29 MAY 2004

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M r Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, said that political control

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of military action would pass to the Iraqi government after 30 June. Speaking at his regular monthly press conference, he said, let me make it a hundred per cent clear: after...

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Charity begins at school

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A mong the many organisations which donors to Comic Relief have generously helped to support is Tar Isteach, a Dublin-based group of former IRA terrorists led by Tommy Quigley,...

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_ I

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, feel I've certainly seen England from every angle in the past three months while touring in Full Circle, and it has surprised me how gorgeous the English countryside still...

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Will a German-owned Daily Telegraph remain Eurosceptic?

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T _ he bidding war for the Telegraph Group may be drawing to a close. Many lies have been told and much disinformation spread. Even now it is difficult to discern the final...

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I t is odd that so many people in Who Who

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list their recreations. These tend either to be bland like lonely hearts ads — 'reading', 'travel', 'theatre' — or self-congratulatory — `the company of my family', 'the...

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Bum rap pinned on parents

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Acts of brutality are carried out in the name of 'reasonable chastisement' but, says Rachel Johnson, banning smacking will only encourage children to believe that they have a...

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She continued to argue that the Children and Young Persons

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Act should be amended so that battery of a child could no longer be justified as lawful punishment. This would only, she argued, bring children the same protection from assault...

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Licence to goof

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Andrew Gilligan says that the intelligence services have a chronic tendency to make mistakes T he government may have fallen out with some of its new friends — the CBI is...

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Mind your language

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The word whom, as we have all noticed, is dead on its feet. The proof is that we don't know when to use it. Of course, as wellbrought-up Spectator readers, we know in theory....

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Bagged by the USA

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Owen Matthews goes on patrol with American soldiers in Afghanistan's 'Indian Country' and sees them capture and interrogate suspects I t was one of those wonderfully luminous...

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Ancient & modern

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Last week we considered a number of the arguments that ancient Greeks and Romans deployed to prepare themselves for death. Once dead, however, they had to be buried, and — more...

Santa Klaus

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John Laughland talks to the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus — Thatcherite, Eurosceptic and much loved by the people 0 n the night of 1 May, a grand party was organised in central...

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Speaking for la France profonde

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Philip Delves Broughton meets Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the French Premier, a man who challenges the snobbery and piety of his country's political establishment J ong ears, in the...

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A slur on

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the pilots Omar Malik says that the Board of Inquiry into the Chinook disaster was manipulated to excuse serious failures in the system T en years ago, on 2 June 1994, RAF...

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THEODORE DALRYMPLE

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When one has been in the service a long time, as I have, one begins, even if one is not very clever, to recognise certain patterns. For example, when it is announced that a part...

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A nasty plot in Pall Mail

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Peter °borne reveals the Blairite capture of the loD, the only mainstream business organisation to speak out forcefully against the euro, regulation and tax 0 ne important...

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Writing a novel? Then make sure it has a story

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iterary papers do not take novels seriously as a rule. But they don't ignore them either. The Times Litermy Supplement and the Literary Review, for instance, each review a dozen...

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Why cults are bad

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From Tom Saekville Sir: Many people who have been tricked into joining pseudo-religious cults, and their families, will have been appalled by Damian Thompson's eccentric...

The wrong target

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From Chris Baxter Sir: James Delingpole's article on the necessity of supporting the current occupation of Iraq is compelling ('Cursed are the peaceniks', 22 May), but it...

From Major (Rtcl} Louis Parsons

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Sir: It is dispiriting to those who from the outset have regarded the invasion of Iraq as an error of judgment, for your distinguished defence expert James Delingpole to suggest...

Let Keynes die

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From Stewart Slater Sir: I was touched by Janet Bush's faith ('Bring back Keynes', 15 May) in Keynesian economics as a panacea for recessionary ills. Here in Japan (where, pace...

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Noble rot

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From Christopher Scanlan Sir: Peregrine Worsthorne (Letters, 22 May) makes two extraordinary claims: firstly that 'every country needs a political class', and secondly that...

Short but sweet From Claus von Bulow

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Sir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 22 May) gives a wonderful example of Margaret Thatcher's wit when she found herself as the last speaker following ten verbose males. This...

Genocide denial

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From Robert Melson Sir: Norman Stone's review of Peter Balakian's book, The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide (Books, 24 April), is a diatribe against the author and a...

Don't mess with vests From Malcolm Barker Sir: Petronella Wyatt

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puts up a brave case for Marks & Spencer's frilly knickers, etc. (Singular Life, 22 May), but this in no way ameliorates my disgruntlement at the firm's recent lapse in the...

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Freedom on Sunday — but it's getting later, so enjoy it while you can

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M ay I wish all my readers a happy, albeit belated, Tax Freedom Day. On Sunday 30 May — Whit Sunday — we can stop working for the Chancellor and work for ourselves for the rest...

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The Americans have lost control of almost the entire country

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A merica's neoconservatives have a lot of explaining to do, and they are trying to do it. We hear them on our own airwaves. Presumably, their line on American radio and...

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What feats we did that day

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Nicholas Harman S talin's admirers wanted it sooner, to help our Soviet allies. Others wanted it sooner, to give us a chance of beating the Russkies to Berlin (as we didn't)....

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Just a wee drap of paranoia

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Katie Grant You HAVE TO BE CAREFUL IN THE LAND OF THE FREE by James Kelman Hamish Hamilton, £12.99, pp. 437, ISBN 0241142334 W hen James Kelman's novel, How Late it Was How...

