Prospect Magazine's list of the UK's Top 100 Public Intellectuals

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the infamous 'drummer from gay dad' article doesn't exactly inspire faith in prospect's own intellectual chops, but here's their list, take aim!

Tariq Ali political campaigner
Martin Amis novelist and critic
Perry Anderson historian
Karen Armstrong historian of religion
Colin Blakemore neurologist and MRC chief executive
Philip Bobbitt theorist of law and conflict
Melvyn Bragg broadcaster and writer
Samuel Brittan economics commentator
Gordon Brown chancellor of the exchequer
Ian Buruma writer on Asian and world affairs
AS Byatt critic and essayist
David Cannadine historian
John Carey literature professor and critic
Linda Colley historian
Robert Cooper diplomat and writer
Michael Craig-Martin conceptual artist and professor
Bernard Crick political writer and citizenship expert
Matthew D'Ancona journalist and writer
Richard Dawkins biologist and scientific polemicist
Terry Eagleton literary theorist
David Elstein television executive
Brian Eno musician and producer
Niall Ferguson historian
Michael Frayn playwright and novelist
Lawrence Freedman professor of war studies
Timothy Garton Ash historian and commentator
Anthony Giddens social and political theorist
Paul Gilroy race and social theorist
Charles Grant director of Centre for European Reform
John Gray political philosopher
AC Grayling philosopher, writer and journalist
David Green director of Civitas
Susan Greenfield pharmacologist and RI director
Germaine Greer writer, academic and feminist
Fred Halliday international relations professor
David Hare playwright
Seamus Heaney poet and essayist
Peter Hennessy historian of government
Christopher Hitchens essayist and contrarian
Eric Hobsbawm historian
Richard Holmes biographer
Michael Howard military historian
Will Hutton chief executive of the Work Foundation
Michael Ignatieff human rights theorist and author
Lisa Jardine historian
Charles Jencks architectural critic
Anatole Kaletsky Times economics commentator
John Kay business economist and academic
Frank Kermode literary critic and writer
Mervyn King Bank of England governor
Thomas Kirkwood professor of medicine
Richard Layard economics professor and policy adviser
Julian Le Grand social policy theorist and policy adviser
James Lovelock scientist and originator of Gaia theory
Noel Malcolm historian
David Marquand writer on politics
Peter Maxwell-Davies composer and conductor
Robert May zoologist and Royal Society president
Ian McEwan novelist
Neil MacGregor director of British Musuem
Mary Midgley moral philosopher
Jonathan Miller theatre director and polymath
George Monbiot columnist and author
Geoff Mulgan Demos founder and policy adviser
VS Naipaul novelist and essayist
Tom Nairn theorist on nationalism
Onora O'Neill philosopher
David Pannick human rights lawyer
Bhikhu Parekh political theorist
Adam Phillips psychotherapist and essayist
Melanie Phillips author and columnist
Philip Pullman children's author
Martin Rees astronomer royal
Matt Ridley science writer
Richard Rogers architect
Steven Rose biologist
WG Runciman social theorist
Salman Rushdie writer
Malise Ruthven writer on religion
Jonathan Sacks chief rabbi
Ziauddin Sardar writer on Islam
Simon Schama historian and broadcaster
Roger Scruton philosopher and writer
Amartya Sen development economist
Gitta Sereny biographer
Robert Skidelsky economics professor
Quentin Skinner historian
David Starkey historian and broadcaster
George Steiner writer and academic
Tom Stoppard playwright
Raymond Tallis physician and writer
Adair Turner economist and policy adviser
Mary Warnock philosopher and public ethicist
David Willetts Conservative politician
Rowan Williams archbishop of Canterbury
Robert Winston fertility expert and broadcaster
Jeanette Winterson novelist
Martin Wolf FT chief economics commentator
Lewis Wolpert developmental biologist and writer
James Wood literary critic

there are two criterion here, 'public' and 'intellectual', and these people need to qualify for both. [public would seem to be defined as 'upper-middle class reading public'.]

― ENRG, Friday, 13 August 2004 08:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I stopped reading at 'Melanie Phillips'.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:15 (twenty-one years ago)

are they listed in order of wealth or who is the most intellectual?

