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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The Spectatorit all started with him saying bastards.' L ord Rees-Mogg began a High Court action to declare the Maastricht Act uncon- stitutional. The Government promised not to attempt to...
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THE',
The SpectatorSPECTATOR The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 GORBACHEV GOES SOUTH L ike Soviet communism, South African...
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POLITICS
The SpectatorA golden Prime Minister that never has been yet SIMON HEFFER John: Thou has made me giddy With these ill tidings. Now, what says the world To your proceedings? Do not seek to...
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DIARY MAX HASTINGS
The SpectatorI t is often suggested that newspapers are very good at abusing governments, but not so good at producing better ideas of their own. Prime Minister, I have a brainwave. Make Mr...
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ANOTHER VOICE
The SpectatorA temporary bad smell on the media scene AUBERON WAUGH S omeone called Peter Bowman, media research director of WCRS (whatever that may be), has commented on the Henley...
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IS THE UN REALLY NECESSARY?
The SpectatorAnne Applebaum explores the corridors of the United Nations, and finds a lot of people doing nothing very much New York THERE ARE certain places in the world which remain...
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One hundred years ago
The SpectatorMr. Digby Pigott, writing to the Times of Thursday, gives a charming idyll of the lake in St. James's Park. On the 8th of this month a dabchick's nest, "made fast to the dipping...
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FROM ROUBLE TO RUBBLE
The SpectatorAnne McElvoy falls victim, along with millions of others, to the latest Russian currency bungle Moscow WE HAVE just had a currency reform in Russia ordained from outer space....
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If symptoms persist.. .
The SpectatorIF POLITICAL history is nothing but a tale of crime and folly, what are we to make of medical history? Whenever I read it, I stand amazed that so many intelligent men (I'm...
MY PUPIL, KING RONNIE
The SpectatorMark Amory anticipates the — slightly delayed — coronation of the Kabaka of Buganda Buganda You are probably in mid-air by now, but I wanted to tell you, in case you haven't...
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THAT'S THE WAY THE MONEY GOES
The SpectatorMartin Vander Weyer argues that big businesses, not individual speculators, are behind the-collapse of currencies CITY CURRENCY traders are one of the television clichés of...
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SP
The SpectatorTIC OR How to save yourself 51 trips to the library or over £35 on The Spectator If you're forced to share The Spectator with fellow students, then you'll know how difficult...
Mind your language
The SpectatorCHOLMONDELEY, Marjoribanks, Featherstonehaugh — the English have a love of names that are not pro- nounced as they look (though I under- stand that the Pepys family now regards...
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CONGRATULATIONS, IT'S A BELGIAN!
The SpectatorBoris Johnson on the trauma of discovering that his daughter is a foreigner Brussels MR HOWARD, Home Secretary, you have a reputation as a Euro-sceptic, justi- fied or not....
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AND ANOTHER THING
The SpectatorWhy Catholics are closing ranks against the moral abomination of Brussels PAUL JOHNSON L ast week William Rees-Mogg and I were discussing one of the most remarkable features...
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Supergnome
The SpectatorI AM TAKING out a short position in George Soros. To me, he looks overbought and overdone. I do not grudge him his profit from selling sterling on Black Wednesday — even the...
Penned in
The SpectatorI ENJOY watching Pen Kent in the Shirley Temple part. It suits him. He holds hands with the quarrelling tunnellers under the Channel, and the great reconciliation scheme...
CITY AND SUBURBAN
The SpectatorTake a pig Dr Euronymus Bosch explains how not to make Gosky Patties CHRISTOPHER FILDES I thought that by way of a change from high Euro-finance, we might turn this week to...
Play it again
The SpectatorMY DESERT ISLAND would not be com- plete without the Confederation of British Industry's record of a call for lower interest rates. This golden oldie is going round again, for...
They have their exits
The SpectatorONE OF the hazards of Italian commercial life is suicide. It must date back to the Bor- gias, or the emperors. Raul Gardini, the sugar baron, appears to have shot himself, but...
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In for a penny
The SpectatorSir: Martyn Harris (Arts, 10 July) leaves out of his litany of the sins of John D. Rockefeller one that just may be at the base of the pyramid, and not only in his case. To...
