31 OCTOBER 1998

Page 6

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

The Spectator

Night falls on Clapham Common M r Ron Davies, the Secretary of State for Wales, resigned because he said he had made 'a serious lapse of judgement' in accepting a lift from a...

Page 7

SPECTATOR

The Spectator

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 WHY HE RESIGNED N o more euphemisms. Enough eva- sions. Ron Davies has resigned,...

Page 8

POLITICS

The Spectator

Mr Hague must get a grip, and he has one winter in which to do it BRUCE ANDERSON By the end of last week, a fierce little turf war had broken out between the Home Office and...

Page 9

DIARY ANN WIDDECOMBE

The Spectator

T he Parliamentary buckets and spades season is over and we are all back for at least three weeks. There is something about the fir§t day which reminds me irresistibly of going...

Classifieds — pages 76-78

The Spectator

Page 10

SHARED OPINION

The Spectator

He's in his eighties. Whatever he did, let him go home FRANK JOHNSON M r Bruce Anderson, of this magazine, has attained heroic status by having wine thrown over him at a party...

Page 11

THE BATTLE FOR MR MANDELSON'S LIFE

The Spectator

. . . including his private life. Robert Taylor on the two biographies being written of New Labour's Great Intriguer — and the two biographers PETER MANDELSON is the man with...

Page 13

ENTER, A SELF- CONFIDENT GERMAN

The Spectator

Andrew Gimson on Oskar Lafontaine, the only one strong enough to destroy the euro (unintentionally) Berlin THERE IS nothing pallid about Oskar Lafontaine's appetite. The new...

Page 14

NO CYNIC WHERE IT MATTERED

The Spectator

Jonathan Aitken says farewell to Nicholas Budgen who died at 60 this week I've had a pretty good life. A bit dowdy and provincial compared to yours, but then I've hunted in...

Page 16

CAMILLA WARFARE

The Spectator

A claque is trying to 'prettify' Mrs Parker Bowles, says Graham Turner, and the Queen will have none of it FASCINATING though the titbits of gos- sip in Penny Junor's new...

Page 18

WHAT DID THEY DO TO DESERVE THIS?

The Spectator

Mark Steyn says the Republicans will make Congressional gains despite their Washington leaders New Hampshire IT'S BEEN, as they say, 'politics as usual'. In New York,...

Page 20

LAND OF THE RISING ELBOW

The Spectator

Hugh Levinson on the favourite leisure activity of Japanese men — and increasingly of women THE PROFESSOR — an expert in medi- aeval Welsh literature — darted his chop- sticks...

Page 21

Mind your language

The Spectator

MY HUSBAND goes into a sort of zombie state in shops at the best of times. This is not the best of times, it being practically Christmas Eve in shopping terms. The shops all...

Page 22

WHEN ITS IDEAS ARE IN, A PARTY'S OUT

The Spectator

It's when politicians' beliefs are broadly THE LAST ten years have seen the politi- cal triumph of what might be called 'bour- geois-capitalist' ideas. All the main parties now...

Page 24

THE BLAIRS

The Spectator

Michael Heath

ROY'S EARLY SUPPORTERS

The Spectator

Nicholas Boys Smith on the perhaps surprising identity of the first British party to advocate proportional representation AS the world digests the surprising news that Lord...

Page 25

Second opinion

The Spectator

I HAVE reached an age when I prefer reading about experience to experience itself. Alas, so busy am I in my daily life that my only opportunity for uninterrupt- ed reading is on...

Page 26

SABRES FOR SAVOY

The Spectator

History's last successful cavalry charge was much more recent than the British think, says Nicholas Farrell WE ARE often told by British historians that the last successful...

Page 28

DID I HELP SINK THE BELGRANO?

The Spectator

Michael Vestey thinks he might have had a part in General Pinochet's aid to Britain in the Falklands war PURELY by chance, I was involved in one example of General Pinochet's...

Page 29

AND ANOTHER THING

The Spectator

Up among the Yorkshire monks who pray for their enemies PAUL JOHNSON I t is a tempting thought to retire toa monastery, and shut a heavy, oaken door in the face of the corrupt...

