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Lock up your chickens
The SpectatorA grim inevitability hangs over the country as we go to press. Some time over the next week or two the first dead swan of spring will be pulled from the rushes in the south of...
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PORTRAIT OFTHE WEEK A clause to criminalise the âglorificationâ of terrorism,
The Spectatorwhich had been removed from the Terrorism Bill by the Lords, was reinstated when the Bill was passed in the Commons by a majority of 38, with only 17 Labour MPs voting against...
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T he story goes that my greatgrandfather Murray Finch Hatton, MP
The Spectatorfor Lincolnshire in the 1880s and later 12th Earl of Winchilsea, shot an African tracker in the leg while big-game shooting in Kenya. Mortified by what he had done, he rushed...
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Publish the Princeâs diaries: they would become an instant classic
The SpectatorP rince Charles was low in the water during the early 1990s. The collapse of any marriage is painful. In the case of the Prince the agony was magnified beyond endurance by a...
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T ory criticism of David Cameron has begun. Robin Harris gives
The Spectatorthe best articulation so far of the case against the new leader in the latest issue of Prospect . This attack was inevitable, and some of it is correct. It is wrong, for...
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How big government has swallowed the Tory party
The SpectatorFraser Nelson says that David Cameron has given up on tax cuts and will now concentrate on advancing the frontiers of the state by matching Labourâs high spending T he secret...
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Local villains
The SpectatorAlasdair Palmer discovers that the dream of localism soon becomes a nightmare when you have to deal with council bureaucrats A ll politicians appear to be in favour of...
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The Greatest Political Thinkers in History The Ideas that Shape our World
The SpectatorPower over People: Classical and Modern Political Theory offers 16 audio or video lectures by one of Americaâs most prominent scholars W hy is the world the way it is? What...
About Our Sale Price Policy
The SpectatorWhy is the sale price for this course so much lower than its standard price? Every course we make goes on sale at least once a year. Producing large quantities of only the sale...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorA semantic challenge of the genuine kind comes to me from the distinguished geographer Professor Alice Coleman. She has been responsible for a survey of the whole countryâs...
Cowboy justice
The SpectatorRod Liddle asks why American prosecutors have been allowed to demand the extradition of three British citizens who have committed no crime on US soil T hings are looking a bit...
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Out of tune
The SpectatorJane Kelly finds that the BBCâs âUK Theme Tuneâ divides children as much as it does adults T he only time I have ever enjoyed singing was when my class in Staffordshire...
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Cruel, unusual â and stupid
The SpectatorMalcolm Rifkind says that the United States has damaged her cause by using âcoercive interrogationâ in the war on terrorism T o be fair, extraordinary rendition was not...
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Toilet talk
The SpectatorBrendan OâNeill discovers that public lavatories are plastered with government propaganda, much of it telling us how disgusting we are U nder the Blair terror, you canât...
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A divided kingdom
The SpectatorCharles Haviland on the struggle between the King of Nepal and the Maoist insurgents Kathmandu, dawn on Sunday U nder the early sun, a silver disc in a grey sky, candles...
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From Philip Freeman
The SpectatorSir: I expected a more robust defence of our liberty from the Spectator (Leading article, 18 February). Just because a majority of the snivelling puritans who populate...
Commandments à la Clough
The SpectatorFrom Terry Saunders Sir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 18 February) asserts that Arthur Hugh Clough is only remembered for one poem, âSay not the struggle naught...
Unspeakable usages
The SpectatorFrom Steven Poole Sir: In his review of my book, Unspeak (Books, 18 February) Graham Stewart asks rhetorically, âCan it be â as the casual reader might assume â that...
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Flooded by facts
The SpectatorFrom Peter Hall Sir: Paul Johnson writes that if all the water in the ice caps and the glaciers melted âthe sea level would not rise muchâ (And another thing, 11 February)....
Public transport pollutes
The SpectatorFrom Bruce van Biene Sir: Your correspondent Richard Laming (Letters, 11 February) believes that airlines benefit from an irrational tax policy since they do not have to pay...
