A collection of Donald McGill postcards, some of which were banned more than 50 years ago, has gone on display at a new museum devoted to his work in Ryde on the Isle of Wight
BRITAINThe Clegg-Ignatieff coalition of cousins In July, Canadian opposition leader (and Prospect contributor) Michael Ignatieff took the opportunity of a trip to Britain for his daughter's graduation to meet up with Britain's deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg. With talk of a potential coalition between Ignatieff's Liberals and the rival New Democratic party dominating Canadian politics, Nick doubtless had some sound power-sharing tips. But the two men have more in common than politics: they're also cousins, via Clegg's paternal grandmother, descended from Russian nobles who fled after the October 1917 revolution. There's a political pedigree there too: Ignatieff's grandfather, Count Paul Ignatieff, served as the last tsar's minister of education between 1915 and 1917, while Clegg's great-great-grandfather, Ignatiy Platonovich Zakrevsky, was a noted 19th-century political liberal, dismissed as a senator by Tsar Nicholas II for excessive free-thinking. A family lesson, perhaps, in exercising caution while working for conservative rulers? Too clever to be left-wing? It's often argued that higher education sharpens one's social conscience. But might it simply grant a better class of self-delusion? A study from Leicester University's economics department made waves recently with the claim that highly educated people tend to think of themselves as left wing even when they hold conservative views. Based on data from the World Values Survey, following over 136,000 individuals across 20 years, economics lecturer James Rockey examined people's feelings about whether "incomes should be made more equal," and compared this to factors like age, income, education and gender. His conclusion? While the wealthy tend both to hold right-wing views and identify themselves as right wing, the most educated people are likely to label themselves left wingers—even if their views on income equality would make Margaret Thatcher blush. The power of Papal precedents When Pope Benedict XVI arrives on these shores on 16th September, he will find himself facing not only the faithful, but a secular choir clamouring for his arrest, writes Will Robinson. An unprecedented case of disrespect bred by modern irreligion? Hardly. Even leaving aside Britain's centuries-long tradition of murderous Protestant intent towards pontiffs, this kind of thing was quite the norm in the middle ages. Take the saintly Celestine V (July-December 1294), the last pope voluntarily to resign from office. By all accounts he was a genuinely pleasant individual. But the octogenarian was also so unfit for purpose that even the Catholic Encyclopedia admits its amazement at "how many serious mistakes the simple old man crowded into five short months." Before long the cardinals were sick to death of him—and Celestine decided to retire into solitude. Things got worse after that. In his place, the cardinals got Boniface VIII (1294-1303), whose ruthless ambition extended to imprisoning his hapless predecessor and declaring himself a supreme ruler whom "every human creature" must obey. King Philip IV of France objected, and duly engineered Boniface's removal, with a combination of force and accusations of such heinous crimes as sodomy and masturbation. After humiliation and capture, it's alleged that His Holiness killed himself by "gnawing through his own arm." Though today's situation might seem troubling for Pope Benedict, these vignettes may help put his woes into perspective. National policing: an overdue force for good I'm pretty certain, writes Robert McFarland, that AL Goodhart—the grandfather of Prospect's editor and author of a memorandum of dissent from the 1962 Royal Commission on the Police—would have felt vindicated by the key proposals in the government's recent paper "Policing in the 21st century." Coverage has focused on the Tory manifesto pledge to introduce elected police commissioners. More significantly, though, the coalition has proposed a separation of local policing from a new, single national force—something reformers have long argued for. But this government's proposed route is fresh. What seems likely to emerge is a two-tier policing structure similar to many western democratic jurisdictions. There is to be a national crime agency, with prime responsibility for national, international and border policing; leaving the existing 43 forces to provide local policing as well as vital logistical support to the NCA. These radical changes have been driven by two imperatives: the longstanding disquiet of central government and policemen over the failings of the national services, and the chancellor's demand for significant savings on the bloated police budget. Interestingly, the Lib Dems have emasculated the original Tory manifesto commitment to introduce directly elected commissioners, by insisting that commissioners are overseen by local authority-led police and crime panels. Commissioners will be placed under a strong duty to collaborate with other forces and the NCA—the result of which will be commissioners paralysed by competing accountabilities, much like the authorities they're intended to replace. Common sense points to a discreet U-turn on commissioners. Nevertheless, the overall proposals should enable the government to meet their laudable objective of transferring control over local policing policy and priorities to communities. The government deserves a fair wind when the police reform and social responsibility bill is introduced in the autumn. EUROPECiao Berlusconi?
