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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK T he government did a good deal
The Spectatorof nodding and winking to the opposition over its rushed legislation to provide for house arrest without trial and other controls on anyone suspected of connections with...
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A despotic act
The SpectatorI t is unfortunate, though perhaps inevitable, that people who have lived only in conditions of liberty and democracy should have limited interest in the legal provisions that...
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W e are so used to reading of malpractice in high
The Spectatorplaces that I dare say our sense of outrage has become blunted. But when some devious act affects us personally, the sense is re-ignited. This is the story that shocked me â...
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Piers Morganâs ghastly diaries will be the epitaph of this government
The SpectatorB y far the most interesting event of this week was the serialisation of the diaries of Piers Morgan, former editor of the Daily Mirror . Ebury Press paid more than £1 million...
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I f you are a monarchist, this does not automatically make
The Spectatoryou an admirer of the royal family. But it does lead you to give members of that family the benefit of the doubt, particularly when so many others so viciously do the opposite....
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Paying for Tonyâs fat cats
The SpectatorWith almost a million new jobs added to the public sector payroll since 1997, Martin Vander Wayer asks if it is now democratically possible to reduce state spending T here is a...
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The right side of history
The SpectatorMark Steyn admits that heâs been wrong about a lot in the past three years â but not about the big things New Hampshire T he other day in the Guardian Martin Kettle wrote:...
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So you want to stuff a badger
The SpectatorSam Leith has been taking lessons in taxidermy, and he hasnât had so much fun in ages âN ow Iâm going to show you what a scalpel handle is for,â says Mike Gadd. I pick...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorWhat a terrible injustice Angela Cannings went through, being wrongly accused of killing her baby son, after having lost two previously, and then imprisoned. I heard her on...
The man who should be Pope
The SpectatorPiers Paul Read looks over the candidates to replace John Paul II, and says that Cardinal Ratzinger has got what it takes P ope John Paul IIâs recovery from his tracheotomy in...
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Ancient & modern
The SpectatorThe problems relating to asylum-seekers have hit the headlines again. The concept of asylum is ancient, and the problems not new. Asylum derives from the ancient Greek asulos ,...
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Why I wonât serve with the Tories
The SpectatorCharles Kennedy tells Leo McKinstry that he would not join a coalition government with Michael Howard W hat is the policy of the Liberal Democrats on acute back pain? I ask...
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Children canât be trusted
The SpectatorRod Liddle says it is time that British teachers took back control of the classroom W hen I was ten years old, in the autumn of 1970, the pupils and teachers of my state junior...
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One for oil and oil for one
The SpectatorMichael Meacher says that the fuss over Ukraine was about the geopolitics of oil, and the growing conflict between the US and China Y es, our man (Yushchenko) and our system...
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Lay off the Tory tabloids
The SpectatorFrom Nigel Jones Sir: Douglas Hurd advises us to ignore the campaigns of the popular press â and, by implication, the people whose concerns they ably articulate (âTime to...
Putin the puppet
The SpectatorFrom Alexander Nekrassov Sir: In his article âWhy Putin sells missiles to Syriaâ (26 February) Simon Heffer writes that President Putinâs hard-line foreign policy...
Children need âRat playâ
The SpectatorFrom Dr Sean Haldane Sir: I agree with Leo McKinstry that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a âscandalâ, but he only goes halfway to why in stating it is just...
Pattenâs patter
The SpectatorFrom Jonathan Mirsky Sir: In his otherwise excellent article on the folly of selling arms to China (âSelling out to Chinaâ, 26 February), Andrew Gilligan falls into a...
Tutorials are sacred
The SpectatorFrom Bill Macmillan Sir: James Howard-Johnston suggests that some of the most stimulating students are the âhot-air specialists who concoct essays out of very little hard...
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Poles put us to shame
The SpectatorFrom Peter Whyte-Venables Sir: It is not only America in particular that puts our health system to shame, nor is it rich Western countries in general (âDie in Britain,...
Save the moon bears
The SpectatorFrom Lynne OâDonnell Sir: Paul Johnsonâs article (And another thing, 19 February) does not present the whole story of Chinaâs moon bears. During a long stint as a...
Hunting is no mere pastime
The SpectatorFrom Julia Pickles Sir: So Anthony Famularo thinks those of us who care about fox-hunting are âsillyâ (Letters, 26 February). Much has been written in similar vein by those...
