29 DECEMBER 2001

Page 6

JANUARY. Mr Peter Mandelson resigned from the Cabinet, this time

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because he could not remember having made a telephone call in which nothing improper was said in favour of Mr Srichand Hinduja and his brother Prakash. Social workers took away...

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BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

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I n a few days' time, the governments of 12 European nations will undertake a logistical problem more challenging than that faced by Santa Claus. They will have to distribute 15...

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BORIS JOHNSON

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I f you want proof that the world didn't change on II September, get down to the Manhattan coffee shop, the blue and orange chain dotted around London. For the past three years...

Page 10

DECLINE AND FALL

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Felipe Fernandez - Armesto says Oxford is failing because her alumni are mean, she has betrayed her traditions and is unwilling to adopt the best American practices OXFORD...

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BLACK PEOPLE AREN'T ANIMALS

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But that's how liberals treat them: Andrew Kenny on what must be done to save South Africa Cape Town IN South Africa the news is so terrible and the response of our leaders so...

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Mind your language

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'VERY nice, I don't think, said my husband to no one in particular. I sometimes wonder whether he talks more when I'm not there than when I am. His remark was by way of...

THEY'VE GOT THE WRONG MAN

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Gary Hart is to be jailed for causing a terrible accident but, says Ross Clark, the government helps motorists deliberately to break the law IN the new year our overcrowded...

Page 15

Second opinion

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I TRUST that I shall not be called cynical when I mention that the first question to be answered by a doctor on examining a prisoner with abdominal pain is whether the patient...

Page 16

BYERS: HIS STRUGGLE WITH TRUTH

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Andrew Gimson on the strange history of Stephen Byers, who has become the master of the non-denial denial COMPARED with the unfathomable chaos of his later life, there is a...

Page 18

THE WAR BETWEEN AMERICA AND EUROPE

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Mark Steyn on the battle of two cultures: on one side is the freedom-loving US, on the other the anti-democratic EU New Hampshire MY colleague Petronella Wyatt reported the...

Page 19

Ancient & modern

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AS the happy people of Europe link hands, singing and dancing, to welcome the bright new dawn of the euro, they might consider the judgment of Tacitus on the British acceptance...

Page 20

GET THE GIRLS IN THE CLUB

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lain Duncan Smith talks to Peter °borne about his first 100 days and his plans for the future 'JOLLY nice of you to see The Spectator,' I said while shaking hands with lain...

Page 22

Banned wagon

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A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit MOST bad laws make some kind of perverse sense in that they help to enrich the government's coffers or to satisfy some...

Page 24

HARRY POTTER AND THE BAD IDEA

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Peter Jones on why he would much rather J.K. Rowling were not translated into Latin and ancient Greek MEDIAEVAL alchemists thought that there should be a substance which would...

Page 25

The art of little bears, charging rhinos, funny jumbos and giraffes with long lashes

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PAUL JOHNSON A nother annus horribilis over, I have been painting a New Year card. I don't do many, just one or two for close friends who I feel need cheering up. I was brought...

Page 26

The Gibraltar question

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From The Hon. Dr Joseph Garcia Sir: Matthew Parris is wrong in his approach to the Gibraltar question (Mother voice, 15/22 December). The main consideration must surely be that...

From Marie Peralta Sir: It is preposterous to suggest that

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Gibraltar or any colony — past, present or future — can be treated in the same way as title deeds on a Monopoly board. Britain has had her fair share of disasters with former...

Blame the librarians

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From Mr Edgar Crook Sir: As a librarian, albeit one who has escaped from England to the literature-loving shores of Australia. I wholeheartedly support Julia Lewis (`An axe to...

Porn losses

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From Debra Lake Sir: Congratulations to Tania Kindersley on an excellent article and for daring to air the ills of pornography (The degradation of the species', 8 December)....