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Snap. Under what grounds does she qualify as an intellectual?

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:17 (twenty-one years ago)

whats a intelectaul?

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:18 (twenty-one years ago)

there is an intellectual Tim but no intellectual Pauls. This is U&K.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Welcome to the self-satisifed smug world of Prospect, where life is just one long fucking dinner party full of cunts.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Will Hutton chief executive of the Work Foundation

I want to be chief executive of the Dossing Around Foundation.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Prospect has published some interesting articles and writers in the past. There are very, very few magazines of this type in the UK. Maybe there's a certain smugness, if so, I can handle it.

I don't agree with almost anything Melanie Phillips has to say but surely she qualifies as an influential public intellectual.

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:31 (twenty-one years ago)

J-Z is quite right that there aren't many outlets, but the problem is that this shortage positively induces an elitist, defensive attitude. I guess prospect is more intellectual than, say the New Statesman, but that is saying very little indeed.

― ENRG, Friday, 13 August 2004 08:35 (twenty-one years ago)

richard dawkins topped the poll when readers voted

― Jay G (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Melanie Phillips qualifies for the ducking stool. Preferably an electrified one.

There's nothing "public" about me and I am intelligent as opposed to "intellectual" so I suppose that explains my absence from this list. Doesn't explain why Paul Morley's not on it, however.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 08:38 (twenty-one years ago)

It's the fact that they glorify in the role and description of intellectual. I've always despised the elitism of the term.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:52 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't really understand a list that has tom nairn *and* roger scruton on it, you know? take sides!

― ENRG, Friday, 13 August 2004 08:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I especially dislike those organic intellectuals - I much prefer the genetically modified ones.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 13 August 2004 08:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Well I'm not sure what's assumed by the word "intellectual" these days - it's a pretty vague term. I imagine it to mean something like "person who writes about society in a thoughtful way". If there's elitism, it's because such people are more likely to be in academia or other elitist organisations that provide a living for "intellectuals". That's a bit inevitable isn't it?

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 13 August 2004 09:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I stopped reading at Michael Howard. Should I look any further?

― Huey (Huey), Friday, 13 August 2004 09:13 (twenty-one years ago)

WHERE'S CHARLES KENNEDY? POLITICAL BIAS SIR!

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 09:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Will Self?

― the neurotic awakening of s (blueski), Friday, 13 August 2004 09:17 (twenty-one years ago)

How come Maxwell Davies gets on there and Birtwistle doesn't? I mean I know they don't get on and everything, but even so...

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 09:21 (twenty-one years ago)

A.N. Wilson?

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 13 August 2004 09:22 (twenty-one years ago)

P. Fox?

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 13 August 2004 09:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Will Self is a fraud. Penman and mark s wz robbed! Erm, we all realize they don't mean *that* Michael Howard right?

― ENRG, Friday, 13 August 2004 09:30 (twenty-one years ago)

People I'm relieved aren't on this list:
N*ck H*rnby
Philip "Make Myself Pregnant I Love Myself So Fucking Much" Hensher
Tracey Emin
Zadie Bastard Smith

Oh and Ben Watson and Esther Leslie wuz also robbed. And Kodwo Eshun!

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 09:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Peter Ackroyd! Iain Sinclair! David Toop!

Enough to compile another list really innit?

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

you really take this seriously.

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 13 August 2004 09:50 (twenty-one years ago)

A.C. Grayling!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh ha ha! My philosophy chums will bust a gut on hearing of this one.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 August 2004 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Exactly - it's not the 100 people with most to say, it's the 100 people who people like us think are the most well-known / popular / most ubiquitous.

People like us - Norf London meejar middle class. You're right JZ about the elitism; my quibble is the type of elitism at work, not the elitism per se. It's such a wanky elitism.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 13 August 2004 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

does christopher hitchens seriously bill himself as "contrarian" now? christ.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

it's not that difficult to understand: 'public intellectuals' = intellectuals (effectively translates as celebrity social commentators) who are in the public eye (effectively translates as the media).

so, AC Grayling's inclusion, despite the disgust of the philosophical fraternity of All Souls Oxford, is perfectly merited.

