Contributors

Jonathan Bate is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature at Warwick University and will become Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, next year. He is editor of The Public Value of the Humanities, an essay collection published by Bloomsbury. Julie Bindel is the  co-editor of The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys (Astraia Press) and is researching a  book on second-wave feminism since 1979. Katharine Birbalsingh left her job as deputy head of a London academy school after speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in October. Her book, To Miss with Love, will be published by Penguin in April. Nick Boles is the Conservative MP for Grantham and Stamford and was previously the Director of the Policy Exchange thinktank. His new book Which Way’s Up? is published by Biteback. John Bolton is the former US ambassador to the UN. He is now a 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 Professor of History at the University of Buckingham and author of Moral Combat: A History of World War II, published by HarperPress. Nick Cohen is a columnist for the Observer. He blogs on politics at standpointmag.co. uk/nick-cohen Tim Congdon is CEO of International Monetary Research. Mara Delius writes for Die Welt. Jessica Duchen is a music journalist, biographer and novelist. Her latest novel is Songs of Triumphant Love. She blogs on music at standpointmag.co.uk/jessica-duchen Tibor Fischer’s latest novel, Good to be God, is published in paperback by Alma Books. Timothy Fuller is a professor at Colorado College. He was co-editor, with Shirley Letwin, of The Selected Works of Michael Oakeshott. Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP for South East England. Last year, he was awarded the Bastiat Award for online journalism. His latest book is The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America (HarperCollins). Daniel Hitchens is an undergraduate at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Clive James’s most recent books of prose are The Revolt of the Pendulum and The Blaze of Obscurity, published  by Picador along with Opal Sunset, a volume of selected poems. Paul Johnson’s latest book is Humourists: From Hogarth to Noel Coward, published in the US by HarperCollins. His biography of Socrates will be published next year by Penguin US. Dominic Lawson is a columnist for the Sunday Times and the Independent. Norman Lebrecht is an author and broad

Katharine Birbalsingh

Julie Bindel

Clive James

Norman Lebrecht

Timothy Fuller

Anthony Loyd

Ottoline Leyser

William Shawcross

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December 2010

caster. His latest book is Why Mahler? (Faber). Conrad Leyser is Fellow and Tutor in History at Worcester College, Oxford. He is the author of Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (OUP). Ottoline Leyser is Professor of Plant Developmental Genetics at the University of York. Anthony Loyd is a former British Army officer and has been a special correspondent for The Times for 15 years. He has been a frequent visitor to Afghanistan since 1996. Minette Marrin is a writer, broadcaster and columnist for the Sunday Times. Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens is a Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, King’s College London, where he is also a PhD candidate. Douglas Murray is the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion. Michael Nazir-Ali was Bishop of Rochester until 2009. He has written extensively on religion, including Conviction and Conflict: Islam, Christianity and World Order. He now devotes himself to defending persecuted Christians and others all over the world. Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies. Michael Prodger is literary editor of the Sunday Telegraph. Nick Redgrove is Standpoint’s Web Editor. Joshua Rozenberg  presents Law in Action on BBC Radio 4. He chairs Halsbury’s Law Exchange, an independent legal think-tank and blogs at standpointmag.co.uk/joshuarozenberg. William Shawcross’s most recent book was Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother: The Official Biography (Macmillan). Lionel Shriver’s latest novel, So Much for That, has been shortlisted in the fiction section of the 2010 National Book Awards, America’s leading book prize. Berenika Stefanska is a freelance writer based in Germany and Africa. George Walden is a former diplomat and Conservative minister. His latest  book is China: AWolf In The World? (Gibson Square). Daisy Waugh writes novels and two columns in the Sunday Times. Peter Whittle is Standpoint’s film critic and director of the New Culture Forum. He blogs on politics and the arts at standpointmag. co.uk/peter-whittle

Letters Standpoint welcomes letters to the Editor. Write to: Standpoint, 11 Manchester Square, London W1U 3PW or: letters@standpointmag.co.uk Please include your address and telephone number.

Standpoint December 2010 Issue 28

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Manchester Square 7 CounterpointsExpectmoreterror; Artistic idiocy; Eliot, Larkin and Eagleton; Slumdog entrepreneurs; Travel trouble 10 Letters Obama’s true influences; Graduate giving; Romantic rot; Catching clichés 15

Columns Open Season Michael Nazir-Ali calls for continued monitoring of embryo research 16 Living History Michael Burleigh deplores the misuse of historical analogy 17 The Outsider Douglas Murray sees the erosion of British sovereignty approaching a crisis 18 On the contrary Lionel Shriver is appalled by the behaviour of her fellow-cyclists 19 Points East & West Emanuele Ottolenghi believes Obama can save his reputation by tackling Iran 20 European Eye Mara Delius bids farewell to America and its obsession with “change” 21 Marketplace Tim Congdon is heartened by his Ukip leadership campaign 22 Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg backs the election judges who condemned Phil Woolas 23 Dialogue Europe, America and the Coalition Nick Boles MP and Daniel Hannan MEP discuss the government’s potential fault-line issues 28

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The Frau is for turning Daniel Johnson explains why the German Chancellor Angela Merkel suddenly changed her tune 36

Features The kids are not all right and I am angry Katharine Birbalsingh How I spoke out and was sacked 40 Wanted: a Keynesian vision for the Arts Norman Lebrecht calls on Arts Council chair Liz Forgan to go 42 Dispatches The surge in Afghanistan is working—so far Anthony Loyd says Nato forces are defeating the Taliban 24

Features Decision time for Barack Obama John Bolton argues that after the mid-terms the president faces an ideological crisis 32 The costly new idea of a university Jonathan Bate says the Browne Report is bad news for bad institutions 46 Gangs, girls and grooming: the truth Julie Bindel on the sexual exploitation of children by Asian pimps in the North 50 Civilisation Critique Timothy Fuller recalls the sage of Peterhouse, Maurice Cowling 54

Books Paul Johnson on The Wit and Wisdom of G K Chesterton edited by Bevis Hillier; Tibor Fischer on Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and Sunset Park by Paul Auster; Daniel Hitchens on Taller When Prone by Les Murray; Conrad Leyser on Crown and Country: A History of England Through the Monarchy by David Starkey and The Story of England by Michael Wood 59 Cosmos Ottoline Leyser praises the secret life of plants 65

Film Peter Whittle celebrates an adult-cinema classic 66

Television Nick Cohen praises Fergal Keane’s new emotional maturity 67

Art Michael Prodger says buyers are paying way over the odds at auction 68 Theatre Minette Marrin couldn’t shed a tear for Men Should Weep 70

Music Jessica Duchen gets swept up in “Kaufmania” 71

TextClive James New Poems 72 Imagination Party Lines by Daisy Waugh; Whatever by Peter Blegvad: The Saga of Smit & Smule continues 77 Drawing Board Jeroen Krabbé 78

Overrated/Underrated George Soros by Daniel Johnson Rupert Murdoch by William Shawcross 80 ChessDominic Lawson salutes a forgotten British master of the simultaneous display 82

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