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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorStand-up comedian M r John Major, the Prime Minister, disowned Mr Stephen Darrell, the Secre- tary of State for Health, as unofficial spokesman on the British Constitution after...
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The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405
The Spectator1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 STAY WEST, YOUNG MAN N ato was formed half a century ago to protect free Europe from Soviet imperial aggression. It enjoyed support across the Western...
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POLITICS
The SpectatorShe should have called for more mine exports. Instead, she used Angola as a catwalk BRUCE ANDERSON E Africa semper aliquid malt. But even in the bloodstained history of...
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DIARY
The SpectatorO ver a hundred years have passed since F.W. Maitland said we were becom- ing a 'much-governed nation'. Since then the process has accelerated. Few claims are more dishonest...
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ANOTHER VOICE
The SpectatorSocialism is now 'downshifting' but it hasn't shifted its desire to punish the more privileged PETRONELLA WYATT T here is a new fashion called downshift- ing, or downsizing,...
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THE DECLINE FROM CARY GRANT TO HUGH GRANT
The SpectatorGiles Whitten reports that the Four Weddings hero has failed in his attempt to become a star in America. It's also to do with women (though not that prostitute) Los Angeles IN...
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THE CONSEQUENCES OF A MYTH
The SpectatorAs Germany's troubles return to worry a misreading of the past TIMES change, Germany alters its physi- cal shape and its geopolitical significance for Europe. One of the few...
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IT'S AN ill wind that blows nobody any good: this
The Spectatorindisputable truth, after all, is the rock, the granite foundation, upon which all journalistic careers are ulti- mately founded. If the world were a bet- ter place, there...
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DON'T REGIONALISE ME, MR BIRT
The SpectatorAlan Cochrane lives in a Scottish glen. But that doesn't mean he wants more Scottish news AS SOMEONE who lives in what the southern English are pleased to call 'the regions',...
Mind your language
The SpectatorMY HUSBAND doesn't like me leafing through his medical books. I think he thinks it feeds my hypochondriasis, though I haven't asked him, since I don't want him to think I think...
SPECIATOR
The SpectatorSUBSCRIBE TODAY— RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK ❑ £88.00 0 £45.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £99.00 ❑ £51.00 USA Airspeed 0 US$141 ❑ US$71 Rest of Airmail 0 £115.00 ❑ £58.00 World...
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RICH LITTLE POOR GIRL
The SpectatorAlastair Forbes offers a memorial, after his fashion, for the life and work of Pamela Harriman I WAS opening for a great-niece a very Pretty tin of 'Dorset Gingers' (the lid...
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THE SMEARING BY THE GREEN
The SpectatorToby Harnden on the campaign in the Dublin media, and some British, against a repentant IRA killer for sending the 'wrong' message IF PROOF were needed that truth is stranger...
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THIS BILL SHOULD HAVE NO RIGHTS
The SpectatorJohn Griffith puts a socialist case against something most socialists, and liberals, now believe in TO a democratic socialist like myself, the enactment of a Bill of Rights on...
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AND ANOTHER THING
The SpectatorA 16th-century book on manners still makes sense today PAUL JOHNSON C an you imagine a male teenager today copying out, by hand and of his own choice, 110 rules about good...
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CITY AND SUBURBAN
The SpectatorThe pound now buys a matchless opportunity to make the same mistake twice CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he pound is now so strong — well, everything is relative — that if it gets any...
Salvage at Lloyd's
The SpectatorYOU can go to sea in a sieve, like the Jum- blies, or you can join the wrong syndicate at Lloyd's of London. The luckless members of Lloyd's watched as the water rushed in, and...
Millionaires' Row
The SpectatorTHIS week's assertion that one in every 550 of us is a millionaire goes to show what statistical definition can do. A friend of mine who was the business partner of a minister...
Going down the drain
The SpectatorTHIS week opened with the nation's sim- plest train set out of order, to nobody's sur- prise, least of all its users'. The set has two stations, one at each end. They are con-...
First class, City style
The SpectatorWE should be following the first rule of takeover finance: you can afford to pay a premium for something that is badly man- aged. We shall teach our railway to discard the...
Framed
The SpectatorIT is a bit rough on Sotheby's to put them in the frame just because some nondescript picture has wandered out of Italy, as pic- tures always have. The same sort of thing...
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Zappa the brave
The SpectatorSir: Michael Henderson (Arts, 1 February) reveals his prejudices in his dismissal of Frank Zappa's contribution to 20th-century art. More's the pity, as he invokes Zappa in...
War games
The SpectatorSir: I entirely agree with Sarah Gainham (Letters, 8 February) that it was yet another astonishing omission of the BBC television series 1914-1918 to fail to summarise the...
