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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorM iss Estelle Morris resigned as Secretary of State for Education, saying she was not up to running a big department. She was replaced by Mr Charles Clarke, who was replaced as...
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RUSSIA IS WRONG
The SpectatorO f the many New Labour slogans which the government has tried quietly to drop over the past five years, none can have landed with quite such a thump as 'ethical foreign...
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DIARY
The SpectatorROBERT THOMSON E diting a newspaper is not a dinner party, as Chairman Mao would have observed had he been running a tabloid, but you sure do get invited to dinners and lunches...
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POLITICS
The SpectatorIDS has a plausible strategy. A leadership contest now would be an unseemly farce PETER OBORNE T o turn this week to the Conservative party, rather than deal with matters of...
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WHY CAN'T THE ENGLISH BE MORE LIKE THE FRENCH?
The SpectatorIn refusing to toe the Anglo-American line on Saddam, Jacques Chirac is acting in the interests of France, says Daniel Hannan. Tony Blair could learn from the French, without...
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COMMISSIONER PETAIN FIGHTS BACK
The SpectatorChris Patten tells Boris Johnson that Europe and America have profoundly different cultures CHRIS PA I I EN is used to rudeness. When he was the last governor of Hong Kong,...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorAFTER hearing a reference to 'inappropriate groping' in a recent scandal I wondered what would be 'appropriate groping'. In another newspaper report, a boy who was an arsonist...
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ROME RUINED
The SpectatorSebastian Cresswell-Turner says that the Eternal City has lost its charm for those who want to escape the rat race Rome 'ALL this efficiency — it's a disaster, mate,' said...
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ONLY BLACKS NEED APPLY
The SpectatorRod Liddle despairs of social services departments that insist on 'same-race' adoption pair of blunt shears, is very greasy. Clothes: total grunge. A dirty nylon rucksack lies...
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KILLER PEAK
The SpectatorChristopher Booker recalls how he celebrated his 65th birthday by tackling Africa's highest mountain IMAGINE you have been walking up into the sky for four days on end, until...
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WHY I AM ASHAMED OF THE BRITISH PRESS
The SpectatorSimon Kelner, editor of the Independent, on the cynicism and humbug of our newspapers IN a recent episode of The West Wing, the television drama set in the contemporary White...
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FROM BELGRADE TO BAGHDAD
The SpectatorStephen Schwartz on how the Serbs have been providing Iraq with military aid Washington, DC THERE is a fog of maritime commerce much like the fog of war, and, as October came...
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Banned wagon
The SpectatorA weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit THE survivors from the Melnikova Street Theatre are unlikely to be in a fit state to read the International Chemical...
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TRUE BLUE
The SpectatorThe Dems have turned right, says Mark Steyn, and a libertarian candidate has, literally, turned blue. The outlook for Bush is not good New Hampshire THIS has been the...
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AND ANOTHER THING
The SpectatorWhen Wittgenstein picked up not the poker but the crucifix PAUL JOHNSON M y heart goes out to the young just enjoying their first term at university. I remember well, in...
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MEDIA STUDIES
The SpectatorRow? What row? The real story, as the French saw, was the revival of the Franco-German alliance STEPHEN GLOVER T he British newspapers have been full of 'Le Row'. This is the...
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Conquering Americans
The SpectatorFrom Mr James B. Callender Sir: Where exactly does Paul Johnson get the idea that 'Americans have never wanted power over others' (And another thing, 26 October)? This may be...
Scott and Straw
The SpectatorFrom Mr Norman Scott Sir: While my recollection of contact between myself and the author Mr Jeremy Scott and his wife is at great variance with that stated in his letter (26...
The Godless squad
The SpectatorFrom Mr Tom Benyon Sir: Rod Liddle (Good God, no!', 26 October) writes 'It is hard to blame the Church of England . for adapting in order to survive and perceives. .. a...
Euro strutters
The SpectatorFrom Mr Lawrie Brownlee Sir: I enjoyed David Marsh's unusually honest article (The currency with a hole in it', 26 October) stating that we should join the euro mainly for...
Braine's last Christmas
The SpectatorFrom Janet Bather Sir Your correspondent Mr Wilfred De'Ath (Letters, 26 October), commenting on John Mortimer's review of The Angry Young Men (Books, 12 October), correctly...
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The case for Ulrika
The SpectatorFrom Leanda de Lisle Sir: The Ulrika Jonsson rape story is indeed 'appalling', but not for the reasons Stephen Glover ascribes to it (Media studies, 26 October). The alleged...
The deadliest weapons
The SpectatorFrom Mr Alec Ryrie Sir: Let us suppose that Mark Steyn is right (They want to kill us all', 19 October). What should we do about it? How can a 'war' with al-Qa'eda be fought or...
Ignoble allusions
The SpectatorFrom Mr George Szanzuely Sir: While I am flattered that my friend Taki should consider me a worthy recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature (High life, 26 October), I feel I...
