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Must try harder
The SpectatorT he wonder of the National Curriculum Tests marking scandal is that it has taken a decade for the inadequacies of the school exam system to become widely known. As Liz...
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F rom London to Bath to Manhattan, ten funerals or memorial
The Spectatorservices since October makes more than one a month, and attending them can seem a full-time occupation, as well as a sorrowful one. John Biffen, Bill Deedes and Ian Gilmour were...
Page 10
The government should talk to the voters, not the unions
The SpectatorT he political year ends with a sequel. Labour leaders, trade unionists and party members gather at Warwick university for what is billed as Warwick Two. The original version...
Page 11
T he news that the government is to fund a board
The Spectatorof Islamic theologians to try to advance more moderate interpretations of Islam has been attacked as an unprecedented attempt by the state to shape the doctrine of a religion....
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DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY
The SpectatorMONDAY Everyone assuming Iâve been keeping up with Events during my horse holiday with Sesame but as I explained to Nigel I was in a very remote part of the Isle of Wight....
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Donât mention the AfghanâPakistan war
The SpectatorBoth Britain and America are reluctant to admit it but, says Fraser Nelson , our most pressing foreign policy problem is what to do about Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state in...
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âAll local government should be abolishedâ
The SpectatorIt doesnât matter whoâs in charge, says Rod Liddle . Once elected, a local council automatically becomes self-important and incompetent A charity called Help for Heroes,...
Page 18
Meet Italyâs answer to Boris
The SpectatorGianni Alemanno, Romeâs new right-wing mayor, tells John Laughland that itâs time for the Eternal City to adopt a âzero toleranceâ approach T here are few people, I...
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Our lazy firemen must make a radical change
The SpectatorBritainâs firefighters are under-worked and inflexible, says Leo McKinstry . Itâs time we created a unified emergency service A cooling breeze wafted through the plane trees...
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Marking Sats has always been a total fiasco
The SpectatorLiz Brocklehurst T he Sats disaster is depressing, but Iâm afraid that as someone whoâs marked them for ten years, itâs not altogether surprising. In the early days of...
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âMake him sit and waitâ
The SpectatorAnna Blundy takes her dog Marmite to Tip Top training and finds that the whole procedure could just as well apply to men T he lady in the orange baseball cap is shouting to be...
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Sensible scares
The SpectatorSir: To be fair to the scaremongers (Another Voice, 19 July), at least some of the scares mentioned by Matthew Parris (al-Qaâeda, HIV) seem less frightening in retrospect not...
Saint Pius XII?
The SpectatorSir: Pope Pius XII was described by Golda Meir, the then Israeli foreign minister, as âa true friend of the Jewish peopleâ at the time of the Pontiffâs death in 1958. His...
An intrusive âgâ
The SpectatorSir: Toby Young (Status Anxiety, July 12) tells us that âJoseph Epstein, a retired academicâ coined the word âKindergarchyâ. The pedant academic in me considers that the...
Demonising paedophiles
The SpectatorSir: Charlotte Metcalf hopes the convicted paedophile Roger Took (âThe Devil in our midstâ, 12 July) will read her words âwith par ticular careâ. I wonder how she would...
Inaccessible material
The SpectatorSir: Charles Leadbeater (âThe web is a conservative forceâ, 12 July) may be right that the internet enables us to record for posterity more of the ephemera of our daily...
The pastrymakerâs revenge
The SpectatorSir: Charles Moore notes (The Spectatorâs Notes, 19 July) that croissants were invented to celebrate Jan Sobieskiâs defeat of the Turks outside the walls of Vienna in 1683....
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Eye-stopping glimpses of an exotic and forbidden world
The SpectatorF or anyone interested in fine painting, as distinct from âgreat artâ, there is a treat at the Tate for them: a display of works by British artists, from the 17th to the...
Page 26
The decline of the empire of Starbucks
The SpectatorMatthew Lynn says coffee is the pure brew of capitalism â as the credit crunch bites, no wonder the worldâs most ubiquitous coffee-house chain is heading for trouble I n...
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Deluded and abandoned
The SpectatorAnne Applebaum T HE F ORSAKEN : A N A MERICAN T RAGEDY IN S TALIN â S R USSIA by Tim Tzouliadis Little, Brown, £25, pp. 472, ISBN 9781594201684 â £20 (plus £2.45 p&p)...
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A monkey business
The SpectatorJames Robertson M ORTAL C OIL : A S HORT H ISTORY OF L IVING L ONGER by David Boyd Haycock Yale, £18.99, pp. 320, ISBN 9780300117783 â £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...
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The stuff of legends
The SpectatorChristopher Ondaatje T HE C OLLECTOR OF W ORLDS by Iliya Troyanov, translated by William Hobson Faber, £16.99, pp. 464, ISBN 9780571236534 0 £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...
Hope born of fantasy
The SpectatorMolly Guinness L ITTLE M ARVEL AND O THER STORIES by Wendy Perriam Hale, £18.99, pp.223, ISBN 9780709085973 0 £15.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W endy Perriamâs latest...
