Page 6
M r Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, returning from a meeting
The Spectatorat the White House with President George Bush of the United States, said, 'I believe there will be a second resolution,' referring to a further United Nations Security Council...
Page 7
THE CURSE OF MANAGEMENT
The SpectatorE veryone knows that the National Health Service employs too many managers and too few nurses. Enter any saloon bar in the land and you will be told as much, But this popular...
Page 8
G eorge Bush is a reformed alcoholic, and takes staying on
The Spectatorthe wagon seriously. I have recently discovered that you can't get a drink at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, since it's located in the dry gulch of prohibitionist counties. As we...
Page 9
Cook the Martyr now has the luxury of resigning on his own terms
The SpectatorPETER OBORNE T here is a moment in the Uncle Remus stories when Brer Rabbit is finally cornered by Brer Fox, who genially informs his victim 'I'm eoing to barbecue you today,...
Page 10
DON'T FEEL SORRY FOR THE CITY
The SpectatorAs pensions continue to fall in value, jobs are disappearing in the City. But, says Martin Vander Weyer, the fattest cats are still spending millions on the good life; and the...
Page 11
Mind your language
The Spectator'ARE you interested in penises, darling?' I asked my husband. 'Not really, dear. Wrong end of the market for me. I did once do the week after Christmas in a pox clinic when I...
Page 12
LET'S QUIT THE UN
The SpectatorMark Steyn says America has no place in a body whose Human Rights Commission is headed by Colonel Gaddafi New Hampshire EARLIER this week, on NBC's Today Show, Katie Couric,...
Page 14
A DODGY CONSTITUTION
The SpectatorPaul Robinson on why Europe's constitutional convention is a bureaucrat's dream — unlike the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 I ONCE heard of an Ivy League professor who had...
Page 16
WHO'S HUGH?
The SpectatorBishop Montefiore talks to Mary Wakefield about his new book on the paranormal — and shows her his watercolours THE country-and-western singer Kinky Friedman has a song called...
Page 17
Banned wagon: global
The SpectatorA weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade THE genius of modern Europe is to have honed protectionism to such an art that in the minds of many Europeans it...
Page 18
BLACK IS BEST
The SpectatorRod Liddle does not want to be offensive but he believes that blacks are better at soccer than whites — and so does the FA HERE's something to he cheerful about. At an English...
Page 20
ONAN THE LIBRARIAN
The SpectatorWith the BBC about to show a film about Philip Larkin, Robert Gore - Langton praises the poet who knew how to offend everyone PHILIP LARKIN, the miserable old git, has never...
Page 21
Hugh Trevor-Roper and the Monks of Magdalen
The SpectatorPAUL JOHNSON H ugh Trevor-Roper was the unofficial but undisputed head of the histoly profession in England. I admired his wide learning and literary ability greatly. but...
Page 22
Unless Piers Morgan is careful, Richard Desmond could buy the Mirror
The SpectatorSTEPHEN (JLOVER P iers Morgan, the editor of the Daily Mirror, is an opponent of the coming war against Iraq. Fair enough. Many of us are unhappy about it. But he has taken his...
Page 23
The answer to Tony Blair's problems is staring him in the face
The SpectatorMATTHEW PAR RIS B rainwaves are unusual in the governance of men and it is rare that a knotty political problem invites a simple solution nobody had thought of before. But a...
Page 24
Green fightback
The SpectatorFrom Mr Zac Goldsmith Sir: Lloyd Evans was apparently so agitated following lunch with various greens at The Spectator that he couldn't resist spilling the beans on a private...
Iraq's future
The SpectatorFrom Dr Franz Metzger Sir: I couldn't help wiping some tears of happy emotion from my cheeks when I read Mark Steyn's predictions of a golden future not only for the people of...
Goering at Nuremberg
The SpectatorFrom Mr f.M. Carder Sir: What a scoop for Petronella Wyatt (Singular life, 1 February)! The mystery of how Goering obtained a cyanide capsule to avoid the gallows in Nuremberg...
