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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorT 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...
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The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405
The Spectator1706; 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 SpectatorSUBSCRIBE 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...
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POLITICS
The SpectatorThe 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)...
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DIARY
The SpectatorF 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...
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`RIDDLED WITH ERRORS, REEKING OF BILE'
The SpectatorNigel 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•...
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MR GORBACHEV'S BARGAIN OFFER
The SpectatorStephen 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....
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WILL UNCLE THOMAS BE BLACKBALLED?
The SpectatorGeorge 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...
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Unlettered
The SpectatorA 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...
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BRIGHTER ROCK
The Spectatorshould 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...
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ANNOUNCING THE 1991 SHIVA NAIPAUL MEMORIAL PRIZE
The SpectatorShiva 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...
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O BRAVE NEW WORLD
The SpectatorWilliam 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...
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THE ROYAL CONFIDANTS
The SpectatorRory 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...
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A QUESTION OF ALLEGIANCE
The SpectatorCharles 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...
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One hundred years ago
The SpectatorFOUR 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...
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If symptoms
The Spectatorpersist.. . 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...
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SHOOT THE PENSIONERS
The SpectatorThe 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...
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No sums at the Summit
The SpectatorIT 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 SpectatorIF 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 SpectatorThe 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 SpectatorSO 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 SpectatorHOW 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...
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LETTERS Your rape or mine?
The SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorThe 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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...
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Political inches
The SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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....
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BOOKS
The SpectatorThe 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...
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Al endless inquest
The SpectatorFrances 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...
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Alas, alas, for England
The SpectatorGeorge 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 SpectatorMary 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...
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The unquiet American
The SpectatorJ.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...
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A very grey eminence
The SpectatorAnthony 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 SpectatorThe 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...
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The children's crusade
The SpectatorCharles 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...
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A rakish angle
The SpectatorIsabel 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 SpectatorWilliam 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...
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View from the French window
The SpectatorJohn 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...
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ARTS
The SpectatorArt 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...
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Cinema
The SpectatorTwo 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...
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Theatre 1
The SpectatorSex 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 SpectatorA 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...
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Architecture
The SpectatorThe 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...
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Pop music
The SpectatorAnd 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-...
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High life
The SpectatorToast 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 SpectatorGray 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...
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Low life
The SpectatorExcess 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 SpectatorBit 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...
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COMPETITION
The Spectator12 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 SpectatorPink 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...
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CROSSWORD
The SpectatorA 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 SpectatorA 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 SpectatorC "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...
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SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
The SpectatorA 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 Spectatordo 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....
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SPECTATOR SPORT
The SpectatorBusiness is business at Silverstone Frank Keating WATCHING Grand Prix motor racing seems a futile activity. Also deafening. Yet all Northamptonshire this weekend will be...