Gianfranco Fini, president of the Italian parliament and the third most senior official in the Italian state, has over the past two decades moved far from his neo-fascist roots, writes John Lloyd. First, he changed his party's name and sought to purge it of fascism and antisemitism. Then he merged it with Berlusconi's party—while continuing to redefine himself as a new-born liberal, criticising the PM on many issues including a proposed law that would put journalists in jail for publishing leaked phone taps. Fini now appears to be making his move against Berlusconi: just before the summer, he formed a group of some 30 deputies who are poised to vote against Berlusconi's party despite remaining within it, potentially depriving Berlusconi of his parliamentary majority. Berlusconi promptly unleashed his attack dog, Vittorio Feltri, editor of the family newspaper Il Giornale. The paper dug up a scandal around the brother of Fini's partner who, it transpired, had rented at minimal cost a luxury apartment belonging to Fini's party. Opinion is divided on whether this scandal finishes Fini's challenge—or if Berlusconi has overreached himself. Come September, a trial of strength will begin once more. Berlusconi has been wounded, but shouldn't be counted out. Italy has a ruthlessly populist billionaire media oligarch for a leader, opposed from within by a former fascist. The leftist opposition is weak and divided, while the president presiding over it all is a former communist. A bad year lies ahead for the peninsula. INTERNATIONALPakistan's aid crisis
The floods that struck Pakistan in July have affected more lives than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined: over 20m people. Yet aid has scarcely begun to flow. Sixteen days after the tsunami, over $1.4bn had been committed; after the Haiti earthquake, $1bn, compared to just $200m after the same period today. Why? There's talk of both "compassion fatigue" and suspicion: Pakistan—the world's second-largest Muslim country—has a reputation tainted by extremism and government mismanagement. Then there's the flooding itself: as the US regional envoy, Richard Holbrooke, put it, "floods, unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, are not sudden catastrophes... They're rolling crises, which grow and are initially underestimated." Couple this to global recession and you have a perfect storm: a worsening crisis, a trickle of cash and concern, and no end in sight. BOOKSLiterary personality wars
Gabriel Josipovici, former Weidenfeld professor of comparative literature at Oxford, made headlines this August with his new book What Ever Happened to Modernism? According to the Guardian, Josipovici argues that luminaries like Amis, Rushdie, McEwan and Barnes are little better than "prep-school boys showing off." Pretty unequivocal stuff? Not according to a letter from Josipovici in the TLS on 13th August. In "the Guardian piece ostensibly concerned with my new book," he claimed, "the journalist took a few sentences... robbed those words of their nuance and context, and, on the basis of three telephone conversations in which I tried in vain to explain to her that I was not interested in personalities but in certain large and general literary and cultural issues, passed the whole thing off as an interview... Ironically, one of the points the book was making was that the English were so obsessed with turning every issue into one of personality that serious debate of cultural questions was now almost impossible." Ouch.
What's coming up7th September Mercury music prize 18th-22nd September Liberal Democrat conference, Liverpool 19th September Swedish parliamentary elections 26th-30th September Labour conference, Manchester
BRITAINThe Clegg-Ignatieff coalition of cousins In July, Canadian opposition leader (and Prospect contributor) Michael Ignatieff took the opportunity of a trip to Britain for his daughter's graduation to meet up with Britain's deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg. With talk of a potential coalition between Ignatieff's Liberals and the rival New Democratic party dominating Canadian politics, Nick doubtless had some sound power-sharing tips. But the two men have more in common than politics: they're also cousins, via Clegg's paternal grandmother, descended from Russian nobles who fled after the October 1917 revolution. There's a political pedigree there too: Ignatieff's grandfather, Count Paul Ignatieff, served as the last tsar's minister of education between 1915 and 1917, while Clegg's great-great-grandfather, Ignatiy Platonovich Zakrevsky, was a noted 19th-century political liberal, dismissed as a senator by Tsar Nicholas II for excessive free-thinking. A family lesson, perhaps, in exercising caution while working for conservative rulers? Too clever to be left-wing? It's often argued that higher education sharpens one's social conscience. But might it simply grant a better class of self-delusion? A study from Leicester University's economics department made waves recently with the claim that highly educated people tend to think of themselves as left wing even when they hold conservative views. Based on data from the World Values Survey, following over 136,000 individuals across 20 years, economics lecturer James Rockey examined people's feelings about whether "incomes should be made more equal," and compared this to factors like age, income, education and gender. His conclusion? While the wealthy tend both to hold right-wing views and identify themselves as right wing, the most educated people are likely to label themselves left wingers—even if their views on income equality would make Margaret Thatcher blush. The power of Papal precedents When Pope Benedict XVI arrives on these shores on 16th September, he will find himself facing not only the faithful, but a secular choir clamouring for his arrest, writes Will Robinson. An unprecedented case of disrespect bred by modern irreligion? Hardly. Even leaving aside Britain's centuries-long tradition of murderous Protestant intent towards pontiffs, this kind of thing was quite the norm in the middle ages. Take the saintly Celestine V (July-December 1294), the last pope voluntarily to resign from office. By all accounts he was a genuinely pleasant individual. But the octogenarian was also so unfit for purpose that even the Catholic Encyclopedia admits its amazement at "how many serious mistakes the simple old man crowded into five short months." Before long the