Picking successful stocks that will perform over the long-term is a waiting game. One we like to think we’re rather good at.

BIGON PATIENCE *as at 30 June 2009. We may record your call. Baillie Gifford Savings Management Limited (BGSM) is the manager of the Baillie Gifford Investment Trust Share Plan and Investment Trust ISA and is wholly owned by Baillie Gifford & Co, which is the manager and secretary of the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust PLC. Your personal data is held and used by BGSM in accordance with data protection legislation. We may use your information to send you information about Baillie Gifford products, funds or special offers and to contact you for business research purposes. We will only disclose your information to other companies within the Baillie Gifford group and to agents appointed by us for these purposes. You can withdraw your consent to receiving further marketing communications from us and to being contacted for business research purposes at any time. You also have the right to review and amend your data at any time.

Our flagship fund, the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust searches out investment opportunities from the bottom up rather than taking a lofty, top-down view of the markets. So we just invest in stocks. In fact, more often than not, we ignore the index. Our fund managers are always looking for companies with a sustainable competitive advantage believing firmly that earnings will drive share price over time. And time is the key, we always view results in a five year context and are absolutely committed to maintaining a measured and considered long-term approach.

The Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust is a long established fund that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and currently has over £1.2* billion under management.

Please remember, your investment can be affected by changing stock market conditions and by currency exchange rates. The value of your investment and any income from it can fall as well as rise, and you may not get back the amount invested.

Call 0800 027 5227 or visit www.scottishmortgageit.com

The Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust is available as a Share Plan or an ISA

PT/SM Contents

regulars 8 Prospect recommends The pick of the month’s events by

nick james, emma crichtonmiller, nick crowe, john nathan, judith mackrell & ben lewis 12 Diary Cut parliament in half plus brian

eno on the death of theory, nigel warburton on old age & stephen nickell on the resource curse. 18 Letters

plus stephen collins’s cartoon strip.

Lisbon wrangling. manneken pis 27 China café Muted 60th celebrations. mark kittocover story The climate change special begins after p48 3 Eleven days in December Meet the insiders at the Copenhagen summit. sam knight

opinions 20 A farewell to arms Stop buying weapons and save the

army instead. lewis page 21 Remember Netscape, Bill? Rich philanthropists should take

more risks. elizabeth pisani 22 How we got the Soviets wrong

We overestimated the charms of Marxism. peregrine worsthorne 23 Suffrage, but not for me

Why didn’t Gertrude Bell back votes for women? kitty fitzgerald 24 Why Turner is right

Financial markets need a transactions tax. john eatwellcorrespondents25 Washington watch The new Newt Gingrich. renegade 26 Brussels diary

12 The big green issues

alex renton looks at population control, isabel hilton reports from China and India, vijay joshi asks who should pay & anna shepard has green living fatigue.

17 A mountain to climb Can we capture and bury carbon

emissions? damian kahya 21 Interview: Ed Miliband The energy and climate change

secretary talks to Prospect.

arts & books 55 Through a story, darkly The dangerous borderlands that lie

between fiction and memoir. julie myerson 56 Who’s afraid of the avant-garde?

Why we “get” modern art but not avant-garde music. philip ball 58 Private view

Frank Auerbach. ben lewis 59 The bestselling persuaders Behavioural economics is wearing a

little thin. tom chatfield 60 Imagine there’s no Stalin

and finally 77 Enigmas & puzzles ian stewart 77 Coming up & online 78 The generalist didymus 79 The Prospect listfeatures28 How power changed a president Despite successes in a bruising first year, Obama’s promise of change remains unfulfilled, and his country as divided as ever. james crabtree plus philip bobbitt on the president’s plan for foreign policy. 36 Twenty years in the making Despite the lingering sense that east Germans are second-class citizens, the former GDR has come an amazingly long way. anne mcelvoy 40 A house of sorrow and secrets Althorp, family seat of the Spencers and Princess Diana’s final resting place, is a monument to family treachery and the casual cruelty of the upper classes. julie burchill 44 How to really hug a hoodie A controversial project in Glasgow is tackling gang violence. But is there the political will to roll it out across the country? gavin knight 49 Why Britain can’t do The Wire British television drama is controlled by a monopoly—the BC—which is stifling innovation. peter jukes plus kabir chibber interviews David Simon, co-creator of The WirecolumnIStS 7 If I ruled the world Let’s have your organs. sam leith 10 Political notes Declining again. david goodhart 53 Sporting life Defending defence. david goldblatt 80 Dear Wilhemina My partner’s like Alan Partridge’s dad.

What would have happened had Trotsky led the Soviet Union? victor sebestyen 62 Smallscreen Crime programmes are going

gruesome. peter bazalgette 64 Performance notes

Domingo’s ambition. martin kettle 66 The first summer

An ex-offender’s life danny kruger 66 Strange meetings Three diary extracts. ian irvine 67 Widescreen

A fledgling filmmaker. mark cousins

FICTION 68 The Girt Pike

A story by louis de berni�res

november 2009 · prospect · 5