Spectator articles from December 2005

Spectator archives from December 2005

No surrender.(agricultural policy)
December 3, 2005... A fortnight ago this magazine praised the Prime Minister for a statesmanlike speech in which he made the case for abolishing agricultural subsidies and dismantling tariff barriers on food from the developing world. We repeat our assertion that...

Portrait of the week.(Tony Blair's domestic policy)
December 3, 2005... A fortnight ago this magazine praised the Prime Minister for a statesmanlike speech in which he made the case for abolishing agricultural subsidies and dismantling tariff barriers on food from the developing world. We repeat our assertion that...

Portrait of the week.
December 3, 2005... Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, was forced by the presence of protesters to have a cup of tea instead of delivering a speech in Islington on nuclear energy. After his cup of tea he said that energy policy was 'back on the agenda with a...

Diary.(lifestyles)(Column)
December 3, 2005... The world is, suddenly and inexplicably, obsessed with the moral implications of penguins. The Christian Right in America, inspired by the documentary film March of the Penguins, argues that the life-cycle of the emperor penguin demonstrates...

How Cameron plans to profit from the war between Blair and Brown.(POLITICS)
December 3, 2005... Almost exactly two years have passed since Michael Howard was drafted in as emergency leader of the Conservative party. He has done the job he was asked to do. He took over at a moment of traumatic collapse. He administered first aid and...

The Spectator's notes.(nuclear weapons, George Best)
December 3, 2005... One of the basic divisions in human character is between those who expect the imminent end of the world and those who don't. This can take a religious form, but in modern times it often appears in other guises. In the early 1980s, the...

The end of Britain's economic miracle: Simon Nixon on what happens when North Sea oil runs out--and we have to do without the drug that fuelled the boom years.(Cover Story)
December 3, 2005... The New Labour spin doctor's handbook has clear guidelines on how to deal with a crisis. First, deny it exists. If that doesn't work, attack anybody who dares draw attention to the problem, usually subjecting them to a vicious smear campaign....

The Blairs.(Cartoon)
December 3, 2005... LIFE IN THE UNDERGROWTH HERE WE SEE THE PLUCKY LITTLE BLAIR FACED LIEUS, SURVIVUS, MOVING AROUND WITH ITS MATE, AND LIVING ON OTHER PEOPLE'S NESTS, EATING THE FREEBEES, WHICH ARE PLENTIFUL. LOOKING ON 15 THE PREDATOR BROWNUS STIFFUS, THE...

Let Irving speak: Rod Liddle says it is typical of the anti-Semitic Austrians that they should bang up David Irving for saying what they themselves believe.
December 3, 2005... I am surprised, incidentally, that our traditional enemies do not object that only Aryan names are used for these disasters--why no Hurricane Isidores or Chaims? David Irving offers up his observations on the aftermath of Hurricane...

Why bomb al-Jazeera? Richard Beeston says the Qatar-based satellite channel is becoming bigger, richer and part of the establishment.(Interview)
December 3, 2005... I would have preferred to meet the man accused of heading Osama bin Laden's infamous propaganda machine outside a cave with a Kalashnikov rifle propped up against the wall and maybe some snowy peaks in the background. Instead I met Wadah...

Why Nato bombed Serb TV.
December 3, 2005... Did George W. Bush make a tasteless gag about bombing al-Jazeera? Did Tony Blair dutifully laugh? How could two leaders of the free world think it appropriate to jest about whacking pesky Arab journos while a nation--Iraq--burned under their...

Public-sector scroungers: Ross Clark on the workers who milk the rest of us by retiring early as a result of 'ill health'.
December 3, 2005... The next few months may well see the political death of Tony Blair. But whether he will get buried is another matter. In an echo of the public-sector bolshieness 27 winters ago that eventually brought down the Callaghan government,...

Conor Cruise O'Brien.(Correction Notice)
December 3, 2005... In our Politics column of 24 September 2005, Andy McSmith wrote: 'The late Conor Cruise O'Brien is reputed to have spent his final years embarrassed that he should have come from an insignificant country like Ireland.' Dr Conor Cruise...