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The crown that fitted perfectly

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Simon Courtauld JUAN CARLOS: THE PEOPLE'S KING by Paul Preston HarperCollins, £25, pp. 614. ISBN 0002556324 p rofessor Preston has done his subject proud. This is a better...

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The diary of a somebody

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Hugh Massingberd ON AND OFF THE FIELD by Ed Smith Viking, £16.99, pp. 259, ISBN 0670914819 T hose of us who spend our summers watching county cricket often feel a beleaguered...

Taking matters seriously

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Stephen Abell THE IRRESPONSIBLE SELF: ON LAUGHTER AND THE NOVEL by James Wood Cape, £16.99, pp. 312, ISBN 0224064509 F or a critic as seriously intelligent as James Wood, a...

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The death of the shopping list

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James Delingpole ALL OIKS NOW: THE UNNOTICED SURRENDER OF MIDDLE ENGLAND by Digby Anderson Social Affairs Unit, .0.95, pp. 95, ISBN 1904863000 T he Spectator's literary pages...

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Only a moderately intriguing adventurer

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Saul Kelly THE SECRET LIFE OF LAZIO ALMASY: THE REAL ENGLISH PATIENT by John Bierman VikinglPenguin, £16.99, pp. 288, ISBN 0670914177 J ohn Bierman, the co-author of a recent...

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W as Evelyn Waugh a bit of a racist? Did Malcolm

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Lowry like a drink? Do bears prefer to make alfresco toilet arrangements? The latest edition of the admirable literary mag Arete seems to help us with at least one of these...

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Inspiring a passion for London

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W ith the giant letters MUSEUM OF LONDON flow dominant on the Barbican's walkway high above St Martin's Le Grand, and additional modern escalators at No. 1 London Wall leading...

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Waiting game

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Andrew Lambirth Edward Hopper Tate Modern, until 5 September (sponsored by American Airlines) F m . the first time in more than 20 years, we have in Britain the chance to see...

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A wonder to behold

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Angela Summerfield Diirer and the Virgin in the Garden .\",//i(»wl Gallery, Sunley Room, until 20 June W hile Albrecht Darer is an Old Master name familiar to most, this German...

Dual purpose

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Mark Glazebrook William Packer Piers Freetham Gallery, until 72 June Elor 30 years, William Packer has been l' the principal art critic of the Financial Times. Less well known...

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Nasty piece of work

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Rachel Halliburton The Shape of Things New Ambassadors The History Boys National Theatre N eil LaBute's The Shape of Things is a poison-pen letter to a superficial age. It's...

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A vegetable too far

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Mark Steyn Shattered Glass 12, selected cinemas I can remember the exact moment when I stopped reading Stephen Glass. It was June 1997 and he'd written the cover story for the...

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Orientalist hokum

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Michael Tanner Djamileh; The Seven Deadly Sins Opera North, Leeds Die Zauberflote Glyndeboume T he last two pieces in Opera North's excellent short opera season — whatever one...

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Charleston experience

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Robin Holloway I 'd come to Charleston, South Carolina, drawn not so much by its fame in the annals of the Civil War or its reputation for beauty as for the connection with...

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History lesson

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James Delingpole T his week, for a change, I've decided not to review a single programme about war. No — just kidding. For a start, how could I possibly not mention the History...

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War torn

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Michael Vestey political tensions in times of war often I make good drama, and the Saturday Play, Playing for Time — Three Days in May 1940, on Radio Four last week did not...

Seth and Sun

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Taki W hy are the phrases "honest journalist" and "free press" so often greeted with a snicker?' asks Tom Fleming in Chronicles magazine. Well, most of us exempt ourselves from...

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Withdrawal symptoms

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Jeremy Clarke N ow doctor is telling me my anti depressant is possibly addictive, Instead of broadcasting them around the depressive community like seed, as in the good old...

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Seen but not Hurd

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Aidan Hartley London D ouglas Hurd is stalking me. Some time ago I wrote a story in a book about the British army contingent that deployed in Rwanda after the genocide ten...

Pretty boys

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Petronella Wyatt s I was sitting in the car the other day, I looked to my right and saw a billboard depicting a pair of giant legs. Glancing up, I noticed, for what must be the...

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Hot property

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You have to look closely to pick it out, the shot - fish vertical orange line to the right-hand side of the Tube map that starts promisingly at Shoreditch then comes to a...

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The most Elysian landscape in England

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T . he lavish publicity material came in the shape of a glossy gatefold folder. Think a Supertramp double album, only this one didn't feature platforms and jump-suits but photos...

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To London in the green

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FRANK KEATING T est matches come and go, and a handful of us at Lord's this week raised a flute of fizz to the most memorable cricket happening of the summer so far — Ireland's...

Q. In recent weeks I have been the recipient of

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an unusually large postbag of personal letters. In order to open these with speed and efficiency, and without inflicting repetitive strain injury on thumb and forefinger, I have...

Q. I am very short of money but do not

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have much time available in which to work. Have you any tips, Mary, as to how one can generate a bit of pocket money without going to too much trouble? A.S., London SW8 A. Why...

Q. As a reasonably successful businessman, from time to time!

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meet extremely wealthy people who now reside in London. I find it quite surprising that almost all of these mega-wealthy people, having originated abroad, seem now to wish to...

Q. Please will you inform readers that my initials were

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mistakenly added to the problem from C.P. of Shepherd's Rush, who was worried about getting a lift in the private plane of a mutual friend of ours to a house party to which the...