In the magazine this month
September 2010
The first state visit by a Pope is dogged by scandal, but Britons should relish this unique encounter with an extraordinary man
On May 13, 2004, a septuagenarian German intellectual gave a lecture in the Capital Room of the Italian Senate. Ironies — or at least paradoxes — abounded. The lecturer was a Catholic priest and bishop; the modern Italian state had been born in a decades-long spasm of anti-clericalism. The lecturer, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was known throughout the world as the living embodiment of Catholic orthodoxy. The man who had invited him to speak, Senate president Marcello Pera, was a non-believer and a philosopher of science in the school of Karl Popper. Cardinal Ratzinger chose as his topic, "The Spiritual Roots of Europe: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow". As he spoke, Europe was nearing the end of a fierce, year-long debate over whether biblical religion had had anything to do with what was noble in Europe's past, or might have something important to say about Europe's present or future.
WILLIAM HORSLEY
The EU is in decline, but with a pragmatic approach it can reshape itself on the Anglo-Saxon model
MICHAEL PINTO-DUSCHINSKY
Next year’s referendum on the Alternative Vote offers no real alternative to First Past the Post
NICK COHEN
They swoon at the feet of Tariq Ramadan and pour scorn on those who question his motives, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali
RAYMOND TALLIS AND ROGER SCRUTON
The neuroscientist Raymond Tallis and the philosopher Roger Scruton discuss the human condition with the Editor of Standpoint, Daniel Johnson
DANIEL JOHNSON DOUGLAS MURRAY EMANUELE OTTOLENGHI TIM CONGDON JOSHUA ROZENBERG LIONEL SHRIVER MARA DELIUS MICHAEL BURLEIGH RUTH DUDLEY EDWARDS ANONYMOUS FRANCES WEAVER MARK RONAN DOMINIC LAWSON DAISY WAUGH |
ANTHONY O'HEAR
HELEN SZAMUELY
DAVID WOMERSLEY
SPIKE VRUSHO
NICK REDGROVE
DANIEL JOHNSON
CLAIRE BERLINSKI
R.W. JOHNSON
MIRIAM GROSS
CLIVE JAMES