Not all priests are paedophiles: Kevin Myers says that the sex abuse scandal in Ireland is being exploited by ruthless lawyers and a guilt-ridden government.
December 3, 2005... The nightmare of the Catholic Church in Ireland continues. Last month a US law firm, Manly & Maguire, announced it was suing the Irish diocese that trained the busy paedophile priest Oliver O'Grady. This worthy is now at the centre of at least...

Come and join us at the ultimate Sloane Area Christmas Street Party: Wednesday 7 December 2005 from 5pm to 8pm.(Advertisement)
December 3, 2005... THE SLOANE AREA CHRISTMAS STREET PARTY AND SHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA promises to be a wonderful evening. The Sloane area can boast the title of the most stylish shopping area in London as well as being an oasis for fired and weary Christmas...

Proud to be Thatcherite: the Australian Prime Minister has been in power longer than Tony Blair and shows no sign of losing his grip. Matt Price reveals his secret.
December 3, 2005... Canberra John Howard is defying political gravity. After nearly ten years as Prime Minister of Australia he has no serious challengers. Tony Blair, by contrast, hobbles along performing an excellent impression of a fellow in the crippled...

Saddam must get real justice: Geoffrey Robertson says that the former Iraqi leader should be tried by an international court.
December 3, 2005... The trial of Saddam Hussein stops and starts and now stops again for six weeks, in a city rent by civil war--a war which the defendant's courtroom outbursts against 'invaders' helps to inflame. One judge and two defence lawyers have already...

Ancient & modern.(Persians' history)
December 3, 2005... As the European Union continues covertly to impose itself on us all, one is reminded of the way in which Greek city-states, freely uniting after the Persian Wars (491-479 BC) in an alliance 'to exact vengeance by ravaging the Persian king's...

The day I nearly died: Mark Palmer was spending up to 100 [pounds sterling] a day on taxis in London, so he bought a scooter. Then he had a prang....(Column)
December 3, 2005... It was a glorious morning--and that was the problem. Turning the corner from Putney High Street into Putney Bridge Road shortly after 8 a.m. on Sunday, the sun was so bright and so low in the autumn sky that you could see nothing. Suddenly the...

Strictly for the birds: Tom Fort spends a lovely day twitching in Norfolk--and wonders whether it is time for the RSPB to spread its wings a little.
December 3, 2005... 'I think it's a whimbrel,' she said uncertainly, raising her head from the little end of the telescope. All I could see through my bog-standard binoculars was an assortment of brown birds on legs like knitting-needles picking incessantly at the...

Second opinion.(multiculturalism)(Column)
December 3, 2005... One of the great advantages of a multicultural society is that it gives you a clear view of the varieties of human evil. If it were not for a multicultural society, indeed, you might be inclined to suppose that all evil was committed by people...

Birth of the internet.(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Owen Mostyn-Owen Sir: Martin Vander Weyer's excellent piece ('The UN and the internet', 26 November) should also have pointed out that the internet was a US defence project. In the 1960s military analysts saw the potential for a...

Lightweight Cameron.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Professor Stephen Bush Sir: Sheila Donaldson (Letters, 26 November) is dead right to characterise David Cameron's leadership bid as back to the centrist cosy politics of past Tory grandees like his Oxford patrons Douglas Hurd and...

Tolkien in the trenches.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Graham Tayar Sir: I think Charles Moore (whom I much respect as a columnist) is wrong about J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (The Spectator's Notes, 12 November) when he says that it, like Four Quartets and The Lion, the Witch and...

Gently, Jeremy.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Sally Williams Sir: On reading Charles Moore on BBC interviewers (26 November), I recalled a Conservative party conference in Bournemouth a few years ago. I was strolling with my husband round the country market which was held in...

Morality is local.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From John Moles Sir: Some arguments are so bad that it is difficult to believe that they are being made in good faith. According to Charles Moore (26 November), 'the irony [of the potential schism in the Anglican Communion] lies in the...