Bush and Blair
The SpectatorFrom Mr Andrew Rawnsley Sir: I'm always flattered to be quoted in your pages, but much less so when the quotation is inaccurate. Contra Christopher Caldwell (The fruits of...
Minor worries
The SpectatorFrom Mr Richard Abram Sir: The spirit of the Climbie caseworkers (How welfare killed Victoria', 1 February) is not confined to the social services. The other morning at rush...
Art for the people
The SpectatorFrom Mr John V. Sheffield Sir: Philip Hensher's assertion (Books, 25 January) that art never belongs to anyone is rubbish. He says that it is not ours to lose or destroy — maybe...
Page 25
Whiff of La Dolce Vita
The SpectatorFrom The Count Capponi Sir: What is lacking in Tobias Jones's book (Books, 25 January) is a more truthful description of Italian politics. No mention is made, so it seems, of...
US universities
The SpectatorFrom Mr John Gadney Sir: Rachel Johnson (It's time for alumni preference', I February) is not strictly correct when she suggests that 'American universities do not depend on...
Pasiphae's progeny
The SpectatorFrom Mr James Mulraine Sir: The addition of Tristan Garel-Jones (Arts, 1 February) to The Spectator staff as taurine correspondent would seem, after the appointment of Charles...
From Mr Laurie Stewart Sir: Do you really expect us
The Spectatorto take your taurine correspondent seriously? Tristan Garel-Jones writes that it is 'a place where our proxy, the matador, looks real death in the face, and, in doing so,...
Wrong body part
The SpectatorFrom Mr Jonathan Bouquet Sir: Your esteemed media correspondent Stephen Glover (Media studies, 1 February) refers to a girl having 'her bottom akimbo'. Apparently Mr Glover...
Page 26
It's a miracle that these snowdrops return, so please don't jump up and down on them
The SpectatorCHRISTOPHER FILDES I t is nature's annual miracle. Peeping up above the frozen ground like snowdrops, here come the High Street banks to tell us that they have survived another...
Page 27
A
The Spectatorquestion of upbringing Philip Hensher HITLER AND CHURCHILL by Andrew Roberts Weidenfeld, £18.99, pp. 202, ISBN 0297843303 S uperficially, Hitler and Churchill resembled each...
Page 28
Too funny for words
The SpectatorD. J. Taylor THIS IS CRAIG BROWN by Craig Brown Ebtay Press, £12, pp. 467, ISBN 0091888077 canning the preface to this lavish selection of Craig Brown's journalism, I was...
Page 29
A picture that tells a story
The SpectatorHonor Clerk WHAT I LOVED by Sid Hustvedt Hodder. £14.99, pp. 370, ISBN 034068237X C an it be said that anyone is sane, that anyone is healthy — or does all life consist of...
Stopping short of omniscience
The SpectatorSebastian Smee READING CHEKHOV by Janet Malcolm Granta..£13.99, pp. 210, ISBN 1862075867 A lthough Janet Malcolm has written in depth about an extraordinary range of subjects,...
Page 30
Feeling good in one's skin
The SpectatorFerdinand Mount RESPECT: THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER IN AN AGE OF INEQUALITY by Richard Sennett Allen Lane, 120, pp. 288, ISBN 071399617X O f all the unfashionable ideas you can...
among the least respectable people you can think of. Mafia
The Spectatordons demand — and get — rispetto. The most ruthless villains do not neglect to 'pay their last respects' to other villains. On our own mean streets gangstas and rappers insist...
Page 31
The hunter hunted
The SpectatorHarriet Waugh LAND OF THE LIVING by Nicci French Michael Joseph, 116.99, pp. 320, ISBN 0718145186 A bbie Devereaux, the heroine of Land of the Living, finds herself hooded and...
Page 32
I was a camera
The SpectatorJudith Flanders FROM LIFE by Victoria Olsen Aururn, £20, pp. 336. ISBN 1854108913 J ulia Margaret Cameron is hip. This would not have astonished her — she had every...
Page 33
Liquid and solid satisfaction
The SpectatorHenry Hobhouse INDULGENCE by Paul Richardson Little, Brown, £14.99, pp. 311, ISBN 0316860956 C ocoa beans were 'found' by Europeans on Columbus's fourth, final and failed...