No, we won't
The SpectatorSir: Those of us involved with London Docklands in whatever capacity — profes- sional, voluntary or, as in my case, both expect better of Max Hastings (Diary, 24 July) than to...
Pointless question
The SpectatorSir: May I thank and congratulate you on retaining the excellent cartoon series '3 Pointless Things To Do This Week'? This series brought me and my fiancée much pleasure, and...
LETTERS Crimewriters' Guild
The SpectatorSir: Nothing brings journalists down to earth so much as having a baby and being burgled. News from these distant existential shores must instantly be brought to a stunned world...
McGonagall lives
The SpectatorSir: `So we few . . . will go on boring . . . until we have bored Maastricht into the ground'. (Another voice, 24 July). Sunday Telegraph boss Mr Moore, Proudly boasts of his...
SP
The SpectatorOR SUBSCRIBE TODAY - UK Europe (airmail) USA USA Rest of World Students: £39.00 Please state college. Please enter a subscription I enclose my cheque (Equivalent 1:1 Please...
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McCarthy witches
The SpectatorSir: When I read the opening line of Anita Brookner's review (Books, 24 July) — `No one, but no one, had a more disgraced and intimidating childhood than Mary McCarthy' — I...
Facing which way
The SpectatorSir: Your Portrait of the Week (10 July) records an event the news of which has not otherwise been reported on American shores: 'Fifteen women climbed over the walls of...
Spectator party
The SpectatorSir: In complete agreement with the sug- gestion of Dov Midalia (Letters, 10 July) that The Spectator should form the next government may I put forward the name of Digby...
Last desire
The SpectatorSir: As the result of disclosures made recently in the name of 'openness', I find myself fancying the Head of MI5. Were we perhaps better off under the old dispensation?...
LETTERS Advice for Sir Alec
The SpectatorSir: Alec Guinness complains (Diary, 10 July) of waiters asking 'if everything was to his satisfaction'. In the United States this practice is almost de rigueur. There it almost...
A stitch in time
The SpectatorSir: I have long been an admirer of Charles Moore's contributions to your magazine and have reason to be grateful for his abili- ty to expose our tendency to choose the path of...
Windy words
The SpectatorSir: The financial attractions of wind-farms are considerable so long as the UK con- sumer is providing the subsidy (And anoth- er thing, 17 July.) UK power generators are...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorMarriage and division Simon Heifer THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF THOMAS AND JANE WELSH CARLYLE: VOLUME 19 (January-December 1845, pp. 263) VOLUME 20 (October 1845-July 1846, pp....
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She can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth
The SpectatorAnita Brookner THE LAUGHING ACADEMY by Shena Mackay Heinemann, f13.99, pp. 136 S hena Mackay's world is peopled with eccentrics, but they appear so normal that one might be...
A Sudden Breeze
The SpectatorMind, butterflying, settles where a book lies open on a chair. The page, a while ago begun but interrupted by the sun, catches a sudden breeze, then turns over once, twice, and...
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The facetious in pursuit of the fictitious
The SpectatorJulie Burchill BLOOMSBURY GUIDE TO GOOD MANNERS by Nigel Rees Bloomsbury, £9.99, pp. 360 T he title, Bloomsbury Guide to Good Manners, is immediately intriguing. Quite what...
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The art of the miniature
The SpectatorD. J. Taylor BEST SHORT STORIES 1993 edited by Giles Gordon and David Hughes Heinemann, £15.99, pp. 373 T hough one could do worse than end up on a desert island with the...
Avant lui le deluge
The SpectatorM. R. D. Foot DE GAULLE AND ALGERIA, 1940-1960 by Michael Kettle Quartet, £45, pp. 666 T his enormous book is most of it devot- ed to three years of Algerian history, from 1958...
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Birds, wild flowers, and Prime Ministers
The SpectatorIsabel Colegate OTHER PEOPLE: DIARIES September 1963-December 1966 by Frances Partridge HarperCollins, f 18, pp. 297 S taying at Charleston with Duncan Grant in the autumn of...
