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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorT he Court of Appeal confirmed the Home Secretary's powers to set tariffs for juveniles' prison sentences, but ruled that he 'departed from the standards of fair- ness' in...
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POLITICS
The SpectatorHobbes, Rousseau, Michael Howard and the right to order BRUCE ANDERSON T here is no answer to the problem of punishing the Bulger murderers. They com- mitted an atrocious...
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DIARY KEITH WATERHOUSE
The SpectatorD oes anyone know what I can do with the first act of an abandoned play, working title Hitting the Fan? It was to have been a dramatisation of the Alan Clark Diaries a sort of...
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WAITING FOR A HUNDRED YEARS
The SpectatorPhilip Hensher lists the similarities between the end of the 20th and of the 19th centuries. There is a craving for a new genius. Meanwhile, Damien Hirst is our Beardsley,...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorNOW, if you can tear your attention away from speculating about my age for a few minutes, spare a thought for the woes of wireless broadcasters. I don't mean the wickedness of...
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LOOK BACK AT MYTHS
The SpectatorMilton Shulman punctures the tales told about the most famous postwar play, now aged 40 But in the summer of 1956 the play was admired as a splenetic spasm of rage by England's...
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Second opinion
The SpectatorI ARRIVED in the hospital last week to find a new notice immediately inside the main entrance. It was signed by a man called the Complaints Manager, and he seemed to be touting...
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WHEN EDEN ASKED HOW TO START A WAR
The SpectatorE.C. Hodgkin recalls his time on the Times, after Nasser seized the Suez Canal forty summers ago I RECALL two occasions when, as a jour- nalist, I heard people talking...
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LEAKING ALL OVER THE SQUARE MILE
The Spectator. . . but it's not always done by those PR people, says Brian Basham — one of the original City PR men IN HER good and overdue article about how City pages are influenced by...
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AND ANOTHER THING
The SpectatorA painful poke in the eye for some nasty left-wing Oxford dons PAUL JOHNSON T he donation of £20 million by Wafic Said to Oxford University to expand — in effect to transform...
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CITY AND SUBURBAN
The SpectatorThe taxman is neutral, so Sharon and Darren get down to a spot of research CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he scene is the stockroom of the Cen- tre for Policy Studies. Sharon and Darren...
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A grandson speaks
The SpectatorSir: Poor Alistair Forbes! Most people grow mellow with the passage of time but in his case, as is evident from the disjointed ramble that passes for a book review (27 July),...
LETTERS
The SpectatorLoquacious apes Sir: Most of the points raised by Claudia Parsons (`The wrongs of rights') and Victo- ria Elliot (`Sheep may not safely graze') in your issue of 27 July might...
Sir: Dominic Prince is right to say that a disproportionately
The Spectatorlarge amount of money goes to charities which have enough already, compared with unfashionable char- ities. For example, although of the cancers prostate cancer is now the...
Charitable behaviour
The SpectatorSir: I was very concerned to read Dominic Prince's article about royal patronage and charities (`The truth about the loss of royal- ties', 27 July). I will set the record...
A case in point
The SpectatorSir: In reply to Nicholas Kenyon's letter (20 July), I am not sure where my disingenu- ousness may be said to lie. I was making a general point about the BBC monopoly, which it...
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Of monks and nightingales
The SpectatorSir: It is agreeable to say that Father Daly and Taki are both right up to a point about La Badia, near Orvieto (Letters, 27 July). The ancient Abbey of Ss Severn and Martirio...
British courtesy
The SpectatorSir: May I mildly protest at Mr Lawrence Rickard's statement in his letter (13 July) that not since he was a young man has he seen a young person offer an elderly person a seat...
Rights issues
The SpectatorSir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 6 July) claims that 'we have to overthrow the doctrine of universal rights. . . . Only God has rights'. But Paul Johnson surely does not...
Safety in tumblers
The SpectatorSir: I hope I am never invited to join Anne McElvoy on one of her modest picnics, for when she serves me wine in a long- stemmed glass, as her article (Wine and food, 13 July)...
Not the good old days
The SpectatorSir: Alan Watkins (Wine and food, 13 July) is puzzled that he was able to drink Chablis, Vosne-Romande and other such bur- gundies for strangely little money at El Vino in the...
Rebutted
The SpectatorSir: I am surprised that Patrick Higgins denies that the Butterfield archive contains evidence that Sir Herbert Butterfield visit- ed prostitutes (Letters, 6 July). Some years...
Infinitely refined
The SpectatorSir: I can confidently assert, as one of the literary executors of Nancy Astor, that nei- ther version of the quip about the tango can be ascribed to her (Leader, 1 June and...
Fit for a prince
The SpectatorSir: As the aunt of a real-life Sharon Queen (`Be a constitutional expert', 20 July) might I say that the Prince of Wales could do much worse than to consort with a real woman...
Dog-fanciers
The SpectatorSir: Regarding Aldeburgh town council's preference for a birdbath to a statue of Benjamin Britten (Leader, 27 July), it might have helped the composer's cause if he had kept a...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorThe women come and go Mary Warnock SOMERVILLE FOR WOMEN: AN OXFORD COLLEGE, 1879-1993 by Pauline Adams OUP, £40, £17.99, pp. 394 P auline Adams is Librarian and Archivist of...
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Bat out of heaven
The SpectatorRoy Jenkins BRADMAN by Charles Williams Little, Brown, £20, pp. 336 I have only once previously reviewed a book about games-playing, and that was also in The Spectator. It was...
