March 2010 Issue 20

Manchester Square 5

Counterpoints In defence of Dubya; Face values; Collective punishment; From Russia with lies; Greek revival; Wedded bliss 11 Columns Marketplace Tim Congdon dispels the myths of the banking bail-out 18

Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg ponders parliamentary privilege 19

The Outsider Douglas Murray attacks the system that protected police chief Ali Dizaei 21

Points East & West Emanuele Ottolenghi urges Europe to face up to communism’s true crimes 22

European Eye Mara Delius on the French intellectual suffering from a bad case of Botulism 23

The Mole Our student insider witnesses Islamist intimidation on campus 26

Web Sightings Frances Weaver finds out what Baghdad bloggers think of the Chilcot Inquiry 27

Letters Wilmers and the LRB; Who’s Left?; Doctor’s orders; Newman at Bournville 28

Dispatches Louis Amis in Rio de Janeiro reports on crime and punishment in the favelas 32

COVER ILLUSTRATION byandrécariliho

Coverlines Terminating terrorism Walter Laqueur urges America to face up to the threat of a terrorist nuclear attack 42 Michael Burleigh explains how terrorist movements can be brought to an end, not always bloodily 24 Nick Cohen believes that Western guilt is undermining liberal values in the struggle with Islamism 46 Justin Marozzi in Mogadishu sees the war against al-Qaeda 30

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Dialogue Should baby boomers be feeling the pinch now? Frank Field and David Willetts discuss the post-war generation 36

On the contrary Lionel Shriver protests against the tyranny of technology 17

Text I Nigel Biggar fears we are on the road to “death on demand” 72

Feature It’s all Greek, French or Norwegian to me Tibor Fischer says most foreign fiction isn’t worth translating 52

Features We must set our universities free Terence Kealey provides a blueprint for our own Ivy League 50 Civilisation Critique Jonathan Bate explains why Frank Kermode is not just the grand old man of EngLit 56 Books David Pryce-Jones on Koestler: The Indispensable Intellectual by Michael Scammell; Frances Weaver on Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter; Noel Malcolm on How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell; Adam Zeman on The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist; and Jeremy Jennings on Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey 58

Music Jessica Duchen explains how new research can help us understand the great composers 65

Film Peter Whittle overdoses on archangels and apocalypses 66

Television Nick Cohen watches the media elite avenge itself on Tony Blair 67

Theatre Minette Marrin is overwhelmed by a transcendent stage experience 68

Art Michael Prodger celebrates the Henry Moore retrospective 69 Drawing Board Henry Moore 70 Text II Alan Brownjohn Four new poems 76

Imagination Party Lines by Daisy Waugh; Whatever by Peter Blegvad: The Saga of Smit & Smule continues 78 Overrated/Underrated David Miliband/Angela Merkel by Brendan Simms 80 Chess Dominic Lawson wonders whether “genius” isn’t just a matter of hard work 82 www.standpointmag.co.uk

Standpoint

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