CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
FRAN ABRAMS is the author of Seven Kings (Atlantic Books) PHILIP BALL’s most recent book is The Devil’s Doctor (Heinemann) ANDREW BROWN’s

contents
Issue one hundred and twenty-seven October 2006

books include The Darwin Wars (Simon & Schuster)

LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN

is a writer and critic. www.lesleychamberlain.co.uk

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

COVER STORY
22 New Labour odyssey
SIÔN SIMON

is a senior editor on is a psychiatrist

the Observer
ROBERT DRUMMOND

New Labour was never a middleclass coup. I know; I was there.

JULIAN EVANS is writing the authorised biography of Norman Lewis STEPHEN EVERSON

28 Thatcherism’s final triumph
PETER WILBY

is writing a book on metaphysics and the mind

is the author of The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs (Atlantic)
DAMON GALGUT DAVID B GREEN is deputy editor of the Jerusalem Report magazine JOHANN HARI

Blair has missed the chance to push Britain further leftwards.

32 The Brown revolution
STEVE RICHARDS

is a columnist for the

Independent
TIM KING

What if Gordon Brown had become Labour leader in 1994?

is a writer living in France

36 Lies, spin and deceit
JOHN LLOYD

DAN KUPER works for London underground PHILIPPE LEGRAIN’s book Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them is forthcoming BEN LEWIS

On Iraq, it is Blair’s judgement, not his integrity, that is at stake.

presents BBC4’s Art Safari is associate

ALEXANDER LINKLATER

editor of Prospect
JOHN LLOYD

is a writer on the FT

OPINIONS

16 Baby bomber
JOSEPHINE WALL

10 The penny drops
DAVID WILLETTS

PHILIP OLTERMANN

is editing a book on writers’ talismans for Rizzoli New York

STEPHEN OPPENHEIMER is the author of The Origins of the British (Constable) JONATHAN POWER

Blair ran rings around us, but we have finally learnt to deal with New Labour.

A mischievous comment in an internet chatroom for new mothers gets me into hot water. JOURNAL

is a commentator for the International Herald Tribune

11 An Afghan opium deal
JOHANN HARI

44 Lula’s second breath
JONATHAN POWER

is chief political commentator for the Independent
STEVE RICHARDS SIÔN SIMON is Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington IAN STEWART

While we destroy Afghan poppies, the world is short of opiates. The solution is clear.

is a professor of mathematics at Warwick University

12 Growth is good
WILL WILKINSON

In 1980 I travelled to São Paulo to meet Lula, a firebrand trade unionist. Twenty-six years later, a wealthier Brazil is preparing to re-elect him to a second presidential term.

JOSEPHINE WALL

is a mother of two, living in Somerset is a former editor of the New Statesman

Don’t believe everything you read—getting richer does actually make you happier.

SPECIAL REPORT

PETER WILBY

50 Myths of British ancestry
STEPHEN OPPENHEIMER

14 Summer of discontent
DAVID B GREEN

is a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, Washington DC
WILL WILKINSON DAVID WILLETTS

is a Conservative MP

A year ago, Israelis felt in control of their destiny. Now the future looks bleak.

Everything you know about British and Irish ancestry is wrong. Our ancestors were Basques, not Celts, and the Celts were not wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons.

2 PROSPECT October 2006

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

WITNESS

54 The next middle class
FRAN ABRAMS

I spent a year observing pupils at an Ilford comprehensive and met the new generation of upwardly mobile Britons. Family values, hard work and religion are all back in fashion—but not politics.

arts&books
70 Tales of old cities
PHILIP OLTERMANN

What does “psychogeography” mean? In the hands of Paul Auster and Iain Sinclair, it is a return to old routines.

COLUMNS

8 Out of mind
ROBERT DRUMMOND & ALEXANDER LINKATER

COLUMNS

When estate agents go mad.

63 Between the lines
JASON COWLEY

Long live John le Carré.

18 Washington watch
TUMBLER

64 Widescreen
MARK COUSINS

Gordon Brown courts the US right— and are the Dems floundering?

Penélope Cruz’s new curves.

20 Inefficient markets
PHILIPPE LEGRAIN

72 Private view
BEN LEWIS

Apple’s bully-boy tactics. FICTION

I can’t wait for the art market crash.

41 France profonde
TIM KING

58 The conversation
DAMON GALGUT

77 Musical notes
STEPHEN EVERSON

Ségolène Royal glows.

A child soldier leads a priest to speak with the devil in the African bush.

Morons at the Proms.

42 Lab report
PHILIP BALL

WEB EXCLUSIVES REVIEWS

Would the transatlantic bomb plot have worked?

66 Dangerous ideals
JULIAN EVANS

57 Brussels diary
MANNEKEN PIS

Nicolas Sarkozy saves Europe.

Andrew O’Hagan’s fictional account of a wayward and dysfunctional priest is most striking for its discussion of the importance, and trap, of idealism.

More on the end of the Blair era from Sunder Katwala, Hugh Roberts & James Purnell. Plus replies to Danny Kruger
www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

80 Notes from underground
DAN KUPER

67 The art of Simenon
LESLEY CHAMBERLAIN

FORTHCOMING Erik Tarloff on the US midterm elections Jeremy Isaacs on Channel 4 Allan Massie on fiction set in classical times
THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 19TH OCTOBER

I love a bit of crowd control.

REGULARS

4 Letters 6 News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 11 Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 73 Classifieds 78 The generalist DIDYMUS 79 The list

Georges Simenon’s 76 Maigret novels are studies in the art of watching the world go by—and a homage to carefully nurtured intuition.

69 Dawkins the dogmatist
ANDREW BROWN

Richard Dawkins’s diatribe against religion doesn’t explain how faith has survived the assault of Darwinism.

PROSPECT October 2006 3