Forbidden to pay taxes?
The SpectatorFrom Paul Magrath Sir: Can Bill Woodhouse (Letters, 19 February) tell me exactly which laws forbid us paying public money to organisations that do not keep proper accounts and...
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Brünnhilde was not conjured up in a glass of common gin
The SpectatorL ike many journalists, I can write anywhere and under any conditions. I honestly believe I could do an article in the middle of the street provided there was somebody to fend...
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After âFaithâ, why not a BBC docudrama on Tony Blair as an untrustworthy airhead?
The SpectatorI well remember the Conservative partyâs shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport. As I never tire of reminding him, in days long gone, before John Whittingdale...
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When the train almost took the strain
The SpectatorRoss Clark mourns the old style of European rail travel I reached the age of 25 before I flew in an aeroplane. It seemed too much like cheating to me, to be picked up in a box...
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Dining with cannibals
The SpectatorMary Wakefield W eâre flying high above the Venezuelan rainforest. Occasionally, far below us, a waterfall tumbles over a cliff and as the biplane rolls right, I can see...
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Rhyl meet again
The SpectatorDavid Lovibond M y mother and father honeymooned in Rhyl. It wasnât only that my father had a sense of humour: the borders were closed during the second world war and at...
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A right royal groupie
The SpectatorLucy Helliker A part from her son, the best thing about my mother-in-law is her home in the Scottish Highlands. For one week each year in October, my husband and I become...
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New Age traveller
The SpectatorRaymond Carr D. H. L AWRENCE : T HE L IFE OF AN O UTSIDER by John Worthen Penguin, £30, pp. 517, ISBN 0713996137 â £26 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 L iterary biography...
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From mourning into morning
The SpectatorEuan Cameron T O T RAVEL H OPEFULLY : J OURNAL OF A D EATH NOT FORETOLD by Christopher Rush Profile, £15.99, pp. 264, ISBN 1861977085 â £13.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800...
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Living it up in Paris
The SpectatorJames Stourton A LEXIS : T HE M EMOIRS OF THE B ARON DE R EDÃ edited by Hugo Vickers The Dovecote Press, Stanbridge, Wimborne Minster, Dorset BH 21 4 JD, tel: 01258 840549,...
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Mau Mau and all that
The SpectatorRobert Oakeshott H ISTORIES OF THE H ANGED : B RITAIN â S D IRTY W AR IN K ENYA AND THE E ND OF E MPIRE by David Anderson Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 406, ISBN 0297847198 â £18...
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Once upon a funny old time . . .
The SpectatorByron Rogers M OVING O N by James Hewitt Blake, £16.99, pp. 366, ISBN 1857825470 â £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T he drama of this book is not its contents but...
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A tale of January and May
The SpectatorCharlotte Hobson A S HORT H ISTORY OF T RACTORS IN U KRAINE by Marina Lewycka Viking/Penguin, £12.99, pp. 325, ISBN 0670915602 V £11.99(plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 S o...
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Going astray abroad
The SpectatorOlivia Glazebrook S MALL C RIMES IN AN A GE OF ABUNDANCE by Matthew Kneale Picador, £12.99, pp. 277, ISBN 0330435345 â £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T hese days we...
Mary had a little germ
The SpectatorAndrew Taylor T YPHOID M ARY by Anthony Bourdain Bloomsbury, £7.99, pp. 148, ISBN 0747566879 A hundred years ago there was no known cure for typhoid. Bourdain quotes British...
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Trouble at the sex factory
The SpectatorJonathan Gathorne-Hardy T HE I NNER C IRCLE by T. C. Boyle Bloomsbury, £16.99, pp. 418, ISBN 0747575576 â £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I should perhaps declare,...
Third Day
The SpectatorRespirators sound like trout feeding at night in some dream hatchery â no one there to listen; our subaqueous world of care is halfway blue â peaceful, unthreatening....
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Bad presentation of a good cause
The SpectatorSibylla Jane Flower S URVIVING THE S WORD : P RISONERS OF THE J APANESE , 1942-45 by Brian MacArthur Time Warner, £20, pp. 512, ISBN 0316861421 V 18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870...
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A star but not a team player
The SpectatorRob White D ESPITE THE S YSTEM by Clinton Heylin Canongate, £16.99, pp. 384, ISBN 1841955868 â £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n January 1942 Orson Welles finished...
