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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorI n preparation for the election on 7 June, politicians spent the week being driven about in coaches. The Conservatives proposed detaining all asylum-seekers. Labour declined to...
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PARANOIA AND PURITANISM
The SpectatorT o compare a democratically elected politician seeking a fresh mandate through the ballot box to a brutal dictator is generally a cheap trick. Yet over the last days the...
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Antipathy will combine with apathy to keep the voters at home
The SpectatorBRUCE ANDERSON T his election is unlike any other one that I have observed. On previous occasions, one obviously encountered electors who had decided not to vote. But they...
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DIARY
The SpectatorBERYL BAINBRIDGE L ast week I went to watch my grandson Albert — known, after the Prince, as Darling Bertie — performing in a play at Ackland Burleigh School in north London....
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ANOTHER VICTORY WILL DEFEAT TONY BLAIR
The SpectatorAndrew Gimson says that what New Labour has to fear is not apathy but the boundless disgust and contempt of its natural supporters — which in the end will do for the...
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Ancient & modern
The SpectatorLLOYD EVANS ('We're getting much verse', 19 May) and Paul Johnson (And another thing, 19 May) have been wondering what poetry is. Ancient Greeks argued over it too. For our...
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Mind your language
The Spectator'I'VE suspected it for a long time,' writes Mr Andre Bosset from somewhere in Powys. You have little or no sense of humour.' I do not know if he is in the habit of writing in...
A ROLL-CALL OF CITY COWARDICE
The SpectatorPeter Oborne on how British bankers have yielded to terrorism and dumped the Huntingdon animal laboratory SINCE the beginning of this month it has been impossible to trade...
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UKIP: IS THERE A HIDDEN AGENDA?
The SpectatorNorman Tebbit has uncovered an intriguing story about a possible link between Europe and the security services I HAVE heard more than a few conspiracy theorists telling me of...
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WHAT MAKES THEM MORMONS?
The SpectatorIt's not polygamy, says Mary Wakefield. It is stem moral rectitude and a determination not to touch alcohol, tobacco, tea or coffee AFTER Tom Green, the self-styled Mormon....
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THE PLUCK OF THE YORKSHIREMAN
The SpectatorMartin Vander Weyer tells a story of how local heroes re-established their arts centre in the face of bureaucratic insensitivity IT was Groundhog Day in Helmsley a fortnight...
Banned wagon
The SpectatorA week6l survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit NEW Labour was elected to government four years ago on an anti-sleaze platform, promising that it would no longer...
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MY PARTY RIGHT AND WRONG
The SpectatorDJ. Taylor says he will be voting for Tony Blair even though the prospect of a second Labour term fills him with horrible foreboding ONE of my sharpest memories is of sitting...
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Second opinion
The SpectatorI WAS browsing in a second-hand bookshop last week when a title caught my eye: Man's Ascent to Civilisation. Appropriately enough, the book was in the section devoted to ancient...
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DARK THOUGHTS
The SpectatorStuart Reid struggles with his feelings of white, middle-class guilt after a strange encounter with a member of an ethnic minority RACIAL prejudice is a very bad thing. It is...
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WE'RE EITHER VICTIMS OR CARERS
The SpectatorTheodore Dalrymple looks at the Labour and Tory advertising campaigns and discovers a deeply Hegelian mess THERE are advertising hoardings opposite the entrance to my...
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Why does the Times no longer thunder against the euro?
The SpectatorSTEPHEN GLO\ ER I n the 1997 general election campaign the Times singled out Europe as the most important issue facing the electorate. Antieuro editorials came thick and fast....
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A writer's study can tell strange tales of creative agony
The SpectatorPAUL JOHNSON L oking around my study, after completing a long and difficult book, I am filled with disgust. It is small and overcrowded at best, but during a titanic struggle...
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Mr Woodward should not question our democratic right to butler jokes
The SpectatorFRANK JOHNSON M r Shaun Woodward this week told the Daily Telegraph that Tory press 'vilification' of him has 'begun to backfire'. He added, 'Local people never did get the...
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Death of the -Tories
The SpectatorFrom Mr Geoff Harrison Sir: Peter Hitchens (`Too rich to care', 19 May) comes close to an uncomfortable truth that all Conservatives should fear. However, he misses an even more...
Left or Right?
