Contributors

Michael Burleigh is a historian and winner of the 2012 Nonino prize. Nick Cohen is an Observer columnist and author of You Can’t Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom (Fourth Estate). Tim Congdon’s latest book is Money in a Free Society (Encounter). Con Coughlin is the Daily Telegraph’s executive foreign editor. He is the author of Khomeini’s Ghost: The Iranian Revolution and the Rise of Militant Islam (Macmillan). Mara Delius is a writer and editor for the culture section of Die Welt. Ruth Dudley Edwards is a historian and crime writer. She is the author of Aftermath: The Omagh Bombing and the Families’ Pursuit of Justice (Harvill Secker). Tibor Fischer is a novelist and short story writer. His latest work of fiction is Crushed Mexican Spiders (Unbound). David Gentleman is a leading artist, designer and print-maker. John Haldane is a philosopher, commentator and broadcaster, and a papal adviser to the Vatican. His latest book is Arts and Minds (Powell’s). Simon Heffer is Editor of Mail Comment Online and a columnist for the Daily Mail. Karen Horn teaches the history of economic thought at Humboldt University in Berlin and is president of the Hayek Society. Jeremy Jennings is Professor of Political Theory at Queen Mary, University of London. His latest book, Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France since the Eighteenth Century, is published by Oxford University Press. Dominic Lawson is a columnist for the Sunday Times and the Independent. Norman Lebrecht’s latest book is Why Mahler? (Faber). Iain Martin is a political commentator, who contributes to the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail. Derwent May’s latest books are Wondering About Many Women (Greenwich Exchange), a volume of poetry, and Life on the Wing: A Bird Chronicle from the pages of The Times. Anne McElvoy is Public Policy Editor of the Economist and presents the arts programme Night Waves on BBC Radio 3. Douglas Murray is a broadcaster and author of Bloody Sunday: Truths, Lies and the Saville Inquiry (Biteback). Michael Nazir-Ali was the Anglican Bishop of Rochester, 1994-2009. His new book, Triple Jeopardy for the West: Aggressive Secularism, Radical Islam and Multiculturalism, is out this autumn from Continuum. Jay Nordlinger is a senior editor at National Review. His book, Peace, They Say (Encounter), was reviewed by Robert Low in last month’s issue of Standpoint. Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Michael Nazir-Ali

John Haldane

Ruth Dudley Edwards

Mara Delius

Melanie Phillips

Michael PintoDuschinsky

David Womersley

Karen Horn

4

Melanie Phillips is a columnist for the Daily Mail and Jewish Chronicle. Her most recent book is The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power (Encounter). Michael Pinto-Duschinsky is senior consultant on constitutional affairs to Policy Exchange. In 2011-12 he was a member of the Commission on a Bill of Rights. Michael Prodger is an art historian and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham. Piers Paul Read is a novelist and historian. His latest book is The Dreyfus Affair (Bloomsbury). Andrew Roberts lives in New York. He is the author of The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (Allen Lane). Mark Ronan is Honorary Professor of Mathematics at University College London. Joshua Rozenberg is an independent legal commentator. He presents Law in Action on BBC Radio 4. Roger Scruton is a professor of philosophy at St Andrews University and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His latest book is The Face of God (Continuum). Lionel Shriver’s latest novel, The New Republic, is published by HarperCollins. John Ware is a freelance broadcaster and writer. He was the Royal Television Society’s Broadcast Journalist of the Year in 2001. Daisy Waugh is a columnist for the Sunday Times. Her most recent novel is Last Dance with Valentino (HarperCollins). George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow at Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Centre. The second volume of his biography of Pope John Paul II, The End and the Beginning, is published by Doubleday. Peter Whittle is director of the New Culture Forum. His latest book is Monarchy Matters (Social Affairs Unit). Oliver Wiseman works for Standpoint. David Womersley is the Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at Oxford. His edition of Gulliver’s Travels will be published by CUP later this year.

With thanks to Rowley Sword and Elisabeth Perlman

Letters Standpoint welcomes letters to the Editor. Write to: Standpoint, 11 Manchester Square, London W1U 3PW or: letters@standpointmag.co.uk May 2012 Issue 42

Manchester Square The silence of the intellectuals 3

Counterpoints French leave; Regenerate art; Bigot, moi?; Pitches for cricketers; Metro madness; A New Yorker writes 6

Letters No-brainer; Teaching George Washington; Attacking Israel; Dudamel’s genius; Twin set 12

Columns Party Lines Daisy Waugh jumps into choppy Boat Race waters 13 Free at last Katharine Birbalsingh asks why the teaching unions are so opposed to reform 14 The Outsider’s Diary Douglas Murray takes to the ice and ponders George Galloway’s love life 16 On the Contrary Lionel Shriver finds Charles Murray an antidote to European egalitarianism 20 Points East & West Emanuele Ottolenghi believes intervention in Syria would be worth the price 21 Living History Michael Burleigh honours the sacrifice of Bomber Command 23 Marketplace Tim Congdon says mass immigration and home-grown unemployment caused the Bradford by-election shock 24 Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg stands up for multinationals 25 Open Season Michael Mosbacher demolishes George Osborne’s arguments on tax and charity 27

COVER bymichael daley

In defence of marriage Michael Nazir-Ali says that the government should do more to support couples who wish to tie the knot 38 John Haldane takes apart the liberal critique of family values 42 David Cameron should scrap his tired old script Iain Martin urges the embattled Prime Minister to reject the Clinton-Blair legacy and find his own voice 30 How bad religion drives out good Melanie Phillips leads the charge against the blind intolerance of the new secular prophets 60 Betrayed by Günter Grass Mara Delius is disillusioned by the author she looked up to as a girl 19

Dispatches Andrew Roberts in New York reports on the battle between the Supreme Court and the White House over Obamacare 28

Features Hijacking the human rights debate Michael Pinto-Duschinsky reveals how Nick Clegg’s placemen brook no opposition to their constitutional plans 34 Obama’s Leviathan threatens liberty George Weigel says the Catholic Church is united against the President’s assault on religious freedom 44

Civilisation Critique David Womersley explores Samuel Beckett’s great linguistic dilemma 50

Books Roger Scruton on How England Made the English by Harry Mount; John Ware on Europe’s Angry Muslims by Robert S. Leiken; Tibor Fischer on Just Send Me Word by Orlando Figes; Ruth Dudley Edwards on The New Republic by Lionel Shriver, Bloody Sunday: Truths, Lies and the Saville Inquiry by Douglas Murray and Belfast and Derry in Revolt: A New History of the Start of The Troubles by Simon Prince and Geoffrey Warner; Derwent May on Nefertiti in the Flak Tower by Clive James 53

Critics Music Norman Lebrecht is disconcerted by the deficiencies of classical downloads 66

Art Michael Prodger charts change in monarchical art 67

Theatre Anne McElvoy applauds Cate Blanchett’s London return 68

Film Peter Whittle is not amused by today’s movies 70

Television Nick Cohen attacks those who poured cold water on White Heat 71

Cosmos Mark Ronan is inspired by the ingenuity of Babylonian astronomers 72

Drawing Board David Gentleman An artist’s year in London 76

Overrated/Underrated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei/Cyrus the Great by Con Coughlin and Daniel Johnson 78

Chess Dominic Lawson A brief history of time trouble 80

Wine Saintsbury finds drink at the heart of the drama in Othello 81

Culture & Anarchy Simon Heffer laments the passing of Yorkshire cricket’s real men 82

Drawing Board: David Gentleman, 76

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