Mother both superior and inferior
The SpectatorSarah Burton G EORGE S AND by Elizabeth Harlan Yale, £25, pp. 376, ISBN 00300104170 I n January 1831 26-year-old Aurore Dupin Duvenant abandoned her secure provincial...
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Cuisine: the masterâs report
The SpectatorBruce Anderson T HE N EW E NGLISH K ITCHEN by Rose Prince Fourth Estate, £18, pp. 468, ISBN 0007156448 I am proud of this book, because I have always regarded Rose Prince as...
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Dramatic alchemy
The SpectatorHenrietta Bredin believes we shouldnât be too eager to categorise performing-art forms D o we all make a good deal too much fuss about which particular category different...
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Dual experience
The SpectatorAndrew Lambirth Joseph Beuys: Actions, Vitrines, Environments Tate Modern, until 2 May August Strindberg: Painter, Photographer, Writer Tate Modern, until 15 May T his brace...
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Make the most of it
The SpectatorCharles Spencer O ne word in this columnâs title strikes an especially ominous chord this week and it is neither âgoldenâ nor âbutâ. By the time The Spectator hits...
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Cultural renaissance
The SpectatorPetroc Trelawny W hen Liverpool, Newcastleâ Gateshead, Birmingham and a host of other regional centres across the UK were slugging it out in the fight to win the title âUK...
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Irish horror
The SpectatorGiannandrea Poesio Giselle Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre Barbican I n Michael Keegan-Dolanâs Giselle for Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre there are no pretty peasants on pointes...
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Sense of humour failure
The SpectatorMark Steyn I wonder which Jude Law took more offence at on Oscar night: Chris Rockâs affable riff in his opening monologue â âWhassup with this Jude Law guy? Itâs like...
Dated whinge-a-thon
The SpectatorLloyd Evans Days of Wine and Roses Donmar After Intimacy Pentameters Lorelei Old Red Lion T here used to be a thing on British telly called the Wednesday Play . Itâs gone....
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Russian revelation
The SpectatorMichael Tanner The Mariinsky Theatre The Barbican T he Mariinsky Theatre of St Petersburg paid a concentrated visit to the Barbican last week, performing four theatre pieces on...
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Le g al
The Spectatorhoops Peter Phillips L egal cases involving copyright law have a mind-numbing quality which ensures that the general public doesnât follow them. This kind of law evolves as...
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Authentic brilliance
The SpectatorMichael Vestey L ooking back over the radio and televi sion comedy of the past 25 years, my own feeling is that Yes, Minister on BBC television was by far the most brilliant,...
Shock treatment
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart I n happier times, Charles and Diana came to visit Washington. I was working there then, and a friend of mine at the British embassy described a lunch they...
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Girl power
The SpectatorRobin Oakley G inger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did, a show-biz historian once pointed out. Only she did it backwards. The feminists do have a point, and while...
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Ideology of violence
The SpectatorTaki I n the American Conservative, Leon Hadar asks, âIs it possible that a homeless and failed artist from Vienna, a paranoid gangster from Georgia, and a paedophile and...
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Holding back the years
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke I âm beginning to decompose even before Iâm dead. My eyesightâs going, my hairâs falling out, Iâve got galloping gum disease, my legs are covered in...
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O ff to the Duke of Cambridge, which, when it first
The Spectatoropened in 1998, was the worldâs first fully certified organic pub, a fact I thought Iâd mention, just in case you care about such things, although Iâm not especially sure...
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Cech, mate!
The SpectatorFRANK KEATING O n the face of it, Liverpool have the best chance of the four English clubs seeking progress in the European Championsâ Cup next week. They take a 3-1 lead...
Q. My teenage daughterâs lifelong friend has over the years
The Spectatordeveloped the most unfortunate strain of body odour, obviously unbeknown to her. It has become increasingly unbearable recently and presumably in her earlier years was either...
Q. While weekending at a friend of mineâs parents, her
The Spectatormother asked me if I would like some porridge as I arrived at breakfast. I am a keen porridge fan and replied as such. When I tasted the heaped bowl, however, it was heavily...
Q. I want to buy my 93-year-old father a present
The Spectatorfor his birthday but there is nothing he doesnât have and, whatâs more, he hates extravagance. It seems depressing to give him nothing. What do you suggest, Mary? J.V.S.,...