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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK L abour won a majority of 67
The Spectatorin the general election, securing 356 seats (of the 645 contested), 47 down, with 9,556,183 votes, 35.2 per cent of the total; the Conservatives won 197 seats, 33 up, with...
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Floreat Notting Hill
The SpectatorT hey are Achilles and Patroclus. They are David and Jonathan. They are Wallace and Gromit. Not since the emergence of the youthful Blair and Brown has there been a pair of...
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T he trouble with country life is that it is so
The Spectatorunhealthy. Where I used to walk to the Tube I now take the car. Where I used to go out and see friends I now ruin my eyes watching television. After 20 years in Leicestershire I...
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The next election campaign starts now
The SpectatorT here has never been such a dramatic political decline. Three months ago, Tony Blair was full of plans for his third term. Now, he is a corpse waiting for a coffin. Three...
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T he election has brought out the tension between Scotland and
The SpectatorEngland (see last weekâs Notes). The Conservatives won more votes than Labour in England and, as before, managed only one seat in Scotland. Labour has 41 seats in Scotland,...
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The sad, strange, undignified end
The SpectatorPeter Oborne reports on how power has flowed invisibly but irrevocably from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown A peculiar arrangement prevailed in 8th-century France, during the final...
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Itâs the ideas, stupid
The SpectatorMark Steyn says the Tories should follow the Republican lead and make Conservatism romantic â and conservative New Hampshire T he day after the election, the BBC reported...
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Why we lost
The SpectatorBoris Johnson says the Tories failed to convince the electorate that they were ready for government N ow that there is not much chance of Michael Howard ever becoming prime...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorâWhat does SIM mean?â asked my husband, looking up like a sulky sunset from a mobile-phone instruction booklet. Well, I knew what it was, but not what the acronym stood...
Is Belarus next in line?
The SpectatorJulian Evans on why the EU supports the US in its drive for freedom in Belarus I f you listen carefully, you can hear the drums of revolution beating once more in Washington....
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Sachs appeal
The SpectatorAngelina Jolie tells Alex Bilmes about her enthusiasm for the hottest economist on the block R ecently I found myself idling away an afternoon in Angelina Jolieâs Winnebago....
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Victory for the fringe
The SpectatorRejoice, says Rod Liddle . Last week we rejected the status quo and voted for nutters, outsiders and misfits T he scariest thing about the election, the thing that really...
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Does prison really work?
The SpectatorDouglas Hurd notes that the sensational increase in the prison population has not been accompanied by a sensational reduction in crime T hey have changed Armley Prison since I...
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Tories must be less strident
The SpectatorFrom Stuart Baran Sir: Simon Heffer tells us that what the Conservative party now needs, above all, is âstabilityâ (âThe way ahead for Conservativesâ, 7 May). But it...
London is safer
The SpectatorFrom Julian Joyce Sir: There is a simple solution to Susan Hillâs problem (âSorry, the doctor canât see you nowâ, 7 May). She needs to move to the city where, as she...
Junk these machines
The SpectatorFrom Jessica Johnson Sir: I sympathise with Nicola Horlickâs horror at the unappetising and unhealthy victuals she witnessed being consumed at a picnic on Bank Holiday Monday...
Tories need a new ânarrativeâ
The SpectatorFrom David Harcourt Sir: There is nothing new about the distortion of truth into a coherent ânarrativeâ which encourages popular adherence to a particular world-view (Peter...
Promiscuity spreads Aids
The SpectatorFrom Dr James McEvoy Sir: I enjoyed Frank Johnsonâs analysis of the recent papal election (Shared opinion, 23 April), but it is a pity he repeats the canard that the Catholic...
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Not so bel canto
The SpectatorFrom J.L.A. Hartley Sir: Peter Phillips (Arts, 7 May) wonders why there should be such a gap between the standards of the Sistine Chapel choir and the average English cathedral...
Critical errors
The SpectatorFrom Jeffrey D. Sachs Sir: Tim Congdonâs review of my book The End of Poverty (Books, 7 May) is repeatedly incorrect. Here is a sampling of his errors. âBut the blunt...
With friends like Taki ...
The SpectatorFrom Manuel Escott Sir: Takiâs column in which he hails the election of Pope Benedict (High life, 30 April) is one of his most richly comic to date. The German Holy Father...
