Page 5
The NHS needs its Reformation
The SpectatorT he government has promised that from next year everyone aged between 40 and 75 will be offered an âMOTâ of their health. The patient most in need of a health check,...
Page 9
N o matter what happens, Friday is always a big day
The Spectatorfor those of us who do five days of getting up at sparrowâs cough. The prospect of two days of lie-ins is so exciting it makes me feel giddy. My self-imposed rule of no...
Page 10
Glasgow East is Brownâs dirty little secret: a hideous, costly social experiment gone wrong
The SpectatorW hen Tony Blair was Prime Minister he used to joke in private that his writ â like that of the Roman Empire â ended at Hadrianâs Wall. Beyond that lay Gordonâs land, a...
Page 11
A s the new Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans challenges the current
The Spectatorrunning of the Church of England, where does this leave Gordon Brown? I ask because one of Mr Brownâs first acts as Prime Minister was to get rid of his officeâs traditional...
Page 12
The great Spectator/IQ 2 debate Motion: Prince Charles was right: modern architecture is still all glass stumps and carbuncles.
The SpectatorNew rules at Intelligence Squared. For the debate on architecture the speakers were offered the use of a slide projector. Opening for the motion Roger Scruton described modern...
Page 14
A very English coup â and the end of our national church
The SpectatorOn the eve of the General Synod and the Lambeth Conference, Theo Hobson says that the sleeping giant of evangelical and orthodox Anglicanism has been awoken by liberal agitation...
Page 16
Brownâs security strategy is the worst of all worlds
The SpectatorItâs draconian, expensive and ineffective, says David Davis . All the evidence shows that the Prime Minister is eroding our civil liberties pointlessly A s shadow home...
Page 18
A portrait of the artist as a tennis champion
The SpectatorMelissa Kite meets Martina Navratilova, nine times Wimbledon singles champion and now pioneer of âtennisingâ â an artistic technique that creates Jackson Pollock-style...
Page 19
The Law Lords are right to resist the government
The SpectatorLord Lloyd of Berwick says that the governmentâs emergency legislation to overturn their lordshipsâ ruling on witness anonymity is part of a âgradual usurpationâ of our...
Page 24
I was starstuck by David Cameron
The SpectatorIn the week of the Spectator Summer Party, Steven Berkoff recalls another of our celebrations at which he sought out the Tory leader and forgave his confusion of Brando and Dean...
Page 26
How to get stabbed: you, too, can be knifed in a public place
The SpectatorRod Liddle says that it helps to be aged between 14 and 30, white and male. Being drunk and argumentative speeds things along. And no public policy seems to dissuade those who...
Page 28
Cummins unstuck
The SpectatorSir: Rod Liddle (Liddle Britain, 28 June) is mistaken to suggest that only Guardian journalists objected to articles published in the Sunday Telegraph under the pseudonym Will...
Deeply exposed
The SpectatorSir: In his review (Books, 14 June) of my book, Forgotten Voices of the Secret War : An Inside History of Special Operations During the Second World War , Andro Linklater...
Unarmed and dangerous
The SpectatorSir: If Fraser Nelsonâs insight (âVery discretely, Cameron is writing his first Queenâs Speechâ, 28 June) into what is being planned by the Conservatives is...
The point about Russia
The SpectatorSir: Charlotte Hobson (Books, 28 June) obviously does not know Russia very well and does not like it. She did not read Jonathan Dimblebyâs book with due attention as she fails...
Page 30
I blame those who worked with Brown, knew what he was really like, but stayed silent
The SpectatorâH ow the Guardianistas changed their tune,â was the heading to a Sunday Times factbox published in the paper last weekend. The intention was to mock those Fleet Street...
Page 32
A gardener must be a philosopher but never an atheist
The SpectatorS omebody asked: âHow do you express your love of country in this leaden age? How do you sweep aside the multicultural poison and simply assert â âI am an English...
Page 34
Fading memories of the Raj in the tea gardens of Assam
The SpectatorRichard Orange says the Indian tea industry is enjoying a revival â but that the traditional tea-plantersâ way of life, established by the British, is passing into history...
Page 35
The marketâs favourite scapegoat
The SpectatorChristopher Fildes O h, dear, what a setback. The usual suspects have slipped through the net. They will have to be locked up in the Financial Services Authorityâs waterside...
Page 36
Distinctions and likenesses
The SpectatorPhilip Hensher H ouSE oF W ITS : A N I NTIMATE P oRTRAIT oF THE J AMES F AMILY by Paul Fisher Little, Brown, £16.99, pp. 694, ISBN 9780316726573 â £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p)...
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Mad, bad and incompetent
The SpectatorJustin Cartwright H ITLER â S E MPIRE by Mark Mazower Allen Lane, £30, pp.725, ISBN 9780713996814 â £24 (plus 2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 A s we now know, the unimaginably...