Page 30

See the sparks

The Spectator

STILL, if that gives her trouble, it is noth- ing to the trouble facing Europe's new cen- tral bank. There it is, all ready (well, nearly ready) to roll out a brand-new currency...

Pass the parcel

The Spectator

BLAME at such times gets passed from hand to hand like a game of pass the parcel. The Treasury's instinct is always to pass it to the Bank of England. We do hope, says the Chief...

Word of mouth

The Spectator

A MINOR triumph this week when . I addressed a Russian delegation to the C ity of London. They asked what the mood had been like at the IMF meeting. It was full of bankers, I...

CITY AND SUBURBAN

The Spectator

He must have thought that if the Tories could run the economy, anyone could CHRISTOPHER FILDES I tend to lose count of Gordon Brown's budgets and budgettes, but I make next...

Hush on the Close

The Spectator

ONE OF the pleasures of my work was to watch Nigel Lawson at the wicket, facing the bowling of the House of Commons Treasury Committee. Brian Sedgemore hurled bouncers at him...

Polling the don't-knows

The Spectator

IN HOLLYWOOD you know business is bad when they start firing the sons-in-law. With the banks, it's the bosses, Bank of America's being the latest. Resourceful as ever in finding...

Page 32

The Spectator

Page 33

Not guilty

The Spectator

Richard Lamb (Letters, 24 October) d oes not tell us what would have stopped German forces from capturing airfields in Prance and the Low Countries for a Blitz ° n this country...

Sir: Richard Lamb reminds me that Hitler seldom spoke the

The Spectator

truth. But Hitler's 1945 views about Munich were neither truth nor lies — merely opinion. And with the benefit of hindsight. The entire case against Munich rests upon a number...

Sir: Anyone else but the Queen, whose nationality was so

The Spectator

constantly misrepresent- ed, would complain to the Race Relations hoard. Why should she be called German? George II, born in Hanover in 1683, was the last of our monarchs not...

Mellow men

The Spectator

Sir: How right Matthew Pan - is is (Another voice, 24 October). It always seems to me unjustifiably high-principled when politicians are criticised for making U-turns. I remem-...

LETTERS Unifying influence

The Spectator

Sir: Talk of a Scottish republic (Not so bonny Prince Charlie', 24 October) suggests wider questions. The Tory as defined by Dr Johnson was `one who adhered to the ancient...

Dog eats dog

The Spectator

Sir: Stephen Glover, in his fourth column on the Guardian in as many weeks (Media studies, 24 October), has decided we are not crooks. We are grateful. It is certainly an...

Page 34

Sir: I was encouraged to read Stephen Glover's critique of

The Spectator

my new book about the cash for questions affair, Trial by Conspira- cy. Indeed, I am very grateful for his posi- tive interest. Yet Mr Glover does not accept the findings of my...

True love

The Spectator

Sir: The combined devotion of Ike and his wartime English driver Kay Summersby (Letters, 24 October) was the talk of Lon- don that even Pam Harriman couldn't equal, but no one...

Page 38

MEDIA STUDIES

The Spectator

Were Radio Four's Mr Boyle a newspaper editor, he'd be sacked by now STEPHEN GLOVER Six months ago James Boyle, the new controller of Radio Four, introduced far- reaching...

Page 42

BOOKS

The Spectator

A craving for colour Philip Hensher THE UNKNOWN MATISSE by Hilary Spurling Hamish Hamilton, £25, pp. 480 h e elevation of Matisse to one of the two or three top positions in...

All books reviewed in The Spectator are available through THE

The Spectator

SPECTATOR BOOKSHOP Tel: 0541 557 288

Page 43

The Bob Hope of mathematics

The Spectator

Anthony Gottlieb A nong the many ancient legends about Pythagoras is the story that he was sometimes in two places at once. Paul Erdos, a Hungarian mathematician who died in...

Page 44

The price the goose pays

The Spectator

John Boyden JACQUELINE DU PRE by Elizabeth Wilson Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 466 T his book has a shape not unlike that of the concerto most associated with Jacqueline du Pre. In...

The lighter side of sabotage

The Spectator

Anthony Rouse BETWEEN SILK AND CYANIDE by Leo Marks HarperCollins, £19.99, pp. 600 A major wartime scandal lies at the heart of Leo Marks's entertaining account of his time in...