Vae victoribus!
The SpectatorFrom Arthur Hamilton Sir: David Kidd is wrong (Letters, 18 February). The first world war had to be fought to resist German domination. But once stalemate had arrived on the...
Polyglot Peter
The SpectatorFrom Michael Henderson Sir: Toby Young wonders (Theatre, 18 February) whether Peter Stein, the great German director responsible for the production of David Harrowerâs play,...
Cynical retort
The SpectatorFrom Ruth Chambers Sir: Whether or not the publication of the cartoons of Mohammed was âa case of appalling insensitivity and bad mannersâ (Mark Glazebrook, Arts, 18...
Rapacious Rabat
The SpectatorFrom Joseph Palley Sir: Tom Walker (âRender unto Dubyaâ, 18 February) makes no mention of Moroccoâs annexation of Western Sahara. Rabat is nakedly imperialist; its war...
Split screen
The SpectatorFrom Robert Vincent Sir: Miriam Gross (Diary, 4 February) tells us that we have âagain become a two-nation stateâ because of âthose who watched Big Brother and those that...
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Why not share Anglican churches among Catholics, Muslims â and Anglicans?
The SpectatorS uppose a public body owned tens of thousands of acres of real estate across England, mostly in prime residential areas. Suppose it showed little inclination to rationalise its...
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Back from the grave and ready to party â thatâs the London Stock Exchange
The SpectatorA sked what he did in the French Revolution, the Abbé Sieyes explained that he survived it. Against all the odds, this has been the London Stock Exchangeâs achievement. It is...
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Who was the most right-wing man in history?
The SpectatorT he recent death of Michael Wharton, aged 92, raises the interesting question: who was the most right-wing person who ever lived? Many thought he was. I am not sure he did...
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A very loose canon
The SpectatorPhilip Hensher 1001 B OOKS Y OU M UST R EAD B EFORE Y OU D IE edited by Peter Boxall Cassell, £20, pp. 960, ISBN 9781844034178 â £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 P...
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The wobbly Anglo-French tandem
The SpectatorFrank Johnson T HE A LMOST I MPOSSIBLE A LLY by Peter Mangold I. B. Tauris, £18.99, pp. 275, ISBN 1850438005 â £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 âOscillations...
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Finnish but not yet free
The SpectatorOlivia Glazebrook H OUSE OF O RPHANS by Helen Dunmore Fig Tree/ Penguin, £17.99, pp. 330, ISBN 9780007135080 â £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 F inland, 1902. The...
Where time has had a stop
The SpectatorNicholas Fearn P LEASE M R E INSTEIN by Jean-Claude Carrière Harvill/Secker, £12.99, pp. 186, ISBN 18443433044 â £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 J ean-Claude...
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Reports from discomfort zones
The SpectatorAnthony Daniels C ONTACT W OUNDS : A W AR S URGEON â S E DUCATION by Jonathan Kaplan Picador, £17.99, pp. 278, ISBN 0330492586 â £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 S...
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Keeping one jump ahead
The SpectatorDonald Michie C OLOSSUS : B LETCHLEY P ARK â S G REATEST S ECRET by Paul Gannon Atlantic, £25, pp. 562, ISBN 1843543303 â £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O ver half a...
Ups and downs of Bankside
The SpectatorClive Aslet T HE H OUSE BY THE T HAMES AND THE P EOPLE WHO L IVED T HERE by Gillian Tindall Chatto, £20, pp. 258, ISBN 0701175931 â £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W...
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Ten years of climate change
The SpectatorWilliam Brett T HE N EW H OLLYWOOD by Peter Kramer Wallflower, £12.99, pp. 329, ISBN 0670914517 â £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T he relationship between Hollywood...
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A far from plodding pedestrian
The SpectatorSimon Courtauld W ILFRED T HESIGER : T HE L IFE OF THE G REAT EXPLORER by Alexander Maitland HarperCollins, £25, pp. 528, ISBN 0002556081 â £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...
