ISSUE 134 MAY 2007

Contributors to this issue

ANDREW ADONIS is minister for schools

DAVID ALMOND ’s Skellig won the 1998 Whitbread children’s book award

PAUL BARKER is a senior research fellow at the Young Foundation

JOE BOYD is a music producer and the author of White Bicycles (Serpent’s Tail)

STEPHEN CHAN is a professor of international relations at Soas

ROBERT COLLS is professor of English history at the University of Leicester

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

JASON COWLEY is a senior editor at the Observer

RICHARD DOWDEN is director of the Royal African Society

STEPHEN EALES is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Cardiff

MICK FEALTY is a visiting research associate at Queen’s University, Belfast

MICHAEL FRY is a historian

ANTHONY GIDDENS is a sociologist and a former director of the LSE

JULIAN GOUGH ’s novel Jude: Level 1 (Old Street Publishing) is published in July

JUDITH RICH HARRIS is a psychologist and author of No Two Alike (WW Norton)

CAR HILLS is a former editor of PEN News

KEVIN JACKSON ’s monograph The Pataphysical Flook (BFI) is out in June

OLIVIA JUDSON is author of Dr Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation (Vintage)

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

TIM KING is a writer living in France

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

EDWARD LUTTWAK is author of Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (Harvard)

ANNIE MACCOBY BERGLOF is an American writer living in London

ANDREW MARTIN ’snovel, Murder at Deviation Junction (Faber), is out in June

JONATHAN MYERSON is a novelist, playwright and screenwriter

MICHAEL PREST is a freelance writer specialising in business and economics

ALEX RENTON won the 2006 Glenfiddich award for best food writer

DAVID SOSKICE is a visiting professor of government at Harvard University

DAVID WILLETTS is shadow education secretary and MP for Havant

contents

Coverstory The middle of nowhere Western analysts are forever bleating about the strategic importance of the middle east. But despite its oil, this backward region is less relevant than ever, and it would be better for everyone if the rest of the world learned to ignore it, says EEddwwaarrdd LLuuttttwwaakk..

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Opinions

12ICCin the dock The international criminal court’s approach to justice may be jeopardising peace in African war zones.

RICHARD DOWDEN

13Leave London alone Ken Livingstone’s development plan is an ill-guided attempt to impose order on London’s creative chaos. PAUL BARKER

14Nietzsche in Harare The era of Robert Mugabe is coming to an end. Who will follow him? STEPHEN CHAN

15Railway panache Train companies should stop apologising and embrace their heritage.

ANDREW MARTIN

16Town hall blues I have just spent four years as a local councillor, and I know that ordinary people do not want more power. JONATHAN MYERSON

Debate

20Have the Conservatives really changed? Are the Tories under David Cameron a genuinely new party?What do they mean by social responsibility?

ANTHONY GIDDENS VSDAVID WILLETTS

Essays

31The fallen planet Last year, the solar system was officially reduced to eight planets when Pluto was demoted by the International Astronomical Union. Why? And how? STEPHEN EALES

35Why home doesn’t matter The BBC series Child of Our Time assumes that studying children with their parents will help us understand their personalities. But the biggest environmental influences happen outside the home. JUDITH RICH HARRIS

42Divine comedy The Greeks understood that comedy is superior to tragedy. But since the middle ages, western culture has overvalued the tragic and undervalued the comic. It’s time writers got back to the serious business of making us laugh. JULIAN GOUGH

48Follow the leader The centre-left has been in power for ten years, thanks to a centralised leadership system attuned to the interests of middle Britain. After Blair, will Labour turn to electoral reform?

DAVID SOSKICE

Portrait

55Ian Paisley Why has the man once seen as the embodiment of Protestant intransigence now done a deal with Sinn Féin?

MICK FEALTY

2 Prospect MAY 2007 Columns

10These islands Reinventing Edinburgh. MICHAEL FRY

18Washington watch George Tenet’s sort-of apology. TUMBLER

24Matters of taste Ethical taramasalata. ALEX RENTON

30Letter from clubland International women’s day at the Savile. ANNIE MACCOBY BERGLOF

41Rivers of Babylon The middle class trickles back to Baghdad. NIBRAS KAZIMI

52France profonde Lessons from the election campaign. TIM KING

54Inefficient markets The private equity debate. MICHAEL PREST

59Brussels diary Mandelson’s own goal. MANNEKEN PIS

80The prisoner Sharing a cell with dishy Paul. CAR HILLS

Regulars

04Letters 06News & curiosities 08Grayling’s question 08Enigmas & puzzles 60The list 73Classifieds 78The generalist

Forthcoming

Robert Colls’s English journeys. William Skidelsky interviews Lionel Shriver. Ross Douthat profiles Rudy Giuliani. Jonathan Rée on the art of the essay. The next issue ofProspectis published on 31st May

Arts and books

Fiction

61 Slog’s dad Slog always said his dad would come back one day. And, in the spring, he got his wish. DAVID ALMOND

Reviews

66 Theatre by numbers How do plays about science get across the excitement and importance of the subject without turning into a lecture?

OLIVIA JUDSON

68 Blacks, whites and blues Marybeth Hamilton paints a vivid picture of the early blues collectors. But it’s a pity that she can’t grasp the brilliance of Robert Johnson. JOE BOYD

69 Hitler’s myth-maker Apologists for Leni Riefenstahl say she cared nothing for politics. But her indifference to how her talents were used made her repugnant. KEVIN JACKSON

70 What Simon says Simon Barnes’s reflections on sport’s meaning too often come at the expense of his subjects. ROBERT COLLS

71 The self-made exile Michael Foot’s tirades enlivened politics and helped sustain the credibility of parliament. ANDREW ADONIS

Arts columns

65Widescreen What explains the success of 300 ? MARK COUSINS

77Private view Surrealism at the V&A. BEN LEWIS

79Between the lines Why Ilike Inspector Morse . JASON COWLEY

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Web exclusives

ANTHONY GIDDENS and DAVID WILLETTS continue their debate on the Tories

LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN talks Russian literature with Rowan Williams

TIM ALLEN and PHIL CLARK reply to Richard Dowden on the ICC

ROBERT JACKSON ’s Iran diary

KAMRAN NAZEER reads Thomas Pynchon—week by week by week

JULIAN GOUGH ’s National Short Story prize-winning story

SHEREEN EL FEKI visits Paris’s banlieues

Online archive

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

Middle east

MICHAEL LIND on how the Israel lobby distorts US foreign policy

TOM PORTEOUS on Iran under President Ahmadinejad

Northern Ireland

RICHARD KELLY on the demoralisation of Northern Ireland’s Protestants

ERIC KAUFMANN on the modernisation of unionism

Personality

ANNABEL GILLINGS on the relationship between genes and personality JEROME BURNE on the importance of peers in forming personality

Prospect MAY 2007 3