Page 5
Just leave them alone, Darling
The SpectatorI f there is a posture that will be indelibly associated with the Chancellorship of Alistair Darling â brief though it may turn out to be â it is that of a man forced into...
Page 9
T his week I have been prey to a prolonged bout
The Spectatorof insomnia induced, I suspect, by the fact that I stay up to watch the BBCâs Ten OâClock News followed by Newsnight and, invariably, one or the other contains an item which...
Page 10
Trying to work out what David Cameron really thinks, I had a strange sense of déjà vu
The SpectatorH e is the longest serving of our major party leaders. He could be Prime Minister next year. He has had publicity that many a politician would kill for. Yet how many voters can...
Page 11
E ntering my name in the visitorsâ book at the British
The SpectatorEmbassy in Paris last week, I saw, a couple of lines above, the signature âTony Blairâ. The ex-leader is in France a lot just now. Tony is very fond of President Nicolas...
Page 12
DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY
The SpectatorMONDAY Do I have to do everything around here? Silly Suzie from Daveâs office is too frightened to ask Lord A to move a load of packing boxes heâs left outside his office so...
Page 14
Pakistan needs more than elections.
The SpectatorOnly a new political class will do Stephen Schwartz says that, in this failing state, the ballot box is also a tinderbox. Even if Mondayâs election goes ahead, Pakistan might...
Page 16
Meet the minister for selling the unsellable
The SpectatorFraser Nelson warms to Jim Murphy, the Minister for Europe, who is steering the Lisbon Treaty through parliament â and now promises that he would help Blair become EU...
Page 18
A morning cigar and a glass of wine with Sir John
The SpectatorAt 84, John Mortimer is still thrilled by his latest theatrical success, appalled by the cult of âhealth and fitnessâ and sorry that the Labour party he loved has vanished....
Page 19
The first of an occasional column on the perils of
The Spectatortrying to be green, run a family and live a pleasurable life. M y chocolate chip cookies have arrived at the farm shop. Caroline apologises as I walk in: âIâm afraid...
Page 20
Britain just got Weller: meet the Jam Generation
The SpectatorAnne McElvoy talks to the politicians reared on the 1980s music of the Jam: post-Cold War, disenchanted with state monopolies, and cagey about Class A drugs W hat do David...
Page 21
T hank goodness I retired in time from the National Health
The SpectatorService: it has cut down enormously the number of forms I have to fill in. The latest proto-genocidal form sent out to employees by my erstwhile employers was called âa data...
Page 22
The Archbishop is little more than a
The Spectatorposh John Prescott in a black dress Rod Liddle is infuriated by a church leader who refuses to confront the inhumanity perpetrated in the name of Islam or the consequences â...
Page 24
Pause for tort
The SpectatorSir: Reading Sir David Tangâs diary last week, in which he recounts the story of me âGooglingâ him on a train, made me reflect on how recollections of events can differ...
Terrorism in the raw
The SpectatorSir: Since your correspondent R.L. OâShaughnessy (Letters, 9 February) directly challenges me to say whether I have âever experienced terrorism in the rawâ, I hope you...
Golden fleece
The SpectatorSir: Allister Heathâs piece entitled âFleecing non-domsâ (26 January) was excellent. In particular his point that âno taxpayer should be treated better than others...
Dishonourable exception
The SpectatorSir: Following Rod Liddleâs comments on smoking ( â Still fumingâ, 2 February), there is an additional point to make. The palace of Westminster is the only private club...
English delicacy
The SpectatorSir: In his splendid, appetite-inducing piece on food (And another thing, 9 February), Paul Johnson forgets one great English delicacy â the truly magnificent chip butty. As a...
Page 26
If the Archbishop were really an intellectual, heâd answer the questions he wordily posed
The SpectatorâH ow was it,â asks George Eliot in Middlemarch , âthat in the weeks since her marriage, Dorothea had not distinctly observed but felt with a stifling depression, that the...
Page 28
How one extraordinary talent may be the key to genius
The SpectatorW hat is a genius? We use the word frequently but surely, to guard its meaning, we should bestow it seldom. To me, a genius is a person whose gift contains an element of the...
Page 30
The wisdom of selling ahead of the crowd
The SpectatorDominic Prince says that some of the worldâs canniest investors have consolidated their fortunes by moving into cash as soon as economic storm clouds started to gather S ix...
