The Social Affairs Unit - Web Review http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ The Social Affairs Unit identifies research with a potential to inform public policy and translates it from academic discourse into public debate. The ideas it promotes come largely from historians, sociologists and philosophers but also medical doctors and hard scientists. en-us 2008-07-24T20:00:43+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 A Feminist Farce or a Farce About Feminism? Kenneth Minogue decides that farce is the natural genre for capturing ideology: The Female of the Species - Joanna Murray-Smith http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001835.php Joanna Murray-Smith's The Female of the Species directed by Roger Michell Vaudeville Theatre, London 10th July - 4th October 2008 To every human experience there corresponds its appropriate literary genre. Anything to do with death usually involves tragedy, and the... 1835@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Theatre 2008-07-24T20:00:43+00:00 Israel should stop compromising with terrorism - argues Brendan Simms http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001834.php Brendan Simms - Professor in the History of International Relations at the Centre of International Studies at the University of Cambridge - takes issue with the Israeli government's decision to release Samir Kantar in exchange for the bodies of two... 1834@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ International Relations 2008-07-23T20:26:20+00:00 Fareed Zakaria's latest book illustrates why it is so difficult to write intelligently about the future, argues Jeremy Black: The Post-American World - Fareed Zakaria http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001836.php The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria Pp. 292. London: Allen Lane, 2008 Hardback, £20 Writing about the future is scarcely easy, but the particular exigencies of publishing, especially trade publishing and journalism, make it far more difficult. Judicious reflection requires... 1836@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2008-07-22T20:33:43+00:00 For Private Military Companies to flourish they may have to become much more boring and perhaps less effective enterprises, argues Richard D. North: War Plc: The rise of the new corporate mercenary - Stephen Armstrong http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001829.php War Plc: The rise of the new corporate mercenary by Stephen Armstrong London: Faber and Faber, 2008 Paperback, £14.99 This is a lively and very enjoyable book, and it confounds expectations. It's a story of the cash nexus with fire-power.... 1829@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2008-07-17T18:54:12+00:00 Cameron gets just tough enough on the fat and the poor - argues Richard D. North http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001830.php Good analysis; worthless policies - or that is Richard D. North's take on David Cameron's "Broken Society" speech. I have no idea whether David Cameron's "Broken Society" speech in Glasgow (7th July 2008) was serious. That is, I have no... 1830@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Two Moralities 2008-07-10T18:55:15+00:00 The fact that a book as bad as Human Smoke can get as much attention as it has tells us what is wrong with publishing today, argues Jeremy Black: Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II and the End of Civilization - Nicholson Baker http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001819.php Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II and the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker Pp. 576. London: Simon and Schuster, 2008 Hardback, £20 This deeply-flawed work is important because of what it tells us about a capacity for... 1819@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2008-07-01T19:52:28+00:00 Psychiatric services in Britain are being destroyed by an apparatchik class which has already undermined our schools, univeristies and police service - argues Theodore Dalrymple http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001818.php Psychiatric services are the latest victims of an apparatchik class which is inexorably taking over the public - and, indeed, the private - sector, argues Theodore Dalrymple. When trying to understand wider trends in a society, it is often useful... 1818@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Two Moralities 2008-06-30T13:48:10+00:00 We are lucky to have the Mittals living in London - the Mittal's choice makes one proud to be British, says Richard D. North: Cold Steel: Britain's richest man and the multi-billion dollar battle for a global empire - Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001817.php Cold Steel: Britain's richest man and the multi-billion dollar battle for a global empire by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey London: Little, Brown, 2008 Hardback, £20 The Mittal boy makes good A poor little Indian boy becomes the biggest and... 1817@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2008-06-27T15:49:40+00:00 Farewell to Exams: Lincoln Allison says good bye to forty years of marking scripts http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001814.php Lincoln Allison ruminates on saying farewell to forty years of marking exam scripts - and is cheered to find that his final batch of fifty scripts were as good as any other he had ever read. For most of my... 1814@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Universities 2008-06-26T17:23:03+00:00 Standpoint - The July Issue http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001816.php The July issue of Standpoint, the Social Affairs Unit's new cultural and political magazine edited by Daniel Johnson, will be on the newsstands from Thursday 26th June. Standpoint's second issue includes: Politics: Nigel Lawson and Oliver Letwin take each other... 1816@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Standpoint 2008-06-25T16:02:40+00:00 Portillo's Patter: An Audience with Michael Portillo http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001823.php An Audience with Michael Portillo Northcott Theatre, Exeter 23rd June 2008 My daughter did not wish to go, so I accompanied my wife to see An Audience with Michael Portillo at the Exeter Festival. This was very much a case... 1823@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Theatre 2008-06-24T20:55:37+00:00 Enough Said: The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting at Tate Britain http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001811.php The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting Tate Britain, London 4th June - 31st August 2008 Daily 10am - 5.40pm (last admission 5pm) Pity about the ambiguous title. A splendid collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century British paintings... 1811@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Art 2008-06-24T18:17:12+00:00 The Times History of London, 5th Edition - (Ed.) Hugh Clout http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001824.php The Times History of London, 5th Edition edited by Hugh Clout HarperCollins, 2007 Hardback, £25 The Times History of London is welcome new edition of a historical atlas/illustrated history first published in 1991. The changes relate to new information on... 1824@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ Reviews - Books 2008-06-23T10:00:00+00:00 Democracy's Inconvenient Truth: Joyce Lee Malcolm offers an American Perspective on the Irish "No" http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001812.php Joyce Lee Malcolm - Professor of Legal History at George Mason University - contrasts the democratic and open process leading to the ratification of the US constitution to how a European constitution is being imposed by stealth. In the words... 1812@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ The Future of Politics 2008-06-20T11:51:55+00:00 David Davis's Resignation: To talk of Magna Carta in relation to 42-day detention is pure codswallop - if King John and his Barons were threatened by terrorist attacks, these attackers would unquestionably have been hanged, drawn, and quartered http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001813.php William D. Rubinstein - professor of modern history at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth - takes issue with David Davis's stance on 42-day detention and his decision to resign and fight a by election on the issue. The views expressed... 1813@http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/ The Future of Politics 2008-06-19T12:31:13+00:00