorer Two new books offer contrasting explanations for why some countries fail to develop: one blames culture, the other trade liberalisation. Though both analyses are flawed, neither can be dismissed. PAUL COLLIER

48The democracy of Don Quixote Novelists have always turned their hands to essays. The two forms share an inherent pluralism and scepticism that makes them natural allies of democracy. JONATHAN RÉE

Witness

52A Cuban death rehearsal With Castro apparently on the verge of death, I returned to Cuba to visit old friends. Life for most Cubans remains harsh. Yet western visitors continue to romanticise the place. BELLA THOMAS

Special report

57Tax credits: the success and failure Gordon Brown’s tax credits policy has directed billions to the low paid. But the failure of the policy’s architects to consider its real-world application has severely hampered delivery.

WILLIAM DAVIES

4 Prospect JUNE 2007 Columns

12These islands Belfast is beyond strife now—isn’t it?

CARLO GÉBLER

22Washington watch Obama and Hillary fight over talent.

TUMBLER

24Inefficient markets China’s stock market frenzy. MICHAEL PREST

28Out of mind Phantom pregnancy. ROBERT DRUMMOND

51France profonde Sarkozy’s mythmaking. TIM KING

56Rivers of Babylon Baghdad’s wall. NIBRAS KAZIMI

63Lab report Who will find the Higgs boson first?

PHILIP BALL

64Brussels diary Can Brown and Sarkozy be friends?

MANNEKEN PIS

88Modern manners I’m not going on holiday this summer. LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN

Regulars

06Letters 08News & curiosities 10Grayling’s question AC GRAYLING 10Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 81Classifieds 86The generalist DIDYMUS 87The list

Forthcoming

Jack Thurston on the Tour de France. Ferdinand Mount on the Tories. Tony Sewell on Shaun Bailey. Tom Nuttall reviews The Black Swan. The next issue ofProspectis published on 28th June

Arts and books

Fiction

65 Oration for a dead hero My husband died a national hero, exalted by the president. But I know them both for worthless dogs. PETINA GAPPAH

Reviews

72 End of the book postponed The eBook, the rise of the online retailer, the blog and the print-on-demand book all provide challenges for booksellers and publishers. Some may not survive. NICHOLAS CLEE

74 Chaos and horror Don DeLillo has a gift for creating an atmosphere of inchoate dread. But his latest novel feels flat and static, and lacks a sense of purpose. ERIK TARLOFF

75 Life on planet Boyle Danny Boyle’s trippy films delight in moments of rapture—from which they find it hard to come down. MARK COUSINS

77 Lives not led Lionel Shriver’s latest work is a subtle examination of the difficulties of decision-making. I met her in her south London flat. WILLIAM SKIDELSKY

78 The poverty of liberalism The individualism and universalism of western political elites are on a collision course with the popular desire for moorings in time and place. ERIC KAUFMANN

Arts columns

71Private view Who will be Miss Venice Biennale?

BEN LEWIS

80Between the lines Cormac McCarthy’s astounding novel.

JASON COWLEY

85Smallscreen What The Apprentice gets wrong. CHRISTOPHER HIRD

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Web exclusives

FIRST DRAFTS —the Prospect editorial blog

CHARLES GLASS AND OTHERS reply to Edward Luttwak

LESLIE LEE ’s dispatches from the Hay festival

YASMIN KHAN reviews Ramachandra Guha’s history of India

KAMRAN NAZEER concludes his Thomas Pynchon reading diary

GEOFF MULGAN pays tribute to the late Mary Douglas

Online archive

Revisit our past coverage of some of the topics covered in this issue.

Cuba

GEORGE WALDEN on Cuban prostitution STEVEN HILL on America’s obsession with Fidel Castro’s health

International development

AMARTYA SEN on the rights and wrongs of development

NGAIRE WOODS asks if aid works

Tax credits

PHILIP COLLINS and ROGER WICKS ask if New Labour’s big welfare idea is too complex

DAVID HARKER on the tax credits overpayments scandal

Prospect JUNE 2007 5