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A fair tax
The SpectatorI t is tempting to sympathise with the hoary mob of farmers and hauliers, collectively known as the Fuel Lobby, who as we go to press are threatening to blockade motorways and...
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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK A s the price of petrol rose
The Spectatorabove £1 per litre, a group of protesters calling itself the Fuel Lobby threatened to blockade motorways and oil refineries in protest against fuel duty. Many petrol stations...
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T he New Labour assault on John Humphrys was inevitable, not
The Spectatorbecause he is a Tory (I have no reason to suppose he is) but because he defies Labour’s Gestapo, being always scrupulously fair. He interviewed me last week in a debate with the...
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What’s cricket and what’s not: the secret sporting history of Tony Blair
The SpectatorI used to play for the same cricket club as Tony Blair, though not at the same time. It was called the Cricket Pistols, named after the punk rock band which is still indelibly...
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W hen a disaster or a war happens, very large estimates
The Spectatorof the number of dead quickly emerge in the media. These tend to be propagated by two groups — those seeking money to deal with the problem, and those wanting to blame somebody...
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Fear in the community
The SpectatorRoss Clark reveals that the government has a hidden programme for mass closure of local hospitals T he local people who turned out to see Princess Helen Louise open the new wing...
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Why do we tolerate intolerance?
The SpectatorRod Liddle on how the government’s fear of offending Muslims promotes homophobia and anti-Semitism R ed Cross officials have been meeting in Switzerland to decide upon a new...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorMore on treacle, thanks to Mr Christopher Couchman of Bath, who sends a lovely recipe for Venice treacle, taken from the English Dispensatory of John Quincy (who died in 1722)....
There is no cure for the UN
The SpectatorMark Steyn says the transnational body is both corrupt and institutionally anti-American — but there is no point in trying to reform it K ofi Annan is the very embodiment of...
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Just say no to Ken
The SpectatorBruce Anderson says that Kenneth Clarke has the qualities of a leader — but not of the Tory party T he aged eagle has stretched his wings. For once, Ken Clarke is trying. During...
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Return of the Troubles
The SpectatorKevin Myers says that no one should be surprised by the loyalist riots in Belfast, and no one should hold out hope for Northern Ireland Kildare W riting about Northern Ireland...
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Disability allowances
The SpectatorLeo McKinstry reports that even crack addicts can now claim to be disabled, and sue for compensation if they are sacked A n insidious paradox lies at the heart of the modern...
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First, put the public finances in order — that’s where Clarkeonomics started
The SpectatorH is party hoped that Kenneth Clarke as Chancellor would deliver the elusive ‘feelgood factor’ that would somehow win them the election. When would it come through? ‘2 May...
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Pro-God, anti-religion
The SpectatorFrom Mira Bar-Hillel Sir: Theo Hobson makes some interesting points in his article about ‘literary atheism’ (‘Writing God off’, 10 September) but his case is fatally flawed by...
Mira Bar-Hillel London SW19
The SpectatorFrom John Bunting Sir: Why do atheists always define themselves in terms of what they don’t believe? Just for once, it would be nice to hear one of them say, for example, ‘I...
A licence for mayhem
The SpectatorFrom Bernie Reeves Sir: Rod Liddle (‘The joy of stigma’, 3 September) is correct to point out what happens when lobbying groups force the mentally ill back into society. In...
Eupeptic Cowling
The SpectatorFrom Bruce Anderson Sir: Although Maurice Cowling took a low view of the human condition, he was a eupeptic pessimist. His brains were never in his bile duct. He was as...
Masters of their fate
The SpectatorFrom David Mayger Sir: As a long-term admirer of Aidan Hartley’s work — particularly his recent Zanzibar Chest — I was surprised and disappointed when he attributed the source...
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Bad cop idea
The SpectatorFrom David Williams Sir: No doubt you were disappointed that following your support for David Cameron (Diary, 3 September) his first policy announcement was mayor-appointed...
For and against Clarke
The SpectatorFrom Darrell Goodliffe Sir: I am that rarest of breeds, a left-wing reader of your publication. To my mind a Conservative party under the stewardship of Kenneth Clarke...
