19 JUNE 1993

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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

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The Blue Angel L ady Thatcher said that Mr Major was the 'right Prime Minister'; 'We must all get behind John,' she added. Her support was regarded as of some help to the Prime...

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POLITICS

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The perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten the Tories' last success MATTHEW PARRIS H ow delicious it is to see the Thatchi- ans now taking fright at the consequences of what they...

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DIARY

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IAN HISLOP An American journalist rang me up this week and explained that she was writ- ing an article about how useless England was at everything at the moment. In poli-...

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ANOTHER VOICE

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When the rule of law finds itself in a panic AUBERON WAUGH T here is one aspect of the cause celebre, in which two men, an engineer and a self- employed builder, were sent to...

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PREDATORS, CROOKS AND SACRED COWS

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Nicholas Coleridge explores the friendships and animosities between newspaper proprietors THERE IS a famously comic photograph, taken at one of the annual Reuters lunches for...

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If symptoms

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persist. . . PEOPLE ARE peculiar. I concede that this inference, drawn after nearly 20 years of medical practice, is of intellectu- ally modest proportions and significance,...

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THE MARKET IN TRUTH

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Martin Vander Weyer finds Taiwan embracing capitalism, but not the freedoms that should go with it `DON'T ASK WHY!' snapped charmless Chen, the Chinese minder. 'Just sit in...

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THE LAST ROMANTIC

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Simon Heifer meets George Lloyd, a composer for the masses, who has spent years fighting the musical establishment LATER THIS month, on George Lloyd's 80th birthday, the...

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One hundred years ago

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WOMEN AS JOURNALISTS. It was inevitable that women should take to journalism as a profession, and therefore it was inevitable that some of the heaviest and most grievous...

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NOT SO MANY MANSIONS

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Daniel Johnson says the continuing arguments over whether to rebuild St Ethelburga's reflect a doctrinal split in the Church of England WHEN THEY decided to explode a bomb at...

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I MADE MY EXCUSES AND LEFT

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Tabitha Troughton goes on the books of an escort agency PAST THE hotel security, straight to the lift, up to the fourth floor. 'Look confident, like a guest,' they had told...

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Mind your language

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AS IS NOW well known, Mr Michael Mates gave Mr Asil Nadir, the fugitive bankrupt, a watch inscribed, 'Don't let the buggers get you down.' This phrase was taken up in the wake...

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YOU CAN'T TRUST A COPPER

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Alasdair Palmer finds the police at odds with each other about the reform of the force THERE IS a deluge of police series on television. Watch any night of the week and you can...

THE OUTLAW

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Michael Heath

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AND ANOTHER THING

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No time to be lost to sample gay Bulgaria PAUL JOHNSON B ulgaria ought to be much better known in the West,' said the parliamentary deputy to me in Sofia last week. 'Then tell...

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CITY AND SUBURBAN

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A Chancellor who speaks up for flat hats if they aren't working, it's hurting CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t was bound to happen. Norman Lam- ont's praiseworthy reform has shifted the...

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Asking for it

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Sir: Dot Wordsworth (Mind your language, 12 June) condemns the 'misuse' of the phrase 'beg the question'. Alas, she is fight- ing a long-lost and pointless battle. By a happy...

LETTERS Gentle rebuke

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Sir: In his Blackpool Diary for the New Statesman, published on 3 October 1975, Anthony Howard gave currency to the fol- lowing clever observation about the trick- ster Harold...

A little learning

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Sir: When you write about two subjects of which you know nothing — like diplomacy and business — the result is, not surprising- ly, a load of cobblers. Take your statement:...

Principled remark

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Sir: Last week you published an article I wrote about John Major's difficulties under the headline 'A man of no principles, des- perately looking for the string' (Politics, 12...

It's that man again

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Sir: I wonder if your Mr Crappy Colum- nist is any more English than I am? In any case, I must admit that he has given a word, in fact his own name, to our language (Let- ters,...

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BOOKS

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The shocking of the New World James Buchan CULTURE OF COMPLAINT: THE FRAYING OF AMERICA by Robert Hughes OUP, £12.95, pp. 210 I love the New York Review of Books, not so much...

Correction

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In the last paragraph of John Bowen's article on the Betty Trask prize (Spectator 12 June) it was wrongly printed that Simon Corrigan's Tommy Was Here has now found a paperback...

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A landscape without people, a world without passion

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David Nokes STILL LIFE WITH A BRIDLE by Zbigniew Herbert Cape, £9.99, pp. 170 F . or Zbigniew Herbert, Holland is 'the k ingdom of things'. Still Life With a Bridle is an...

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Will you still need me when I'm 64?

