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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorThe 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
The SpectatorThe 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
The SpectatorIAN 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
The SpectatorWhen 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
The SpectatorNicholas 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
The Spectatorpersist. . . 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
The SpectatorMartin 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
The SpectatorSimon 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
The SpectatorWOMEN 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
The SpectatorDaniel 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
The SpectatorTabitha 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
The SpectatorAS 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
The SpectatorAlasdair 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...
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AND ANOTHER THING
The SpectatorNo 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
The SpectatorA 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
The SpectatorSir: 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
The SpectatorSir: 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
The SpectatorSir: 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
The SpectatorSir: 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
The SpectatorSir: 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
The SpectatorThe 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
The SpectatorIn 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
The SpectatorDavid 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?
The SpectatorChristopher 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
The SpectatorFrank 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
The SpectatorTom 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
The SpectatorRaymond 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
The SpectatorVictoria 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
The SpectatorJames 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!
The SpectatorPhilip 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
The SpectatorMu 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)
The SpectatorForever 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
The SpectatorFond 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
The SpectatorThe 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
The SpectatorHappy 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
The Spectator45th 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
The SpectatorCalled 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
The SpectatorA 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
The SpectatorTable 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
The SpectatorSermons 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
The SpectatorOut 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
The SpectatorTHIS 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
The SpectatorBouts 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
The SpectatorRaymond 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
The SpectatorA 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
The SpectatorA 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
The SpectatorDear 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...