Page 5
Brownâs weakness is his strength
The SpectatorG ordon Brownâs dramatic and humiliating climbdown on the abolition of the 10p tax rate averted at least one disaster: the Prime Minister was facing a knife-edge Commons vote...
Page 9
I tâs Powell week. I am due to speak at the
The Spectatorsite of his infamous ârivers of bloodâ speech on Sunday, a rather clever idea dreamed up by my colleagues at the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Kamal Ahmed and...
Page 10
On the doorstep for the local elections the common refrain is: itâs time for a change
The SpectatorS pend just a few minutes on the campaign trail for next weekâs local elections and it suddenly becomes clear why Labour MPs got into such a mutinous mood. When they happily...
Page 11
A ctually, there never was much sense in a ten pence
The Spectatorrate of income tax. It added complication, and Gordon Brown is right to get rid of it, though wrong to charge income tax on people so low on the income scale. But you cannot...
Page 12
DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY
The SpectatorMONDAY What on earth is wrong with the general public at the moment? Why, according to the so-called opinion polls, do more people like Alistair Darling than Gids? Have they...
Page 14
Joking apart: why Boris is the man for the job
The SpectatorBoris Johnson has confounded his critics, says Matthew dâAncona . The contest will go to the wire, but our man has proved himself to be both shrewd enough and serious enough...
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My dream for Turkey, by Borisâs great-grandfather
The SpectatorNorman Stone on the dramatic life and death of Ali Kemal, one-time interior minister of Turkey and our mayoral candidateâs forebear B oris Johnson is one eighth Turkish. His...
Page 18
The Beeb behaved like a Da Vinci Code villain
The SpectatorJack Valero , a director of Opus Dei, says that even Dan Brown would be hard-pushed to invent the strange and circuitous business of complaining to the BBC T he last time Opus...
âH ello Barbara,â Emma says as she hauls the Hoover in
The Spectatorthrough the front door. I canât disguise my confusion. âAs in Tom and Barbara. You know, from The Good Life .â I donât get it, at first. I still think of myself as this...
Page 19
Britain as money-laundering philanderers? The Salvation Army as a bunch of crooks bent on power? No, of course not.
The SpectatorSo we complained. We wanted a little apology, thatâs all, and a firm purpose of amendment: a three-second statement read at the graveyard of the news hour, perhaps, a flash of...
Page 20
Why Iâm standing to be a local councillor
The SpectatorKelvin MacKenzie says that his fury over an extortionate hike in parking prices drove him to stand for election to Elmbridge Borough Council I t was a strange place for the red...
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How to get the best exchange rate
The SpectatorWhen transferring money overseas, donât think you will get the best exchange rate from your high street bank. There is an alternative and it will save you money. Changing and...
Page 22
The truth is that the house price crash is, overall, good news
The SpectatorRod Liddle says that our pursuit of property as investment has been the most repulsive and soul-destroying aspect of contemporary British culture I f you take that excellent map...
Page 23
D eath and taxes: these, according to Benjamin Franklin, are the
The Spectatortwo immovables of human existence. In modern life, however, there is a third: drivel, from which, try as one might, it is now impossible to escape. I concede, of course, that...
Page 24
Obama needs to knock Hillary out â and quick
The SpectatorHillary Clintonâs big win in the Pennsylvania primary has drawn attention to four main weaknesses in Barack Obamaâs appeal, says James Forsyth H illary Clinton did not have...
Page 25
United State of Europe
The SpectatorSir: Your musings (âEngland Rides Againâ, 19 April) upon the complexity of being English, Scottish or British have, I fear, the relevance of the archangels upon the...
An English characteristic
The SpectatorSir: You may not have realised it, but asking Mohamed Al Fayed to contribute to your survey (âSo what is England?â, 19 April) showed an important English trait â...
Missing steeple
The SpectatorSir: Alex James writes (Slow Life, 19 April) of the joys of orbiting the spire of Canterbury Cathedral, âthe static needle of the steeple pointing quietly upâ. In my years...
The wrong George
The SpectatorSir: It was a delight to receive the St Georgeâs Day special issue and to read what were, for the most part, well-balanced and interesting articles about England and the...
Our origins
The SpectatorSir: In his Spectatorâs Notes of 19 April, Charles Moore writes that John Buchanâs idea of âOld Englishâ is âhistorical rubbish (who were these Old English who were...
