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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorThe cod fax war. T he nation became considerably con- fused as MPs and journalists played 'spot the issue' over the question of politicans being given money by businessmen. Mr...
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SPECTAT THE OR
The SpectatorThe Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 STAMP OF WEAKNESS I t comes as no surprise, in the present puerile...
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POLITICS
The SpectatorThe Government whips' office has lost the gonad- twisting talents essential for the passing of good laws BORIS JOHNSON U ntil the last few days, the Govern- ment had a chance...
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DIARY
The SpectatorMICHAEL KINSLEY ianna Stassinopoulos needs no intro- duction to Spectator readers, who undoubt- edly know by now that in her latest reincar- nation she is the wife of — and, it...
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ANOTHER VOICE
The SpectatorThe time when Forte paid Mr Preston's bill in Paris CHARLES MOORE M y most recent big 'freebie' took place about a month ago. My wife and I went to the Prix de l'Arc de...
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DO YOU SINCERELY WANT TO BE RICH?
The SpectatorIf you do, then taking part in the National Lottery is one of the worst ways to go about it, says Alasdair Palmer, who interviews some millionaire gamblers THE MOST...
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HOW THE KGB FREED EUROPE
The SpectatorFive years after the Berlin Wall came down, John Simpson reveals who really caused the overthrow of East Europe's dictators Berlin MOST HISTORIANS, and most journal- ists,...
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OLIVER NORTH DECLARES CLASS WAR
The SpectatorAnne Applebaum, on the Virginia Senatorial trail, discovers that American politics have finally become ideological Richmond, Virginia `CHUCK ROBB. . . is a liberal,' sneered...
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One hundred years ago
The SpectatorTHE momentous question, Why do cats always fall on their feet? has been asked and answered by the French Academy of Sciences, after many experiments and much instantaneous...
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If symptoms
The Spectatorpersist. . . THERE WAS a crisis in the ward last weekend. Two patients who had previ- ously evinced a desire to die by their own hand by taking an overdose were caught, in...
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SAYING SORRY FOR SARAH
The Spectatorthe Guardian, a man whose motives are never easy to fathom IT SHOULD BE a time of triumph for Peter Preston. He is the editor at the cen- tre of his own story, a journalist...
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`I PINCH MYSELF FROM TIME TO TIME'
The SpectatorChristopher Fildes meets Martin Taylor, the Mandarin-speaking ex-journalist, who has run Barclays Bank for a year (since he was 41) THE JOB specification said it all: 'Family...
Will of the week.
The SpectatorMr Dennis Christopher George Potter, of Morecambe Lodge, Duxmere, Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, the playwright, author and journalist, who died on June 7th last, left estate...
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Mind your language
The Spectator`HAVE YOU seen that letter any - where?' I asked my husband. `What letter? We're drowning in your letters.' My husband had been a little put out since reading the letter in...
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THE INTERVIEWER INTERVIEWED
The SpectatorJonathan Dimbleby meets Dominic Lawson to defend his biography of the Prince of Wales against the forces of 'envy' and 'hypocrisy' THIS WEEK, after a protracted serialisa-...
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AND ANOTHER THING
The SpectatorTime to say to Prince Charming: `Kindly leave the stage' PAUL JOHNSON Another source of our infamy is the rep- utation of British newspapers for unspeak- able foulness, not...
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Is Christine married?
The SpectatorSir: The insulting way in which you address women in terms of their husbands (Mrs Peter Bottomley, Mrs Andrew Parker Bowles) is beginning to irritate. You've had your little...
Nasty Nigel
The SpectatorSir: Now that your 'High life' correspon - dent has become a gossip columnist on a Sunday newspaper, may I suggest that, instead of whingeing like a Prince Charles clone at what...
Sir: Boris Johnson asks an excellent question, `Is the word
The Spectatorof an Egyptian grocer worth more than that of a minister of the Crown?' (Politics, 29 October) and I believe I have the answer. The voluminous post-bag Mr Al Fayed receives...
Sir: William Dalrymple on Israeli persecu- tion of Christians (If
The SpectatorI forget thee, 0 Jerusalem', 22 October) William Cash on the Jewish Establishment in Hollywood (29 October). What next? A discourse by your esteemed self on the Protocols of the...
LETTERS Bedouins and Jews
The SpectatorSir: The total dominance of the American film industry Ly the Jewish Establishment, past and present, is admirably related by William Cash (Kings of the deal', 29 Octo- ber). We...
