Contributors

Claire Berlinski is an Istanbul-based American freelance journalist and novelist. She is author of Menace in Europe: Why the Continent’s Crisis is America’s, Too and There is no Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters (Basic Books). Julie Bindel is a journalist and feminist. She is the  co-editor of The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys (Astraia Press). Peter Blegvad teaches Creative Writing at Warwick University. Michael Burleigh is Professor of History at the University of Buckingham. His latest book, Moral Combat: A History of World War II, is published by HarperPress. Nick Cohen is a columnist for the Observer. Tim Congdon is an economist and CEO of International Monetary Research. John Cottingham is Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, London, and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. His latest book is Why Believe? (Continuum). Mara Delius writes for the culture section of Die Welt. She lives in New York. Jessica Duchen is a music journalist, biographer and novelist. She blogs on music at standpointmag.co.uk/jessica-duchen Ruth Dudley Edwards is an historian, crime-writer and journalist. Sheis theauthor of the prize-winning Aftermath: The Omagh Bombing and the Families’ Pursuit of Justice (Vintage). Tibor Fischer’s latest novel, Good to be God, is out in paperback from Alma Books. Miriam Gross is the former senior editor of Standpoint and is on its advisory board. She was literary editor of the Sunday Telegraph, 1991-2005. Clive Head is a realist painter. His work will be displayed in Clive Head: Modern Perspectives, at the National Gallery from October 13. William Horsley is a former BBC correspondent covering Europe. Clive James’s recent books of prose are The Revolt of the Pendulum and The Blaze of Obscurity, published by Picador last year along with Opal Sunset, a volume of poems. R. W. Johnson is a South African journalist and historian. He is the author of South Africa’s Brave NewWorld: The Beloved Country Since the End of Apartheid (Penguin). Conrad Leyser is Fellow and Tutor in History at Worcester College, Oxford. He is the author of Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great (OUP). Tim Montgomerie is the co-founder of the Conservative Christian Fellowship and editor of the ConservativeHome website. Anthony O’Hear is the Weston Professor of Philosophy at the University of Buckingham. Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies. Melanie Phillips is a columnist for the Daily Mail. Her latest book is The World

Claire Berlinski

Tibor Fischer

Miriam Gross

John Cottingham

George Weigel

Ruth Dudley Edwards

Conrad Leyser

Melanie Phillips

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September 2010

Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth and Power (Encounter). Michael Pinto-Duschinsky is an academic and member of the board of directors of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. He is author of Send the Rascals Packing: Defects of Proportional Representation and the Virtues of the Westminster Model. Michael Prodger is literary editor of the Sunday Telegraph. Nick Redgrove is a graduate of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Mark Ronan  is Honorary Professor of Mathematics at University College London and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Joshua Rozenberg  presents Law in Action on BBC Radio 4. He writes a blog on legal affairs at standpointmag.co.uk/law Roger Scruton is Visiting Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Oxford and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. His book, The Uses of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope, was published in June by Atlantic. Helen Szamuely is the Editor of the Conservative History Journal. Raymond Tallis is a retired physician and academic. His forthcoming book, Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Mispresentation of Mankind,  will be published by Atlantic next year. J. W. M. Thompson was Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, 1976-86, and before that was Deputy Editor of the Spectator. Spike Vrusho is a journalist and taxidriver. He is the author of Benchclearing: Baseball’s Greatest Fights and Riots (The Lyons Press) and lives in Rhinebeck, New York. George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center. He has recently completed his two-volume biography of Pope John Paul II with the publication of The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (Doubleday). David Womersley is the Thomas Warton Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. Special thanks to Kate Moore

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 September 2010 Issue 25

C A R R I L HO

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C OV E R

Manchester Square 5 CounterpointsHayek’sshockjock; Forgotten Muslims; Undrinkable vintages; Chelsea blues; Classical training; A Trollope for today 8 Columns Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg says judges must be politically independent 15 European Eye Mara Delius advocates old-style journalistic courage 16 On the contrary Lionel Shriver deplores American hypocrisy on immigration 17 The Outsider Douglas Murray accuses David Cameron of calculated ignorance on foreign policy 18 Living History Michael Burleigh remembers an unjustly forgotten war 20 Points East & West Emanuele Ottolenghi questions the ultimate aim of sanctions on Iran 21 Marketplace Tim Congdon explains how taxpayers will benefit from the banking crisis 22 Open Season Ruth Dudley Edwards defends three banished Catholic clerics 23 The Mole Our Labour insider sizes up the leadership contenders 24

Web Sightings Frances Weaver wonders whether WikiLeaks was right to release thousands of secret documents 25 Letters Toby Young on school selection; Robert Fox on defence cuts 31

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Speaker cornered Britain can benefit from Benedict George Weigel urges the UK to heed the embattled Pope 38 Dispatches Press freedom under threat Claire Berlinski in Turkey and R. W. Johnson in South Africa report on the muzzling of the media 26

Text Miriam Gross evokes her childhood in Jerusalem 70 Feature Radical Islam’s fellow-travellers Nick Cohen takes on Tariq Ramadan’s intellectual allies 46

Dialogue Staving off despair: on the use and abuse of pessimism for life Roger Scruton and Raymond Tallis discuss the human condition 32

Features Britain’s chance to reinvent Europe William Horsley outlines a strategy that could save the EU 42 Let’s keep throwing the rascals out Michael Pinto-Duschinsky shows that the Alternative Vote is no alternative to First Past the Post 44 CivilisationCritiqueJohnCottingham explains why we can’t just replace God with Nature 52

Books J. W. M. Thompson on State of Emergency: The Way We Were: Britain, 1970-1974 by Dominic Sandbrook and Edward Heath: The Authorised Biography by Philip Ziegler; David Womersley on Hugh Trevor-Roper: The Biography by Adam Sisman; Conrad Leyser on Emperor of the West: Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire by Hywel Williams; Melanie Phillips on Running Commentary: The Contentious Magazine that Transformed the Jewish Left into the Neoconservative Right by Benjamin Balint; and Tibor Fischer on The Misogynist by Piers Paul Read and Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes 56

Cosmos Mark Ronan hopes the spirit of Bletchley Park lives on 64

Television Nick Cohen says the BBC has lost the plot when it comes to drama 65

Music Jessica Duchen fears for the future of summer festivals 66

Art Michael Prodger profiles a pioneer with homicidal tendencies 67

Film Peter Whittle reviews the best of the new DVDs 68

Theatre Minette Marrin finds much still resonates in Danton’s Death 69

TextClive James New poems 74 Imagination Party Lines by Daisy Waugh; Whatever by Peter Blegvad: The Saga of Smit & Smule continues 76

Drawing Board Clive Head previews his forthcoming National Gallery exhibition 78

Overrated/Underrated Caroline Lucas by Julie Bindel Iain Duncan Smith by Tim Montgomerie 80 ChessDominic Lawson celebrates a Viking grandmaster’s marauding spirit 82

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