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The gentleness and courage of my friend Peter Campbell
The SpectatorT he late Peter Campbell, sometime professor of politics at the University of Reading, would have enjoyed the irony. He died just before the general election. His funeral was...
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Last one to leave the skyscraper, please turn out the lights
The SpectatorW hen is the big crash going to come in China? Various indicators suggest trouble but perhaps the most significant one is the Skyscraper Index. First formulated by Andrew...
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French kissing
The SpectatorV ows made, speeches finished, champagne quaffed and weâd done it. We were married. Our car swept us away from the Palace of Westminster, where weâd plighted our troth in...
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Hard times
The SpectatorJane Kelly T he rain was very annoying, especially for the old people, standing next to me on the pavement with their bad coughs and wheezing chests. At 3 p.m. the doctor was...
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Yours, valuably
The SpectatorVictoria Lane can neither eat or sleep for thinking of you my dearest love, I never touch even pudding... Last night I did nothing but dream of you althoâ I woke 20 times in...
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Space to think
The SpectatorClover Stroud W hen I was a child I was scared of the dark. My sister Nell and I shared a room, and after the lights went out Iâd make Nell promise to tell me when she closed...
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Language barriers
The SpectatorMark Palmer T here was an unfortunate incident the other morning during breakfast at a smart hotel in central London. A middle-aged man asked a waitress for some English...
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Air time
The SpectatorJames Leith K emble Airfield in Gloucestershire, formerly RAF Kemble, was once the home of the Red Arrows. City commuters from Kemble station nearby would return of an evening...
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Titfers for toffs
The SpectatorDamien McCrystal I n the next month or so, several thousand people will be retrieving dusty top-hat boxes from attics and above wardrobes. The hats are to be given their only...
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Aussie rules
The SpectatorJonathan Ray M elbourne looks a lot more spruce than when I was last there. Handsome Flinders Street Station has had a bit of a clean and Federation Square a complete facelift....
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The last refuge of a scoundrel
The SpectatorPhilip Ziegler PÃTAIN by Charles Williams Little, Brown, £30, pp. 568, ISBN 0316861278 â £28 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T o be successful, biographers must possess...
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Zéro de conduite
The SpectatorDeborah Devonshire P ETO â S P ROGRESS by Nick Peto Long Barn Books, £12.99, pp. 175, ISBN 1902421116 N ickâs progress takes us at a gallop on his trusty hunters, Willie...
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The questions dated, the answers fresh
The SpectatorCaroline Moore C URIOUS P URSUITS by Margaret Atwood Virago, £17.99, pp. 413, ISBN 1844081494 â £15.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 C urious Pursuits is a collection of...
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Not quite there
The SpectatorP. J. Kavanagh T HERE Y OU A RE : W RITINGS ON I RISH AND A MERICAN H ISTORY by Thomas Flanagan New York Review of Books, £16.99, pp. 488, ISBN 1590171063 â £14.99 (plus...
One way of doing it
The SpectatorAnthony Daniels T HE E LEMENTS OF M URDER : A H ISTORY OF P OISON by John Emsley OUP, £18.99, pp. 421, ISBN 0192805991 â £16.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n his...
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Food for plutocrats and the people
The SpectatorElfreda Pownall G RAND L IVRE DE C UISINE by Alain Ducasse Stewart, Tabori & Chang, £159, pp. 1080, ISBN 2848440007 T HE N EW E NGLISH K ITCHEN by Rose Prince Fourth Estate,...
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Murder made easy
The SpectatorRobert Stewart T HE A WFUL E ND OF W ILLIAM THE S ILENT : T HE F IRST A SSASSINATION OF A H EAD OF S TATE WITH A HANDGUN by Lisa Jardine HarperCollins, £12.99, pp. 175, ISBN...
A low opinion of human nature
The SpectatorJonathan Mirsky F ORTRESS B ESIEGED by Qian Zhongshu [Châien Chung-shu], translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao Penguin, £18.99, pp. 426, ISBN 02265345316 â £16.99...
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Mombasa and Zanzibar
The SpectatorFrancis King DESERTION by Abdulrazak Gurnah Bloomsbury, £16.99, pp. 262, ISBN 0747577560 â £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T he bitterness of the immigrant...
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A place in the sun
The SpectatorAndro Linklater R ED S TRANGERS : T HE W HITE T RIBE OF K ENYA by C. S. Nicholls Timewell Press, £18.99, pp. 349, ISBN 1857252063 I n 1892 Frank Hall, who was building a road...