Brain size expert
The SpectatorSir: Your editorial on IQ and heredity (Leader, 22 October), while partly sup- portive of research in that area, presents some curious and factually incorrect argu- ments. Thus,...
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CENTRE POINT
The SpectatorTry to regard your Revenue tax return as a democratic icon, on a par with the franchise SIMON JENKINS N ovember has come and I am late. Falling leaves bring the manila down...
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AUTUMN WINE AND FOOD
The SpectatorBubble, bubble and no trouble Anne Applebaum NOT LONG AGO, a certain veteran left- wing commentator wrote an article denouncing a certain unsigned Spectator leader — one of...
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Herbivores
The SpectatorThe dog it was that died Rebecca Nicolson I s vegetarianism a form of neurosis? Unlike some vegetarians, I did not give up meat for reasons either of biospheric econ- omy or...
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Carnivores
The SpectatorFlesh in the pan Lewis Bessemer V egetarians these days are like vegetables: ten a penny. You have to search harder for a carnivore. In this anaemic age, the chances are that...
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Cookery-books
The SpectatorBrowsing in bed Brenda Houghton I used to supervise the food photography for a colour magazine, so recently I went to an exhibition of foodie photos to catch up with old...
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AUTUMN WINE AND FOOD
The SpectatorReceipts Pumpkin pleasures Jennifer Paterson On the coast of Coromandel Where the early pumpkins blow, In the middle of the woods, Lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-136. I can't...
Wine Club
The SpectatorLucky old plutocrats Auberon Waugh A is normal for the traditional bumper Christmas offer from Avery's — on which we have been working all year — I shall go through the...
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ORDER FORM SPECTATOR WINE CLUB
The Spectatorc/o Averys of Bristol 7 Park Street, Bristol BS1 5NG Tel: (0272) 214141 Fax: (0272) 221729 White Price No. Value 637 1. Chardonnay Ile de Beaute 1993 12 Bots £41.88 638 2....
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CHRISTMAS GIFT SUBSCRIPTION
The SpectatorGive a gift subscription of The Spectator to a friend and we will give you a full size bottle of ten year old Glenmorangie Single Highland Malt. But hurry, we have only a...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorOur friendship and breach J. Enoch Powell LAIN MACLEOD: A BIOGRAPHY by Robert Shepherd Hutchinson, £25, pp. 608 T hough recorded as having contributed to this new biography of...
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Figuring it out
The SpectatorStephen Gardiner LOOKING AT GIACOMETTI by David Sylvester Chatto, £25, pp. 280 I n his preface, David Sylvester describes some of the difficulties he has had in giving shape to...
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Who would bear the whips . . .
The Spectatorthe insolence of office? Alan Watkins A BAG OF BOILED SWEETS by Julian Critchley Faber, f17.50, pp. 244 W ith every year that passes, the more accepted becomes the view that...
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Now they're fifty-four
The SpectatorWilliam Mount SUMMER OF LOVE: THE MAKING OF SGT PEPPER by George Martin, with William Pearson Macmillan, £14.99, pp. 176 BMW I n my adolescence, I used to try to get people...
Unable to abide his Frost
The SpectatorStephen Spender THE ONE AND ONLY by Francis King Constable, f14.99, pp. 208 T he central character of this novel is a spoiled and silly woman, Mrs Frost, whose husband is a...
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Absence makes the art critic grow fonder
The SpectatorAlan Wall LONDON by John Russell Harry N. Abrams Inc, £35, pp. 256 I place all books on London on the rungs of a ladder that has Pevsner at one end and H. V. Morton at the...
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A servant or a saint
The SpectatorAnita Brookner THE GOOD HUSBAND by Gail Godwin Deutsch, £15.99, pp. 468 H ere is a capacious and substantial novel which will impress its readers as either extremely moving or...
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A glimpse of the threshold of hope
The SpectatorKeith Ward CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE by John Paul II Cape, £9.99, pp. 244 he presentation of this book supposes that it is a volume to be handled with reverence. Its...
From Tom Brown to John Brown
The SpectatorJuliet Townsend FLASHMAN AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD by George MacDonald Fraser Harvill, £15.99, pp. 394. P . G. Wodehouse, who knew a thing or two about stringing words...
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Triangles, eternal, transitory and correctly tuned
The SpectatorRaymond Carr EFFORTS AT THE TRUTH by Nicholas Mosley Secker, 120, pp. 345 I t is generally accepted that one should not review the books of one's friends. Nicholas Mosley has...