Rights mean responsibilities

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From Mr Stephen Ashurst Sir: With almost dreary regularity, Mark Steyn repeats each week the standard 'my rights' mantra of the conservative naif (`The grapes of wrath', 15/22...

Page 27

Shades of the Holocaust

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From Dr Michael Martin-Smith Sir: PetroneIla Wyatt notes a rise in openly expressed anti-Semitism since 11 September (Singular life, 8 December). She is not alone in observing...

From Mr Michael Leggatt

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Sir: Petronella Wyatt is, I'm sure, aware that 'anti-Semitism' is invoked not just when real prejudice occurs, but also whenever Israel or a Jewish political opinion is...

From Mr Chris Doyle Sir: Your leading article (8 December)

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neatly puts all blame for the violence in the Middle East on the shoulders of President Arafat. He is indeed to blame for a lack of leadership and for other failings, but I...

Exit, pursued by a mouse

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From Mr Francis Rentoul Sir: As Ann Leslie wrote (`Before the Beatles' first LP', 15/22 December), in the 1950s the Windmill was the only public theatre where the Lord...

Radio crimes

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From Mr John Hart Sir: I have never listened to Premier Christian Radio, and probably never shall, but having read Dr Colin Nicholl's article (Tor Christ's sake', 24 November)...

Page 28

Was it to protect Euan that the Blairs went to the Press Commission, or to protect themselves?

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STEPHEN GLOVER 0 n 7 December an alluring lead item appeared in Peterborough, the Daily Telegraph's diary column. It told us that Euan Blair, the 17-year-old son of Tony and...

Page 29

The last gasp of the master

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Philip Hensher THE OUTCRY by Henry James Penguin, £8.99, pp. 240, ISBN 0141186941 H enn: James's last period has been very little explored, and, for most readers, his career...

Page 30

The man who fell in love with a table

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John Gross UNCLE TUNGSTEN by Oliver Sacks Picador, £17.99, pp. 336, ISBN 0330390279 hen Oliver Sacks was a boy, one of his teachers wrote in an end-of-term report: 'Sacks will...

Page 31

Swimming against or with the tide

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Peregrine Worsthorne LETTERS TO A YOUNG CONTRARIAN by Christopher Hitchens Perseus Press, £16.99. pp. 141, ISBN 1903985064 A nything written by Christopher Hitchens is worth...

Men

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behavi ng badly P. J. Kavanagh IT'S NOT CRICKET by Simon Rae Faber, £14.99, pp. 297, ISBN 05 71201814 BAT, BALL AND BOUNDARY compiled by Shelley Klein Michael O'Mara, £8.99....

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Tales of the Vienna streets

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Jane Ridley SCHNITZLER'S CENTURY: THE MAKING OF MIDDLE-CLASS CULTURE, 1815-1914 by Peter Gay Allen Lane, £20, pp. 334, ISBN 0713994487 n 18 March 1879 a 16-year-old Viennese...

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Looking back angrily

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Simon Ward SO WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? by Anthony Shaffer Picador, £16.99, pp. 222, ISBN 0330390430 T he somewhat plaintive tone of the title of Anthony Shaffer's memoir would...

An amused world of his own

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Jonathan Cecil CHARLES HAWTREY: THE MAN WHO WAS PRIVATE WIDDLE by Roger Lewis Faber, £9.99, pp. 115, ISBN 0571210643 O ne of the minor anomalies of British show business is...

Page 34

Tears but not idle tears — and knowing what they mean

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Gabriel e Annan SEDUCTION AND BETRAYAL by Elizabeth Hardwick New York Review of Books, £7.99, pp. 257, ISBN 0940322781 SLEEPLESS NIGHTS by Elizabeth Hardwick New York Review of...

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Well seen, well said,

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ill done Christopher Ricks HOW IT WAS: A MEMOIR OF SAMUEL BECKETT by Anne Atik Faber, 130, pp. 129, ISBN 0571209106 R eminiscences of Beckett, like photographs of him, are...