Page 31
You wouldnât buy Britain in this state, so why hold your cash in pounds?
The SpectatorMerryn Somerset Webb A few minutes reading the Daily Mail and you might think that there wasnât a person left in Britain with a penny to their name. But it isnât so. Half...
Page 32
Members only: the sociable way to invest
The SpectatorEdie G. Lush discovers how a wealthy elite are clubbing together to buy into high-growth private companies A re you a serial investor, but with more money than time? You like...
Page 34
The East powers ahead while America stumbles
The SpectatorIan Cowie asks whether high-growth economies such as Chinaâs are a safer bet than those of the debt-laden West E merging markets have been the most profitable game in town for...
Page 36
The timeless beauty of a Stradivari
The SpectatorJoanna Pitman says owning a valuable Italian violin is doubly rewarding if it is played by a great musician H ow many investments can bring you joy as well as financial gain?...
Page 38
Congratulations on your prosperity, but go cautiously in the Year of the Rat
The SpectatorH ong Kongâs underperforming Disneyland theme park has high hopes for the Chinese Year of the Rat, which arrived in boisterous style last week. As one of the few businesses...
Page 41
Set charities free
The SpectatorGreg Clark, the shadow minister for charities, explains how the government is stifling the voluntary sector F or the first time in our history, Britainâs charities receive...
Page 42
A new âage of givingâ?
The SpectatorRoss Clark says a new class of philanthropist has emerged in Britain, inspired not by our European neighbours but by America I âm not quite sure what the French is for...
Page 44
How to give
The SpectatorRobert Gore-Langton offers a practical guide to the nuts and bolts of being a philanthropist A sk any management guru, apostle, or Greek philosopher. The worldâs main...
Page 46
A priceless experience
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke says volunteering broadened his horizons and gave him his first introduction to genuine intellectuals A fter I left school I was first an under-aged barman, then...
Page 49
BOOKS
The SpectatorThe strange experience of England A. N. Wilson P OWYS AND E MMA G OLDMAN : T HE L ETTERS OF J OHN C OWPER P OWYS AND E MMA G OLDMAN edited by David Goodway Cecil Woolf,...
Page 51
The slave in the next room
The SpectatorCharlotte Moore C oUNTING THE S TARS by Helen Dunmore Fig Tree, £16.99, pp. 274, ISBN 9780670917068 â £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Roman,â declares Catullus,...
All at sea in Shanghai
The SpectatorOlivia Cole M Y F AvoURITE W IFE by Tony Parsons HarperCollins, £17.99, pp. 374, ISBN 9780007226481 â £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he conquering white male,...
Page 52
Not under the volcano
The SpectatorIan Thomson T HE V OYAGE THAT N EVER E NDS edited by Michael Hoffmann New York Review of Books, £16.99, pp. 514, ISBN 9781590172353 â £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...
A Soft-edged Reed of Light
The SpectatorThat was the house where you asked me to remain on the eve of my planned departure. Do you remember? The house remembers it â the deal table with the late September sun...
Page 53
Winner by a nose
The SpectatorBlair Worden CYRANO by Ishbel Addyman Simon & Schuster, £16.99, pp. 307, ISBN 9780743286190 â £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W hen, after his exertions on behalf of...
Page 54
Triumph of the little ships
The SpectatorMichael Rose G UNBOAT C OMMAND : T HE B IOGRAPHY OF L IEUTENANT C OMMANDER R OBERT H ICHENS DSO, DSC, RNVR by Antony Hichens Pen & Sword, £25, pp. 341, ISBN 9781844156566 â...
Grace under pressure
The SpectatorRichard Briand T HE R ACE by Richard North Patterson Macmillan, £26, pp. 339, ISBN 978140505389 â £20.79 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 C an a straight-talking Republican...
Page 55
A slice off the top
The SpectatorD. R. Thorpe T HE C ARLTON C LUB , 1832-2007 by Sir Charles Petrie and Alistair Cooke obtainable from The Carlton Club, 69 St Jamesâs Street, London SW1A 1PJ, £30, pp. 264...
Dial M for mother
The SpectatorCaroline Moore H IS I LLEGAL S ELF by Peter Carey Faber, £16.99, pp. 272, ISBN 9780571231515 â £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 P eter Careyâs fictions are like a...