The SpectatorFrom Mr Michael Steed Sir: Matthew Parris (Another voice, 19 May) should know better than to claim that the LibDems have lurched to the left. He is absolutely correct to point...
No laughing matter
The SpectatorFrom Sir Edward Heath Sir: With reference to your interview with me CA sly grin from Sir Edward', 12 May), I should like to point out that I did not call Mr Hague a 'laughing...
Bosnian confusion
The SpectatorFrom Mr John Laugh/and Sir: Mr Wolfgang Petritsch (Letters, 19 May), High Representative in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, defends Nato's brutal raid on Hercegovacka Banka by...
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Unintelligent design
The SpectatorFrom Dr H. Robert Johnston Sir: The fundamental errors and misunderstandings in Elizabeth Nickson's article (`The odds are on God', 12 May) perfectly illuminate the intellectual...
A Davies replies
The SpectatorFrom Mrs Julia Davies Sir: I find it amazing to discover two columnists in The Spectator (12 May) being obsessional about my family (my son, Tristan, is the good-looking one in...
Wittgenstein was right
The SpectatorFrom Mr Michael Jones Sir: As someone who was taught, and not corrupted by, some of Wittgenstein's most gifted pupils, I was disappointed to read Paul Johnson's article (And...
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Janata caretakers
The SpectatorFrom Mr J. Alan Smith Sir: David Gardner's article on India (Tear and loathing in India', 19 May), mentioning the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), reminded me of the innocent...
The importance of privacy
The SpectatorFrom Mr Alistair B. Cooke Sir: Sheridan Morley (Letters, 19 May) admits his 'schoolboy howler', and, since he is unable to supply a new, correct version of the anecdote in...
Wanted: Tory Balls
The SpectatorFrom Mr Brian Basham Sir: Bruce Anderson was right (Politics, 12 May) to point out that the Tories are in disarray largely because they 'have failed to lay the ground over the...
When a spirit passed. . .
The SpectatorFrom Mr Denis Shaw Sir: I greatly enjoyed Paul Johnson's article on what makes a poem (And another thing, 19 May), and was indescribably thankful to see such a subject treated...
Oxford lows
The SpectatorFrom Mr J.L.A. Hartley Sir: Professor Richard Dawkins (Letters, 19 May) repudiates the notion that 'Oxford University would ever give an honorary degree to Michael Jackson'. Why...
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By popular demand
The SpectatorRaymond Carr THE FIRST WORLD WAR: VOLUME I: TO ARMS by Hew Strachan OUP, £30, pp. 1139, ISBN 0198208774 O ne's vision of the first world war depends on when one was born. I was...
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A far from deserted village
The SpectatorElisa Segrave INSIDE NOTTING HILL edited by Miranda Davies and Sarah Anderson Portobello Publishing, £9.99, pp. 257, ISBN 187342941X W hen I was 22 and living in Hackney I...
Ill fares the land
The SpectatorHenry Hobhouse A COUNTRYSIDE FOR ALL edited by Michael Sissons Vintage, £7.99, pp. 188, ISBN 009942889X THE GREAT FOOD GAMBLE by John Humphrys Hodder, £12.99, pp. 306, ISBN...
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Camels and white elephants
The SpectatorJeremy Swift SOUTH FROM BARBARY by Justin Marozzi HarperCollins, £17.99, pp. 365, ISBN 000257053X T he Libyan Sahara is now the least known part of the great desert that...
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Well done, old mole
The SpectatorNicholas Fearn TUNNEL VISIONS: JOURNEYS OF AN UNDERGROUND PHILOSOPHER by Christopher Ross 4th Estate, £12, pp. 178, ISBN 1841155667 T he word 'philosopher' is applied today to...
Doggerel masking caterwaul
The SpectatorPhilip MacCann LOSING IT by Ranjit Bolt John Murray, £9.99, pp. 154, ISBN 071956025X E ighteen-year-old Lucy is still a virgin -inauthentic as this may sound today, we are...
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A question of identity
The SpectatorAnne Applebaum THE AUTHOR OF HIMSELF by Marcel Reich-Ranicki Weidenfeld, £25, pp. 407, ISBN0297646680 H ere is a book which is almost impossible to sum up in a few words,...
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Mid-life moral crisis in Holloway
The SpectatorVicki Woods HOW TO BE GOOD by Nick Hornby Penguin, £16.99, pp. 244, ISBN 0670888230 I t's odd looking back now, but in the genderquake Seventies and Eighties the loudest...
