November 2011 Issue 37

Manchester Square The Coptic Kristallnacht 5

Counterpoints Intervention ambivalence; Borderline rude; AV OTT; Independent thought 10

Letters Seumas Milne denies Stalinism; Rights and sovereignty; Bogarde in France 14

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Columns Party Lines Daisy Waugh listens in to the continuing debate on human rights 15 Free at last Katharine Birbalsingh sees a site for her free school sold from under her nose 16 The Outsider’s Diary Douglas Murray laments Liam Fox’s departure and admires the eloquence of a former child-slave 17 On the Contrary Lionel Shriver reports from Ed Miliband’s booming Britain of 2021 18 Points East & West Emanuele Ottolenghi does not buy Europe’s cry of “Never Again!” 20 Living History Michael Burleigh is critical of growing Chinese influence in Africa 21 Marketplace Tim Congdon baulks at the imposition of a new banking bureaucracy 22 Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg finds the wording on a passport politically prickly 23 European Eye Mara Delius discovers that intellectual life is thriving in one corner of Germany 24 Open Season Peter Whittle addresses Britain’s immigration taboo 27

Gotcha! Geoffrey Robertson warns that the freedom of the press is up for grabs at the Leveson inquiry 32 The repentant Europhile: Max Hastings Conrad Black gives the former Telegraph editor some career advice 36

US Dispatch Andrew Roberts, in his new column from America, explains why Chris Christie (above) and Sarah Palin aren’t running for president 28

David Cameron’s difficulties with girls Daniel Johnson asks if the Prime Minister knows what women want 38

Dispatches Shehryar Fazli, in Pakistan, praises the role of underground booksellers 30

Features Iain Martin thinks Scots are disenchanted with the EU—and Alex Salmond 42 Paul Collier says the English class war has ended with the poor deprived of higher culture or aspirations 44

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Civilisation Critique David Womersley shows how Philip Larkin’s love letters reveal him maturing as a poet 51

Books Anthony Julius on The People of the Book: Philosemitism in England from Cromwell to Churchill by Gertrude Himmelfarb; Daniel Johnson on Dangerous Ambition: Rebecca West and Dorothy Thompson by Susan Hertog; Madeleine Minson on 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami; David Barrett on The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don DeLillo; Alice Hancock on New Selected Stories by Alice Munro 55

Text Daniel Johnson The Mythology of Decline: America and Europe aren’t finished yet 60 Clive James Five New Poems 64

Critics Cosmos Mark Ronan reports on physicsdefying neutrinos 68

Music Norman Lebrecht believes the cult of the conductor has had its day 70

Art Michael Prodger marvels at Leonardo’s pursuit of perfection 71

Film Peter Whittle has not caught the Contagion bug 72

Television Nick Cohen blames artists for not capitalising on the crisis of capitalism 73

Theatre Anne McElvoy is charmed by a Yorkshire King Lear 74

Drawing Board Marcus Bleasdale Photographs from the Democratic Republic of the Congo 76

Overrated/Underrated Robert Burns/James Boswell by Allan Massie 78

Chess Dominic Lawson savours the Anglophilia of a Russian grandmaster 80

Wine Saintsbury finds reading Zola’s L’Assommoir a sobering experience 81 Culture & Anarchy Simon Heffer isn’t bowled over by today’s county cricket 82

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