13 JULY 1991

Page 4

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

T he Bank of Credit and Commerce International was closed because of sus- pected fraud over a missing i1 billion of depositors' money. A quarter of all Asian businessmen in...

Page 5

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405

The Spectator

1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 A FAMILY AT WAR F rom the moment the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer became romantic- ally linked in 1980, certain sections of the...

THE SPECTATOR

The Spectator

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK El £71.00 0 £35.50 Europe (airmail) 0 £82.00 0 £41.00 USA Airspeed 0 US$110 0 US$55.00 Rest of Airmail 0 £98.00 0 £49.00 World...

Page 6

POLITICS

The Spectator

The ministers who are not all the President's men NOEL MALCOLM M rs Thatcher once told her Cabinet Secretary On a moment of speculative candour', according to Mr Hugo Young)...

Page 7

DIARY

The Spectator

F rom Victoria to Westminster is but two stops on the Underground — just time, I reckoned as I paused for literary refresh- ment at W.H. Smith's, to peruse the Sun newspaper...

Page 8

`RIDDLED WITH ERRORS, REEKING OF BILE'

The Spectator

Nigel Lawson reviews Nicholas Ridley's account of the Thatcher years, and finds more fiction than facts MARGARET THATCHER was one of the greatest prime ministers this country•...

Page 10

MR GORBACHEV'S BARGAIN OFFER

The Spectator

Stephen Handelman unveils the ambiguities behind the Soviet leader's proposals to the West Moscow CAPITALISM is about to descend on the elegantly coiffed head of Olga Linkova....

Page 11

WILL UNCLE THOMAS BE BLACKBALLED?

The Spectator

George Bush has scattered his enemies with a mischievous Supreme Court nomination, reports Stephen Robinson Washington FOR THE 30 months or so that George Bush has occupied the...

Page 12

Unlettered

The Spectator

A reader received this letter: We would advise you that as the premises stands at the present time, it would not exclude any loss or damage to your property, resulting from your...

Page 13

BRIGHTER ROCK

The Spectator

should hand back Gibraltar to Spain in return for something better THE secretary-general of Gibraltar's Olympic Committee, Nigel Pardo, shares his surname with the name of the...

THE SUIT Michael Heath

The Spectator

Page 14

ANNOUNCING THE 1991 SHIVA NAIPAUL MEMORIAL PRIZE

The Spectator

Shiva Naipaul was one of the most gifted and accomplished writers of our time. After his death in August 1985 at the age of 40, The Spectator set up a fund to establish an...

Page 16

O BRAVE NEW WORLD

The Spectator

William Oddie is disturbed by the utopia envisaged by the virgin-birth enthusiasts `I THINK The Elephant Man was filmed here,' one of the other speakers said, looking round at...

Page 17

THE ROYAL CONFIDANTS

The Spectator

Rory Knight Bruce attempts to discover which members of the royal family help the gossip columnists WHEN the Princess of Wales recently reached the dignified age of 30, she...

Page 18

A QUESTION OF ALLEGIANCE

The Spectator

Charles Moore sees a reverse image of the Irish Union in the attempt to make Europe one state THERE is no universal law which asserts the superiority of the nation state or of...

Page 19

One hundred years ago

The Spectator

FOUR men were executed by electricity in New York on the 7th inst. For some reason, the authorities had decided to exclude – the public, and as an additional precaution to...

Page 20

If symptoms

The Spectator

persist.. . True observations are not necessarily new observations, so I expect no plaudits when I remark that Man is a complex being. For example, last week I spoke to a lady...

Page 21

SHOOT THE PENSIONERS

The Spectator

The media: Paul Johnson examines the claim that old folk get a raw deal JOURNALISTS are scratching their heads over a report by the Centre for Policy on Ageing, which accuses...

Page 23

No sums at the Summit

The Spectator

IT IS rude of Mikhail Gorbachev to burst in on the London Economic Summit and talk economics. That, as he ought to realise, is not the idea any more, for it led to argument, and...

Ready but rough

The Spectator

IF YOUR bank shuts its doors on your money, you can get some of it back from insurance. This is the Deposit Protection Scheme. All the banks are required to chip into its fund,...

CITY AND SUBURBAN

The Spectator

The Bank of Cocaine and Colombia adds a new terror to recession CHRISTOPHER FILDES Commerce International, (Lord Cal- laghan? Sheik Zayid? Manuel Noriega?) It was the world's...

Spot the shudder

The Spectator

SO IF everyone knew about BCCI — or everyone except its luckless depositors why did no one do anything about it? The Bank of England was leery from the beginning, and wrote a...