Richard Devonald-Lewis Sir: If the Conservative party wishes to win
The Spectatorthe next election, it has to win back all the defectors like me who voted Ukip last time. I was a Tory candidate in the 1970 and February 1974 elections. If Ken Clarke is...
Gift of a taxman
The SpectatorFrom Ian Blair Sir: Theodore Dalrymple is right to think that the Dobermann dog was the creation of a 19th-century German tax collector (Second opinion, 3 September). Louis...
Truth, not spite
The SpectatorFrom Graham Lord Sir: In his Diary (10 September) Trevor Grove describes my new biography of his chum Sir John Mortimer as ‘somewhat spiteful’, by which obviously he means...
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Barefoot in the jungle, I did my bit for the Rest of the World
The SpectatorN oël Coward was right about mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun. How it was that I found myself playing in my first football match since leaving school four decades ago, at...
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I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore
The SpectatorT o someone of my age, who has seen the world and now wants only repose and beauty, Lake Como is the perfect place. I do not know how many times I have visited it in the last...
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Losing the plot
The SpectatorRoss Clark says that John Prescott’s housing policy is wasteful and dangerous T here is a rather fetching neovernacular housing estate down my way whose builders have gone out...
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Aphrodite’s turf
The SpectatorGerald Cadogan I f you want a house in Cyprus, think a thousand times before you put your money in the Turkish North, even if it is the most beautiful part of the whole East...
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Don’t panic
The SpectatorRebecca Jed A burglar alarm company rang this morning. My friend’s alarm had gone off. Could I, their keyholder, go over and let the police in? ‘Not really,’ I said, as I do...
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Boom, then bust
The SpectatorKaren Robinson H ere’s a diverting after-dinner game. Take a map of the world, shut your eyes and stick a pin in it. If it lands on a country where there is not at least one...
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Hot property
The SpectatorGreenwich has that elusive characteristic aspired to by devotees of the self-help manual: a well-rounded personality. Resisting the temptation to wallow in a glorious past...
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O n the very first page of Peter Ackroyd’s biography, you
The Spectatorlearn something strange and interesting about the first few moments of Shakespeare’s life: ‘A small portion of butter and honey was usually placed in the baby’s mouth. It was...
The everlasting guessing game
The SpectatorSam Leith S HAKESPEARE : T HE B IOGRAPHY by Peter Ackroyd Chatto, £25, pp. 560, ISBN 1856197263 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 800 6655 SHADOWPLAY: T HE H IDDEN B ELIEFS AND C...
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The distaff side of death
The SpectatorZenga Longmore C HIN U P , G IRLS !: A B OOK OF W OMEN ’ S O BITUARIES FROM THE D AILY T ELEGRAPH edited by Georgia Powell and Katherine Ramsay John Murray, £16.99, pp. 362,...
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Trapped in a shaming role
The SpectatorWilliam Brett D ANCING IN THE D ARK by Caryl Phillips Secker, £12.99, pp. 214, ISBN 0436205831 ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 R acial shame looms large in this...
The badlands of Bohemia
The SpectatorOlivia Glazebrook I N THE F OLD by Rachel Cusk Faber, £10.99, pp. 224, ISBN 0571228135 ✆ £8.79 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 L ike many a good novel before it, In the Fold...
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Peace under the Iron Mountain
The SpectatorVictoria Glendinning MEMOIR by John McGahern Faber, £16.99, pp. 272, ISBN 0571228100 ✆ £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W hen he was little, John McGahern’s mother took...
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How to avoid eating dog
The SpectatorJames Hughes-Onslow P HAIC T AN : S UNSTROKE ON A SHOESTRING by Santo Cilautro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch Quadrille, £8.99, pp. 252, ISBN 184400239X ✆ £7.19 (plus £2.45 p&p)...
Holding the East in fee
The SpectatorCharles Allen S AHIB : T HE B RITISH S OLDIER IN I NDIA , 1750-1914 by Richard Holmes HarperCollins, £20, pp. 506, ISBN X0007137532 ✆ £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 N...
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A small, bespectacled hero
The SpectatorDavid Gilmour T HE S IEGE OF V ENICE by Jonathan Keates Chatto, £20, pp. 495, ISBN 0701166371 ✆ £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 U nited Italy was reluctant to honour...
