Things may have been relatively quiet here at First Drafts over the Christmas break, but elsewhere Prospect has continued to lead the news. Not only was there a maelstrom of gossip generated from the Paul McCartney interview, but we elbowed in on weightier matters too. Taking their cue from our Top Public Intellectuals of 2008, this weekend's Sunday Times News Review led with a portrait of Prospect's man of the hour: General David Petraeus. The poll was picked up in the Indy the following day as well. Meanwhile, the Economist chased the tail of the government's apparent volte-face on transport policy, as outlined by Andrew Adonis in this month's opinion piece, "All Change." And Prospect-generated wisdom has even spread as far as Antipodean shores: the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday quoted at length from Robert Skidelsky's cover story, with a ringing endorsement: "This [article] is too elegant to cut and paraphrase." Naturally, we think so too.
