Jonathan Derbyshire
Prospect Magazine
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Jonathan:
Myths and morals: a conversation with Edward Mendelson
In 1975, Saul Bellow published an essay entitled “Starting Out in Chicago”. His subject was the distance between the “din of politics,” the sheer amount of “noise” generated by the culture, and the “quiet zone” of contemplation that, he believed, was the condition of genuine thought. “The enemy,” Bellow wrote, “is noise. By noise I mean not simply the noise of technology, the noise of money or… → Read More
Ian Kershaw—the fall and rise of modern Europe
Women celebrate celebrating the liberation of Denmark in Copenhagen, 5 May 1945 ©National Museum of Denmark The historian Ian Kershaw is the author of an acclaimed two-volume biography of Hitler. His latest book, “To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949”, is the first in a two-volume history of modern Europe (and is part of Penguin’s “History of Europe” series, edited by David Cannadine). This volume… → Read More
The big ideas of 2016: the Great Default
Since the Second World War, governments in liberal democracies have maintained a compact with voters, making generous provision for old age pensions, healthcare and education. This has been one of the sources of their legitimacy. Today, however, under a range of pressures, particularly demographic ones (see below, “The Alzheimer’s economy”), governments across the developed world are… → Read More
The big ideas of 2016: bipolar Britain
George Osborne, the Chancellor wants to transform Britain’s economic geography. In this vision of our urban future, the “north-south divide” will be a thing of the past. Britain, or England at any rate, will no longer be a unipolar country, in which London sucks money and talent inexorably southwards—it will be bipolar. Just as towns across the southeast of England have been drawn into London’s… → Read More
Interview: Paul Mason’s guide to a post-capitalist future
Prophet of post-capitalism: Paul Mason (Photo: Antonio Olmos) Reporting for Channel 4 News on the most recent phase of the crisis in Greece, Paul Mason achieved near-ubiquity: Mason talking to Alexis Tsipras and other members of Syriza; Mason in his shirtsleeves doing a piece to camera in front of the Greek central bank; Mason dodging missiles in yet another confrontation between anarchists and… → Read More
How to beat Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen’s Front National is on course to win several regions in Sunday’s election In June 2013, the French Parti Socialiste (PS) lost a parliamentary by-election in Villeneuve-sur-Lot in the southwest of France. The PS had been defending the seat previously occupied by Jérôme Cahuzac, the former budget minister who was forced to resign from the government of François Hollande in April of… → Read More
The big ideas of 2016: the Great Default
Since the Second World War, governments in liberal democracies have maintained a compact with voters, making generous provision for old age pensions, healthcare and education. This has been one of the sources of their legitimacy. Today, however, under a range of pressures, particularly demographic ones (see below, “The Alzheimer’s economy”), governments across the developed world are… → Read More
Dani Rodrik: when economics works and when it doesn’t
Are economists too fond of their mathematical models? (Photo: Collections École Polytechnique / Jérémy Barande via Wikimedia Commons) The economist Dani Rodrik, a professor at Harvard, recently spent a couple of years at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. In his new book, “Economics Rules: Why Economics Works, When it Fails, and How to Tell the Difference,” he recalls just what a… → Read More
Carillion collapse: A contract too far?
Construction giant Carillion has collapsed. In 2014, Jonathan Derbyshire asked: are the firms that take on the government’s work just too big? → Read More