Rape and male power.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Sarah Farrier-Rabstein Sir: Rod Liddle ('Sometimes women share the blame', 26 November) may think he has a point about the greater likelihood of women being targets for male violence as a result of their dress, conduct or location,...

Victors' justice.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Norman Burton Sir: The more I hear about Milosevic and his trial ('International law is an ass', 19 November), the more I think that history is repeating itself. I was born in 1951 so missed the second world war, but I always...

Conduct unbecoming.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Professor Richard Holmes Sir: Although Bruce Anderson ('Conduct unbecoming', 19 November) could do with some help, he will not get it from E. Derek Smith (Letters, 26 November). Mr Smith cites 'Lieutenant Leigh', allegedly shot in...

Conciliar confusion.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Professor Sir Michael Dummett Sir: Paul Johnson (Letters, 26 November) criticises me for historical inaccuracy; even if he were right on this, it would be irrelevant to the Catholic Church's consistent denial that the soul exists...

Weeping for Wayne.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 3, 2005... From Peter Hughes Sir: Shall we be expected to observe the same Dianalia of mourning that has accompanied the demise of George Best if, heaven forfend, Wayne Rooney should now die? His skills as a footballer are comparable and he plays for...

My solution to the pensions crisis: let's fill the gap with grannies.(ANY OTHER BUSINESS)
December 3, 2005... In the sixth form, I sat next to Adair Turner, now Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, the pensions prophet whom the Chancellor has left crying in the wilderness. Turner was cleverer than the rest of us, deeply serious and dedicated to his studies; a...

What Mr Cameron should have said about belonging to White's.(SHARED OPINION)
December 3, 2005... Most of those who write and talk about politics have it the wrong way round. In the Conservative leadership election, it is Mr Cameron who is the traditionalist and Mr Davis who is the moderniser. That is no reason for preferring one to the...

Things to pray for in this season of Advent.(AND ANOTHER THING)
December 3, 2005... This is the season of Advent: the time of prayer. Of course we should all pray all the time and not just in this season. I am not a prayerful person but I do pray daily and cannot imagine not doing so. Even King Claudius, whom Charles Lamb said...

A flawed genius.(J.D. Bernal: The Sage of Science)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... J. D. BERNAL: THE SAGE OF SCIENCE by Andrew Brown OUP, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 562, ISBN 0198515448 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Desmond Bernal was one of the greatest scientists of the...

Sharing the knowledge.(Streetwise: How Taxi Drivers Establish their Cutomers' Trustworthiness)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... STREETWISE: HOW TAXI DRIVERS ESTABLISH THEIR CUSTOMERS' TRUSTWORTHINESS by Diego Gambetta and Heather Hamill The Russell Sage Foundation on Trust, 12 [pounds sterling], pp. 243, ISBN 0871543095 The study of trust is fashionable. Politicians...

When the tide of blood turned.(A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army, 1941-1945)(Ivan's War)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... A WRITER AT WAR: VASILY GROSSMAN WITH THE RED ARMY, 1941-1945 translated and edited by Antony Beevor and Luba Vinogradova Harvill, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 378, ISBN 184343055X [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p)...

Gods and heroes made human.(Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Retold)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... SONGS ON BRONZE: THE GREEK MYTHS RETOLD by Nigel Spivey Faber, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 242, ISBN 0571215416 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Nigel Spivey set out to write these stories...

A place of wonders and horrors.(The Chains of Heaven: An Ethopian Romance)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... THE CHAINS OF HEAVEN: AN ETHIOPIAN ROMANCE by Philip Marsden HarperCollins, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 298, ISBN 0007173474 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 For his fifth travel book,...

Come, rap for the planet.(Get a Life)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... GET A LIFE by Nadine Gordimer Bloomsbury, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 187, ISBN 0747581754 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 You don't read Nadine Gordimer without knowing it will be about...

Cookery books for Christmas and for life.(Bibliography)
December 3, 2005... A good cookery book is for life, not just for Christmas. Fifty years ago many people had just one cookery book, and in Italy it would have been The Silver Spoon (Phaidon, 24.95 [pounds sterling]). Now translated into English (with an appendix...

