September 2009 Issue 15

Manchester Square 5

Counterpoints Unstatesmanlike views; Chávez clamps down; Equally stupid; Republican rift; Sadism sells; Randall’s debt 12 Columns On the contrary Lionel Shriver muses on the tortured King of Pop 18 Points East & West Emanuele Ottolenghi says Iran was always hell bent on the Bomb 20 The Outsider Douglas Murray highlights the latest hypocrisies of Westminster 21 Living History Michael Burleigh sees a terrorist threat close to home 22 European Eye Mara Delius finds that the German election is a pudding without a theme 23 Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg on the illegitimate birth of Britain’s new Supreme Court 24 Marketplace Tim Congdon wants to restrain the regulators 25 Letters Oswald Mosley’s anti-Semitism 27 The Mole Inside the murky world of private tutors 28 Little Platoons The Free Word Centre 29 Dispatches Peter Stanford in Lisieux investigates the global phenomenon of relics 30 R.W. Johnson in South Africa on the ANC’s utopian health plans 33

Andrew Roberts and George Weindenfeld 34

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Dialogue Booking a place in history Lord Weidenfeld looks back over his first 90 years with Andrew Roberts 34

Features Jonathan Sacks: Making the case for my people Daniel Johnson interviews the Chief Rabbi 40

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Women betrayed A veil of silence over murder Clive James asks why we tolerate the intolerable 44 Turning a blind eye to misogyny Nick Cohen condemns those who refuse to speak up against oppression 50 A mad call to arms Shmuel Bar explains why a nuclear Middle East won’t follow the Cold War paradigm 54 The decline and fall industry Bryan Ward-Perkins wonders what seven recent books on the end of the Roman Empire tell us about ourselves 58 Must try harder Susan Hill calls for a curriculum that reflects the best of our culture 62 Thank God for a good education Ellen Alpsten finds salvation in a London church school 64 Civilisation Critique Samuel Johnson and the character of Englishness Jonathan Bate salutes our greatest prose stylist 68

Books Allan Massie on The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings; Laurence Rees on The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts; Caroline Moore on Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing by Michael Slater; Conrad Black on Kissinger’s Year: 1973 by Alistair Horne; John McEwen on John Piper, Myfanwy Piper, Lives in Art by Frances Spalding; Louis Amis on A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks 71 Music Jessica Duchen sings the praises of amateur choirs 79 Art Michael Prodger hails the sublime confidence of Turner 80 Theatre Minette Marrin says you can’t keep Shakespeare down 81 Film Peter Whittle is surprised to find a straight Dorian Gray 82 Television Nick Cohen is not amused by Mock the Week 83 Imagination Party Lines Daisy Waugh reports from the West London pandemic; Whatever by Peter Blegvad 84 Cosmos John Stein demands better state schools to boost social mobility 87 Text Ingo Schulze Oranges and Angel: A new short story 88 Drawing Board Marianne Fox Ockinga 94 Overrated/Underrated Henry Louis Gates by Robert Messenger and Thomas Sowell by Roger Kimball 96 Chess Dominic Lawson celebrates Viktor Korchnoi, the veteran’s veteran 98

COVER ILLUSTRATION byandrécariliho www.standpointmag.co.uk

Standpoint

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