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Climbing the social ladder
The SpectatorAllan Massie UNGENTLE SHAKESPEARE by Katherine Duncan-Jones Arden Shakespeare, £20, pp. 322, ISBN 1903436265 P reliminary puffing in the press suggested that Katherine...
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Glittering splinters of genius
The SpectatorJohn Bayley THE UNDISCOVERED CHEKHOV translated by Peter Constantine Duck Editions, £14.99, pp. 224, ISBN 0715631063 W rite me a story about this ashtray.' Just the kind of...
Unrewarded loyalty to the wrong cause
The SpectatorOleg Gordievsky KITTY HARRIS: THE SPY WITH SEVENTEEN NAMES by Igor Damaskin and Geoffrey Elliott St Ertnin's Press, £18.99, pp. 260, ISBN 1903608015 D espite its promising...
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Whatever happened to melody?
The SpectatorBevis Hillier THE FABER COMPANION TO 20TH-CENTURY POPULAR MUSIC by Phil Hardy Faber, £20, pp. 1,236, ISBN 057119608X B y the time I went up to Oxford, in 1959, meritocracy had...
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Red or blue or neither?
The SpectatorIs modern art a leftist conspiracy or elitist nonsense? Martin Gayford investigates W ho likes modern art? The attendance figures at Tate Modern, opened a year ago this month,...
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Catalan treasure
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth wanders through the streets of Barcelona what is now termed 'an aesthetic industry professional', I have been subjecting myself to novel stimuli in the form of...
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A world of illusion
The SpectatorLaura Gascoigne talks to Peter Randall-Page about his latest exhibition B ricks may have been introduced to Britain by the Romans, but we've never grown out of our primitive...
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Dramatic upheaval
The SpectatorSusan Moore on what happens when Sotheby's and Christie's cosy duopoly is challenged I t was naive of me. When the long-fermenting scandal over auction-house collusion and...
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Music
The SpectatorRavel's struggles Robin Holloway A beautifully performed new CD of Ravel's three cantatas for the Prix de Rome (EMI) has recalled a droll and entertaining tale of how...
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Theatre
The SpectatorMarriage Play; Finding the Sun (National) A Perfect Gentleman (King's Head) Noises Off (Piccadilly) Chance discovery Sheridan Morley heatrical fashion, like God, moves in...
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Ope r a
The SpectatorThe Queen of Spades (Royal Opera House) Royal success Michael Tanner A aout the musical side of the new production at Covent Garden there can be no two views: it is in...
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Dance
The SpectatorThe Dream; Song of the Earth (Royal Ballet) Unhappy pairing Giannandrea Poem T heoretically, both the artistic choices and the reasons for the creation of double, triple and...
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Cinema
The SpectatorBlow (18, selected cinemas) Ups and downs Mark Steyn F or those few Spectator readers not reading this column under the influences of narcotics, 'blow' is a synonym for...
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Radio
The SpectatorSomething must be done . . . Michael Vestey W hat a silly old windbag Robert Redford has become. The Hollywood actor appeared on Broadcasting House on Radio Four last Sunday...
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Television
The SpectatorForeign affairs James Delingpole Q uite possibly I am the only person in the whole of Britain not to have seen Survivor. This is because I have been in Botswana, researching...
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The turf
The SpectatorBattling on Robin Oakley I f you ask me, Craig Evans was lucky to get away with one left jab from John Prescott. I remember once hearing the deputy prime minister discuss his...
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High life
The SpectatorHappiness is variety Taki INew York 'm off to Rome for a grand wedding and — if I survive the three balls and innumerable parties — to Antibes to check on my sailing boat, and...
No life
The SpectatorHef's Bunnies and me Toby Young S ince I gave up drinking I've stopped going to nightclubs. If you're not drunk, the prospect of standing in a smoke-filled basement listening...
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Country life
The SpectatorRural poverty Leanda de Lisle C an you imagine Tony Blair's reaction if you had told him, as he entered Downing Street four years ago, that ordinary country people would...
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An alien on the pitch
The SpectatorSimon Barnes IT was one of those perfect moments. Football can do that sort of thing. It was the last minute of the last game ever to be played at the Dell, ancestral home of...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorDear Mary. . Q. My old school has decided to organise a dinner for old boys living in France. I would very much like to attend, but am worried that I might have my evening...