Taking notes

The Spectator

HOW to reward the Governor of the Bank of England? His modest increase in his modest salary was blown up to make him look like a gasman — boding ill for the rather larger...

Page 24

LETTERS Your rape or mine?

The Spectator

Sir: Auberon Waugh wrote about what he called the 'dangerous myth' of date rape (Another voice, 22 June). His article was misinformed, irresponsible and an insult to women who...

Sir: In the one sentence he wrote about me in

The Spectator

The Spectator article on editors and high pay, William Cash managed both to spell my name incorrectly and get wrong the title of this newspaper. How much did you pay him for...

Dickie's deceit

The Spectator

Sir: I read with interest Mr J. H. S. Turnbull's letter (22 June) which criticised me for being unfair to Lord Mountbatten. He began by saying that I wrote an article in the...

Punch drunk

The Spectator

Sir: John Mortimer will be relieved to hear that reports in the Guardian describing my desire to make Punch `mega', `mega- mega', 'hip', 'trendy' or 'hot' have been considerably...

Glorious war

The Spectator

Sir: I wonder whether the 200 or so medals awarded to participants in the Gulf cam- paign represent an attempt to justify our involvement or whether they are a simple...

Some mistake — Ed

The Spectator

Sir: In my piece last week Mauls of paper money', 6 July) I unaccountably named the editor of the European as John Torode. The editor is, of course, John Bryant and I apologise...

Page 25

Political inches

The Spectator

Sir: I hesitate to cross rulers with Paul Johnson (The press, 29 June), but he claimed that on a previous Tuesday the Times gave 'only 74 column inches to Parliament, of which...

Cross dresser

The Spectator

Sir: Ian Waller (Letters, 27 April) rumin- ates upon a particular design of female apparel: namely, the Kestos bra designed by Leo Klin. I remember this design well from Mr...

Satire

The Spectator

Sir: In 'The theft of character' (15 June) Paul Johnson complains that living people are often depicted, without permission, by actors or puppets. This opens the way for...

Post-coital

The Spectator

Sir: In an otherwise excellent article (Another voice, 18 May), Charles Moore overlooks one huge advantage of the elas- tic sheath — it could have spared us Sir Nicholas...

Silver service

The Spectator

Sir: As Christopher Fildes's bizarre para- graph headed 'Family silver' (City and Suburban, 1 June) has gone unremarked I feel impelled to reply. The Silver Trust, set up by...

Quel fromage!

The Spectator

Sir: After J. B. Kelly's `Toujours la blague' (11 May) and Jeanne Strang's counter- offensive (Letters, 1 June) balance seems to have been restored on the culinary front....

Page 26

BOOKS

The Spectator

The middle class make it John Kenyon PUBLIC LIFE AND THE PROPERTIED ENGLISHMAN, 1689-1798 by Paul Langford Clarendon Press, £48, pp. 608 T hough it is written with great...

Page 27

Al endless inquest

The Spectator

Frances Spalding THE DEATH AND LIFE OF SYLVIA PLATH by Ronald Hayman Heinemann, £16.99, pp. 220 THE HAUNTING OF SYLVIA PLATH by Jacqueline Rose Virago, £14.99, pp. 288 H...

Page 28

Alas, alas, for England

The Spectator

George Clive COUNTRYBLAST by Clive Aslet, with drawings by Michael Heath John Murray, f9.95, pp.135 T his is a fascinating and disturbing book. Clive Aslet's proposition is...

The lady doth protest too much

The Spectator

Mary Keen Mil 1 ERFLY COOING LIKE A DOVE by Miriam Rothschild Doubleday, 125, pp. 215 P eople hardly talk about the two cultures any more. Does this mean that artists and...

Page 29

The unquiet American

The Spectator

J.G. Links JAMES ABBOT McNEILL WHISTLER: A LIFE by G.H. Fleming Windrush Press, £19.99, pp. 367 S ome artists can communicate only through their art: not Whistler. He never...

Page 30

A very grey eminence

The Spectator

Anthony Howard . AS I SAW IT: A SECRETARY OF STATE'S MEMOIRS by Dean Rusk I.B. Tauris, £19.95, pp. 672 T here are not many US Secretaries of State who make it even to the...

The St Michael's Group for Social Action

The Spectator

The St Michael's Group for Social Action came to play with us today: Wheelchair Basketball was the name of the game. So that everyone might suffer from the same handicap, they...

Page 31

The children's crusade

The Spectator

Charles Glass CRY PALESTINE: INSIDE THE WEST BANK by Said K. Aburish Bloomsbury, £9.99, pp. 205 I n a passage destined to chill the con- science of every loyal supporter of...

