CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
ANDREW BROWN is writing abookon sociobiology
ARCHIE BROWN isafellowofStAntony’s College, Oxford. Hisbook The Gorbachev Factor (OUP)wontheWJMMackenzieprize and theAlecNoveprize
JEREMY CLARKE is afreelancewriter
LESLEY DOWNER isajournalist andauthor ofthe The Brothers: The story of theRichest Family in Japan (Chatto andWindus)
JOACHIM FEST isahistorian and author of Plotting Hitler’s Death (Phoenix)
WINSTON FLETCHER is chairmanofDelaney Fletcher Bozell
AC GRAYLING isworkingon abiographyof William Hazlitt
CAR HILLS iseditor of PEN News
OLIVER JAMES is theauthorof Britain on the Couch (Century)
JOSEF JOFFE iseditorial pageeditor and columnist oftheSuddeutsche Zeitung
JOHN KAY is PeterMooresDirectorat the SaidBusinessSchool, Oxford
SUNIL KHILNANI teaches at BirkbeckCollege, Londonand is the authorof The Idea of India (Penguin)
ANGELA LAMBERT isajournalist and the author of Kiss and Kin (Bantam)
ANATOL LIEVEN iseditorofStrategicComments at the IISSand authorof Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (YaleUniversity Press)
EDWARD LUCE isEuromarkets correspondent for the Financial Times
MICHAEL MEACHER isminister for the environment and iscurrently chair ofthe European EnvironmentCouncil
PANKAJ MISHRA isawriter based inNew Delhi andSimlaandtheauthorofButterChicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India
JOHN PLENDER writes for the Financial Times
KATHARINE QUARMBY isaproduceron Newsnight
FREDERIC RAPHAEL is anovelist
PETER RUTLAND isprofessor ofgovernment atWesleyanUniversityinConnecticut
CHARLES SAUMAREZ SMITH isdirector of theNational Portrait Gallery
NICOLAS WALTER is director of TheSecular Society
PETER WAYNE isawriter presently at Blakenhurst prison
TOM WILKIE is headofthebiomedicalethics programmeattheWellcomeTrust and formerscienceeditorofthe Independent
JOHN WILLMAN isconsumer industries editor at the Financial Times
2 PROSPECT July 1998
Prosped:
Issue thirty-two July 1998
Wrong again. Page 8
OPINIONS 8 FRANK AND FALSE NICOLAS WALTER Facts are not easy. Doris Lessing should know that. 9 IS GAZZA NECESSARY? OLIVER JAMES Must gifted people be emotionally deranged? 10 GIRL POWER IN CHINA LESLEY DOWNER China’s one-child policy has liberated women.
Material girl. Page 10
12 THE PRICE OF COHESION JOHN WILLMAN The only way to retain a national health service is to make people pay.
Cash injection. Page 12
14 BLAMING YELTSIN ANATOL LIEVEN There will be no Russian boom so long as Yeltsin remains in power. 16 DEBATE-. INDIA’S DANGEROUS IDEA PANKAJ MISHRA AND SUNIL KHILNANI Does India have legitimate security interests which justify nuclear testing?
The big bang. Page 16
ESSAYS 20 LORDS OF CREATION TOM WILKIE Genetic research is leading to important medical breakthroughs. Should genes be patentable—or are they part of our common heritage? 25 AGE OF UNCERTAINTY EDWARD LUCE Even orthodox economists now question the wisdom of a fully liberalised global capital market. But what sort of regulation is required?
Global solutions. Page 25
31 EVOLUTIONARY POLITICS JOHN KAY The search for the third way must begin by abandoning teleological politics. The “big idea” is that there is no big idea.