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The pity of it
The SpectatorP. J. Kavanagh I N Z ODIAC L IGHT by Robert Edric Doubleday, £16.99, pp. 368, ISBN 9780385612586 â £13.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T his book opens with a bang;...
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They are made a spectacle unto the world
The SpectatorMichael Beloff T HE F IRST L ONDON O LYMPICS : 1908 by Rebecca Jenkins Piatkus Books, £16.99, pp. 288, ISBN 9780749951689 V £13.19 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T HE M...
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The death of the novel
The SpectatorC harles II apologised for being âan unconscionable time a-dyingâ, and, if it could speak, the novel might do the same. Its death has been so often decreed. More than sixty...
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Moral and political dilemmas
The SpectatorRobert Gore-Langton talks to Ronald Harwood about musical life in Nazi Germany N azis in the theatre liven things up no end. They provide the hilarity in The Producers , the...
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Light and shade
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth Colin Self: Art in the Nuclear Age Pallant House Gallery, Chichester until 12 October David Tress: Chasing Sublime Light Petworth House, West Sussex, until 29...
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Remembering Mellers
The SpectatorRobin Holloway O ne had confidently anticipated (âThe sex is better than ever!â he burbled in excited undertone when I last met him a few years ago at a York University...
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Top-notch tosh
The SpectatorLloyd Evans Zorro Garrick The Tailor and Ansty Old Red Lion I s Zorro any good? Forget the show for a second, look at the marketing. The stars are English, the story is...
All about boys
The SpectatorDeborah Ross Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging 12A, Nationwide A ngus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is a teen movie as may be rather obvious from the title â come on, it was...
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Undiluted pleasure
The SpectatorMichael Tanner Hansel und Gretel Glyndebourne La bohème Royal Opera House T he two operas I saw last week were premièred just over two years apart, Humperdinckâs Hansel...
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Festival madness
The SpectatorKate Chisholm I t was totally over-the-top, the first-night concert of this yearâs Proms season, the 114th since Henry Wood set out in 1895 to educate the musical palate of...
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My big worries
The SpectatorJames Delingpole H ave you ever noticed how the Islamist terror threat has been ridiculously overplayed by the government? I have. Iâll be standing with my kids on a crowded...
Peaks and troughs
The SpectatorRobin Oakley I once bought a house from a chap who insisted that Shakepeareâs entire output had in fact been penned by Francis Bacon. Be that as it may, Bacon did come up...
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Days before burgers
The SpectatorTaki Corfu T he Ionian islands are softer, greener and more feminine than those of the Aegean, and Corfu in particular was used by Homer as the setting of one of the most...
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Poetic justice
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke L ast month I noticed that the only poem Iâve ever written was a suitable candidate for the local literary festivalâs poetry competition, whose theme had been...
Uninvited guests
The SpectatorAidan Hartley Laikipia W ith a concussive âthunkâ, another bird flies against our new farm house on the African plains. This happens a dozen times daily. They must be...
Page 43
A whole lot of sole
The SpectatorPartygoers enjoy celebrating the collaboration of two beloved classics L ike their wearers, shoes sometimes need a bit of pampering at the end of a long day. Last week at John...
Page 44
Going clubbing
The SpectatorAlex James â L unch at the Athenaeum!â I told my mum. No idea what I was talking about. âThe Athenaeum! Itâs a gentlemanâs club on Pall Mall. Iâve arrived, mother....
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P eople sometimes ask me about those ads you see in
The Spectatormagazines and the weekend papers. âGet £89.95 worth of wine for just £49.95! Our introductory offer brings you twelve superb wines for barely more than half price... â...
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Déjeuner sur lâherbe
The SpectatorLindy Woodhead is nostalgic about picnics A few weeks ago, on one of Londonâs rare sunny Saturday afternoons, my son arrived at our front door wanting to borrow the family...
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Should I have forced myself to accept a diseased prisonerâs licked spoon?
The SpectatorL ike most Englishman, how well mannered I am depends upon the social status of the person I am interacting with. If he is below me in the pecking order, I am unfailingly...
Ancient & modern
The SpectatorThe recent return of the bodies of two Israeli soldiers in exchange for five living Hezbollah prisoners exemplifies one of the most deep-rooted human feelings: that the dead...
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I am still waiting for an enterprising research company to publish
The Spectatorhonest readership figures for British newspapers. Not the boring stuff about what we read at the breakfast table or flourish at our desks, a decision driven by badge value. No,...
Q. While staying for a weekend in a fivestar Umbrian
The Spectatorparadise south of Siena, you can imagine my horror when my breakfast partner recoiled at my pulling out my Baedeker on Siena. I always carry Baedeker when centreville-ing, but...
Q. A neighbour who I do not know well, but
The Spectatorcertainly well enough to invite to a drinks party, accepted our invitation with a pre-stamped reply card then failed to turn up on the day or ring to apologise. No doubt...
Q. My son, who starts university in 2009, was planning
The Spectatorto work between now and January in a local shop to fund his gap year. This is what his older brothers both did but this year no one seems to be taking anyone on. My son is...