Consequences of separation
The SpectatorSir: While Fraser Nelsonâs column (Politics, 19 April) provided an excellent political analysis regarding England and Scotland, it made no reference to the potential...
Ideological fanaticism
The SpectatorSir: Igor Toronyi-Lalic (Arts, 19 April) correctly raises the question of fanaticism of some ideological movements. According to him, in the 1920s the USSR was advocating...
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My heart bleeds for cold-callers â it must be the most depressing job in the world
The SpectatorI tâs always happening. It happened again last Friday. I had finished my Times column for Saturday and, taking advantage of the two hours left of daylight, fetched the...
Page 27
Songs the BBC spoilsports might not let you sing
The SpectatorI t is good fun to imagine historical conjunctions. Suppose, for example, Winston Churchill had done Desert Island Discs . What would he have chosen? His favourite song of all...
Page 28
Tantamount to financial terrorism
The SpectatorNeil Barnett says hedge funds should be forced to reveal their trading secrets, to deter them from the kind of market manipulation that has recently hit Icelandic banks Y ou...
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The Chariots of Fire moment that revealed Gordonâs 10p tax timebomb
The SpectatorT he abolition of the 10p starter rate of income tax in Gordon Brownâs last Budget has a special significance in recent Spectator history: coming only a month after our move...
Page 32
Were we any better than the Nazis?
The SpectatorSam Leith H UMAN S MOKE by Nicholson Baker Simon & Schuster, £20, pp. 566, ISBN 9781847372741 â £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n July 1940, Hitler issued what...
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A masterpiece of boyhood recalled
The SpectatorAndro Linklater K IERON S MITH , B OY by James Kelman Hamish Hamilton, £18.99, pp. 422, ISBN 9780241142417 â £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n his take on the...
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Wilful destruction of a world wonder
The SpectatorRobin Hanbury-Tenison T REE OF R IVERS : T HE S TORY OF THE A MAZON by John Hemming Thames & Hudson, £20, pp. 368, ISBN 9780670915804 â £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...
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Growing up in no manâs land
The SpectatorZenga Longmore T HE M AKING OF M R H AI  S DAUGHTER: B ECOMING B RITISH by Yasmin Hai Virago, £14.99, pp. 334, ISBN9781844082698 â £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...
More mayoral election fever
The SpectatorClaudia FitzHerbert O NCE U PON A T IME IN THE N ORTH by Philip Pullman David Fickling Books, £9.99, pp. 95, ISBN 9780385614320 â £7.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O...
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A working-class villain
The SpectatorLeo McKinstry K EN : T HE U PS AND D OWNS OF K EN L IVINGSTONE by Andrew Hosken Arcadia Books, £15.99, pp. 435, ISBN 9781905147724 â £12.79 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...
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What we lost last summer
The SpectatorWilliam Brett B ORN Y ESTERDAY : T HE N EWS AS A N OVEL by Gordon Burn Faber, £7.99, pp. 214, ISBN 9780571240265 â £6.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I tâs startling...
Children of a genius
The SpectatorAllan Massie I N THE S HADOW OF THE M AGIC M OUNTAIN by Andrea Weiss University of Chicago Press, £14.50, pp. 272, ISBN 9780226886725 â £11.60 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...
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Blood on their hands
The SpectatorDavid Pryce-Jones A D ANGERoUS L IAISoN : S IMoNE DE B EAUvoIR AND J EAN -P AUL S ARTRE by Carole Seymour-Jones Century, £20, pp. 574, ISBN 9781844138227 â £16 (plus £2.45...
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Between deference and insolence
The SpectatorTheodore Dalrymple T HE D iSRESPECT A GENDA : O R H OW THE W RONG K iND OF N iCENESS iS M AKiNG U S W EAK AND U NHAPPY by Lincoln Allison Social Affairs Unit, £10, pp.120,...
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âYouâre always learningâ
The SpectatorHenrietta Bredin talks to Sally Burgess about taking on the role of Carmen J ust as dancers are fortunate if they have especially long legs and strong, flexible feet, there are...
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Self styled
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth Whitechapel at War: Isaac Rosenberg and his circle Ben Uri Gallery, 108a Boundary Road, London NW8, until 8 June I t seems that Isaac Rosenberg thought of...