Don't really see why people have that many gripes with this list. It's politically bipartisan and was one by a natural biologist who's done the most since Darwin to advance the concept of atheism in academic and public circles.

Obv, it would be much enhanced by the presence of a couple of mediocre and entirely ephemeral music journalists like Paul Morley.

― Jay gee (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:11 (twenty-one years ago)

As opposed to mediocre and entirely ephemeral philosophers perhaps?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:13 (twenty-one years ago)

hitchens is probably more deserving of the title contrarian since he started disagreeing with the Guardian reading middle-classes. up till that point, the only people who read his views agreed with him.

that obviously doesn't excuse him from being a cunt tho.

― Jay G (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

if hitchens billed his profession as "cunt" i'd have way more respect for him.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:15 (twenty-one years ago)

whether or not Grayling's mediocre and ephemeral he has had a significant amount of success in bringing philosophy into areas in which it might not previously have been recieved, however diluted.

Morley etc are in polar contrast in that they're writing for a niche audience, which is if anything narrowing and constrictive.

it's the use of the word 'public' which includes the one and relegates the other.

― Jay G (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:16 (twenty-one years ago)

At least Alain de Botton's not on the list. That would have provoked the biggest wave of mass immigration in British intellectual history.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, i'm with you there. there's a difference between dissemination and bastardisation for sure.

― Jay G (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

morley appears in such niche outlets as bbc radio, channel 4, bbc2, the observer; perry anderson (who i actually respect more) appears occasionally in the lrb, and in his own mag nlr, which isn't exactly mass circulation. personally i think if you're going to have people like timothy garton ash, then morely is a shoe-in.

― ENRG, Friday, 13 August 2004 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, sorry, i forgot that Morley got to write the intro to that unbelievable 100 best british list in the OMM. it was great. i'd rate it slightly below the better work of Alex Petridis. He's a nobody, people.

Please explain how his public intellectualism dwarfs Timothy Garton Ash. I'm intrigued.

― Jay G (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

TGA provides a tarnished figleaf for mass murder; Morley writes interestingly about pop music.

― ENRG, Friday, 13 August 2004 10:33 (twenty-one years ago)

That would have provoked the biggest wave of mass immigration in British intellectual history.

emigration?

― toby (tsg20), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

are you capable of understanding that the idea of the list was that it would be politically bipartisan? hence, people whose ideas and arguments have public force may be included whether they come from left or right. improbably enough, this may include both supporters and opposers of wars. even more improbably, not all these people may share or echo your views!

whilst the world would be very nice (banal, stultifying, flat) if the most stretching arguments in the public domain concerned execrable musical lists, that just isn't the case.

― Jay G (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Oops emigration!!!!!!!!!!!! xpost

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 August 2004 10:53 (twenty-one years ago)

jealous Morley haters - do better or shut up.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 11:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Stupid list, even more stupid discussion.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 13 August 2004 11:27 (twenty-one years ago)

My god, Dave B is OTM on this thread!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 13 August 2004 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

"Stupid list, even more stupid discussion."

In which you're participating.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

(on the bright side, at least they didn't include steven bayley)

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:02 (twenty-one years ago)

MC - stoopid writing, stooid personality, stoopid existence...like morley only somehow even less so. less in print, thankfully, at the least.

lovin the way he never fails to point out the irony wherby someone who says something is 'duh...stoopid' only participates in that stoopidity! what a genius...

But surely there's no real need to degrade everything to such a level. there's always http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/ comment boxes for that, no?

― jaygee (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Marcello: yes. Not constructively though. Phew.

xpost

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

"Stoopid" is good. Biba Kopf said so in the Wire aeons ago. I have no problem with "stoopid."

Better "stoopid" than "no" as would be applied to yourself.

(xpost)

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 12:31 (twenty-one years ago)

How many of them live and/or work primarily in America? Is an American platform and/or an American audience necessary to fit the bill?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I ask because I count two from my American (well, New York) university alone.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

certainly not Gordon Brown, he just works for it.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:38 (twenty-one years ago)

should I start a book on who Marcello will issue a death threat to first in his latest return?