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Tracking a Moroccan ghost
The SpectatorJustin Marozzi T HE H ALL OF A T HOUSAND COLUMNS by Tim Mackintosh Smith John Murray, £20, pp. 318, ISBN 0719562252 â £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T im...
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Lament for lost beauties
The SpectatorPhilip Mansel I STANBUL : M EMORIES OF A C ITY by Orhan Pamuk Faber, £16.99, pp. 288, ISBN 0571218326 â £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T his magnificent memoir...
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A true portrait
The SpectatorMichael Prodger on possibly the greatest equine picture in the history of art I n painting, as in music and literature, artists whose work in old age is comparable to that of...
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Haunting melancholy
The SpectatorJohn McEwen Andrzej Jackowski Purdy Hicks Gallery, 65 Hopton Street, SE1, until 6 June A s a former winner of Britainâs most prestigious award for painters, the John Moores...
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Visual enlightenment
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth Leonard McComb: Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture Wolsey Art Gallery, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich (tel: 01473433554), until 17 July L eonard McComb (born...
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Force of nature
The SpectatorLloyd Evans Henry IV, parts 1 and 2 Olivier If Destroyed True Chocolate Factory S ummer on the Southbank kicks off with both halves of Henry IV. Many an elderly ham has gone...
Degrees of pain and passion
The SpectatorPatrick Carnegy Twelfth Night Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon The American Pilot The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon T welfth Night deals in our susceptibility...
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Tireless Keenlyside
The SpectatorMichael Tanner 1984 Royal Opera House Tamerlano University Music School, Cambridge T here has been a lot of tut-tutting about the Royal Opera being âboughtâ by Lorin Maazel...
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Private passions
The SpectatorUrsula Buchan T he British have developed a number of garden styles over the centuries but none more unexpected than the âwoodland gardenâ. No one in 1800, when the first...
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Clash of images
The SpectatorGiannandrea Poesio Aterballetto Sadlerâs Wells Theatre T here are basically two types of Italians living abroad: those who respond over enthusiastically to any...
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Standing still
The SpectatorMarcus Berkmann âA rt for artâs sake,â sang 10cc in 1976, âMoney for Godâs sake.â And promptly split in half shortly afterwards. Itâs a conundrum every new young...
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Loss of faith
The SpectatorMark Steyn Kingdom of Heaven 15, selected cinemas L etâs say you were setting out to make a parody of contemporary Hollywoodâs inability to make a film on any historical...
Untold bravery
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart C hannel-hopping on Sunday night, I caught a brief moment from BBC1âs celebration of VE Day, A Party to Remember . Eamonn Holmes was co-presenting. The camera...
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Changing lives
The SpectatorMichael Vestey I tâs always useful to be reminded of the remarkable stoicism and bravery of the generation of people that lived through the second world war. Itâs hard to...
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Ten for the Flat
The SpectatorRobin Oakley H ow to keep sane during an election which Labourâs Austin Mitchell aptly described as âlike a funeral but without so many carsâ? My way was to spend ten...
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Whatâs in a name?
The SpectatorTaki I Married a Princess is among the most embarrassing reality shows to have appeared on American television, which makes it unique in view of the garbage which fill the...
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Internal peace
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke O n Election Night I went to the pub, then on to two parties and finally ended up round at Trevâs playing Round the Clock darts on amphetamines with a part-time...
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S o, off to Le Gavroche, with my companion for the
The Spectatorevening, Mr Dom, whom I shall call only that, as his surname (Joly) might give him away. Mr Dom has to be one of the funniest, coolest blokes ever, if you discount Les Dennis,...
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Untimely obits
The SpectatorFRANK KEATING W ith a clamour of various cup finals due to close out the winterâs activities â and with anniversaryitis so fashionable â I am surprised to have read...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorDear Mary Q. A man I cannot avoid at drinks parties is now sixtysomething and, after years of having been highly sought after by women, now lives without a woman and so has...
Q. I am deeply distressed that my artist friend, Richard
The SpectatorFoster (whom I have known for nearly 50 years) and whose ancestor commanded the Charge of the Light Brigade, has seen fit to exclude me from a private view of his paintings at...
Q. I share with the cousin of your correspondent (I.T.,
The Spectator16 April) a liking for Kilner jars. In this part of the world, southern Spain, they provide a refuge from insects. If, once opened, rice, biscuits etc. were not safely stored in...