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The big sleep
The SpectatorLloyd Evans Small Change Donmar War and Peace, I and II Hampstead O h my God. Did that really happen? I knew nothing about Peter Gillâs 1976 play, Small Change , before...
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Birtwistleâs brilliance
The SpectatorMichael Tanner The Minotaur Royal Opera F or the first time in the 12 years that I have been reviewing opera weekly, I have been to the first performance of a masterpiece. The...
Page 48
Too black and white
The SpectatorDeborah Ross Persepolis 12A, London and key cities P ersepolis , an animated feature about coming of age in Iran, is kind of interesting and is kind of original but its...
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Ill Met by moonlight
The SpectatorRobin Holloway N othing is sacred or unchanging. One of Radio Threeâs most reliable sources of musical pleasure, the weekly Saturday opera relay from the Metropolitan in New...
Page 50
Talking too much
The SpectatorKate Chisholm S omething so weird has happened to the way we live now that Radio Two has decided it needs to dedicate a weekâs programming to Letâs Talk About Sex . Itâs...
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Farewell, Foyle
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart S o itâs goodbye to Foyleâs War (Sunday, ITV), for the time being at least. The series seems to have been cancelled not because it was no good; it was, for a...
Page 52
Art in Kew
The SpectatorUrsula Buchan I n the 19th century, the painting of flowers was mainly the preserve of maiden ladies with too much time on their hands, whose watercolours would be framed by...
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Living faith
The SpectatorTaki New York I t obviously came from above â the order, that is â because I have never seen such perfect temperatures and clearer skies than for the Popeâs visit. And...
Up the garden path
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke E very day that I can, I take an elderly, obese, arthritic collie called Joe for a walk. I take him out because heâs a likeable old chap, and his owner,...
Page 54
Fat cat diary
The SpectatorAidan Hartley Nairobi I want to say Kenya is a victim of negative press. Shady characters called bloggers are nicknaming the Presidentâs new Peace cabinet of ministers âAli...
Page 55
Driving me crazy
The SpectatorMelissa Kite I f television bosses ever get really desperate for cheap viewing, they could always follow me with a hand-held camera as I pigheadedly attempt to drive my car...
Page 56
Me time
The SpectatorSarah Standing falls for the mystifying science of Biontology âM ust be your lucky morn ing, ladies,â the Southern ticket inspector unctuously announced. âIâm going to...
Page 57
Dressing down
The SpectatorRachel Johnson rarely gets out of her comfort zone: loungewear I have long cherished an â admittedly rather bizarre â fantasy. It centres on the worldâs best-dressed...
Page 59
Negative equity
The SpectatorBoom at the top Sophie Brodie finds that the high end of the market is holding firm P resent-wrapping, flower-arranging, hair-dressing are, for most of us, incidental pastimes....
Page 60
Payback time
The SpectatorCathy Strongman S ince the government announced in its 2007 green paper that it intended to make all new homes carbon-neutral by 2016, designs for snazzy green homes and...
Page 62
Tesco village
The SpectatorRoss Clark I have been trying all week to work out exactly what an âeco-townâ is, and have finally come to the conclusion that the term is derived from Umberto Eco, the...
Page 70
Mind your language
The SpectatorIâm on the edge of doing something rather shocking. Quite a few readers have written to me about the phrase for free . It is monstrous, ungrammatical and, more annoyingly,...
Page 71
B eing a sports fan is, as Max Mosley knows too
The Spectatorwell, a painful and often expensive business. I knew my cavalier investment in Bernard Hopkins to beat Joe Calzaghe on Saturday night, despite Hopkins at 43 being almost as old...
Q. A very dear friend has lugged back a present
The Spectatorfrom China. It is the most hideously frightful, huge, garish, golden âmoneyâ cat with a waving paw which he has specifically asked me to put in âmyâ drawing room (along...
Q. A friend of mine arranges an annual walk each
The Spectatoryear on the Sunday of the Mayday Bank Holiday for her birthday, often of up to 30 friends of mixed ages. We then have a delicious and congenial lunch at her house. I have been...
Q. On a train the other day the man sitting
The Spectatornext to me had an alarm on his mobile which maddeningly went off every five minutes, yet he slept through it. It was a nonstop train so there was no question of his missing his...