Page 34
Hepworth's silent classicism
The SpectatorJohn Spurling on a centenary exhibition celebrating the sculptor's work B arbara Hepworth died in a fire in her St Ives home in 1975 and, although her reputation has not...
Page 35
Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics (Tate Britain. till 11 May)
The SpectatorBasement hotchpotch Andrew Lamb irth W hy are museums so fond these days of mounting shows in basements? The two least attractive suites of galleries currently used for...
Page 36
Brave old world
The SpectatorPeter Phillips I don't know whether it is quite proper to say I knew it; but it is certainly accurate to say I'm glad of it. For some time it has been obvious that Macmillan...
The Capture of Troy (Coliseum)
The SpectatorGreek travesty Michael Tanner O f all the composers who have treated dramatic subjects from the ancient world, only Handel, Gluck and Berlioz recreate anything like the...
Page 38
Spray happy
The SpectatorUrsula Buchan I t was, in the words of Lou Reed, such a perfect day. The sun shone warmly, even though it was still only January, the more adventurous garden birds sang as if...
Page 39
Midnight's Children (Barbican)
The SpectatorLosing the plot Toby Young I expect you've heard what a turkey Midnight's Children is. Or, rather, Sabnan Rushdie's Midnight's Children, to give it its proper title. The great...
Page 40
The Kid Stays In The Picture (15, selected cinemas)
The SpectatorBoy mogul Mark Steyn T he Kid Stays In The Picture is the film of the book — or, more accurately, the film of the audiobook, since it was the tape version of Robert Evans's...
Page 41
Hazardous journey
The SpectatorMichael Vestey V ietnam was the subject of Saigon Stories on Radio Four throughout this week, an insight into this once-closed country of contradictions. Dai Le, an Australian...
Page 42
Captivating conflict
The SpectatorSimon Hoggart S ome programmes sneak up on you, like A Count - 1y Parish (BBC2). At first I thought in my metropolitanist way that the show, made in Manchester, didn't reach...
Page 43
In the know
The SpectatorRobin Oakley I t is funny what you can come to enjoy when you are in the mood. There are even pleasures to he had, I discovered last week, sloshing along a forest trail in...
Page 44
Hurting people
The SpectatorTaki D New York own to the nation's capital where war fever separates the boys from the girls. The former are fearless samurai such as Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, Elliott...
Page 45
Called to account
The SpectatorJeremy Clarke T he tax man, a Mr Matthews in my case, rang the other day. He said, 'Why haven't you answered our letters for the last four years, Mr Clarke?' I'd been dreading...
Page 46
Who's who?
The SpectatorPetronella Wyatt A, I wrote last week, Florida, not to mention the United States, is full of surprises. Many practising Christians show a marked lack of opposition to...
Page 50
Deborah Ross
The SpectatorMY friend Oscar says [should take him out to eat because he is 'poor'. 'Look at these shirt sleeves,' he says, hoiking them up. 'I've had this shirt since I was 12.' But Oscar,...
Page 55
Curtain-down time
The SpectatorMichael Henderson FRANKIE HOWERD, that superb comedian, was once asked whether he enjoyed performing. I enjoy having performed,' was his reply, and plenty of his fellow mummers...
Q. I am in my gap year, have been travelling
The Spectatorto Vietnam and the Far East already, and was supposed to have gone off travelling again, this time to Eastern Europe, shortly after Christmas. This trip has now been postponed...
Q. At Paddington the other day I noticed a middle-aged
The Spectatorfemale of my acquaintance pulling a suitcase with wheels on it. I have always been led to believe that wheels on a suitcase are irredeemably common. Is this no longer the case?...
Q. A recent reversal in fortune has meant that I
The Spectatoram forced to use the Underground system as a means of transport. Is there any way in which I might give the impression to acquaintances who catch sight of me underground that I...
Q. My husband and I, and three children aged four,
The Spectatorsix and nine, travel to Suffolk from London most weekends. We go directly past the door of a drive-in McDonald's just at a time when the traffic tends to grind to a halt with a...