A glorious road to ruin
The SpectatorJonathan Sumption T HE P ERFECT K ING : T HE L IFE OF E DWARD III, F ATHER OF THE E NGLISH N ATION by Ian Mortimer Cape, £20, pp. 560, ISBN 022407301X â £16 (plus £2.45...
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The discreet shape of tears
The SpectatorSalley Vickers K EEPING M UM by Brian Thompson Atlantic, £12.99, pp. 232, ISBN 1843544970 V £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 M others and memoirs are fashionable at the...
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Nothing to lose but freedom
The SpectatorAriane Bankes on Tsotsi, a film about violence and redemption â in a South African township I tâs a rare thing to find a film subtitled even in its home country, without a...
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Crossing continents
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth Americans in Paris 1860â1900 National Gallery, until 21 May Sponsored by Rothschild Winslow Homer, Poet of the Sea Dulwich Picture Gallery, until 21 May W...
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Return flight
The SpectatorRobert Gore-Langton I f you are seriously rich, leaving lavish things in your will must be one of lifeâs great pleasures. Few writers can match Sir James Barrieâs...
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Irritating triumph
The SpectatorMichael Tanner Der fliegende Holländer Wales Millennium Centre W elsh National Operaâs Der fliegende Holländer is a triumph, despite the considerable irritations of the...
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The write stuff
The SpectatorLloyd Evans Southwark Fair Cottesloe Steam White Bear Other Hands Soho S outhwark Fair by Samuel Adamson. Ever heard of it? Nor me but it sounds like a sprawling comedy of...
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Bizetâs delight
The SpectatorRobin Holloway W here have I been all these years? A listed Francophile managing to miss the utter delight of Bizetâs la jolie fille de Perth ! Not averse to Carmen , tickled...
Murder he wrote
The SpectatorOlivia Glazebrook Capote 15, selected cinemas I t is hard to imagine the author of Breakfast at Tiffanyâs and In Cold Blood as the same man. In 1958, Truman Capote wrote the...
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Housework on ice
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart W here do the commentators on the Winter Olympics (BBC2) go for the other three years and 50 weeks? I imagine them living in caves. Then, just after Christmas,...
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Filthy lucre
The SpectatorMichael Vestey T he historian Bettany Hughes, presenter of Amongst the Medici on Radio Four this week (Wednesday), seemed in her first programme â one of three â a bit...
Singing in the rain
The SpectatorRobin Oakley I s there perhaps at the bottom of the Thames, slithering back and forth with the tides, a muddy heap of mobile phones, glowing faintly in the dark, some emitting...
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Peter and friends
The SpectatorSimon Courtauld I t is some years since I saw, in a Paris bookshop, a translated copy of Beatrix Potterâs The Tale of Peter Rabbit , but I still enjoy recalling the French...
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Union blues
The SpectatorTaki T o Oxford for a Union debate: This house believes that Hurricane Katrina blew away the myth of US racial equality. Naturally, I was against the motion, but, students...
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Groundhog day
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke T he coach journey from the airport to the city centre took three quarters of an hour. Slumped in my comfortable seat near the back, I looked glumly out of the...
Take the plunge
The SpectatorSusanna Gross A mong the keenest bridge players I know are Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser. The other day they told me about an extraordinary hand that Harold picked up...
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Blaming the blazers
The SpectatorFRANK KEATING S ix Nationsâ rugby resumes this weekend. Still all to play for. The first two rounds of the tournament, which ends on 18 March, produced a generally grey show...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorDear Mary Q. A dear friend has been going to Pilates classes. She is very proud of her newly taut torso, but I fear she has been taking the discipline too seriously. She now...
Q. A friend of mine who enjoys cigars asked another
The Spectatorfriend who lives in Spain if on his next trip to London he could buy 100 cigars in Gibraltar and bring them to London. The cigars retail in Gibraltar at about one third of the...
Q. My two daughters have gone to university, and although
The Spectatorthey are both within driving distance of home and have cars, I find it very hard to pin them down to coming home for weekends. What do you suggest? O.A., Suffolk A. Take a tip...