Cocking a snook at Manhattan.(Summer Crossing )(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... SUMMER CROSSING by Truman Capote Allen Lane/Penguin, 12 [pounds sterling], pp. 142, ISBN 0713999292 [telephone] 9.60 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Born in New Orleans in 1924, Truman Capote wrote his...

Gongols and bobfocs.(Fanboys and Overdogs: The Language Report)(Dictionary of Contemporary Slang)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... FANBOYS AND OVERDOGS: THE LANGUAGE REPORT by Susie Dent Oxford, 10.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 163, ISBN 0192806769 [telephone] 8.79 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY SLANG by Tony...

New virtues for old.(Decadence)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... DECADENCE edited by Digby Anderson Social Affairs Unit, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 240, ISBN 1904863043 It can be reliably predicated that few Spectator readers will disagree with the general thrust of the essays in this volume, which is...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
December 3, 2005... Jonathan Sumption's choice of this year's books should have read: Of the many outstanding books on history to appear this year, I would single out three. Helen Castor's beautifully written Blood and Roses (Faber, 20 [pounds sterling])...

Recent children's books.(Bibliography)
December 3, 2005... The bookshop shelves are stacked with the usual bewildering array of children's books this Christmas, and the first striking fact is what good value they have become, largely because, like almost everything else, most of them are now produced...

The early corridors of power.(Prep)(Gentlemen and Players)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... PREP by Curtis Sittenfeld Picador, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 406, ISBN 0330441264 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 GENTLEMEN & PLAYERS by Joanne Harris Doubleday, 14.99 [pounds...

Counting fewer and fewer blessings.(Late Youth: An Anthology Celebrating the Joys of Being Over Fifty)(The Long History of Old Age)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... LATE YOUTH: AN ANTHOLOGY CELEBRATING THE JOYS OF BEING OVER FIFTY edited by Susanna Johnston Arcadia, 12 [pounds sterling], pp. 270, ISBN 1900850966 [telephone] 9.60 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 THE...

Surprising literary ventures.(Alternative reading)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 3, 2005... THE PASSING SHOW (1937) by Captain W. E. Johns The story behind this one-off by the author of the 'Biggles' books is probably best told by the editor of My Garden magazine in 1937, Theo A. Stephens: 'The offices of My Garden were next door...

Draining our museums' lifeblood: the government favours access over acquisition with dire consequences. Mark Fisher investigates.(ARTS)
December 3, 2005... For the past 13 years, visitors to the National Gallery have been able to see Titian's beautiful 'Portrait of a Young Man', described by Gustav Waagen in his definitive 1854 survey as the single most beautiful portrait in Britain. Now its...

Ideal of frivolity.(Die Fledermaus)(Un Ballo in Masehera)(Concert Review)
December 3, 2005... Die Fledermaus Royal College of Music Un Ballo in Masehera Royal Opera House Die Fledermaus is one of the most consistently inspired scores ever written, though far from performer-proof. There are huge problems, too, in presenting it...

Unalloyed delight.(Andre Derain)
December 3, 2005... Andre Derain: The London Paintings Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, until 22 January 2006 Andre Derain (1880-1954) has a somewhat mixed reputation. He is widely praised for his early paintings, done when he worked alongside...

A very British medium.
December 3, 2005... The Elemental North Messum's, 8 Cork Street, London W1, until 3 December Gainsborough to Turner: British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection Hermitage Rooms, Somerset House, until 12 February 2006 Watercolour, that...

Uneasy encounters.(Georgian art)
December 3, 2005... Now that Georgia is independent again--it was annexed by Russia in 1801 and broke free from the Soviet Union in 1990--it is keen to reassert its identity and encourage visitors. But there is a PR problem with its three best-known celebrities:...

Aural padding.(Curious Conscience)(Tanglewood)(Dance Review)
December 3, 2005... Royal Ballet Royal Opera House There seems to be a problem with the way some modern-day dance-makers deal with music. Twice in a fortnight, I have been confronted by works in which the score had no relevance to the choreography, and...