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Rapture on the lonely shore
The SpectatorAnita Brookner THE STORIES OF VLADIMIR NABOKOV edited by Dmitri Nabokov Weidenfeld, £25, pp. 663 T his handsome volume reprints all of the stories in Nabokov's four collections,...
They do care too much for money
The SpectatorFiona Maddocks WHEN THE MUSIC STOPS by Norman Lebrecht Simon & Schuster, £16.99, pp. 455 N a average scoop-crazed journalist would choose classical music as a subject on which...
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Just like a woman
The SpectatorMain de Botton LOST PRINCE: THE UNSOLVED MYSTERY OF KASPAR HAUSER by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson Simon & Schuster, f16.99, pp. 254 I n Nuremberg in 1828, there appeared a...
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Dangerous at the time
The SpectatorRichard Dorment ABOUT MODERN ART: CRITICAL ESSAYS, 1948-96 by David Sylvester Chatto, f25, pp. 448 A bout modern art? I suppose you can call Brancusi, Lkger, Matisse and...
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It'll never be the same again
The SpectatorRaymond Carr SPANISH HOURS by Simon Courtauld Libra Mundi, £16.95, pp. 192 `S pain', the tourist slogan of the 1960s proclaimed, 'is different.' Its unique qualities as a...
Watches of the night
The SpectatorJames Teacher LONGITUDE: THE TRUE STORY OF A LONE GENIUS WHO SOLVED THE GREATEST SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM OF HIS TIME by Dava Sobel Fourth Estate, £12, pp. 176 n 22 October 1707...
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Composed, solitary and observant
The SpectatorFrances Partridge THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF KATHERINE MANSFIELD: VOLUME IV, 1920-1921 edited by Vincent O'Sullivan and Margaret Scott Clarendon, £45, pp. 362 I t would be...
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Apprehension of the
The Spectatorgood Tim Parks HISTORY AND UTOPIA by E. M. Cioran, translated from the French by Richard Howard Quartet, £7, pp. 118 W hatever his qualities,' writes E. M. Cioran, opening an...
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ARTS
The SpectatorImages and language of the time Barry Millington responds to last week's article about Wagner and anti-Semitism here are the Jews in his works?' asks Michael Tanner with...
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Exhibitions
The SpectatorJan Steen: Painter and Storyteller (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, till 18 August, and at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, from 21 Sept till 12 Jan 1997) A rollicking good...
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Dance
The SpectatorRoyal Ballet Mixed Bill (Royal Opera House) Sheer pleasure Giannandrea Poesio A n all-star cast performing an evening of bravura dances is every balletomane's ultimate dream....
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Theatre Voyeurz (Whitehall)
The SpectatorPromises Promises (Bridewell) The Lights (Royal Court) Here we go again Sheridan Morley L ike the Habsburgs, producer Michael White forgets nothing and learns nothing; 30...
Cinema La Regis du Jeu (PG, Riverside Studios)
The SpectatorDenise Calls Up (15, selected cinemas) Crossed lines Mark Steyn F or anyone seeking shelter from Twister and the other summer smasheroos, the best bet is revivals. I can...
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Pop music
The SpectatorTake the money Marcus Berkmann T here's nothing like a good short-list to stir the blood. The nominations for this year's Mercury Music Prize for the best British album are as...
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Television
The SpectatorSporting mania Simon Hoggart T hank goodness the athletics is under- way. The first week of an Olympics is devoted to the sports nobody enjoys except the participants. (Polo...
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Radio
The SpectatorRude talk Michael Vestey P oor old Brenda, the farmer's wife from Warwickshire. She made the mistake of telephoning an awful drip called Tommy Boyd on Talk Radio UK's daily...
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The turf
The SpectatorWe'll miss you Robin Oakley T he blues composer W.C. Handy once observed, 'It may well be that true riches are laid up in Heaven. But it's sure nice to have a little pocket...
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High life
The SpectatorGoing for gold Taki Gstaad Just before he left for Atlanta and the masking agent games, I had a drink with ICing Constantine of Greece, and he expressed his concern about the...
BRIDGE
The SpectatorWhat a swing! Andrew Robson AN 'advance sacrifice' is an effective strat- egy whereby a player with excellent sup- port for partner but a weak hand makes a spectacular jump in...
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Aubergine and La Tante Claire • .
The SpectatorTHERE MAY be no such thing as a free lunch, but it is certainly a less expensive meal than dinner, especially if taken in one of London's gastronomic pinnacles. Take those two...
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CLASSIFIED
The Spectator• UNITED KINGDOM • THE PHEASANT INN Bassenthwaite Lake, Nr Cockermouth, Cumbria Quiet situation between forest and lake. 20 Bedrooms with private facilities. NO television or...
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ISLE OF
The SpectatorISLE OF i U RA 111..1 StllICII IOW COMPETITION Point of departure Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1943 you were invited to take the first line of any popular lyric since 1930...
SIMPSON'S
The SpectatorIN-THE-STRAND SIMPSON'S IN •T HE•STRAND CHESS Rois fainéants Raymond Keene DURING THE PERIOD of Soviet domi- nation of world chess from 1948, when Botvinnik won the title,...
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CROSSWORD
The SpectatorA first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 19 Au g ust, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...
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SPECTATOR SPORT
The SpectatorThe quest for flight Simon Barnes I HAVE a theory that all non-confronta- tional sports are about one thing — flight. I once dined with an ex-gymnast who told me she dreamed...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorDear Mary. . . Q. Someone rather glamorous has invited Me to stay in Scotland this month. I accepted With the proviso that I would have to leave on a certain day in order to...