Witness

62Leaving Baghdad The al-Hayalis were set to join the hundreds of thousands of middle-class families who have fled Iraq. Just before their departure, calamity struck. KIM SENGUPTA

Columns

10The prisoner The killers Ilove. CAR HILLS

20Washington watch Goodbye Turd Blossom. TUMBLER

40Rivers of Babylon Iraq’s Asian Cup triumph. NIBRAS KAZIMI

52Lab report Our floods, their floods. PHILIP BALL

60Inefficient markets Who are the villains in the financial crisis? MICHAEL PREST

88Confessions Getting high in Holland. KATE SAUNDERS

Regulars

04Letters 06News & curiosities 08Grayling’s question AC GRAYLING 08Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 81Classifieds 86The generalist 87The list

Forthcoming

David Robins on knife crime. A poet visits CERN. Alison McLeod confesses. Jonathan Wolff on criminal justice. Ian Jack reviews VS Naipaul. The next issue ofProspectis published on 27th September

Arts and books

Fiction

66 Infested She knew it would take something special to win Best Pest. When she saw the dog, she knew she’d found it. ROSS RAISIN

Reviews

74 Beyond good and evil Nicholas Mosley’s novels address the unfashionable idea that good and evil are inseparable. It’s an approach that has put him at odds with the literary establishment. EDWARD SKIDELSKY

76 Drama without theatre Plays set in locations other than theatres have flourished in recent years. But do such works succeed in breaking down the barrier between actors and audience? CHRIS WILKINSON

78 The fall of the wild Nature writing is enjoying a resurgence, but the danger of mapping any wilderness is that it becomes tame and dumb. KATHRYN HUGHES

79 Recycling Nixon Conrad Black’s new biography of Richard Nixon portrays him as a “mighty and mythic” figure who was unfairly hounded from office. Sound familiar? ANDREW ADONIS

Arts columns

72Widescreen Antonioni trumps Bergman. MARK COUSINS

80Performance notes Bring on the applause. MARTIN KETTLE

85Smallscreen There’s no crisis in documentaries. CHRISTOPHER HIRD

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Web exclusives

JONATHAN MYERSON on writing the British West Wing

LARA FEIGEL reviews Tessa Hadley’s The Master Bedroom

IARLA KILBANE-DAWE on the quality of London’s air

JM SHAW on stupidity and ideology in the British school curriculum

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

Britain’s constitution

ROBERT HAZELL on Blair’s unfinished constitutional business

IAIN MCLEAN on devolution

CHARLIE FALCONER,VERNON BOGDANOR,

GEOFFREY HOWE & OTHERS discuss Labour’s constitutional reforms

Media

JOHN LLOYD on the BBC’s self-hatred BARRY COX on why the BBC is not a public service like the NHS TIM CONGDON & GAVYN DAVIES debate whether the licence fee still works

US politics

JAMES CRABTREE asks if America is ready for Barack Obama

CARL M CANNON explains why Hillary isn’t too liberal to win

JOSHUA KURLANTZICK on what the Dems should do on foreign policy

Prospect SEPTEMBER2007 3