Page 36

The strange case of the blindfold novelette

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Michael Glover A MURDER, A MYSTERY AND A MARRIAGE by Mark Twain W. W. Norton, £12.95, pp. 80. ISBN 0393043762 A few interesting things happened in 1876. Just a matter of weeks...

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The bonding of base pairs

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Nicholas Fearn GENES, GIRLS AND GAMOW by J. D. Watson OUP, £18.99, pp. 304, ISBN 0198509766 1 . he words of this memoir's title do not come in order of priority for James...

Stooge or dissident?

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Martin Anderson THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP: THE LETTERS OF DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH TO ISAAK GLIKMAN translated by Anthony Phillips Faber, 125, pp. 340, ISBN 0571209823 T he battle...

Page 38

The ant-hill and the internet

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Hugh Lawson-Tancred EMERGENCE by Steven Johnson Allen Lane, Penguin, £14.99, pp. 288, ISBN 0713994002 2 + 2 = 5. At least it does in natural and artificial systems which can...

Page 39

Current French fiction

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Anita Brookner I t has to be said that the prizes awarded in the November literary season went to novels that were not of the highest quality. (The same might be said of novels...

Page 40

A year of trial and error

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Sheridan Morley looks back at the theatrical highs and lows of 2001 S o how was it for you? I mean apart from the foot-and-mouth, and the events of 11 September, and the fear of...

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Richard Artschwager (Serpentine Gallery, till 10 February 2002)

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It makes you think Martin Gayford W hat is the nastiest material in the world? There is, of course, a wide choice. Some might plump, for example, for that artificial stone...

Page 42

The year's hits and misses

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Mark Steyn T he annual retrospective gets a little tougher each year. What price now the blockbusters of summer? They gross a hundred million in the first week, and are dead by...

The Mikado (Coliseum)

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Ingenius parody Michael Tanner I feel like a very late arrival at a party, though one that is fortunately still in full swing. I have just seen for the first time The Mikado...

Page 43

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Comedy) Hamlet (Barbican)

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Star turns Toby Young I f I was asked to rank the various kinds of performers who ply their trade on the West End stage I would put stand-up comedians far above...

Page 45

Purple patches

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Robin Holloway exander Goehr, my revered composition teacher, and later longstanding boss in the music faculty at Cambridge, was always snooty about writing on music that was...

Summary justice

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James Delmgpole w as the week before Christmas and I was getting kind of agitated: how would I find the time to watch all the seasonal preview tapes I'd ordered? What about the...

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Received wisdom

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Michael Vestey A t a friend's farewell party at Broadcasting House recently I was chatting to a Radio Five Live presenter, who has also broadcast extensively on Radio Four over...

Page 47

Alphabet SOUP

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Robin Oakley T ony Blair doesn't want the European Union to be a superstate. He merely wants it to be a superpower. And how were the leaders of this superpower conducting...

Page 48

Class warfare

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Taki H ere's a follow-up to my 24 November story about Sotheby's ex-chairman Alfred Taubman, It was class warfare alright, with Taubman's five 'homes', his Gulfstream jet and...

Page 49

The Red and the Grey

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Petronella Wyatt W hen I was nine, my father wrote a children's book called The Exploits of Mr Saucy Squirrel. This talking animal was based on the squirrels we saw emerging...

Page 55

We need the Gazza Factor

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Simon Barnes THE coming year's overwhelming question of sport is whether or not David Beckham and Michael Owen possess the Gazza Factor. Now I know that Paul Gascoigne has...

Q. As a chap who hasn't sent a Christmas card

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for some years, I decided that this year would be the one in which I would try to start getting back in touch with people. Consequently I sent out about 100 cards, signing them...

Q. Sonic time ago a friend of mine, whom I

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liked a great deal, opened a new restaurant which is named 'simply by its address'. I called him twice in order to wish him well, as the restaurant was a new project and I...

Mary Killen

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If you have a problem write to Dear Mary, clo The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL.