31 JULY 1993

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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

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it 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',

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SPECTATOR 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

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A 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

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I 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

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A 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?

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Anne 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

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Mr. 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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THE OUTLAW

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Michael Heath

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FROM ROUBLE TO RUBBLE

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Anne 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.. .

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IF 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

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Mark 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

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Martin 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

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TIC 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

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CHOLMONDELEY, 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!

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Boris 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

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Why 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

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I 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

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I 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

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Take 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

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MY 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

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ONE 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: `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

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OR 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Sir: 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

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Marriage 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

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Anita 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

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Mind, 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

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Julie 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

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D. 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

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M. 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

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Isabel 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

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Nigel 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

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David 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

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Harriet 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

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Art 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

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The 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

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Ballet 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

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A 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

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September 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

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Equinox (`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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Martyn Harris's television column returns next week.

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A noble benefactor

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Gavin 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

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Waiting 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

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Doughty 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...

Jeffrey Bernard is unwell.

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ONE OF the many ironies that has escaped the architects

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of 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

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SPAIN'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

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False 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

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`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

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The 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

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PORT 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

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Captaincy 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

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Q. 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...