― Porkpie (porkpie), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:39 (twenty-one years ago)

MC "Why don't you go and put your head back up your arse before I stick it there?"

― Jay gee (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it so heretical not to like Paul Morley? I had no idea.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

are you capable of understanding that the idea of the list was that it would be politically bipartisan?

actually no, i'm not. seriously, this is why i wrote:

i don't really understand a list that has tom nairn *and* roger scruton on it, you know? take sides!
-- ENRG (m1lt0npinsk...), August 13th, 2004.

whilst the world would be very nice (banal, stultifying, flat) if the most stretching arguments in the public domain concerned execrable musical lists, that just isn't the case.

yes, the most stretching arguments clearly come from, erm, martin amis, timothy garton ash, and... 'Melvyn Bragg broadcaster and writer'.

― ENRQ, Friday, 13 August 2004 12:44 (twenty-one years ago)

yes fat, old, redundant, failed writers now in administrative pen-pushing roles chewing bitterly over what might have been usually provide the best quotes

― Jay G (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:47 (twenty-one years ago)

The list is skewed in all sorts of ways. But I can't think of any list of the UK's top 100 public intellectuals that might include Paul Morley. Quite apart from his execrable writing style, name one single influential idea he's had. I mean, his contribution to the public discourse is not quite on a par with Dawkins' selfish genes and memes, is it?

― Bela Lugosi's Dad, Friday, 13 August 2004 12:52 (twenty-one years ago)

yes fat, old, redundant, failed writers now in administrative pen-pushing roles chewing bitterly over what might have been usually provide the best quotes

... take out the fat part and you have Franz Kafka

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it all about whether or not you think pop music is as an important thing to be 'intellectual' about as anything else?

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 13 August 2004 12:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Certainly doesn't apply to me - normal weight, 40, employed, published writer now in extremely high-paid NHS management role quietly chuckling to himself. Whomever can they mean?

(xpost)

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 12:57 (twenty-one years ago)

LOL! is Marcello Carlin Franz Kafka? it's been puzzling me. keep up the good work at the NHS and lemme know when that comedy blog's gonna be adapted for tv. baited breaths all round...fat was presumed from all those heartrending sobs of not being able to meet anyone what with your distressing unattractiveness. hope you got a free nip and tuck into shape!

― Jaygee (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm just amazed to see the words "extremely high-paid" and "NHS" in the same sentence.

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

London Weighting innit?

(xpost to dear JG):

Don't need it guv. I'm fit and I know it. Don't believe everything you read on a blog!

Still you're one of the few people who've got that it's a comedy blog so props for that.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 13:08 (twenty-one years ago)

seriously MC, can we take everything you say seriously comically? Is everything that you've written about here and elsewhere up for grabs as a topic of thigh-slapping mirth?

Btw, i find the idea of the nhs manager uber ilx poster particularly tragicomic when i ponder where my tax goes. Socialist poetry in motion.

― Jay gee (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Can we lock this thread now?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:16 (twenty-one years ago)

(xpost)

Who said I was a socialist? Anyway you probably don't earn enough to pay tax.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 13:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha and I thought *I* was being unconstructive.

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:22 (twenty-one years ago)

LOL! yes MC. you're taking away all the world's money, just like you took away all the world's good writing and all the world's love. there just aint enough to go around. you've won. the world is yours.

― Jay gee (jaybob79), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

the point of this is what the fuck, "JG"?

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:25 (twenty-one years ago)

This is turning into something like a J.G. Ballard novel now...

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess I'm supposed to be the Charles Foster Kane of the blogosphere or something.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 13 August 2004 13:27 (twenty-one years ago)

ARG YUO GOT THERE 1st K8!!! DAMN!!!

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Or maybe a Bowie song.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Ground Control to M. Carlin..."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 13 August 2004 13:39 (twenty-one years ago)

take your protein pills
and reel in your marlin?

― dave amos, Friday, 13 August 2004 14:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"Check expenses and Uncut be with you"

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 13 August 2004 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

so I guess Stephen Hawking is rub, then

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 14 August 2004 22:17 (twenty-one years ago)

>TGA provides a tarnished figleaf for mass murder

???????

― H (Heruy), Saturday, 14 August 2004 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

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