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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK No. 10 Downing Street is being
The Spectatorexpensively refurbished M r Sam Younger, the chairman of the Electoral Commission, commenting on the question to be posed in a referendum on joining the euro, said, Tin sure it...
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MAD ABOUT FOXES
The SpectatorT ermites who laid waste to religious houses in 18th-century Brazil could expect more merciful treatment than a visit from the Rentokil man. In Maranhao in 1709, a group of the...
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DIARY KIT HESKETH HARVEY
The SpectatorJ oan Rivers is at full wattage. The show is flying. Her capacity audience is sobbing with laughter. She has skewered Cher, Filipinos, Hillary Clinton. And then, abruptly, she...
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Tony Blair will have to choose between the US and the Labour party
The SpectatorPETER OBORNE T his political year was only ever going to be about three things. First, the Comprehensive Spending Review, signalling the conversion of New Labour into a...
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Is New Labour putting the frighteners
The Spectatoron the editor of the Daily Mirror? STEPHEN GLOVER M uch ink has been spilt over the abortive price war between the Daily Mirror and the Sun. which, as I suggested would be the...
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A PRIVATE AFFAIR
The SpectatorThe Guardian calls it a national scandal but even top Labour figures are doing it. Rachel Johnson on the amazing ubiquity of private tuition MY eight-year-old daughter...
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Mind your language
The SpectatorI'M glad all the football is over, but a legacy of the World Cup, according to the BBC, is that the word hooligan has passed into Japanese with the meaning merely of 'football...
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POWER TO THE PEOPLE
The SpectatorSimon Heifer finds lain Duncan Smith convinced that the Tories can win the trust of the nation THE Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition looks intently at me across the...
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EVERY WITCH WAY
The SpectatorBlack magic is illegal in Zambia, says Hugh Russell, but there's a lot of juju about. The results can be embarrassingly painful Lusaka THE Zambia Copperbelt police chief...
Correction We regret that a letter published last week under
The Spectatorthe name of Oleg Gordievsky was not, in fact, from him.
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THE LOST TRIBE
The SpectatorAre the blond, blue-eyed Afghans descended from Alexander the Great's soldiers? Matthew Leeming is determined to find out LAST summer I went on holiday to Afghanistan. I had...
Second opinion
The SpectatorNATURE, in her infinite wisdom and mercy, has decreed that a goodly proportion of mankind should be born ugly: but that, of course, has not in the least discouraged mankind from...
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A JOB FOR NANNY
The SpectatorFat people aren't victims, says Tania Kindersley. They're just fat, and it's time they were urged to shape up WE are all vast now. Columnists, doctors, cross-bench committees...
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Ancient & modern
The SpectatorAT the Austrian Grand Prix last month, the Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello was ordered to pull over and let his world champion team-mate Michael Schumacher win. This caused...
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GORDON'S FALLING STOCKS
The SpectatorJohn Littlewood says that British share prices are weak because Labour loves regulations and hates profits age of hero worship. Why not harness that power in a campaign for...
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Banned wagon
The SpectatorA weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit WITH stock markets collapsing around her, taking our pensions with them, one might imagine that the Trade and Industry...
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The bees teach us that selfishness is the real face of altruism
The SpectatorPAUL JOHNSON W hen I am looking at the poultry in Somerset, I am not idle. I am thinking. The three main species — ducks, geese and chickens, of various kinds — often fight...
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Escaping poverty
The SpectatorFrom Mr Julian Filochowski Sir: Your commentary (Leading article, 29 June) on the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development's policy positions was wide of the mark, Cafod's demand...
Hell of a country
The SpectatorFrom Mr J. Morrell Sir: Katie Grant's article ('Democracy: who needs it?', 29 June) on Turkmenistan is being passed around online Central Asian groups with queries as to whether...
New Tebbit test
The SpectatorFrom The Rt Hon. Lord Tebbit Sir: Sarfraz Manzoor ( - England, my England', 29 June), a television journalist I regard highly, has long been welcome in Britain. May I also...
Leftie pro the Prince
The SpectatorFrom Mr Francis Wheen Sir: Simon Heffer's robust defence of Prince Michael of Kent CA prince among men', 29 June) is marred only by his assertion that the prince's critics are...
Secret weapon
The SpectatorFrom His Excellency Ghazi Algosaibi Sir: In his most recent hilarious-as-usual masterpiece, Mark Steyn (Dust bin', 29 June) refers, directly and indirectly, three times to Osama...
When Patton was powerless
The SpectatorFrom Mr Robert Davies Sir: James Delingpole's barrack-room lawyer (Arts, 29 June) reminds me of an incident in Italy in 1943. The US general George Patton was inspecting a...
Ale and amnesia
The SpectatorFrom Mr James Young Sir: Stephen Glover in his excellent piece on Fleet Street ('Power without responsibility', 29 June) mentions the Telegraph's watering-hole. the King and...
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The business of America is America and we'd better get used to it
The SpectatorATTHENk PARRIS T he answer to the question 'Why do US presidents throw their weight around?' is the same as the answer to the question 'Why do dogs lick their balls?' Because...
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The will to believe is what keeps markets going, until they go over the top
The SpectatorCHRISTOPHER FILDES W hat a world-beating bezzle. It will go straight into the textbooks. Professors of economics will preach from it, to pupils who will have forgotten their...