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Christopher Bray THE LIVES OF MICHEL FOUCAULT by David Macey Hutchinson, f20, pp. 599 THE PASSION OF MICHEL FOUCAULT by James Miller HarperCollins, £18, pp. 493 T hree...

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Small but perfectly formed

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Frank Kermode A FAMILY ROMANCE by Anita Brookner Cape, f14.99, pp. 224 P riority in the use of this title could be claimed by Richard Wollheim, who, in 1969, gave it to an...

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Decomposing in the sterility of print

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Tom Shone SING THE BODY ELECTRIC by Adam Lively Chatto, £15.99, pp. 440 A . S. Byatt, trying her hand at a dust- jacket puff for Adam Lively's new book, calls it a novel 'which...

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Establishing a dangerous president

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Raymond Carr MAXIMILIAN AND JUAREZ by Jasper Ridley Constable, £16.95, pp. 362 O n 19 June 1867 the Emperor Maxim- ilian of Mexico, brother of Franz Joseph Emperor of Austria,...

Easy writing's vile, hard

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Victoria Rothschild FIVE EASY PIECES by William Scammell Sinclair-Stevenson, £7.99, pp. 192 T his is William Scammell's seventh book of poems — he also edits, and writes...

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The road of excess

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James Simmons MAY THE LORD IN HIS MERCY BE KIND TO BELFAST by Tony Parker Cape, £16.99, pp. 358 T his is a series of interviews with people in Belfast. Parker's voice is edited...

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Vive le Regent!

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Philip Mansel REGENCY DESIGN, 1790-1840 by John Morley Zwemmer, £85, pp. 476 L oss of simplicity dominates the world of Regency design. John Morley writes that, between 1790...

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ARTS

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Mu s ic 1 Keep a bower quiet for us Michael Kennedy pleads for Elgar's birthplace to be saved from the marketing men I fear you did not find the cottage — it is nearer the...

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The Stuttgart Ballet (Birmingham Hippodrome) Royal Ballet (Covent Garden)

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Forever adolescent Sophie Constanti W hen 'Germany's ballet miracle', as the Stuttgart Ballet used to be called, was a regular visitor to London back in the Sev - enties,...

Music 2

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Fond farewell Robin Holloway S cene, the stolid Victorian opulence of the Great Hall of Lincoln's Inn, ablaze on this Sunday afternoon with secular stained glass, twinkling...

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Cinema

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The Vanishing (`15', selected cinemas) Swing Kids (`12', selected cinemas) Hollywood hash Vanessa Letts T here are only two explanations why Hollywood should bother with a...

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Sale-rooms

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Happy days are here again soon Alistair McAlpine C hristie's are set to hold their largest ever sale of toy soldiers on 24 June at their South Kensington sale-rooms. The sale...

Exhibitions

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45th Venice Biennale (Venice, till 10 October) Whiff of the nursery Giles Auty or those to whom the expression `organised by Italians' may convey a condi- tion similar to...

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Television

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Called to the bar Martyn Harris I was sitting in the Groucho the other day when I realised why Cheers (Channel 4, Sunday, 9 p.m.) is so popular. I'm not a member of the club,...

Theatre

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A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (King's Head) Translations (Donmar Warehouse) The Dearly Beloved (Hampstead) Past perfect Sheridan Morley I n a strong week for revivals of...

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High life

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Table talk Taki T . o Harry and Tracy Worcester's down in Badminton for two evenings of rather spirited discussions concerning Ancient Greece v. England, politics and, of...

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Long life

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Sermons in stones Nigel Nicolson I no longer go to church. There are too many assumptions in the Creed to which I cannot assent, even by silence, and in the past I have...

Low life

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Out on parole Jeffrey Bernard I sometimes feel as though I am serving time in this flat and that Vera and anyone else who pops in is a friendly warder. But I did manage to get...

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Fête Champetre

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THIS SATURDAY, 19 June, apart from being the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (moved from 22 August, despite Pope Pius XII's decree, and reverting to being the Saturday...

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COMPETITION

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Bouts limes Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1783 you were invited to write a poem with 16 given rhyme-words in a set order. The rhyme-words were taken from 'My Papa's Waltz' by...

Sesquicentennial

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Raymond Keene I AM OFTEN ASKED whether Nigel Short is the first British player to contest a world championship. The answer is yes, though a slightly qualified one. In 1890...

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CROSSWORD

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A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 5 July, with two runners-up prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers,...

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SPECTATOR SPORT

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A load of great balls Frank Keating IN THE Sunday Times, Robin Marlar called it 'the ball of the century'. That refreshing Australian over-enthusiast, Peter FitzSimons, wrote...

YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED

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Dear Mary.. . Q. I have a friend who is pathologically generous. Despite the fact that he only appears to have one suit and occasionally mentions his overdraft of £40,000, he...