LETTERS Hanratty's innocence
The SpectatorSir: In case any Spectator reader takes seri- ously the two pages you devoted to Sir Louis Blom-Cooper's perverse views on the Hanratty case (The unproven guilt', 8 February),...
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Naughty boy
The SpectatorSir: Mr Glover (Media studies, 6 February) is fantasising again in suggesting that at any time I have had any conversation with any member of the Evening Standard staff about...
Degrees of crime
The SpectatorSir: Michael Harrington is right (`The big- hearted killer', 1 February) to underplay Al Capon's gangsterism in Chicago in the 1 920s. He might have prayed in aid a quo- tation...
In praise of Oti
The SpectatorSir: Christian Hesketh (Rugby, 8 February) was puzzled as to why the Twickenham crowd sang 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' as opposed to 'God Save the Queen' during the game. I will...
Sir: Stephen Glover is quite wrong to assume that I
The Spectatorregard the Evening Standard as 'somewhat below the salt'. On the con- trary, I am an enthusiastic reader of the Standard and an admirer of its distin- guished editor, Max...
Sir: For a journal which believes in a civili- sation
The Spectatorgrounded on the rule of law, which one assumes The Spectator does, what can be the motive for publishing an article enti- tled 'The big-hearted killer', subtitled 'trib- ute to...
Friendly federalist
The SpectatorSir: I am grateful to Sarah Whitebloom (Wet kiss for Al', 1 February) for record- ing my vain request to give the massed Conservative selectors in Kensington and Chelsea the...
Gut loathing
The SpectatorSir: Anne McElvoy incorrectly quoted me as having described David Mellor as 'a revolting little man' (`Spies, leaks, rows and lawyers' letters', 1 February). A rather grand...
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MEDIA STUDIES
The SpectatorFor a nation obsessed by Germany, it's hard to find out anything important about the Germans STEPHEN GLOVER H ow big a mess is Germany in? I have scoured British newspapers...
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A S I WAS SAYING
The SpectatorThere should be zero tolerance for drugs, not alcohol and tobacco PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE Nero tolerance', as we have all recently learnt, is the theory that if the police crack...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorEnjoying a certain following David Sexton MILES AND FLORA: A SEQUEL TO HENRY JAMES' `THE TURN OF THE SCREW' by Hilary Bailey Simon & Schuster, £15.99, pp. 280 A trick title,...
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Since I cannot prove a lover
The SpectatorHarriet Waugh STALKING FIONA by Nigel Williams Granta, £15.99, pp. 272 N igel Williams has created a very strange heroine in Fiona, a secretary to three accountants, Peter,...
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Communism and other disasters
The SpectatorAdam Zamoyski VOLCANO AND MIRACLE: A SELECTION OF FICTION AND NON-FICTION FROM `THE JOURNAL WRITTEN AT NIGHT' by Gustaw Herling, selected and translated by Ronald Strom Viking...
Men impressing men
The SpectatorPeter J. M. Wayne AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MURDERER by Hugh Collins Macmillan, £15.99, pp. 202 N early 20 years ago, I was a direction - less young prisoner serving a 12-month...
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Trials and tribulations
The SpectatorRichard Lamb NUREMBERG: THE LAST BATTLE by David Irving Focal Point, £25, pp. 362 A fter the first world war there was strong public demand in France and Britain for the Kaiser...
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Alone poor maid
The SpectatorPenelope Fitzgerald HIS ARMS ARE FULL OF BROKEN THINGS by P. B. Parris Viking £16, pp. 275 C harlotte Mew, the poet, was born in 1869 and killed herself by swallowing...
Four studies in prejudice
The SpectatorFrancis King THE NATURE OF BLOOD by Caryl Phillips Faber, £15, pp. 213 T hrough this comparatively short book, the author now strides and now stumbles down the intersecting...
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Why didn't she get a nanny?
The SpectatorCharlotte Moore THE ANGEL OF TWICKENHAM T he year is 1990. The World Cup approaches, Saddam will soon invade Kuwait, and the skating stars Yoevil and Kean have been kidnapped...
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The spirit imbuing a regiment
The SpectatorJuliet Townsend THE IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR by Rudyard Kipling, edited by George Webb Spellmount, £24.95, pp. 320 O n 4 August, 1914, Carrie Kipling wrote in her diary,...
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He done her wrong
The SpectatorA sked last year to nominate its favourite modern poem, as a follow-up to the triumph of Kipling's 'If' as top choice among the classics, the nation selected some lines by the...
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ARTS
The SpectatorWitchcraft and hysteria in Salem Does it matter if historical fact merges with fiction in films? Frances Hill believes it does T he source of most people's knowledge of one of...