Page 32

A rakish angle

The Spectator

Isabel Colegate THE GREEN HAT: A ROMANCE FOR A FEW PEOPLE by Michael Arlen Robin Clark, £6.95, pp.245 I n his later years Michael Arlen rejected offers to reprint what he...

Three of the best

The Spectator

William Rees-Mogg FROM SAMMY TO JIMMY: THE OFFICIAL HISTORY OF SOMERSET COUNTY CRICKET CLUB by Peter Roebuck Partridge Press, £16.99, pp. 443 S omerset cricket has not normally...

Page 33

View from the French window

The Spectator

John Charmley LES ANGLAIS by Philippe Daudy Barrie & Jenkins, f16.99, pp.303 T he first thing to do with this book is to remove the grossly unpleasant dust-jacket. How are we...

Page 34

ARTS

The Spectator

Art And on the other hand... Giles Auty encounters some genial stonewalling from the director of the Tate Gallery I n recent articles I have mentioned an extraordinarily...

Page 35

Cinema

The Spectator

Two birds in the bush Mark Amory T here is no need to speculate about the success of a good film — that people want to see The Silence of the Lambs does not mean that they are...

Page 36

Theatre 1

The Spectator

Sex Please, We're Italian (Young Vic) In the fettucine sauce Christopher Edwards T here is something quite special about experiencing a really bad play. It is always...

Theatre 2

The Spectator

A play for all seasons Robert Tanitch argues the case for reviving a neglected American classic O ur Town by Thornton Wilder is such a well-known play that most people feel...

Page 37

Architecture

The Spectator

The Building of an 18th-Century City: Bath Spa (RIBA Heinz Gallery, till 3 August) Beauty of Bath Alan Powers F or all its tourist coaches and twee shops, Bath remains a...

Page 38

Pop music

The Spectator

And then there was one Marcus Berkmann I n these recessionary times, it's oddly sat- isfying to note that even the pop industry, once universally recognised as the last bas-...

Page 39

High life

The Spectator

Toast of the town Taki always I got the Wimbledon win- ners wrong, but otherwise things here in the Big Bagel are hunky-dory, as most of the chic Bagelites are in London or in...

Television

The Spectator

Gray area Martyn Harris T he other week I said that Paul Mor- ley's programme This Is It (Channel 4, 9 P.m., Tuesday) was 'sort of about architec- ture', but it has now been...

Page 41

Low life

The Spectator

Excess baggage Jeffrey Bernard T he lease of this flat runs out on Sunday and I shall be on the move again. Where to? You tell me. I shall be homeless for two weeks. Similar...

New life

The Spectator

Bit of fluff Zenga Longmore Y ou are no longer a baby, you are a little girl!' I said proudly to Omalara as she sat perched high on Olumba's shoulders. `Little girl,' repeated...

Page 42

COMPETITION

The Spectator

12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY Gr-IVAS REAV 12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY Malediction Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1684 you were in- vited to write ' a Rhymed Octosyllabic Curse' on...

CHESS

The Spectator

Pink tiger Raymond Keene P ergamon Press have just issued a weighty tome, The Games of Tigran Petro- sian: Volume 1 1942 — 1965. It contains over 1000 games by Tigran (`the...

Page 43

CROSSWORD

The Spectator

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

No. 1687: Discoveries

The Spectator

A description, tinged with disapproval, by a historical or fictional character of a scene obviously unfamiliar, such as a public house or a television show. Entries should be...

Solution to 1014: 234 = 678 AS 3 A . ---, E

The Spectator

C "c1/1 Uhl id illIPCOILIT 13111IPPIE earl P 12 . E RO X reel neraiONTRIRER ARERE I TEROS f t E 10 I. id L u NO N 4 A 0B R E L a RYE D HE ATRIC C S U U= CH...

Page 44

SPECTATOR WINE CLUB

The Spectator

A beaker full of the warm south Auberon Waugh A lthough I have drunk some good sauvignon blanc in South Africa, and take my hat off to numerous small growers there who are...

ORDER FORM SPECTATOR WINE CLUB

The Spectator

do Barwell and Jones Ltd, 24 Fore Street, Ipswich, Suffolk 1P4 1JU Telephone: (0473) 232322 Fax: (0473) 212237 Price No. Value White 1. Drostdy-Hof Steen 1990 12 bots....

Page 47

SPECTATOR SPORT

The Spectator

Business is business at Silverstone Frank Keating WATCHING Grand Prix motor racing seems a futile activity. Also deafening. Yet all Northamptonshire this weekend will be...

Wallace Arnold is consulting his lawyers.

The Spectator