Marr's tortoises
The SpectatorFrom Mr Simon Courtauld Sir: 'History or just a bit of fun?' Simon Hoggart asked about the BBC series Great Britons (Arts, 26 October). A bit of an embarrassment. I would say,...
French for illiterates
The SpectatorFrom Mr Nicholas Steed Sir: Victoria Kaulback (French with tears', 26 October) must be pretty daft if she feels tied 'like a miserable marriage' to a particular French...
Kicking the bucket
The SpectatorFrom Mr Terence Freely Sir: I found very interesting the comments of Dot Wordsworth (Mind your language, 19 October) on the expression kick the bucket in English literature. As...
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SHARED OPINION
The SpectatorA feminist upbringing is fine if you want to become an engineer or chairman of the Tory party FRANK JOHNSON F emale models, responsible for draping themselves over new cars...
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Back to British basics
The SpectatorJonathan Ray welcomes efforts to revive our national cuisine THE constant merry ping of the microwave gave the game away. I had been conned, lured inside a charming-looking...
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Drinking and hunting
The SpectatorUp and downing it R.W.F. Poole DRINKING and hunting go together. The first reason for this is that hunting is a social and hospitable business. The second reason is medicinal...
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I give
The SpectatorUp Stuart Reid MY appetite deserted me 20 years ago at the Royal Free Hospital, in Pond Street, Hampstead, after I had been given a barium enema ('You may find the tip of this...
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Great expectorations
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart There are endless variations, and all of them control the nausea and temper tantrums associated with diets clipped from the Daily Mail women's pages. Or you can...
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A gimmick of genius
The SpectatorMarc Carnegie Paris MY friend, a film and theatre director not averse to a longish night out, was ecstatic about the prospect of dinner at Lucas Carton. 'We're going to go...
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Heartburn
The SpectatorSuch painful pleasures Damien McCrystal IT is Friday lunchtime. You have a bit of a hangover and decide to go for a curry to help you get over it. On arriving at the...
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A talent to abuse
The SpectatorPhilip Hensher ANTHONY BURGESS by Roger Lewis Faber, #.20, pp. 418, ISBN 0571204929 B limey. It's some time since I read a book so exhilaratingly lacking in any sense of human...
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A walk on the wacky side
The SpectatorJames Delingpole LONDON ORBITAL by lain Sinclair Gram, £25, pp. 500, ISBN 1862075476 l ain Sinclair is one of those distinctive, oft-name-checked writers you're supposed to...
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A failure of papal nerve
The SpectatorGerard Noel A MORAL RECKONING: THE ROLE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS UNFULFILLED DUTY OF REPAIR by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen Little Brown, .£16.99, pp. 362,...
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Harmony triumphantly achieved
The SpectatorFrancis King A LIFE'S MUSIC by Andrei Makine Sceptre, £12.99, pp. 106, ISBN 034082008X L ike most human beings, most novelists arc neither outstandingly good nor...
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Screaming with laughter
The SpectatorKatie Grant HOW DO YOU WANT ME? by Ruby Wax Ebury, £17.99, pp. 320, ISBN 0091886627 I f Ruby Wax's shrink thinks she has cured her, this book will put her right. Readers will...
Through whiggish spectacles
The SpectatorTheodore Dalrymple BLOOD AND GUTS: A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDICINE by Roy Porter Allen Lane, £12.99, pp. 185, ISBN 0713996692 T he distillation of a vast quantity of historical...
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The everlasting power and glory of the shared table
The SpectatorSarah Bradford FEAST: A HISTORY OF GRAND EATING by Roy Strong Cape, £20, pp. 311, ISBN 0224061380 F rom Apicius to the Ivy: Roy Strong, the possessor of 800 cookbooks, has...
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Gosse the father
The SpectatorJane Gardam GLIMPSES OF THE WONDERFUL: THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE by Ann Thwaite Faber, £25, pp 387, ISBN 0571193285 I n 1984 Ann Thwaite published a life of Edmund Gosse,...
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The incomparable and inexplicable
The SpectatorVictoria Glendinning MAX BEERBOHM: A KIND OF A LIFE by N. John Hall Yale, £16.95, pp. 224, ISBN 0300097050 THE ILLUSTRATED ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm, with an introduction...
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The end of something good
The SpectatorHarriet Waugh DEATH'S JEST-BOOK by Reginald Hill HarperCollins, £10, pp. 558, ISBN 0007123396 T wo running stories are brought to a close in Death's Jest-Book. The first was...
Selling sex up the river
The SpectatorClaudia FitzHerbert THE PLEASURE OF ELIZA LYNCH by Anne Enright Cape, £12.99, pp. 229, ISBN 0224062697 A nne Enright is an Irish writer with a startling gift for domesticating...