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Exhibitions 1
The SpectatorYoung Gainsborough (National Gallery, till 31 March) Brilliant and elusive debut Martin Gayford D amn Gentlemen,' wrote Thomas Gainsborough to his musician friend William...
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Exhibitions 2
The SpectatorAlma-Tadema (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, till 2 March; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, from 21 March to 8 June) Glimpse into the ancient world Martin Bailey A ma-Tadema's...
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Opera
The SpectatorParsifal (Amsterdam Muziektheater) Lohengrin (Covent Garden) Wagner double Michael Tanner T o conduct Parsifal as one's first com- plete Wagner opera suggests either reck-...
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Cinema
The SpectatorFierce Creatures (PG, selected cinemas) In Love and War (15, selected cinemas) Circle of friends Mark Steyn T here was a moment when I wished I liked Fierce Creatures more....
Hughie O'Donoghue (born Manchester 1953) paints on a grand dramatic
The Spectatorscale. Pas- sionately elemental images of landscape and the figure dominate, resonantly personal (`Being Here III', 1996, above). Moody, expressive, lushly but exactly painted,...
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Theatre
The SpectatorWhistle down the Wind (National Theatre, Washington) National celebration Sheridan Morley T his has not perhaps been the greatest of weeks for Andrew Lloyd Webber, who last...
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Radio
The SpectatorThe mechanic as hero Michael Vestey I n bored moments in the 1920s, Cyril Connolly would conjure aphorisms like this: 'The best-seller is the golden touch of mediocre talent.'...
Gardens
The SpectatorRainbow colours Ursula Buchan I t is not difficult to tell which families of flowers have been a very long time in culti- vation, for they often have names taken from Greek...
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Motoring
The SpectatorThe pleasure principle Alan Judd S pectator readers being thinking hedo- nists with a lively appreciation of life's little luxuries, this month brings another in the...
Television
The SpectatorRwanda horror Simon Hoggart F ergal Keane is rapidly becoming our newest secular saint. The surprise best-sell- ing book this Christmas was his Letters to Daniel, despatches...
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The turf
The SpectatorCould do better Robin Oakley I t wasn't Charlie Swan's week. At Ascot Sound Man gave him a nightmare ride in their much publicised confrontation with One Man, jumping like a...
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High life
The SpectatorSwiss shame Taki Although there is no crime to speak of in Switzerland, Swiss jails are bursting at the seams and have been for generations. Like Swiss hotels they are full of...
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Low life
The SpectatorBanana split Jeffrey Bernard A fter more than 20 years of attending the Middlesex Hospital as an out-patient and in-patient, I have begun to take more notice of the food...
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Country life
The SpectatorA lesson in scrambling Leanda de Lisle I t's true. There are families out there who really do live entirely off ready-made meals — and I mean entirely. The chil- dren's new...
BRIDGE _
The SpectatorDouble trouble Andrew Robson YOU would feel confident if you had six trumps against a grand slam contract. Most of the time you would be right! Would you double? Dealer...
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Quaglino's, Daphne's, Langan's Brasserie, San Lorenzo
The SpectatorWHEN the editor suggested that I wrote about overrated restaurants I took him to mean those subject to media 'hype', socially ` 1 11', hard to get into and overpriced. Taking a...
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SAM NILE SCOTCH 51111511
The SpectatortsLE of juRA COMPETITION Dirty dozen Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1969 you were invited to incorporate 12 given words, in any order, into an entertaining piece of prose....
SIMPSON'S
The SpectatorIN-THE-STRAND CHESS ';!'‘ Erg SIMPSON'S IN-THE-STRAND AS THE knowledge and science of chess advances, it might be thought that top play- ers would be less prone to quick...
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CROSSWORD
The Spectator1298: On and on ... by Ascot A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 19 90 Port for the first correct solution opened on 3 March, with two runners-up...
Solution to 1295: Tattoo
The Spectatoragoirkunacr. mama A •du acinEnci 0 gi u ARAB 3 BS E T I MO mum sof:1E Dna 13 o , A . riachan on . no cr poa.np E D 131311 JO Ellij 0 In M INIO T la ljr10010 allirl . T O 3...
No. 1972: Agony uncle
The SpectatorJeffrey Bernard has told us that he once stood in for an agony aunt in a newspaper. Let us assume he has resumed the job in his own name. You are invited to provide a distressed...
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SPECTATOR SPORT
The SpectatorThe art of finishing Simon Barnes ENGLAND win cricket match shock! A nation does not mourn! Yes, it finally hap- pened. England took 20 wickets in a single Test match and...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorQ. I am the proud owner of the most adorable Cavalier King Charles spaniel. He is not only the most perfect companion, he is also wonderful with children. The Only snag is that...