Page 46

After protracted labour, a birth

The Spectator

John Bowen FOR KINGS AND PLANETS by Ethan Canin Bloomsbury, £15.99, pp. 335 T he bed of a frozen creek in Missouri: `The wind has blown the snow into the ice, then blown waves...

Both tribute and reckoning

The Spectator

Kate Hubbard G eoffrey Kendal's parting words to his daughter leaving India to try her luck as an actress in England, having spent the first 18 years of her life on tour with...

Page 47

Hitched to a malign star

The Spectator

Benjamin Yarde-Buller I MARRIED A COMMUNIST by Philip Roth Cape, f16.99, pp. 323 P hilip Roth's latest novel is a complex and many-shaded work, a reality belied by the crude...

Page 48

Inspiring an unholy greed

The Spectator

Victoria Clarke HOW TO EAT: THE PLEASURES AND PRINCIPLES OF GOOD FOOD by Nigella Lawson Chatto, £25, pp. 473 I know not whether it is a sign of age or greed, but as each copy...

Page 50

All fortune cookies to him

The Spectator

Michael Hulse DAMASCUS GATE by Robert Stone Picador, £16.99, pp. 500 T his new novel by the author of Dog Soldiers is so unsatisfying that the enthusi- asm with which it has...

Words and silences

The Spectator

William Scammell VARIOUS VOICES by Harold Pinter Faber, £16.99, pp. 205 H arold Pinter is far and away our greatest living playwright. What the plays tell us is that wherever...

SPECTAT THE OR SUBSCRIBE TODAY— RATES

The Spectator

(52 issues) 12 Months 6 Months (26 issues) UK 0 £97.00 0 £49.00 Europe 0 £109.00 0 £55.00 USA 0 US$161 0 US$82 Australia 0 Aus$225 0 Aus$113 Rest of World 0 £119.00 0 £60.00...

Page 52

THE SPECTATOR BOOKSHOP

The Spectator

BooksoftheWeek How to Eat by Nigella Lawson 'I love Nigella Lawson's writing and I love her recipes.' Delia Smith 'I do believe that Nigella Lawson may have come up with the...

Page 53

A heroine who declines

The Spectator

Anita Brookner THE SERVICE OF CLOUDS by Susan Hill Chatto, £15.99, pp. 271 by Susan Hill Chatto, £15.99, pp. 271 T his is an unusual novel, not quite of our time or place, as...

Page 54

The art of bathos

The Spectator

I n the days when masques were all the rage at the Stuart court before the civil war, with their graceful articulations of bien - pensant propaganda from deities in designer...

Page 55

ARTS

The Spectator

Bureaucrats and busybodies Peter Gill responds to the Culture Secretary's consultation paper on investment in the arts W hen in the 1970s I was the director of Riverside...

Page 56

A bold pairing

The Spectator

T o Southwark Cathedral where Chaucer, Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, Goldsmith and Bun- yan are all commemorated. A fairly literary spot then, but chosen in...

Page 57

Exhibitions 1

The Spectator

Addressing the Century (Hayward Gallery, till 11 January) Just looking Martin Gayford I t is only shallow people,' as Oscar Wilde noted, 'who do not judge by appear- ances.'...

Page 58

Exhibitions 2

The Spectator

Bathers (New York Studio School, till 14 November) Shocking practices Roger Kimball P erhaps the most subversive art institu- tion in New York City these days is located at 8...

Page 60

Urban treasure

The Spectator

The Museum of London was relaunched this week. Felicity Owen reports O n the south-west highwalk of the Barbican above St Martins le Grand stands an ungainly building like a...

Page 61

Theatre

The Spectator

Antony and Cleopatra (National) Amadeus (Old Vic) Jackie (Queens) Back to zero Sheridan Morley G iven how much is wrong with the National's new Antony and Cleopatra, it...

Page 62

Cinema

The Spectator

Primary Colors (15, selected cinemas) Fading interest Mark Steyn Primary Colors opened in America a few • weeks after Monica hit the front pages in what was frankly a crowded...

