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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK T he Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon
The SpectatorBrown, unveiled a £1 billion scheme to help first-time buyers purchase shares of new homes. He also announced plans to âcut red tapeâ by merging 29 regulatory bodies into...
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How to breed poodles
The SpectatorC onservative MPs and candidates have spent the last four years campaigning against two connected evils of the Labour style of government. In innumerable speeches and press...
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A n actor friend and I were worried that we were
The Spectatornot being good male role models to our sons, of which we have three apiece. It was all very well taking them around National Trust properties, teaching them chess and explaining...
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Why Blair and Howard are both lame ducks
The SpectatorI n the normal course of events the start of a new parliament is marked by a strong sense of energy and purpose: new MPs finding their way about; freshly appointed ministers...
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T urning on what I thought was the Today programme on
The SpectatorMonday, I heard the voice of Kenneth Clarke, talking about Dizzy Gillespie. Another shameless plug by the BBC, I thought, for the man they are always trying to make Tory leader....
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Stagnant Britain
The SpectatorMartin Vander Weyer says that social mobility has declined under New Labour, and blames misplaced egalitarianism and hostility to competition W hat with Jamie Oliver dictating...
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Foolsâ paradise
The SpectatorMark Steyn says that complacent Europhiles just love the status quo, but the EU is a solution to yesterdayâs problems New Hampshire When to the moment I shall say âLinger...
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Striking a pose
The SpectatorRod Liddle believes that glamorous BBC presenters are not having a terribly difficult time making moral decisions about whether to cross the picket line T he Tolpuddle Martyrs...
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Ceausescu kitsch
The SpectatorTheodore Dalrymple on a grisly exhibition in Bucharest that reveals the megalomaniacal mediocrity of the late dictator Y ou can tell how much Romania has changed even at London...
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Ancient & modern
The SpectatorA soldier is killed in Iraq and someone has to be blamed. A police station cannot put out flags for âhealth and safetyâ reasons. Sir Digby Jones, director general of the...
Crippling penalty
The SpectatorLeo McKinstry reveals that not even the disabled are spared the attention (and fines) of the Disability Rights Commission âE very profession is a conspiracy against the...
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Which kills more: ideology or religion?
The SpectatorAndrew Kenny says the real killer in Africa is the ban on DDT, not the ban on condoms T he sun set on the 20th century more than four years ago but you can still see a blood-red...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorAn unquiet correspondent sends a âbreath of rageâ all the way from Burrum Heads, Queensland. âI do wish you could manage to educate some of your fellow columnists,â...
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Why not let the MPs choose their man, then give ordinary Tories the right of veto?
The SpectatorM uch nonsense is being written about new ways for the Conservative party to choose its leader. The plan being floated â that MPs might offer constituency chairmen a shortlist...
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Allez France, votez Non, votez souvent, and, of course, stem Nee, stem vaak
The SpectatorH ere we are at the moment of truth, if such a term can be applied to a French referendum. Last time round, the result was swung by boxes of Oui votes flown in from Franceâs...
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No need for scientists to be dogmatic about the existence, or not, of God
The SpectatorI t is always a delight when scientists talk sense. The Guardian quotes the gynaecologist Robert Winston saying last week that science and religion are âessentially both the...
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French lessons
The SpectatorFrom Lord Tebbit Sir: Peter Oborne (Politics, 21 May) finds it curious that British and French opponents of the European constitution find precisely opposite faults in what it...
From Patrick Ussher Sir: Peter Oborneâs account of French bolshiness
The Spectatorabout the Whit Monday holiday tells only part of the story. None of the pay for work done on that day was to go to the worker. All of it was to be snaffled for a fund in aid of...
Undemocratic reaction
The SpectatorFrom Tom Carter Sir: If you really think that first-past-thepost is as brilliant as all that (Leading article, 21 May), please consider what happened in Northern Ireland in the...
They canât leave
The SpectatorFrom Gerald Hitman Sir: I wonder which Belarus Julian Evans visited to prepare his article (âIs Belarus next in line?â, 14 May). In the one I know, schools are without...
Rosebery brought to book
The SpectatorFrom Allan Massie Sir: In what is on the whole an admirable and perceptive review of Leo McKinstryâs Rosebery , Jane Ridley asserts that âThere has never been a full...
Seduction at sea
The SpectatorFrom Christopher Chetwode Sir: In his article about Lord Cardigan and D.H. Lawrence (And another thing, 21 May), Paul Johnson wishes that there was a book about the great steam...
Big fish
The SpectatorFrom Bernard Hassan Sir: King Carlos of Portugal may have published a book on tuna (âFood for thoughtâ, 21 May), but two other reigning monarchs have published extensively...
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Mad genius
The SpectatorMartin Gayford examines the extraordinary lives â and deaths â of great artists and suggests that there is a link between manic depression and creativity I n the summer of...
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In the shadow of the Queen
The SpectatorSam Leith 1599: A Y EAR IN THE L IFE OF W ILLIAM S HAKESPEARE by James Shapiro Faber, £16.99, pp. 429, ISBN 0571214800 â £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T here is...
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A box of delights
The SpectatorNeel Mukherjee T HE H ISTORY OF L OVE by Nicole Krauss Penguin/Viking, £12.95, pp. 180, ISBN 0670915548 â £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T here is a dizzying...
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The shooting gallery
The SpectatorJohn de Falbe T HE R ULES OF P ERSPECTIVE by Adam Thorpe Cape, £12.99, pp. 340, ISBN 0224051873 â £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T he Rules of Perspective is set in...
Cold comfort on the wolds
The SpectatorPaul Routledge T HE F ARM by Richard Benson Hamish Hamilton, £15.99, pp. 229, ISBN 0241142229 â £13.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 M oving to a farm cottage 700ft up in...
