Contents
regulars 8 Prospect recommends The pick of the month’s events by
nick james, emma crichtonmiller, nick crowe, john nathan, judith mackrell & ben lewis 12 Diary Cut parliament in half plus brian
eno on the death of theory, nigel warburton on old age & stephen nickell on the resource curse. 18 Letters
plus stephen collins’s cartoon strip.
Lisbon wrangling. manneken pis 27 China café Muted 60th celebrations. mark kittocover story The climate change special begins after p48 3 Eleven days in December Meet the insiders at the Copenhagen summit. sam knight
opinions 20 A farewell to arms Stop buying weapons and save the
army instead. lewis page 21 Remember Netscape, Bill? Rich philanthropists should take
more risks. elizabeth pisani 22 How we got the Soviets wrong
We overestimated the charms of Marxism. peregrine worsthorne 23 Suffrage, but not for me
Why didn’t Gertrude Bell back votes for women? kitty fitzgerald 24 Why Turner is right
Financial markets need a transactions tax. john eatwellcorrespondents25 Washington watch The new Newt Gingrich. renegade 26 Brussels diary
12 The big green issues
alex renton looks at population control, isabel hilton reports from China and India, vijay joshi asks who should pay & anna shepard has green living fatigue.
17 A mountain to climb Can we capture and bury carbon
emissions? damian kahya 21 Interview: Ed Miliband The energy and climate change
secretary talks to Prospect.
arts & books 55 Through a story, darkly The dangerous borderlands that lie
between fiction and memoir. julie myerson 56 Who’s afraid of the avant-garde?
Why we “get” modern art but not avant-garde music. philip ball 58 Private view
Frank Auerbach. ben lewis 59 The bestselling persuaders Behavioural economics is wearing a
little thin. tom chatfield 60 Imagine there’s no Stalin
and finally 77 Enigmas & puzzles ian stewart 77 Coming up & online 78 The generalist didymus 79 The Prospect listfeatures28 How power changed a president Despite successes in a bruising first year, Obama’s promise of change remains unfulfilled, and his country as divided as ever. james crabtree plus philip bobbitt on the president’s plan for foreign policy. 36 Twenty years in the making Despite the lingering sense that east Germans are second-class citizens, the former GDR has come an amazingly long way. anne mcelvoy 40 A house of sorrow and secrets Althorp, family seat of the Spencers and Princess Diana’s final resting place, is a monument to family treachery and the casual cruelty of the upper classes. julie burchill 44 How to really hug a hoodie A controversial project in Glasgow is tackling gang violence. But is there the political will to roll it out across the country? gavin knight 49 Why Britain can’t do The Wire British television drama is controlled by a monopoly—the BC—which is stifling innovation. peter jukes plus kabir chibber interviews David Simon, co-creator of The WirecolumnIStS 7 If I ruled the world Let’s have your organs. sam leith 10 Political notes Declining again. david goodhart 53 Sporting life Defending defence. david goldblatt 80 Dear Wilhemina My partner’s like Alan Partridge’s dad.
What would have happened had Trotsky led the Soviet Union? victor sebestyen 62 Smallscreen Crime programmes are going
gruesome. peter bazalgette 64 Performance notes
Domingo’s ambition. martin kettle 66 The first summer
An ex-offender’s life danny kruger 66 Strange meetings Three diary extracts. ian irvine 67 Widescreen
A fledgling filmmaker. mark cousins
FICTION 68 The Girt Pike
A story by louis de berni�res
november 2009 · prospect · 5