cardinals were sick to death of him—and Celestine decided to retire into solitude. Things got worse after that. In his place, the cardinals got Boniface VIII (1294-1303), whose ruthless ambition extended to imprisoning his hapless predecessor and declaring himself a supreme ruler whom "every human creature" must obey. King Philip IV of France objected, and duly engineered Boniface's removal, with a combination of force and accusations of such heinous crimes as sodomy and masturbation. After humiliation and capture, it's alleged that His Holiness killed himself by "gnawing through his own arm." Though today's situation might seem troubling for Pope Benedict, these vignettes may help put his woes into perspective. National policing: an overdue force for good I'm pretty certain, writes Robert McFarland, that AL Goodhart—the grandfather of Prospect's editor and author of a memorandum of dissent from the 1962 Royal Commission on the Police—would have felt vindicated by the key proposals in the government's recent paper "Policing in the 21st century." Coverage has focused on the Tory manifesto pledge to introduce elected police commissioners. More significantly, though, the coalition has proposed a separation of local policing from a new, single national force—something reformers have long argued for. But this government's proposed route is fresh. What seems likely to emerge is a two-tier policing structure similar to many western democratic jurisdictions. There is to be a national crime agency, with prime responsibility for national, international and border policing; leaving the existing 43 forces to provide local policing as well as vital logistical support to the NCA. These radical changes have been driven by two imperatives: the longstanding disquiet of central government and policemen over the failings of the national services, and the chancellor's demand for significant savings on the bloated police budget. Interestingly, the Lib Dems have emasculated the original Tory manifesto commitment to introduce directly elected commissioners, by insisting that commissioners are overseen by local authority-led police and crime panels. Commissioners will be placed under a strong duty to collaborate with other forces and the NCA—the result of which will be commissioners paralysed by competing accountabilities, much like the authorities they're intended to replace. Common sense points to a discreet U-turn on commissioners. Nevertheless, the overall proposals should enable the government to meet their laudable objective of transferring control over local policing policy and priorities to communities. The government deserves a fair wind when the police reform and social responsibility bill is introduced in the autumn. EUROPECiao Berlusconi?
Gianfranco Fini, president of the Italian parliament and the third most senior official in the Italian state, has over the past two decades moved far from his neo-fascist roots, writes John Lloyd. First, he changed his party's name and sought to purge it of fascism and antisemitism. Then he merged it with Berlusconi's party—while continuing to redefine himself as a new-born liberal, criticising the PM on many issues including a proposed law that would put journalists in jail for publishing leaked phone taps. Fini now appears to be making his move against Berlusconi: just before the summer, he formed a group of some 30 deputies who are poised to vote against Berlusconi's party despite remaining within it, potentially depriving Berlusconi of his parliamentary majority. Berlusconi promptly unleashed his attack dog, Vittorio Feltri, editor of the family newspaper Il Giornale. The paper dug up a scandal around the brother of Fini's partner who, it transpired, had rented at minimal cost a luxury apartment belonging to Fini's party. Opinion is divided on whether this scandal finishes Fini's challenge—or if Berlusconi has overreached himself. Come September, a trial of strength will begin once more. Berlusconi has been wounded, but shouldn't be counted out. Italy has a ruthlessly populist billionaire media oligarch for a leader, opposed from within by a former fascist. The leftist opposition is weak and divided, while the president presiding over it all is a former communist. A bad year lies ahead for the peninsula. INTERNATIONALPakistan's aid crisis
The floods that struck Pakistan in July have affected more lives than the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined: over 20m people. Yet aid has scarcely begun to flow. Sixteen days after the tsunami, over $1.4bn had been committed; after the Haiti earthquake, $1bn, compared to just $200m after the same period today. Why? There's talk of both "compassion fatigue" and suspicion: Pakistan—the world's second-largest Muslim country—has a reputation tainted by extremism and government mismanagement. Then there's the flooding itself: as the US regional envoy, Richard Holbrooke, put it, "floods, unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, are not sudden catastrophes... They're rolling crises, which grow and are initially underestimated." Couple this to global recession and you have a perfect storm: a worsening crisis, a trickle of cash and concern, and no end in sight. BOOKSLiterary personality wars
Gabriel Josipovici, former Weidenfeld professor of comparative literature at Oxford, made headlines this August with his new book What Ever Happened to Modernism? According to the Guardian, Josipovici argues that luminaries like Amis, Rushdie, McEwan and Barnes are little better than "prep-school boys showing off." Pretty unequivocal stuff? Not according to a letter from Josipovici in the TLS on 13th August. In "the Guardian piece ostensibly concerned with my new book," he claimed, "the journalist took a few sentences... robbed those words of their nuance and context, and, on the basis of three telephone conversations in which I tried in vain to explain to her that I was not interested in personalities but in certain large and general literary and cultural issues, passed the whole thing off as an interview... Ironically, one of the points the book was making was that the English were so obsessed with turning every issue into one of personality that serious debate of cultural questions was now almost impossible." Ouch.
What's coming up7th September Mercury music prize 18th-22nd September Liberal Democrat conference, Liverpool 19th September Swedish parliamentary elections 26th-30th September Labour conference, Manchester