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Paradise lost in Kashmir
The SpectatorFrancis King S HALIMAR THE C LOWN by Salman Rushdie Cape, £17.99, pp. 416, ISBN 0224061615 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 800 6655 T his novel starts near the end of its story....
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French connection
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth assesses the first exhibition to unite Nelson and Napoleon M uch trumpeted as the first exhibition to explore together the lives of Horatio Nelson and Napoleon...
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Restoration drama
The SpectatorSarah Walden R ecently I received a disobliging letter from a trustee of the National Gallery. The author, a peer of the realm, upbraided me for publishing correspondence...
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True colours
The SpectatorMark Steyn The Umbrellas of Cherbourg PG, National Film Theatre I f you’re within reach of the National Film Theatre this week, treat yourself to the digitally restored...
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Yorkshire grit
The SpectatorToby Young Harvest Royal Court A Few Good Men Theatre Royal Haymarket Medium Rare Bush Hall T he second half of Harvest , Richard Bean’s new play about four generations of a...
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Tale of the unexpected
The SpectatorMichael Tanner Dom Sébastien Royal Opera T he Royal Opera’s new season began with a nice big surprise: Donizetti’s last opera, Dom Sébastien, roi de Portugal , written for...
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Jarring note
The SpectatorPeter Phillips I t has not been an entirely straightforward Proms season for Nicholas Kenyon and his team. They missed the effects of the first London bombings, but not of the...
Climate change
The SpectatorUrsula Buchan A ll my working life, I have been adapting to climate change. As an apprentice in a garden near Antwerp in the summer of 1976, I spent the early mornings and...
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Give rats a chance
The SpectatorMichael Vestey I n common with most people, I can’t say I like rats. Do they deserve to be demonised, though? I suppose their diseasecarrying capability means they do. Daily...
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Chillier view
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart A publisher has just reprinted, in time for its centenary, H.E. Marshall’s Our Island Story (Galore Park, £19.99), which in its day was the immensely successful...
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Shark ascending
The SpectatorSimon Courtauld T he first barracuda to be caught in British waters was landed at Newlyn, Cornwall four years ago. This summer giant fin whales have been spotted off the...
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Donny style
The SpectatorRobin Oakley ‘A German joke,’ a former British ambassador once told me, ‘is no laughing matter.’ The Germans take their elections seriously, too. It has been no easy matter, in...
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Eco lesson
The SpectatorTaki St Tropez I don’t know what I hate more, SUVs or SUV owners, but at least I don’t make a habit of insulting the latter. This is reserved for Hummer slobs, men who are...
Not in the mood
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke I ask the new landlord of the Bald Hind, who’s manning the bar on his own tonight, for a pint of Stella. He’s in his mid-fifties and wearing a clean, ironed...
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Snubbed
The SpectatorSusanna Gross T he Buenos Aires scandal of 1965 has never been satisfactorily resolved. Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro were found guilty of cheating (by using finger signals)...
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G lade is the new daytime restaurant at Sketch. It’s called
The SpectatorGlade because the interior design is meant to evoke a forest rather than, say, those awful air-fresheners used by lower-income types because they cannot afford fresh flowers...
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Hail to the coach!
The SpectatorFRANK KEATING T he Ashes cricket series was unimaginably compelling from first day to last. At Lord’s on 21 July England began their challenge by bowling out the world champion...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorDear Mary Q. I sympathise with B.M.F. (20 August). At a recent Proms concert, a superb performance of ‘Gerontius’ was ruined by a middle-aged woman continually fanning herself...
Q. Some months ago we invited friends to a concert.
The SpectatorWe did not expect them to pay for the tickets and they (perfectly properly) did not offer to do so. They plainly enjoyed the evening and promised a ‘return match’. Recently they...
Q. Your correspondent is embarrassed by his pyjama trousers gaping
The Spectatorat breakfast in mixed company. Have you ever heard of the old fashioned nightshirt as worn by Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens’s Christmas Carol ? It can be bought in brushed cotton...
Q. My lady-wife and I have planned to spend our
The Spectatorautumn years among the literary groups beside Aldeburgh’s pebbly beach but worry that your advice for the male literati to wear ladies’ pyjamas for breakfast there may tempt...