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Waves of geniality
The SpectatorD. J. Taylor G RUB S TREET I RREGULAR : S CENES FROM L ITERARY L IFE by Jeremy Lewis Harper Press, f20, pp. 330, ISBN 9780002559065 â £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 N o...
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A keen sense of duty
The SpectatorLeanda de Lisle B URGHLEY : W ILLIAM C ECIL AT THE C OURT OF E LIZABETH I by Stephen Alford Yale, £25, pp. 412, ISBN 9780300118964 â £20 (plus 2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 W...
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All you need to know about Wales
The SpectatorByron Rogers T HE W ELSH A CADEMY E NCYCLOPAEDIA OF W ALES (E NGLISH V ERSION ) edited by John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch University of Wales Press,...
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Getting to know the General
The SpectatorCarey Schofield A C ASE OF E XPLODING MANGOES by Mohammed Hanif Cape, £12.99, pp. 297, ISBN 9780224082044 â £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 O n 29 May 1989 Brigadier...
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A world elsewhere
The SpectatorHenrietta Bredin visits Osloâs new opera house and finds it impressive, both inside and out O slo is a small city, with a population of just over half a million, but it now...
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Distinctly lacklustre
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth Radical Light: Italyâs Divisionist Painters 1891â1910 National Gallery, until 7 September Sponsored by Credit Suisse D ivisionism is based on the scientific...
Page 46
What about the Iraqis?
The SpectatorLloyd Evans Black Watch Barbican Whatever Happened to Cotton Dress Girl New End Divas Apollo D isney does death. Thatâs how Black Watch looks to me. The hit show has arrived...
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Inspired and thrilling
The SpectatorMichael Tanner Le nozze di Figaro Royal Opera House T he first night of the latest revival of the Royal Opera Houseâs Le nozze di Figaro I count among the dozen, or perhaps...
Page 48
Here be monsters
The SpectatorPeter Hoskin The Mist 15, Nationwide A s any fan of Howard Hawks, George A. Romero or John Carpenter will know, itâs not the monsters outside your window that you should...
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Hitting the mark
The SpectatorMarcus Berkmann I t seems hard to believe, but on 29 August Michael Jackson will be 50 years old. Maybe fortunately in this case, the music industry doesnât really go a...
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Criminally good
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart Y ears ago I was âpolitical consultantâ on State of Play, the successful BBC drama serial that got very substantial ratings. It launched several acting...
Going for gold
The SpectatorTaki âM y legs are leaden, my throat is dry and I feel slightly sick with anxiety. As I make my way towards the arena the roar of the crowd gets louder. One question keeps...
Page 51
Sober reflection
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke A n extraordinary email from theatre critic Mr Lloyd Evans arrived in my inbox last week. Heâd written a play, it said, a two-hander, and one of the characters...
Garden shorts
The SpectatorThere can be no prouder boast amongst the garden-minded rich than âwe got Tom Stuart-Smith to design our garden before he was famousâ. Of course, when exactly he became...
Page 52
Outrage permitted
The SpectatorMelissa Kite T he following events took place in a Lambeth Council parking shop just off Streatham High Road. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. This report...
Page 53
Male preserve
The SpectatorRichard Sennett W at passes for summer is finally upon us in the British Isles. Between bouts of rain, we can finally inhale the sun-tan oil, note that last yearâs swimsuit...
Page 54
Moving pictures
The SpectatorJohn Torode watches his movie poster collection gain value I started collecting movie posters half a century ago. It was a nerdy and downmarket hobby for an ambitious East End...
Page 62
Sean left strict orders: if he was kidnapped, I was to be kept away from the region
The SpectatorB eing muzzled is a very frustrating experience for a journalist. When the story broke last week that Sean Langan had been kidnapped in a remote region of Pakistan â he was...
Mind your language
The SpectatorIt was either Kung Fu Panda or Prince Caspian , so I took my nephew and niece to the latter. Aunts are only flesh and blood. A trailer for the Panda film featured him exclaiming...
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I f Gordon Brown really wants to make people start liking
The Spectatorhim, he could do a lot worse than turn to whoeverâs giving mighty Andy Murray some advice these days. For what was obvious in that stunning, thrilling, epic, heart-pumping...
Q. I want to give a drinks party for 200
The Spectatorfriends. The alcohol is within my budget. Most of my friends are recovering alcoholics and the others are too old to binge drink, but I have been quoted £30 a head for food. I...
Q. Every year I take a house in Cornwall with
The Spectatora friend for the first week of the school holidays. We have to drive down all the bedding and all the necessary kitchen equipment and food to cater for about ten of us, to say...
Q. My boyfriend says he has no time to go
The Spectatorto fancy dress shops yet we have two such parties looming. What should I do? F.W., Edinburgh A. In the old days men simply turned their shirts back to front and came as vicars....