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The first Mrs Evelyn Waugh
The SpectatorSelina Hastings I t was bad luck on Evelyn Gardner who died in March, that her first marriage, last- ing barely a year, should have been to a genius; bad luck that a woman...
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Make sure of your copy of The Spectator every week
The Spectatorby asking your local newsagent to save or deliver it. Complete the form below and hand it to your newsagent Please save/deliver a copy of The Spectator for me each week until...
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SPECTATOR
The SpectatorDIARY 1995 £12 Plain £13 Initialled The Spectator 1995 Diary, bound in soft black leather, is now available. Laid out with a whole week to view, Monday to Sunday, the diary is...
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ARTS
The SpectatorPop music Buy, buy American pie Marcus Berkmann believes Britain's current bands have been replaced by the roaring lions of transatlantic rock T ales of national decline tend...
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Opera
The SpectatorThe Second Mrs Kong (Glyndebourne Touring Opera) Romeo et Juliette (Royal Opera House) Cheryomushki (Pimlico Opera) The new P avarotti Rupert Christiansen T he prospect of...
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Exhibitions
The SpectatorRebecca Horn (Tate Gallery/Serpentine Gallery, till 8 January) Jannis Kounellis (Anthony d'Offay, till 30 November) Queen-sized obsessions Giles Auty O n entering the Tate's...
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Cinema
The SpectatorThe Browning Version (`15', selected cinemas) Trapped by failure Mark Steyn T he title refers to Robert Browning's translation of the Agamemnon, but this Browning Version is...
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Theatre
The SpectatorThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Strand) Gaucho (Hampstead) Hodge in her prime Sheridan Morley J ean Brodie, as in The Prime Of, has always been a great role rampaging around...
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Dance
The SpectatorBirmingham Royal Ballet (Birmingham Hippodrome, and touring) Golden revivals Sophie Constanti N ext year, Birmingham Royal Ballet's long-serving director, Peter Wright,...
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Television
The SpectatorPulp hour Nigella Lawson I 'm not the kind of person who reads books. I can't get into them. I find them boring.' This confession, made by a young, somewhat faltering reader...
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Low life
The SpectatorDisgusted by drunks Jeffrey Bernard T is is my fifth week without a drink. I would like to stay sick of it, as I am, and bored with it, as I also am, but there is no telling,...
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High life
The SpectatorShame on all of you Taki New York S ome very strange things are happening back in old England. Prince Charles finds Barbra Streisand sexy, and a towelhead born in an Egyptian...
Long life
The SpectatorSentimental confusion Nigel Nicolson I t is some years since I came across this letter to the editor of the local newspaper in Savannah, Georgia, and I kept it as an...
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Office life
The SpectatorCourse work Holly Budd hat would you like me to do today?' asked Nigel, my deputy. `Clean your lungs mate?' Was he really unaware of the criticism implied of one just granted...
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CFO
The Spectatorffu SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA CHESS DO' im SPAIN'S fltlfST CAVA Up the pole Raymond Keene AFTER THREE DECADES of reporting on chess competitions I have lost patience. I have...
ISLE OF
The Spectatori i SISGLE MALI SCOICII M HMI ISLE OF COMPETITION j 51%411 MALI SCORN UMW URA The old team Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1854 you were invited to supply a suitable...
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W. & J.
The SpectatorG RAHAM'S CROSSWORD PORT GRAHAM'S PORT 1184: Catherine-wheel by Mass A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution...
No. 1857: Carry on
The SpectatorYou are invited to supply a poem (maxi- mum 18 lines, including the first two) beginning 'I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau/If birds confabulate or no'. Entries to...
Solution to 1181: Autumnal
The Spectatori Sj a CrYll ' R ° O W OE R E i bHELONIA31.LIR ID 11E11_ HUSSETAPPLE A LIE L I EF V3 ISMS TIT TO,MATANNSURER o FEI w s 2 t, E M OD E 2 11 0 0 T E D t'1. 0 D T E1 NI GI E TI L I...
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SPECTATOR SPORT
The SpectatorScouse rivalry Frank Keating A COUPLE of days before the football season began — cricket was still in full bloom — I was ordered to skip the Oval and get up to the north-west...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorDear Mary. Q. I do most of my reading in bed as it is the only place where I can concentrate. I am currently reading War and Peace, but am finding the physical effort of...