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Politics is rubbish
The SpectatorA n Englishman’s home is his castle, but his wheelie bin is not far behind as a symbol of domestic independence. So it is no surprise that the spread of fortnightly, rather than...
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I n thick of whistlestop tour of the US to promote
The SpectatorNotting Hell , so the dateline above this diary should read ‘New York, Dallas, Washington D.C, Chicago, Denver, L.A, San Francisco’ which would be a first — for me, anyway. In...
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‘A conflict of interest’ is now almost the worst thing
The Spectatorknown to modern theories of governance. It is considered disgraceful, for example, that the Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith, who is a government minister and was made a peer by...
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DIARY OF A NOTTING HILL NOBODY
The SpectatorMONDAY Phew! We’re back to just the one good-looking, charismatic David. All I can say is thank goodness for that! My mental health will be all the better for it and no doubt...
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These elections will mark the final collapse of New Labour
The SpectatorFraser Nelson takes to the road and finds voters turning to whichever parties will maximise the mutiny against Blair and Brown. The SNP is now a party of protest, not separatism...
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There is less to France’s choice than meets the eye
The SpectatorDon’t be fooled by the country’s apparent polarisation over Sarkozy and Royal, says Patrick Marnham . The ancien régime of the French state will survive this presidential...
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On First Great Western, railway hell is routine service
The SpectatorRod Liddle says that, Iraq aside, New Labour has got nothing so catastrophically wrong as its railway policy: the very means of transport it is supposed to be encouraging L ast...
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Rise up, Englishmen, to save the Union
The SpectatorLiam Byrne says the English must be less apathetic about the United Kingdom, and about the threat of Scottish independence that looms in next week’s elections A s another...
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Here’s to a pact between the Tories and Plaid Cymru
The SpectatorHywel Williams says that 3 May may end Labour’s hegemony in Wales, ushering in an era of liberal capitalism and paving the way to eventual independence O ne party rule sums up...
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True democracy may die with Boris Yeltsin
The SpectatorSimon Sebag Montefiore says that the Russian leader was both hero and buffoon, a democrat who failed to safeguard freedom against the return of the KGB in the form of Vladimir...
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The pangolin and the terrorist enclaves
The SpectatorChristopher Howse meets Mary Douglas, Britain’s foremost anthropologist, and learns the connection between ritual taboos and al-Qa’eda’s cells ‘I t’s no good attacking...
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Shot in the dark
The SpectatorSir: Just a thought. Has anyone ever considered the possibility that, if all citizens were armed, the Columbine and Virginia Tech perpetrators would have been shot long before...
Where’s the evidence?
The SpectatorSir: Melanie Phillips makes virtually no credible claim in her article on the ‘missing’ WMDs (‘I found Saddam’s WMD bunkers’, 21 April). Most of the ‘explanations’ offered are...
Fine one to talk
The SpectatorSir: Can Anne Applebaum really complain that the Russian government went ahead and printed posters of ‘fat British capitalists in bowler hats squashing Russian workers with...
Square dance
The SpectatorSir: Mark Palmer’s description of the proposals for Sloane Square (‘Sloane Rangers! Unite’, 7 April) has little to do with the actual design by the architects Stanton and...
United, we fall
The SpectatorSir: The Conservative party’s problem in Scotland cannot be solved by simply juggling with the identity of their Scottish party (‘The Tories’ plan to separate’, 7 April). David...
Name and shame
The SpectatorSir: Charles Moore is not the only one to object to the unsolicited use of his first name by total strangers, frequently in a business context (The Spectator’s Notes, 21 April)....
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David Selbourne is right about empires in decline, but wrong about Islam
The SpectatorT he hottest months are July and August, though the summer solstice, when the sun is highest, is in June. There’s a time-lag. Thus it is with empires, too. By the time they burn...
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It is the imagination which links man to God
The SpectatorW e are imprisoned in space and time and there appears to be no obvious way of escaping from them. Indeed if, like Richard Dawkins and other neanderthals, you do not believe in...
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Oxbridge investors fail to win glittering prizes
The SpectatorJonathan Davis says that if Britain’s ancient universities want to remain world-class, they should take tutorials from Harvard and Yale in how to invest their endowments D...
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Aux armes, actionnaires!
The SpectatorRichard Northedge F rench democracy is in full swing, but the spirit of Revolution is alive and well sous la Manche . Eurotunnel’s small shareholders, having seized control of...
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Why come to Kazakhstan?
The SpectatorElliot Wilson says corrupt bureaucrats are driving foreign investors out of Borat’s oil-and-mineral-rich homeland R ussia may have set the bar pretty high, but Kazakhstan still...
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Shoppers think fresh – and think less of products endorsed by World Cup losers
The SpectatorM iddle-class Delhi-ites have fallen in love — with supermarkets. The ‘Organised Retail’ concept has exploded here, as mini-chains such as Big Apple, Food Bazaar and Reliance...
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Like a ghost town
The SpectatorRoss Clark investigates London’s wealth of empty houses T he list of nominations for the title of London’s shabbiest street would be a long one. But of all of them, one would...
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Architectural wonders
The SpectatorNorman Miller M aybe it’s because London is finally too big for comfort that everybody suddenly seems desperate to move to the south coast of England. But where to buy? No one...
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The divine pork butcher
The SpectatorFerdinand Mount S HAKESPEARE THE T HINKER by A. D. Nuttall Yale, £19.99, pp. 428, ISBN 9780300119282 F or some reason, snootiness I expect, I had never been to...
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Extraordinary champion of ordinary people
The SpectatorAnne Applebaum A S MALL C ORNER OF H ELL : D ISPATCHES FROM C HECHNYA by Anna Politkovskaya University of Chicago Press, £9, pp. 224, ISBN 9780226674339 A R USSIAN D IARY by...
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Odd one out
The SpectatorSimon Baker ENGLEBY by Sebastian Faulks Hutchinson, £17.99, pp. 342, ISBN 9780091794507 ✆ £14.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 A t the beginning of this novel, Mike Engleby,...
Succeeding in spite of itself
The SpectatorPhilip Ziegler I NDIA A FTER G ANDHI by Ramachandra Guha Macmillan, £25, pp. 688, ISBN 9780230016545 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 T his is a success story. In the 60...
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A choice of crime novels
The SpectatorAndrew Taylor A ny new novel by John Harvey is cause for celebration. He produces beautifully written, solidly engineered crime stories that probe the flaws and sensitivities...
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The bicentenary of the Literary Society
The SpectatorCharles Moore N ext month, the Literary Society will celebrate its 200th birthday. The monthly dinner at the Garrick Club will be bigger than usual, but otherwise there will be...
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Is Hilaire Belloc out of date?
The SpectatorA . N. Wilson, in his admirable biography, concluded that Belloc was more remarkable as a man than in his writings. No doubt he was, and his case is not unusual. The same has...
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Mum’s the word
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke S haron’s chucked in her job as a child protection officer and gone to live in Birmingham. She’s met a chap there who measures up to her ideal, and she wants to...