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Another good man in Africa
The SpectatorJustin Marozzi SAHARA by Michael Patin Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 256, ISBN 0297843036 INSIDE SAHARA by Basil Pao Weidenfeld„ £25, pp. 200, ISBN 0297843044 M ichael Palin is a decent...
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How the Ming fleets missed Manhattan
The SpectatorJonathan Mirsky 1421: THE YEAR THAT CHINA DISCOVERED THE WORLD by Gavin Menzies Bantam, £20, pp. 389, ISBN 0593050789 G avin Menzies declares, he does not claim, that between...
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From arson to altruism
The SpectatorIan Thomson SOME LUCK by John Bird Hamish Hamilton, £16.99, pp. 341. ISBN 0241141583 J ohn Bird, founder of the Big Issue magazine, suits his avian surname. As a juvenile...
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Too mediaeval by half
The SpectatorThomas Wright BAUDOLINO by Umberto Eco Secker, £18, pp_ 522. ISBN 0436276038 I have read with great pleasure every work of non-fiction that Umberto Eco has published over the...
More debit than credit
The SpectatorD. J. Taylor THE BODY AND SEVEN STORIES by Hanif Kureishi Faber, £12.99, pp. 266, ISBN 0571209726 T he people in Hanif Kureishi's short fiction are rarely in the first flush...
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The fatal consequences of following Wellington's advice
The SpectatorAlan Judd THE LAST JOURNEY OF WILLIAM HUSKISSON by Simon Garfield Faber, 114.99. pp. 243, ISBN 0571210481 I n the had old days of history teaching, you were made to learn a...
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Sensitive to the drama of light
The SpectatorMartin Gayford says look at Gainsborough's terrific pictures, and don't read the labels f a portrait 'happened to be on the easel', wrote Henry Angelo of Thomas Gainsborough,...
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Exhibitions
The SpectatorAlfred Sisley (Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lyon, till 6 Jan) Offbeat Impressionist Nicholas Powell T here are waters so chilly and choppy you fumble for your wellies, snows so...
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Opera
The SpectatorWozzeck (Royal Opera House) Berg betrayed Michael Tanner T he Royal Opera's new production of Berg's Wozzeck — these are the first performances there since 1984 — is no good...
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Pop music
The SpectatorHis way Marcus Berkmann N o one pays much attention to Mark Knopfler any more, possibly because his old band Dire Straits have become a byword for 1980s blandness and...
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Cinema
The SpectatorFarewell Adolph Green Mark Steyn A rthur Freed was the top producer of film musicals in the days when that was still a competitive field. But he'd started out in the Twenties,...
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Theatre
The SpectatorHome and Beauty (Lyric) Contact (Queen's) Adrenalin Heart (Bush) Our House (Cambridge) Weak defence Toby Young I t's been a bad week, I'm afraid. Let's start with Home and...
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Gardens
The SpectatorTimely overview Ursula Buchan P enelope Hobhouse is one of the bestknown contemporary British garden designers, who has built up an enviable reputation and practice on both...
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Television
The SpectatorWhy I'm really cross James Delingpole A few weeks ago I heard a BBC programme director being interviewed about the type of things she considered appropriate for the BBC to...
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Radio
The SpectatorChilling words Michael Vestey Ac cording to Radio Four's In Business last week (Thursday) the remarkable boom in management consultancy over the past 15 years has come to an...
The turf
The SpectatorShort changed Robin Oakley T here are some problems that just can't be solved, like that of the Aborigine who was given a new boomerang and spent the rest of his life trying...
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Hunting
The SpectatorOpening nerves Charles Moore I n theory, the season of fox-hunting that begins officially this weekend could be the last. The Editor has asked me to follow it. I say...
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High life
The SpectatorNorman's wisdom Taki 0Provincetown, Mass ne of the pleasures of owning and being involved on the editorial side of a magazine is the people you meet in the course of business....
Low life
The SpectatorHappy families Jeremy Clarke I 'm living with Sharon's younger brother Robin, in the house their Mum bought for them from her share of the divorce settlement. Other residents...
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Wild life
The SpectatorHeat and dust Aidan Hartley ILaikipia got a sense of what General Custer felt like at Little Bighorn when the Samburu invaded the farm where I live this month. Even today...
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Singular life
The SpectatorGive him some jokes Petronelia Wyatt I have been clearing away branches for the past few days, Or rather me and the latest addition to our Hungarian colony, Petra. Petra...
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PROPERTY
The SpectatorDeconstruction, not demolition Kate Chisholm IT's a bit disconcerting to open your blinds in the morning to discover that a cageful of men is being lifted on to the roof of...
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Shame, set and match
The SpectatorMichael Henderson San Francisco A SPORTMAN's fall from grace is never a pretty sight. Fools that we are, we imagine the players of games to belong to some purer world, even...
Dear Mary. . .
The SpectatorQ. Could you give me some guidance on how to keep my parents' and acquaintances' opinions about my single life to themselves? At 32, unmarried without children and happy about...