March 2018

March 2018 issue

What does it mean to have "free speech"? Afua Hirsch, Lionel Shriver, Hugh Tomlinson and two student journalists take you behind the new culture wars in the March issue of Prospect. Plus: Mary Beard, Stephen Pinker and John Curtice on a second EU refe...

Past issues

Essays

Draw me like one of your ancient Greeks

Mary Beard: How our western body image tyranny began with the ancient Greeks

Writers blocked: how the new call-out culture is killing fiction

Miriam by Hassan Hajjaj (2010) from Don't Panic, I'm Islamic ed by Lynn Gaspard, a new collection of stories and images by Muslims. Photo: copyright Hassan Hajjaj

The good Muslim delusion

Activists march in support of the New York Times. But is the British press also under threat? Photo: PA

Why it's time for a British First Amendment to protect free speech

The Vote Leave bus. Photo: PA

Lies, damn lies and statistics: the top three times politicians fudged the numbers

Peter Tatchell speaks at The Huffington Post UK Soapbox event at Westfield Stratford. Photo: PA

How it feels to be on the frontline of the free speech wars

FRANCE, Paris: A protesters speaks into a megaphone as hundreds of students march in Paris on November 22, 2017 to protest against a reform on university entry requirements. NEWZULU/Ugo Padovani

The kids are alright: the truth behind the university "free speech" uproar

Marta Santiváñez and Emma Yeomans

Snake, trash and vegetable: the surprising history of today's offensive slurs

Simon Lancaster

Confessions of a number-cruncher: this is what we get wrong about statistics

2 our of 3 Britons believe people are too easily offended by language use. Photo: Prospect composite

Free speech? New polling suggests Britain is "less PC" than Trump's America

Afua Hirsch speaking on a panel. Photo: courtesy of the author

The fantasy of "free speech"

Regulars

Stephen Collins's cartoon: Millennials

Stephen Collins

The Prospect editorial: The argument argument

Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire/PA Images

Can the private sector make services run better?

Frances O’Grady & Mark Wallace

Speed data: just how much appetite is there for a second EU referendum?

The Prospect Puzzle: March 2018

The Prospect Crossword: March 2018

Opinions

When I was a lass, politics was just showbiz. Photo: REX SHUTTERSTOCK, PIERRE VILLARD/SIPA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Lay off the boomers—our current mess is all down to Generation X

Catherine Deneuve is just one of the actresses who has criticised

Liberty, equality, patriarchy: why so many French women are opposed to #metoo

A group dance of the janggu, a traditional Korean double-headed drum, takes place during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games. Photo: PA

Korean games: for citizens in the South, maybe it’s time to pack that escape bag

Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey leaves No 10. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/PA Images

“Untenable human costs”: a new report reveals the shocking cruelty of Britain's disability benefits

Arts & Books

Photo: REX SHUTTERSTOCK

Immigrants are not a threat to European democracy—but the extreme right-wing reaction to them could be

Daniel Trilling

God might forgive a killer, but can we? (Pixabay)

The church minister who was also a murderer

Elizabeth Oldfield

Let there be light: An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby (1768). PHOTO12/UIG VIA GETTY IMAGES

Steven Pinker's new book is a compelling manifesto for optimism

Battle over history: Aboriginal embassy (Pixabay)

Peter Carey's reckoning with Australia's genocidal past

Writers blocked: how the new call-out culture is killing fiction

Photo: NurPhoto/SIPA USA/PA Images

What happens to Europe when the UK leaves?

David Ben-Gurion speaking at the Knesset, 1957 (Israeli National Archives)

Ian Black is aware of Ben-Gurion's myth making—so why can't his new book step outside it?

Nicholas Blincoe

Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann on the set of Cries and Whispers.

A hundred years after his birth, it's time to acknowledge Bergman's debt to his female stars

Jordan Peterson interviewed on Channel 4 news. Photo: YouTube screengrab

Jordan Peterson's macho mysticism is exhausting—and not a little scary

"Outreach" can be a double-edged sword. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Michael Reeve

Beyond outreach: inside the fight for classical music's future

The madness of his method: behind the singular talent of Daniel Day-Lewis

Society and Culture

The story of Sicily's people is in its food

Wendell Steavenson

Why the language of "Remain" was always second best

There's one big question that all my patients ask me: "am I normal?"