Contents COLUMNS Letters 8 Helen Joyce Happy to be a heretic 6 Law Yuan Yi Zhu: On international law 9 Woman about Town Lisa Hilton: Brought to book 10 Nova’s diary Dave lords it 11 Serious business Ned: “Reputational risk” is rot 12 Everyday Lies Theodore Dalrymple: No choice 27 Sounding Board Marcus Walker: The baddies who don’t know they are ... 32 Arty Types D.J. Taylor on The Committee of the Edwin Savage Society 39 Economics Tim Congdon: Boom and bust redux 44 My Woke World Titania McGrath: Saving Gaza with a Queer intifada 51 Romeo Coates Wanted: dead or alive? 84
Adam Dant on … The Political Year
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FEATUR E S Whitehall in the thick of it David Scullion recalls the Civil Service’s determination to do nothing the government asks of it 14 There is still no pandemic plan Benjamin Lewis says the Covid inquiry is not asking the right questions 17 Planning to fail Johnny Leavesley asks why we are opposed to new housing when the population is rapidly growing 20
Kenya’s history rewritten David Elstein argues that Mau Mau death figures based on incorrect reasoning are now accepted as fact 22 Sweden’s failed liberal project Håkan Boström on why a country once hailed as a model of moderation now faces gun violence and bombings 28 A radical right-wing trio Gavin Mortimer compares three up-and-coming French politicians 33 France’s philosopher king Laurent Lemasson reflects on Michel Houellebecq’s critiques of sexual liberation and his dissolute lifestyle 36 Burning effigies for the Man Esmé Partridge believes the 1973 film The Wicker Man is an ironic masterpiece exposing the paradox of paganism 40 The humanity of Horace Llewelyn Morgan hymns the timeless work of the great Latin poet 42 How to deface a national treasure David Butterfield laments the wrecking of Cambridge’s historic cityscape 45 How does anything ever get built? Robert Adam asks how we can solve the housing shortage when faced with the huge increase in building regulations 49 STUDIO Helen Barrett : The Crystal Palace Subway 58
BOOKS George Woudhuysen: Justinian: Emperor, Soldier, Saint by Peter Sarris 58 Samuel Rubinstein: What Was Shakespeare Really Like? by Sir Stanley Wells 61 Christopher Bray: The Secret Life of John Le Carré by Adam Sisman; Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare 62 Sebastian Milbank: Plato of Athens: A Life in Philosophy by Robin Waterfield; The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic by Jean-Manuel Roubineau 64 John Adamson: Oxfordshire: Oxford and the South-East by Simon Bradley, Nikolaus Pevsner and Jennifer Sherwood 66 Patrick Mercer: Victory to Defeat : The British Army 1918-40 by Richard Dannatt and Robert Lyman; Uncivil War: The British Army and the Troubles, 1966-1975 by Huw Bennett 68 Nina Power: The Two-Parent Privilege by Melissa S. Kearney 69 James Orr: Free and Equal: What Would a Fair Society Look Like? by Daniel Chandler 70 Robert Hutton: The Plot : The Political Assassination of Boris Johnson by Nadine Dorries 73 Christopher Montgomery: The Right to Rule: Thirteen Years, Five Prime Ministers and the Implosion of the Tories by Ben Riley-Smith; Covenant : The New Politics of Home, Neighbourhood and Nation by Danny Kruger; The Case for the Centre Right edited by David Gauke; The Abuse of Power: Confronting Injustice in Public Life by Theresa May 74 Inaya Folarin Iman: The Psychosis of Whiteness: Surviving the Insanity of a Racist World by Kehinde Andrews 76 Victoria Smith: Toxic: Women, Fame and the Noughties by Sarah Ditum 78 Daniel Johnson: The best non-fiction books of the year 79 John Self : The year’s best fiction 81 THE SECRET AUTHOR The bad old days ... 83
the critic 4 Dec 23 | JAN 24
