What is to be done?

To coincide with the pre-election public summit, The Battle for Politics, on Saturday 20 March at Goodenough College, London, the Institute of Ideas has launched 21 Pledges for Progress, a challenge to candidates of all parties. And this week on CW, we review two books analysing the current situation and suggesting new directions. Nicky Charlish finds David Willetts’ The Pinch well-intentioned but too reticent when it comes to hard truths. Mark Carrigan is more impressed by Slavoj Žižek’s near-latest, though its deflated prescriptions suggest a daunting task ahead.

In films, Dolan Cummings admires the moral of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and Dan Schneider reflects on Robert Bresson’s rather bleaker, but great 1967 film Mouchette. And in theatre, Miriam Gillinson is convinced by a different London in Random, while Giulia Merlo revels in the London Word Festival.

18 March 2010