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The soft drink with the hard sell
The SpectatorNigel Spivey FOR GOD, COUNTRY AND COCA-COLA by Mark Prendergrast Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 556 B otanic Blood Balm; Goff's Giant Globules; Dr Jordan's Joyous Julep; Dr Pierce's...
Death is the only great emotion
The SpectatorDavid Profumo THE CENTRE OF THE LABYRINTH by Philip Lloyd-Bostock Quartet, £16.95, pp. 472 A life's work, and probably a life story, The Centre of the Labyrinth is tricky to...
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A selection of recent thrillers
The SpectatorHarriet Waugh R eginald Hill, the inventor of Dalziel, Pascoe and Wield, has now come up with a new detective, Joe Sixsmith, a black redun- dant lathe operator, big-hearted,...
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ARTS
The SpectatorArt The enemy within M eddlesome forces abhor a vacuum. Long before the communist regimes of the East began their final break-up, eroded by economic inefficiency and...
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Opera
The SpectatorThe Merry Widow (Glyndebourne Festival at the Royal Festival Hall) Maria Stuarda (Buxton Festival) Let's brighten it up Rupert Christiansen J eremy Isaacs, please return my...
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Dance
The SpectatorBallet Atlantique (Queen Elizabeth Hall) Music and movement Sophie Constanti R egine Chopinot's Ballet Atlantique has become one of the few choreographer- led troupes in...
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sots /DI ry
The SpectatorA monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics CINEMA The Snapper (15), adapted from a sequel by Roddy Doyle, concerns the same...
Theatre
The SpectatorSeptember Tide (King's Head) Rope (Chichester) Misha's Party (Barbican) Roped in Sheridan Morley hen Patrick Hamilton died 30 years ago, of drink and neglect among other ail-...
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Cinema
The SpectatorEquinox (`15', & Metro) Red Rock West (`15', selected Odeons) Not very thrilling Mark Amory I n a quiet summer week (I have not yet caught up with Arnie) it should be pleas-...
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A noble benefactor
The SpectatorGavin Stamp remembers Lord Bute, who died last week A b Glasgow bot Sir David Hunter Blair's biogra- phy of the 3rd Marquess of Bute, the builder of Cardiff Castle, reproduced...
High life
The SpectatorWaiting for Zorba Taki I missed the Cartier Polo International because of drunkenness and debauchery, and Amabel Lindsay's bash because of business commitments in the Olive...
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Long life
The SpectatorDoughty diarist Nigel Nicolson A an Clark's diaries lift the lid off poli- tics with greater effect than those of any of his predecessors. He is honest to the point of...
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ONE OF the many ironies that has escaped the architects
The Spectatorof the 'community' of Europe is this: as it becomes easier and faster to visit other European countries, there is less and less point in doing so. For they are increasingly the...
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DD ' pan 1). D3
The SpectatorSPAIN'S FINEST CAVA CHESS 101 CODDirkiil lillil SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA Two of a kind Raymond Keene WITH TWO world championships, that of Fide, involving Timman and Karpov,...
DoMMON D's COMPETITION
The SpectatorFalse origin Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1789 you were invited to offer fanciful origins of charac- ters, like Jack Robinson, who have become part of our daily language....
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No. 1792: Christian aid
The Spectator`He's so positive, so knock-me-down.' These words, which were in sober . truth written by Cardinal Newman, beg to be incorporated in a musical lyric of any period from Gilbert...
Solution to 1117: Not the chemists
The SpectatorThe unclued lights (2, 6A, 7, 11, 18, 22, 36, 38 & 40) are all boots. First prize: Harold Margolis, Letch- worth, Herts; Runners-up: Mrs M. B. Mollison, Edinburgh; F. Bar-...
GRAHAM'S
The SpectatorPORT CROSSWORD Wee J. GRAHAM'S PORT A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 16 August, with two...
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SPECTATOR SPORT
The SpectatorCaptaincy traumas Frank Keating NAME ME a successful captain of cricket who has not had a couple of decent bowlers to call on. There simply has not been one. At Headingley you...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorQ. How can I stop my wife from prattling on the telephone to her friends? Each time I come home I find her lying back on the sofa, gazing out of the window and just talking...