Contributors

Hephzibah Anderson contributes to Vogue, the Daily Mail and Bloomberg. She is the author of Chastened (Vintage). Jonathan Bate is Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and Provost of Worcester College, Oxford. He is editor of The Public Value of the Humanities, an essay collection published by Bloomsbury. Julie Bindel is a writer and feminist campaigner, and is researching a book on the history of second-wave feminism. Katharine Birbalsingh is setting up Michaela Community School, a free school in London. She is the author of To Miss with Love (Penguin). John Bolton is the former US ambassador to the United Nations. He is now senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad. Michael Burleigh is a historian and winner of the Nonino prize. Christopher Caldwell writes for the Weekly Standard and the Financial Times. He is the author of Reflections on the Revolution in Europe (Doubleday). Nick Cohen is a columnist for the Observer. His latest book is You Can’t Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom (Fourth Estate). Tim Congdon a member of the shadow monetary policy committee at the IEA. His latest book is Money in a Free Society (Encounter). Mara Delius is a writer and editor for the culture section of Die Welt. Christopher Fildes writes on finance and public policy. David Green is the director of the thinktank Civitas. Richard Griffiths is a historian who has specialised in French and British political history of the first half of the 20th century. Simon Heffer is Editor of Mail Comment Online and a columnist for the Daily Mail. His latest books are Strictly English (Windmill) and A Short History of Power (Notting Hill Editions). Patrick Heren is a writer and journalist who specialises in competitive energy markets. He is the founder of Heren Energy (now ICIS Heren). Dominic Lawson is a columnist for the Sunday Times and the Independent. Norman Lebrecht is an author and broadcaster. His latest book is Why Mahler? (Faber). Iain Martin is a political commentator, contributing to the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail. Anne McElvoy is Public Policy Editor of the Economist and presents the arts programme Night Waves on BBC Radio 3. Douglas Murray is the author of Bloody

Christopher Caldwell

Lionel Shriver

George Walden

Richard Griffiths

John Bolton

Jonathan Bate

Hephzibah Anderson

Michael Taube

Sunday: Truths, Lies and the Saville Inquiry (Biteback). Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He is the author of The Pasdaran: Inside Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (FDD Press). Michael Prodger is a art historian and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham. Piers Paul Read is a novelist and historian. His book The Dreyfus Affair (Bloomsbury) has just been published. Andrew Roberts is an historian. His latest book is The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (Allen Lane). He lives in New York. Mark Ronan is Honorary Professor of Mathematics at University College London, and author of Symmetry and the Monster. Joshua Rozenberg is an independent legal commentator. He presents Law in Action on BBC Radio 4. Neil Scolding is Burden Professor of Clinical Neurosciences at Bristol University. Lionel Shriver’s novel The New Republic has just been published in the US by Harper Collins. It will appear in the UK in June. Brendan Simms is Professor of the History of International Relations at the University of Cambridge. His next book, Old Europe: A History of the Continent since 1500, will be published by Allen Lane in June. Michael Taube is a columnist for the Ottowa Citizen, and former speechwriter for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Hugh Thomas has held chairs at New York, Boston and Reading. He was awarded a peerage in 1981. A new edition of his book The Spanish Civil War was published by Penguin in 2011; it has been in print for 50 years. His new book is The Golden Age: The Spanish Empire of Charles V (Penguin). George Walden is a former diplomat and Conservative Minister. His books include The New Elites: Making a Career in the Masses (Allen Lane) and China: A Wolf in the World? (Gibson Square). Daisy Waugh is a columnist for the Sunday Times. Her most recent novel is Last Dance with Valentino (HarperCollins). Peter Whittle is director of the New Culture Forum. His latest book is Monarchy Matters (Social Affairs Unit).

With thanks to Oliver Wiseman.

Letters Standpoint welcomes letters to the Editor. Write to: Standpoint, 11 Manchester Square, London W1U 3PW or: letters@standpointmag.co.uk

6 April 2012 Issue 41

Manchester Square The real marriage problem 5

Counterpoints Blue-sky blunder; Alain’s atheism; Insights from Occupy; Academic anger; Finnharmonic orchestra; Krupptastic; Be lucky 10

Letters Comprehensively wrong; Cracking the glass ceiling; Forced marriages; Royal rights 16

Columns Party Lines Daisy Waugh joins the Leveson debate 18 Free at last Katharine Birbalsingh is inspired by poor children in New York 19 Points East & West Emanuele Ottolenghi explores loosening ties between prosperity and democracy 24 European Eye Mara Delius evokes the spirit of Kleist, a very German outsider 22 Living History Michael Burleigh warns against cyberwarfare scaremongers 25 Marketplace Tim Congdon tells a cautionary tale of two central bank governors 26 Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg sees red over the government’s secret courts green paper 27 Open Season Julie Bindel derides the Lib Dems’ record on women 29

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Drawing Board: Lucian Freud, 76

COVER bymichael daley

We’re good Europeans, yet they all hate us Christopher Caldwell reports from Berlin on Germany’s euro angst 32 I pay for the NHS—so why won’t it give me a colonoscopy? Lionel Shriver slams short-sightedness in the National Health Service 23 Universities must be freed from meddling philistines Jonathan Bate takes aim at at the technocrats’ stranglehold on campus 46 Same-sex marriage David Green sees no need to change the law because marriage is about children, while Douglas Murray wants civil marriage to be available for all 20

Dispatches Andrew Roberts in New York runs the numbers on the Republican race 30

Features Obama’s timidity risks war John Bolton lambasts the President for America’s shrinking military might 40 How the Left turned against the Jews Nick Cohen charts the history of Europe’s anti-Semitic socialists 42 Forget wind—it’s time to get Britain fracking Patrick Heren says shale gas could solve our energy supply problems 50 WhyMelvyn Bragg misses the art of the matter Peter Whittle argues that culture is not as flourishing as the media elite thinks 52

Civilisation Critique George Walden pleads for scepticism about the overblown claims of neuroscience 57

Books Hugh Thomas on The Spanish Holocaust by Paul Preston; Brendan Simms on Hitler: A Short Biography by A.N. Wilson; Daniel Johnson on Deception: Spies, Lies and How Russia Dupes the West by Edward Lucas; Robert Low on Peace, They Say by Jay Nordlinger Fiction: David Womersley on Capital by John Lanchester; Hephzibah Anderson on The Innocents by Francesca Segal 61

Text Democracy in danger: The origins of European technocracy Richard Griffiths 66

Critics Music Norman Lebrecht applauds Venezuelan whizzkid Gustavo Dudamel 68

Art Michael Prodger sees the worst of Damien Hirst 69

Theatre Anne McElvoy lauds a new troupe’s deviation from convention 70

Film Peter Whittle celebrates British cinema’s golden oldies 72

Television Nick Cohen warns the BBC not to go down the tabloid path 73

Cosmos Neil Scolding fears indifference to sex-selective abortion and infanticide 74

Drawing Board Tracey Emin and Lucian Freud Contemporary British draughtmanship 76

Overrated/Underrated Andrew Sullivan/Andrew Breitbart by Michael Taube 78

Chess Dominic Lawson salutes the game’s shooting stars 80

Wine Saintsbury traces the history of high society’s taste for dry champagne 81 Culture & Anarchy Simon Heffer mourns a great contralto 82

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