CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
NEAL ASCHERSON’s most recent book is The Black Sea (Vintage)
GRAHAM BENDEL is a writer living in London
PAUL BROKS is a clinical neuropsychologist. His book Into the Silent Land will be published in May 2002 (Atlantic Books)
BARRY BUZAN is professor of international studies at the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster
MARK COUSINS presents Scene by Scene and Moviedrome on BBC2
MATTHEW d’ANCONA is deputy editor of the Sunday Telegraph
LAWRENCE FREEDMAN is professor of war studies at King’s College, London, and author of The Cold fVar (Cassell)
JOHN GRAY is professor of European thought at the LSE. He is the author of The Two Faces of Liberalism (Polity)
TONY GRAYLING wrote the forthcoming IPPR publication, Getting back on track
DAVID HANNAY is former British ambassador to the UN and EU
JIM HOLT is a writer living in New York
KATE JENNINGS is the author of Snake. Her new book, Moral Hazard, is published in April 2002 by 4th Estate
GAVIN KELLY is research director of the Institute of Public Policy Research
TIM KING is a film-maker living in France. He is currently working on his third novel
COSMO LANDESMAN is film critic of the Sunday Times
JULIAN LE GRAND is the Richard Titmuss professor of social policy at the LSE
ANATOL LIEVEN is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC
MICHAEL LIND is a a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and a poet
MAGNUS LINKLATER is a columnist for The Times and Scotland on Sunday
JOHN LLOYD is a journalist and author of The Protest Ethic (Demos)
SARFRAZ MANZOOR is a producer for Channel Four News
BEN ROGERS co-authored the pamphlet “Religious Schools: the case against” (Humanist Philosopher’s Group)
KAMILA SHAMSIE is the author of Salt and Saffron (Bloomsbury) and In the City by the Sea (Granta)
2 PROSPECT December 20U1
c o n t e n t s Issue sixty-nine December 2001
OPINIONS 10 Henry’s fall NEAL ASCHERSON Far from weakening devolution, Henry McLeish’s resignation may help Scotland loosen its Westminster ties.
11 Harmless fun COSMO LANDESMAN September 11th proves that celebrity culture hasn’t corrupted society.
12 Divine schooling BEN ROGERS The promotion of faith in religious schools undermines liberal values of autonomy and tolerance.
14 The end o f Nato ANATOL LIEVEN The lessons of the war on terror: Nato is almost worthless and Europe must now defend itself.
PORTRAIT Magnus Linklater on
Harry Evans and the 1970s
16 Profitless railway TONY GRAYLING Britain’s railways are in better shape than they appear. A new not-for-profit network regulator is the way forward.
ESSAYS 30 Fictional business KATE JENNINGS Literary history teems with the fantastic lives of money men. Why do so many novelists shy away from writing about the world of business?
Moving target
34 Blaming America LAWRENCE FREEDMAN The old-left anti-American litany on Iraq and US support for Israel does not bear close scrutiny. Nor does it help explain Islamic world grievances.
38 Who may we bomb? BARRY BUZAN Do people get the governments they deserve? It is not always possible to distinguish between guilty governments and innocent civilians.
The golden age of the Sunday Times has cast a long shadow. Is it just the nostalgia of old hacks,
or was there something in it?
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SPECIAL REPORT 50 Assets for the people GAVIN KELLY & JULIAN LE GRAND The state subsidises the asset accumulation of the better off. Can “baby bonds" redress the balance and extend asset ownership to all?