Music

The Spectator

Portrait of Antwerp Robin Holloway M usic can't paint a picture or take a photograph, and the term 'picture post- card' is commonly used derogatively, implying cheap, small,...

Page 63

Opera

The Spectator

The Bartered Bride; II Re Pastore; Don Carlos (Opera North, Manchester) Northern lights Michael Tanner A fter Welsh National Opera in Swansea, Opera North in Manchester, the...

Page 64

SPECTATOR

The Spectator

DIARY 1999 14 Plain £15 Initialled The Spectator 1999 Diary, bound in soft red goatskin leather, is now available. Laid out with a whole week to view, Monday to Sunday, the...

Page 65

Dance

The Spectator

Javier De Frutos (Queen Elizabeth Hall) A step further Giannandrea Poesio T he subtle eroticism embedded in the music of Swan Lake is one of the reasons for many new readings...

Page 66

Radio

The Spectator

Do as you're told Michael Vestey T he controller of Radio Four James Boyle is coming in for some heavy criticism about the changes he has made to his net- work. He has...

Page 68

Television

The Spectator

In with the bad crowd Edward Heathcoat Amory T elevision is modern, it's popular, it's classless, it's Cool Britannia's chosen medi- um, bringing princesses and prime minis-...

The turf

The Spectator

Yellow fever Robin Oakley I t's not quite as famous yet as Jack Berry's habitual red shirt in the parade ring. But when you see Roger Ingram on the course in his lucky yellow...

Page 69

High life

The Spectator

Rural idyll Taki course, a German from Saxony, Schoen- burg country.) Oscar is the famous designer and a friend for 35 years. Anette and the mother of my children grew up...

Page 70

Country life

The Spectator

Doctor's dilemma Leanda de Lisle A rural GP might once have expected to be at the heart of a close-knit communi- ty, but now it's like working in the after- math of war. No...

Page 71

Singular life

The Spectator

All of a tremble Petronella Wyatt I t is one thing to keep a diary. It is one thing to sell that diary to Macmillan for publication after one's death. It is one thing to...

BRIDGE

The Spectator

Null and void Andrew Robson TOURNAMENTS with large prizes have the merit of attracting the best players, and the atmosphere is invariably highly charged. But perhaps such a...

Page 72

Obviously he has to be stopped. There are quite enough

The Spectator

incompetent cooks already inflicting unpleasant and some- times downright dangerous dishes on their families and any dinner guests silly enough to accept their invitations. I...

Page 73

RESTAURANTS AS THEATRE

The Spectator

Alice Thomson HOW DO you write restaurant reviews without ending up as fat as a quail stuffed with foie gras and white truffles? The answer is Sharon. She first came to my res-...

Page 74

COMPETITION

The Spectator

Another adventure Jaspistos IN COMPETITION No. 2057 you were invited to suppose that, besides Humpty Dumpty, Alice met another nursery rhyme character in Wonderland and to...

CHESS

The Spectator

Following the leader Raymond Keene LAST week I gave the game Nimzowitsch- Rubinstein, Berlin 1928 and promised to follow up with two more modern examples. The beauty of...

Page 75

41111116.__

The Spectator

w. &J GRAHAM'S PORT w. a.l . GRAHAM'S PORT CROSSWORD A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Six Grapes Port for the first correct solution opened on 16 November,...

Solution to 1383: Like me

The Spectator

ii:, II Id nli Ad ill di cpmeirier, el% 'N LA Uri i N mon arAila 0 rim s dRerlDrils menu drinelleimi 1I©11 L R N dill Fr A C A U In 11 ii NripL u drio....ecsrido,...

No. 2060: La difference

The Spectator

The differences between men and women, whether due to nature or nurture, are gen- erally acknowledged, though sometimes exp- ressed in irritatingly stereotyped ways. You are...

Page 79

SPECTATOR SPORT

The Spectator

Prize formula Simon Barnes THE FORMULA One motor-racing sea- son roars to its conclusion in Japan this weekend and the world's attention centres once again on Michael...

YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED

The Spectator

Q : My mother, my siblin g s, and old family friends from my childhood have always called me 'Tommy' and I have learned to live with that. But since I reached the a g e of 13,...