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Groping for the Great American Novel
The SpectatorPhilip Hensher LEOPARDS IN THE TEMPLE by Morris Dickstein Harvard, £10.95, pp. 242, ISBN 0674006049 A merican culture and American polity exist in an uneasy relationship....
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From rages to riches
The SpectatorTrevor McDonald SERIOUS by John McEwen Lit/c, Brown, £17.99, pp. 346, ISBN 0316859869 T his is a racy account of a turbulent odyssey from one-time tennis genius and foulmouthed...
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The China-sex-Bloomsbury formula for success
The SpectatorJonathan Mirsky K: THE ART OF LOVE by Hong Ying, translated by Nicky Harmon and Henry Zhao Marion Boyars, £9.99, pp. 252, ISBN 0714530727 A s China was adopting Leninist...
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Pop anthrop flop
The SpectatorDigby Anderson IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN: A SINFUL HISTORY OF FORBIDDEN FOOD by Stewart Lee Allen Canongam £14.99, pp. 315, ISBN 1841952222 M r Allen is quite the traveller. He...
On Reaching the Age of Eighty-five
The SpectatorGone are the days of youth No more returning. This is the simple truth, No point in yearning. First it's the eyes that go, Then it's the knees; Then comes the cruellest blow,...
The 'hero'
The Spectatoron a pedestal Christopher Woodward THE ARCHITECT AND HIS WIFE by Jane Ridley Chatto, £25, pp. 488, ISBN 0701172010 S ome years ago Jane Ridley (with her mother Clayre Percy)...
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The latest and the worst
The SpectatorTimothy Mo FRAGRANT HARBOUR by John Lanchester Faber, £16.99, pp. 300, ISBN 0576201768 H ong Kong is the elephants' graveyard of novelists, the last resort when they can...
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The real Sir Humphrey
The SpectatorJonathan Cecil STRAIGHT FACE by Nigel Hawthorne Hodder, £18.99, pp. 339, ISBN 0340769424 I n 1968 I appeared in my first radio play. It was a fustian historical piece peppered...
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Power and status in the city
The SpectatorRobert Adam on why he believes Ken Livingstone wants more skyscrapers in London A bout a year ago Ken Livingstone said that he would like to see 15 new skyscrapers in London....
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Exhibitions 1
The SpectatorGilbert & George: The Dirty Words Pictures, 1977 (Serpentine Gallery, till 1 September) Grim outlook Martin Gayford A few years ago, during an interview, George of Gilbert &...
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Exhibitions 2
The SpectatorRenaissance and Baroque Bronzes from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Daniel Katz Gallery, 59 Jermyn Street, London SW!, till 19 July) Love of virtuosity Bruce Boucher M...
Opera
The SpectatorEuryanthe (Glyndebourne) The Silver Tassie (Coliseum) Solemnity of Weber Michael Tanner E veryone wishes Euryanthe well, but it is an opera that simply refuses to oblige. Not...
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Theatre
The SpectatorTake Me Out (Donmar Warehouse) Coming out Toby Young I 've been a theatre critic for only nine months so perhaps I'm not qualified to make this judgment, but contemporary...
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Cinema
The SpectatorRosemary Clooney Mark Steyn I t's slightly unsettling to think that these days Rosemary Clooney is best known as George Clooney's aunt. But then George's dad, Nick Clooney, a...
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Pop music
The SpectatorCultural divide Marcus Berkmann E ven in this time of great national pride, when the Cross of St George adorns every Irish pub and Chinese takeaway, and barely a third of the...
Television
The SpectatorThe Wimbledon experience Simon Hoggart T he problem isn't really dumbing down, it's broadening out. The BBC doesn't think we're all stupid; it just believes that we can't...
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Radio
The SpectatorOn wolves and saints Michael Vestey W hen I returned a call to BBC Television's Breakfast I was asked to be in Wembley the following morning to say why I hated football; it...
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The turf
The SpectatorI should have plunged Robin Oakley S ome things in life give one a special, familiar pleasure: slipping into a slightly battered old pair of suede shoes, eating baked beans on...
High life
The SpectatorPlaying the game Taki L et me quote you a passage from a book of a second world war battle by Antony Beevor: The Greek garrisons on the Metaxas line fought with great...
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Low life
The SpectatorIntimate discussions Jeremy Clarke I wasn't looking forward to visit six. Visits one to five of the clinical trial to test the relative merits of two rival anti-impotence...
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Singular life
The SpectatorTunes for the Tories Petronella Wyatt T he other day my singing teacher, Kate, took me to see a show at the King's Head pub in Islington, which has a small theatre. The...
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RESTAURANTS Deborah Ross
The SpectatorTHANK YOU so much for your incredible response to Whichever?, the first ever non-subscription-only magazine for people who don't give a stuff about value for money and just want...
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No place for little girls
The SpectatorMichael Henderson NO matter how snootily some people may dismiss Wimbledon, the annual festival of tennis on grass remains a magnificent event. You can grumble about the cliché...
YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
The SpectatorQ. When the local elections are due I always receive a visit from a councillor who speaks for himself or the colleague due for re-election. He is a charming man and we have...