Page 56
The son of Mann
The SpectatorK laus Mannâs Journals donât pretend to be a work of literature; they are jottings, records of day-today existence, full of names many of which will mean nothing to readers...
Page 57
Roman souvenir
The SpectatorLaura Gascoigne follows in the footsteps of the 18th-century Grand Tourist âI was much disappointed in seeing Rome,â complained the English traveller Sarah Bentham in the...
Page 58
Back to nature
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth By Leafy Ways: Early Work by Ivor Abrahams Against Nature: The hybrid forms of modern sculpture Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, until 4 May T he Henry Moore...
Page 59
Count me out
The SpectatorDeborah Ross The Bucket List 12A, Nationwide A s Rob Reiner should know better and Jack Nicholson should know better and Morgan Freeman should know better, what you have here...
Page 60
Dissent in Sydney
The SpectatorPeter Phillips N ever have my asseverations in this column attracted so much attention as those about the Dean and Archbishop of Sydney. If anyone were to think that...
Page 61
Bleak house
The SpectatorLloyd Evans Uncle Vanya Rose Theatre, Kingston The Death of Margaret Thatcher Courtyard A t last the Rose has burst into bloom in Kingston. Luckily I allowed myself twice...
Page 62
Winning Beast
The SpectatorGiannandrea Poesio James son of James Barbican Three Short Works Royal Opera House I t is a pity that the definition âtheatre danceâ is commonly used to indicate any...
Thrilled by Strauss
The SpectatorMichael Tanner Salome Bridgewater Hall Peter Grimes Nottingham Die Zauberflöte Royal Opera House D oes Richard Straussâs Salome still have the power to shock, as the...
Page 63
Great inspirations
The SpectatorCharles Spencer âI think continually of those who were truly great,â wrote Stephen Spender, which must have been awkward when he was trying to read a map, cook the lunch,...
Page 64
Beware the Hun
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart I n the past, television battle scenes consisted of half a dozen men in armour knocking seven bells out of each other. Then the camera angle switched and the same...
Page 65
Uncomfortable truths
The SpectatorKate Chisholm T here was something ironic about a play entitled The Trial and Death of Socrates being broadcast on the weekend that our own great thinker, Rowan Williams, was...
Back to the soil
The SpectatorUrsula Buchan I have waited several years for this moment â in fact, ever since the late 1990s upsurge in interest in gardening began to fade, the press stopped talking about...
Page 66
Western folly
The SpectatorTaki Gstaad â L et me put it in, just a little bitâ was known as the second biggest lie after âthe cheque is in the mailâ and it comes to mind when the Archbishop of...
Page 67
Flying circles
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke T hinkers living in the nearest market town are anxious about something called âPeak Oilâ. Last week they held a public meeting on the subject: To Fly Or Not...
Page 68
Delaying tactics
The SpectatorMelissa Kite W hy canât anyone agree to the smallest thing any more without asking you to put it in an email? I rang a friend and asked him to have lunch with me this week...
Page 70
STYLE & TRAVEL
The SpectatorIn the blink of an eye Alistair Scott uses his baby-blues to fast-track his way into the UK I am fortunate to have had quite a few casual compliments about my blue eyes over...
Page 78
Where is the next generation of Toby Youngs? Itâs my turn to dismiss their drivel
The SpectatorI n 1988, Weidenfeld and Nicolson published a book called The Oxford Myth . Edited by Rachel Johnson and containing essays by a variety of precocious undergraduates, it was the...
Mind your language
The SpectatorIn my husbandâs coat pocket when I took it to the cleanerâs I found a piece of paper that he had brought home from the dentistâs. It contained remarks about the word...
Page 79
Spectator Sport
The SpectatorM y friend Simon has a lovely bench in his garden made up of the blue-painted wooden seats he sat in with his dad when they went to Rugby League decades ago. He bought them when...
your problemS Solved
The SpectatorDear Mary Q. I am currently living, with two others, in a âhigh endâ house in an elegant garden square in Chelsea. We are all friends of, and pay rent in some form to, our...
Q. I am a relatively junior member of a large
The Spectatorpublishing company and some of my colleagues have deputed me to write to you. We work in a busy but tranquil open-plan office where a handful of senior figures work in the...