Contributors

Digby Anderson is the founder director of theSocialAffairsUnit.Hismostrecentbook is The English at Table (Social Affairs Unit). Anna Aslanyan is a translator and journalist. She contributes to 3:AM magazine and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Julie Bindel is a journalist, feminist campaigner and co-editor of The Map of My Life: TheStoryofEmmaHumphreys(AstraiaPress). Peter Blegvad teaches Creative Writing at Warwick University. Michael Burleigh is Professor of History at the University of Buckingham. His latest book, Moral Combat: AHistory ofWorldWar II, is published by HarperPress. Nick Cohen is a columnist for the Observer. He blogs on politics at standpointmag.co. uk/nick-cohen Tim Congdon is an economist and CEO of International Monetary Research Ltd. Robert Conquest is a historian, poet and political philosopher. His latest collection of poems is Penultimata. As “Jeff Chaucer”, his book of, and about, limericks, A Garden of Erses, is published by Orchises. Francis Davis is a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, and has advised the Labour and Coalition governments. Mara Delius writes for the culture section of Die Welt. She lives in Washington, DC. Leon de Winter is a novelist and columnist for De Telegraaf and Elsevier Magazine in TheNetherlands.Hismostrecentnovel,The Right of Return, is set in Tel Aviv in 2024. Jessica Duchen is a music journalist, biographer and novelist. She blogs on music at standpointmag.co.uk/jessica-duchen Joseph Epstein’s latest book, The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff and Other Stories, is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Father Dermot Fenlon, the author of Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter-Reformation, has published extensively on 16th-century Italian religious history. He is finishing a volume of essays on Cardinal Newman. Tibor Fischer’s novel Good to be God is out in paperback. James Hannam is a historian and the author of God’s Philosophers: HowtheMedieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (Icon), shortlisted for theRoyalSociety Prize for Science Books 2010. He is working on a book about the English Reformation. Patrick Heren is a journalist who specialises in competitive energy markets. He is the founder of Heren Energy (now ICIS Heren). Daniel Hitchens is an undergraduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Nichi Hodgson is an editorial assistant  at the Law Society  and a freelance writer on arts, culture and sexuality. Karen Horn is an economist, author and director of the Berlin office of the Institut der deutschenWirtschaft,aneconomicinstitute.

Anna Aslanyan

Fr Dermot Fenlon

Nichi Hodgson

Joseph Epstein

Leon de Winter

Karen Horn

Francis Davis

Julie Bindel

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October 2010

Jeremy Jennings is Professor of Political Theory at Queen Mary, University of London. He will shortly be publishing a history of French political thought from the 18th century. Paul Johnson’s latest book, Brief Lives, waspublished in June byHutchinson. He is writing a life of Socrates. Ben Judah is a Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He specialises in Russian and Central Asian affairs. Dominic Lawson is a columnist for the Sunday Times and the Independent and the author of a book on the battle for the world chess championship, The Inner Game (Hardinge Simpole). Noel Malcolm is a Senior Research Fellow at All SoulsCollege, Oxford.Heis the authorofKosovo: A Short History (Pan) and Aspects of Hobbes (Clarendon). Minette Marrin is awriter, broadcaster and columnist for the Sunday Times. Allan Massie has recently published two books: a family history of The Royal Stuarts (Jonathan Cape), and a novel, Death in Bordeaux (Quartet). Douglas Murray is director of the Centre for Social Cohesion. Emanuele Ottolenghi is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies. Michael Prodger is literary editor of the Sunday Telegraph. Joshua Rozenberg  presents Law in Action on BBC Radio 4. He writes a blog on legal affairs at standpointmag.co.uk/law Lionel Shriver’s latest novel, SoMuchforThat, is published by HarperCollins. Norman Stone is Professor of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara, and also lives inOxford. His book, TheAtlantic and its Enemies 1945-1991, was published by Penguin. Daisy Waugh writes novels and two columns in the Sunday Times. FrancesWeaveristhewebeditorandcolumnist of Standpoint. GeorgeWeigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Centre. His latest book is The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (Doubleday). Peter Whittle is Standpoint’s film critic and the 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 October 2010 Issue 26

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Manchester Square 5 CounterpointsTrashtalk;German taboos; Womenand the cuts; Privatise the Beeb; Weighty matters; Nutty notions 8 Columns Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg says Lord Bingham was a truly great judge 15 On the contrary Lionel Shriver speaks her mind on Islam 16 TheOutsider Douglas Murray is surprised to find that he prefers the Pope to his assailants 18 Living History Michael Burleigh calls Mao’s apologists to account 20 Points East &West Emanuele Ottolenghi accuses Europe of kneejerk responses to the Middle East 21 Marketplace Tim Congdon thinks Germany has shown up the US in the economic crisis 22 European Eye MaraDelius encounters America’s new politics at a Tea Party rally 24 WebSightings Frances Weaver follows a new feminist trend on Twitter 27

Dispatches Ben Judah in Xinjiang investigates the Muslim Uighurs under siege 28

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Books Paul Johnson on A Journey by Tony Blair; Noel Malcolm on The Servile Mind: How Democracy Erodes the Moral Life by Kenneth Minogue; Tibor Fischer on Politics and the Novel During the Cold War by David Caute; Jeremy Jennings on The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s by Richard Wolin; Patrick Heren on Nemesis by Philip Roth; and Robert Low on The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson 53

The new battle of Britain Why the world needs a younger Winston Daniel Johnson appeals to today’s leaders to emulate Churchill 32 Features My journey from Den Bosch to LA Leon de Winter recalls his Jewish upbringing in southern Holland 36 At the heart of the Big Society Francis Davis is enthused by David Cameron’s plans to refashion Britain’s moral foundations 40 The Mole Our insider in cricket calls for a life ban on match fixers 26

Features Yes sir, that’s my ‘Gaybe’ Julie Bindel reports on how same-sex couples demand designer babies 42 Can Kasparov checkmate Putin? Anna Aslanyan interviews the champion of Russian democracy 44 Friends and saints: Newman’s last mystery Dermot Fenlon explores the dying Cardinal’s final testament 46

Civilisation Critique Allan Massie introduces an 18th-century deist with a message for today’s aggressive atheists 50

Cosmos James Hannamexamines Galileo’s relationship with God 62

Television Nick Cohen makes an unashamed plea for French elitism 63

Music Jessica Duchen wants live music to be just that 64

Theatre Minette Marrin enjoys an entertaining history lesson 65

Film Peter Whittle fails to love Julia Roberts’s latest 66

Art Michael Prodger says Gauguin was both poseur and genius 67 Drawing Board Michael Prodger previews the V&A’s exhibition of Raphael’s cartoons and tapestries 68

TextJoseph Epstein Widow’s Pique: A new short story 70 Robert Conquest Getting On: A new poem 76 Imagination Party Lines by Daisy Waugh; Whatever by Peter Blegvad: The Saga of Smit &Smule continues 78

Overrated/Underrated Ralph Miliband/Ernest Gellner by Daniel Johnson 80 ChessDominic Lawson on Anatoly Karpov, Soviet hero turned Kremlin critic 82

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