April 2021 issue
The future of the UK seems perpetually in peril. As Andrew Marr argues in this month’s cover story, nothing is inevitable about Scotland’s breakaway, but London’s complacence is making it more likely. Also in this issue: Jill Rutter explores how...
Past issues
© Mike Turner
Politics
Break-up Britain: Andrew Marr on the imperilled state of the Union
Forget the froth. Deep tides are now pushing Scotland its own way, and washing against the very idea of the UK
Andrew Marr
Illustration by Ian Morris
Philosophy
Should a lawyer ever refuse to act in an unpleasant case?
Recent examples have brought an old legal and philosophical question back to the fore
DAT Green
Photo: Pixabay
Society
The duel: Is the pandemic killing God?
Lucy Winkett & James Ball
Photo: © Rex Shutterstock
Society
Homeschooling has revealed the absurdity of England’s national curriculum
My eight-year-old daughter is being called to spot expanded noun phrases. My 11-year-old son fills in checklists of "success criteria." Are we raising children or robots?
Eliane Glaser
Photo: ESIREE MARTIN/AFP via Getty Images
Culture
The mind of God? The problem with deifying Stephen Hawking
A new biography argues the iconic physicist was shamelessly self-promoting and his reputation overrated
Philip Ball
Up Front
Photo: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
What you need to know about QAnon
Emily Lawford
In data: what are Britain’s fisheries gaining from Brexit?
David McAllister
Illustration by Ian Morris
Taxing more from the rich is difficult. This is how to do it
James Galbraith
© Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo
There is no justification for borders in normal times. Post-pandemic, let’s abolish them
Maya Goodfellow
Letters: April 2021
Prospect Team
Stephen Collins's cartoon: Boris—The Loveable Boy
Stephen Collins
Illustration by Ian Morris
Should a lawyer ever refuse to act in an unpleasant case?
DAT Green
Italian prime minister Mario Draghi. Photo: Independent Photo Agency Srl / Alamy Stock Photo
Salvation by banker: why Mario Draghi will not save Italy
Lucia Rubinelli
Photo: Pixabay
The duel: Is the pandemic killing God?
Lucy Winkett & James Ball
The Prospect editorial—when borders matter
Tom Clark
Essays
© Mike Turner
Break-up Britain: Andrew Marr on the imperilled state of the Union
Andrew Marr
Illustration: © Hayley Warnham
RIP PLC: the rise of the ghost corporation
John Kay
Photo: © Romeo Gacad/AFP via Getty Images
The battle to revolutionise food
Wendell Steavenson
French president Emmanuel Macron during a video conference on 23rd February 2021 © Abaca Press / Alamy Stock Photo
Emmanuel Macron promised a new French liberalism. Now he’s crushing it
Pauline Bock
How is Brexit for you?
Jill Rutter
Four Brexit red tape horror stories
Lisa O'Carroll
Tunnel vision: Highway 60 is part of a burgeoning West Bank road network that’s being used to entrench Greater Israel © Quique Kierszenbaum
Road to nowhere: Behind the headlines in Israel/Palestine
Donald Macintyre
Critical Thinkng
Photo: © Rex Shutterstock
Homeschooling has revealed the absurdity of England’s national curriculum
Eliane Glaser
© BBC
How Adam Curtis gets into your head
Arron Merat
Photo: ESIREE MARTIN/AFP via Getty Images
The mind of God? The problem with deifying Stephen Hawking
Philip Ball
War among the ruins: Russian soldiers look on towards Palmyra in 2016. Photo: FRIEDEMANN KOHLER/dpa/alamy stock photo
Palmyra and the myth of civilisation
Sameer Rahim
Illustration: Kate Hazell
What it's like to be a pigeon
Cal Flyn
For Queen and commerce: the Tory Party owes much of its success to synthesising opposing values. Photo: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
Conservatism: the longest view
David Willetts
Ishiguro’s AI tale for our times
Miranda France
Arts & Books
© BBC
How Adam Curtis gets into your head
Arron Merat
Photo: ESIREE MARTIN/AFP via Getty Images
The mind of God? The problem with deifying Stephen Hawking
Philip Ball
War among the ruins: Russian soldiers look on towards Palmyra in 2016. Photo: FRIEDEMANN KOHLER/dpa/alamy stock photo
Palmyra and the myth of civilisation
Sameer Rahim
For Queen and commerce: the Tory Party owes much of its success to synthesising opposing values. Photo: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
Conservatism: the longest view
David Willetts
Ishiguro’s AI tale for our times
Miranda France
Arthur Conan Doyle on the case Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo
Arthur Conan Doyle and the case of the wronged Parsee
Emily Lawford
A statue of Robert —Clive of India—in Shrewbury Square, Shropshire, his home county Credit: Alamy
What the British Empire did to us
Alex Peake-Tomkinson
A computer simulation of a human embryo at six weeks Credit: Science Photo Library / Alamy Stock Photo
The beautiful science of embryology
Kate Womersley
Jonathan Sumption in his Supreme Court Chambers in 2012 (Bobbo's Pix / Alamy Stock Photo)
Why Sumption-sceptics should look again
Alex Dean
Photo: Ⓒ Matthew Brodie
The best classical and opera in the UK to stream this April
Alexandra Coghlan
Photo: Courtsey of Tobias Dautmas and Sony Pictures
The best films to stream in the UK this April
Wendy Ide
The Battersea poltergeist apparently haunted 15-year-old Shirley Hitchings and her family in South London from 1956 to 1968. Image: BBC
The best new podcasts in the UK this April
Charlotte Runcie
© Nick Taylor
Brief encounter: Val McDermid
Prospect Team
Netflix's new series The One imagines a future where your soulmate could be found through DNA matching Image: Netflix
The best television shows in the UK this April
Chris Harvey
Policy & Money
Photo: Brazil Photo Press / Alamy Stock Photo
From free exchange to gender equality
Ranil Jayawardena
The Department for International Trade. Photo: Joe / Alamy Stock Photo
Policy report: the fraught business of trading-off priorities
Tom Clark
Boris Johnson greeting the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, back in January 2020. The government’s recent trade agreement with Egypt has paid little heed to its human rights abuses. Photo: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock
No deal should trade away human rights
Emily Thornberry
Image: Klaus Ohlenschlaeger / Alamy Stock Photo
Is the stock market in a bubble? What investors need to know
Paul Wallace
Image: Paul Rushton / Alamy Stock Photo
How I learned to stop worrying and love the bubble
Andy Davis
And Finally
Prospect puzzle and crossword—April 2021
Prospect Team
© Nick Taylor
Brief encounter: Val McDermid
Prospect Team
There is a ritual to letter-writing—and letter-reading, too—that feels sacred. Illustration: Hannah Berry
How lockdown revived the handwritten letter
Hephzibah Anderson
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