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The brains of F Section
The SpectatorM. R. D. Foot A L IFE IN S ECRETS : T HE S TORY OF V ERA A TKINS AND SOEâ S L OST A GENTS by Sarah Helm Little, Brown, £20, pp. 496, ISBN 0316724971 â £18 (plus £2.25...
Too bloody writerly
The SpectatorStephen Abell N EW W RITING 13 edited by Toby Litt and Ali Smith Picador, £8.99, pp. 354, ISBN 0330485997 N ovelty alone â with writing as with condoms â should not ever...
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Prophet of doom and gloom
The SpectatorVernon Bogdanor D EMOCRACY AND P OPULISM : F EAR AND H ATRED by John Lukacs Yale, £16, pp. 244, ISBN 0300107730 V £16 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T hose who can, do; but...
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A good man up against it
The SpectatorA. N. Wilson B ASIL H UME : T HE M ONK CARDINAL by Anthony Howard Headline, £20, pp. 342, ISBN 0755312473 â £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 B asil Hume, when a young...
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Our man all over the place
The SpectatorDavid Caute L OVE , P OVERTY AND W AR : J OURNEYS AND E SSAYS by Christopher Hitchens Atlantic Books, £14.99, pp. 475, ISBN 1843544512 â £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800...
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The man who knew âeveryoneâ
The SpectatorGeoffrey Wheatcroft recalls Alastair Forbes N ot long after Alexander Chancellor had been appointed editor of The Spectator in 1975, and had then lightheartedly or pluckily...
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Down Memory Lane
The SpectatorSusan Hill H ow much money have you got? £1.50 in small change? âI finally got through the barbed wire, and found myself among the ruins. And under the glorious December...
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Give us a clue
The SpectatorIntrigued and impressed by The Da Vinci Code , Lloyd Evans mingles with the Codeheads in Paris P eople read it on the Tube behind paper wrappers. Distinguished professors have...
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Outstanding trio
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth George Rowlett â Paintings 2005 Art Space Gallery, 84 St Peterâs Street, N1 (020 7359 7002), until 4 June Robert Dukes â paintings and drawings Browse &...
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Bring your wall tolife
The SpectatorOne of the factors which doubtless contributes to this vivacity is Dukesâs appreciation of other art. His openness of response extends from Veronese to Craigie Aitchison, via...
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Serious wit
The SpectatorTom Rosenthal Max Ernst: A Retrospective Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until 10 July V isiting this large (172 works) retrospective for Max Ernst (1891â1976) at the...
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Sicilian treasure
The SpectatorRussell Chamberlin T hroughout a newly affluent Western Europe in the 1960s and 1970s, and under the spur of a technological revolution, people â country people, in...
The more the better
The SpectatorMichael Tanner The Knot Garden Barbican I t seems a strange way to celebrate the centenary of Michael Tippettâs birth, as many people have remarked, to have multiple...
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Something to say
The SpectatorRobin Holloway B oulez at 80: the iconoclast who, par excellence , hardens into Establishment, ensorcelled by power, throwing crystal balls from within his glass laboratory to...
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Feel the farce
The SpectatorMark Steyn Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 12A, selected cinemas V engeance is mine, saith the Sith, whith thoundth like Violet Elizabeth Bott. No such luck....
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Hit and miss
The SpectatorLloyd Evans The Tempest Globe Blood Wedding Almeida Sun Dance Hackney Empire T he Globe is now eight years old. Mark Rylance starts his last season in charge with...
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Testing times
The SpectatorMichael Vestey T he strike on Monday by BBC journalists and technicians over proposed job cuts pushed news and current affairs programmes off the air, to be replaced by a...
Buffeted by unkind fates
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart T he most affecting programme of the week was Lost in La Mancha , a film shown as part of the Storyville series on BBC 2 (Sunday). It was about Terry Gilliam, who...
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Positive thinking
The SpectatorRobin Oakley E verybody seemed to have the lawnmower out on my way to Lingfield on Saturday. If the poet Adrian Mitchellâs observation that the suburbs are where sex is a...
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Richly traditional
The SpectatorTaki New York T o Roxbury, Connecticut, a tiny, beautiful village covered in leafy verdure and straight out of a black-and-white film from the Forties depicting white,...
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Rough trade
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke M y boyâs motherâs boyfriend is in his mid-fifties, works his arse off six days a week as a builderâs labourer and spends next to nothing on himself. Heâs...
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O ne evening I saw Gordon Ramsay on Friday Night With
The SpectatorJonathan Ross plugging his latest cookery book, Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy , which is readily available from most bookshops, unlike Ramsay Makes It Hard which, Iâm guessing,...
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Inking-in is out
The SpectatorFRANK KEATING A friend, a particularly mordant romantic, reckons the saddest thing about first-class cricketâs frantic attempts to âget with itâ â and appeal to...
Q. I own a holiday cottage in Padstow in Cornwall.
The SpectatorSometimes I let the cottage, at other times I allow friends to stay there. I employ a local cleaning agency to come in on Monday mornings to clean up after each occupancy and...
Q. As summer is nearly upon us, what are the
The Spectatorrules and regulations about serving rosé? I have to admit that this fragrant pink drink is one of my very favourites but I gather not everyone shares my enthusiasm. B.H.,...
Q. A man I know talks to me with his
The Spectatoreyes almost fully shut and his eyelashes fluttering. He is not the only person who does this â I think people sometimes do it because they are concentrating on what they are...
Q. I am house-hunting in the West Country at the
The Spectatormoment and am about to brief a property search agency to do the groundwork for me. Can you tell me what is the distinction between a vicarage and a rectory? N.M., London W8 A....