Contributors

Katharine Birbalsingh is the author of To Miss with Love (Penguin). Her Free School in south London, Michaela Community School, is due to open in September 2012. Michael Burleigh is completing a global history of the Cold War 1945-65, to be published next spring. Christopher Caldwell is a senior editor at the Weekly Standard and a columnist for the Financial Times. His book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe was published by Doubleday in 2009. Nick Cohen is a columnist for the Observer. Fourth Estate will publish his You Can’t Read This Book: Censorship in an Age of Freedom in January. Tim Congdon is chairman of the Freedom Association. His new book, Money in a Free Society, is published this month by Encounter Books. John Cottingham is Professorial Research Fellow at Heythrop College, University of London. His books include The Spiritual Dimension and Why Believe? Mara Delius is a writer and editor for the culture section of Die Welt. Jessica Duchen is a music journalist, biographer and novelist. Richard Evans is the Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge. Tibor Fischer’s next work of fiction, Crushed Mexican Spiders, will appear under the imprint of Unbound Books, the internet subscription publisher. Jonathan Foreman is a senior research fellow at the Civitas thinktank and former Deputy Editor of Standpoint. David Free is an Australian novelist and critic. His latest novel is A Dancing Bear. Simon Heffer is Editor of Mail Comment online and writes for the Daily Mail. His book on English usage, Strictly English is out now in paperback (Windmill). Jeremy Jennings is Professor of Political Theory at Queen Mary, University of London. He has recently published Revolution and the Republic: A History of Political Thought in France Since the Eighteenth Century (OUP). Sir Ian Kershaw was Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield until his retirement in 2008. He is the author of a two-volume biography of Hitler. Dominic Lawson is a columnist for the Sunday Times and the Independent. Iain Martin is a political columnist for the Daily Mail. He was formerly editor of the Scotsman and deputy editor of the Sunday Telegraph and Wall Street Journal Europe. Joseph Loconte is author of the forthcoming Stranger than Paradise: A Conversation about Heaven, Hope, and the End of History (Thomas Nelson). Justin Marozzi is a travel writer, historian

Christopher Caldwell

Katharine Birbalsingh

Simon Heffer

David Free

Jonathan Sacks

Iain Martin

Anne McElvoy

Ian Kershaw

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and political risk adviser. He is researching a history of Baghdad. Anne McElvoy presents the arts programme Night Waves on BBC Radio 3. Douglas Murray is Associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society. Emanuele Ottolenghi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies and the author of Pasdaran: The Army of the Guardians of the Revolution, published this month by FDD Press. Sir Geoffrey Owen is an academic at the London School of Economics and former editor of the Financial Times. His most recent book, The Rise and Fall of Great Companies, was published by OUP in 2010. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky is a member of the Commission on a Bill of Rights. He was honorary academic adviser to Claims for Jewish Slave Labour Compensation. Michael Prodger is an art historian and former literary editor of the Sunday Telegraph. Steve Pyke’s photographs are regularly featured in the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Mark Ronan runs Mark Ronan’s Theatre Reviews, an online review site with an emphasis on opera. Joshua Rozenberg is an independent legal commentator who presents Law in Action on BBC Radio 4. Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, was created a life peer in 2009. His most recent book, The Great Partnership (Hodder), is reviewed by John Cottingham on page 68. Lionel Shriver’s most recent novel, So Much for That, was a finalist for the 2010 US National Book Awards. The film of her novel, We Need to Talk About Kevin, opens in the UK in October. Daisy Waugh is a columnist for the Sunday Times. Her most recent novel, Last Dance With Valentino, was published in February. David Womersley is the Thomas Warton Professor of English at the University of Oxford. His new edition of Gulliver’s Travels will be published by CUP next year. Peter Whittle is director of the New Culture Forum. His latest book is Monarchy Matters (SAU). With thanks to Alice Hancock

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. September 2011 Issue 35

Manchester Square 7 10 years after September 11, 2001

Counterpoints Hope for Libya; Remembering John Stott; Steyn fights the good fight; Moscow martyr; A Wagnerian soap opera 10

Letters Don’t knock Rowan Williams; Peter Singer’s standards; Chinese lessons; David Garnett’s best novel? 14

Toepfer and the Holocaust: An Exchange Richard J. Evans/Michael Pinto-Duschinsky 16

Columns Party Lines Daisy Waugh overhears the great debate on the London looters 19 On the Contrary Lionel Shriver refuses to let the mad and the bad shake her convictions 21 Points East & West Emanuele Ottolenghi queries double standards on Libya and Syria 22 The Outsider Douglas Murray urges post-riot reforms for British institutions 23 Living History Michael Burleigh denounces the postBreivik blame game 24 Jurisprudence Joshua Rozenberg looks at the huge task faced by the judge heading the phonehacking inquiry 25 European Eye Mara Delius finds that jitters in the US are spreading ripples across the pond 27 Open Season Geoffrey Owen argues that the chains of Communism are shackling Russian progress 28

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Civilisation Critique David Womersley enjoys Cynthia Ozick’s reworking of themes from Henry James 61

An old hatred returns Christopher Caldwell charts the comeback of anti-Semitism in France 32

In Memoriam 9/11 Reversing the decline of the West Jonathan Sacks urges our society to believe in itself again, a decade after the attacks 42 New poem Daniel Johnson Manhattan Elegy 41 Teaching rioters the right lessons Katharine Birbalsingh believes the English Baccalaureate offers schools a welcome academic rigour 48

Dispatches David Free in Sydney reports that a ticket for a burqa-clad driver became a national controversy 30

Features Burdening the banks will sink the recovery—and the Tories Tim Congdon warns George Osborne to be wary of the Vickers review 38 How liberals and looters trashed my town Peter Whittle goes back to Woolwich and finds his birthplace unrecognisable 44 Cameron can come out fighting—or throw in the towel Iain Martin says the PM has a golden opportunity to impose his social agenda 50 The what-ifs of the last days of Hitler Ian Kershaw explores the options that could have curtailed World War Two 54

Books Daniel Johnson on The Appointment by Herta Müller; Perlmann’s Silence by Pascal Mercier and The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes; Tibor Fischer on Rome by Robert Hughes; John Cottingham on The Great Partnership by Jonathan Sacks; Jeremy Jennings on Contesting Democracy by Jan Werner Müller 65 Music Jessica Duchen longs for the festival mood to last beyond the summer 70

Art Michael Prodger contemplates two forgotten British artists at Tate Britain 71

Film Peter Whittle says Almodóvar’s new offering doesn’t make the cut 72 Television Nick Cohen sympathises with dramatists stifled by BBC bureaucrats 73

Theatre Anne McElvoy is thrilled by a lithe Jude Law’s Eugene O’Neill revival 75

Drawing Board Steve Pyke Portraits of Philosophers 76

Overrated/Underrated Seumas Milne/Theodore Dalrymple by Michael Mosbacher and Jonathan Foreman 78

Chess Dominic Lawson revels in the competitive passions of amateur chess 80 Wine Saintsbury mulls over a vintage pichet of Pinter 81 Culture & Anarchy Simon Heffer admires Nikolaus Pevsner’s love affair with England 82

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