Orgy of confusion.(Coram Boy)(The Rubenstein Kiss)(Phaedra's Love)(Theater Review)
December 3, 2005... Coram Boy Olivier The Rubenstein Kiss Hampstead Phaedra's Love The Pit Take a pile of bilge, add a bucket of drivel, stir in a few dead babies' heads and you've got Coram Boy. The Olivier's big Christmas production is a version of...

Moving the goalposts.(Music)(Stephen Layton)
December 3, 2005... The appointment of Stephen 'Sid' Layton to the post of director of music at Trinity College, Cambridge has generally been acknowledged as a good one. Sid is an excellent musician with a flair for publicity which will, it is hoped, bring Trinity...

Jazz riches.(Olden but golden)(Column)
December 3, 2005... I'm still trying to get on with the blasted novel, over which I have been procrastinating for several years now. Though there are occasional exhilarating hours when it proceeds apace, there are others when I sit at my desk, drinking cold coffee...

Seriously funny ...(Radio)(S. J. Perelman)(Biography)
December 3, 2005... The American humorist S.J. Perelman was a huge influence on American comedy from the 1930s onwards and even to some extent on its British version. Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan acknowledged his surrealistic inspiration when they wrote The...

Just William.(High life)(William Buckley)(Biography)
December 3, 2005... New York There was a disclaimer of sorts in the programme for William Buckley's 80th birthday party and National Review's 50th: "WFB guarantees never again to figure in any celebration in which he has a leading role.' It is the kind of...

American genius.(CHESS)(Paul Morphy)(Biography)
December 3, 2005... The reigns of Anderssen and Staunton at the chess summit were brusquely interrupted by the young American genius, Paul Morphy. Stemming from the aristocracy of the Deep South of the United States, and identified by some as a Confederate agent...

New coinage.(COMPETITION)
December 3, 2005... In Competition No. 2420 you were invited to invent words describing something familiar which fill a need in the English language. The germ of this competition was a book called The Meaning of Tinge which assembles 'extraordinary words from...

1743: QI.(CROSSWORD)
December 3, 2005... The unclued Across lights are of a kind, as are the unclued Down ones. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Dear Mary.(YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED)
December 3, 2005... Dear Mary, Q. Despite misgivings, and only when further evasion would have been offensive, I accepted an invitation to a dinner party from a successful architect with whom I have a perfectly amicable business relationship. My wife and I...

Fresh air.
December 10, 2005... It has become a cliche in recent days to contrast the gloomy jowls of Gordon Brown, performing emergency surgery to his spending plans in the Commons, with the beaming countenance of David Cameron, radiating hope and happiness throughout the...

Portrait of the week.
December 10, 2005... Mr David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative party in a ballot of members, beating Mr David Davis by 134,446 votes to 64,398. Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his pre-Budget report astonished investors planning...

Diary.(lifestyle)(Column)
December 10, 2005... The avalanche of words on last week's Adair pensions report seemed to miss one significant point. Retirement is likely to be delayed to 67 or even later. Yet there is no realistic possibility that most people can sustain, at such an age, the...

Why do my Labour friends send their children to private school?(POLITICS)
December 10, 2005... A good friend said something strange the other day. Her daughter, who is approaching her final school year, has asked if she can leave private school and go to the local sixth form college because she would like to make some new friends. ...

The Spectator's notes.(David Cameron)
December 10, 2005... So now conservatives, and particularly Conservatives, must all change 'the way we look, the way we feel, the way we think and the way we behave'. It is a tribute to David Cameron's persuasive charm that he makes people want to do these things....

The triumph of tradition: Peter Oborne says that David Cameron has arrived at exactly the right time to reshape British politics by reclaiming the centre ground for the Tories.(Cover Story)
December 10, 2005... British politics froze for about 12 years after 16 September 1992, otherwise known as Black Wednesday. Real movement between the two main parties was imperceptible. The Conservative party, dominant for most of the 20th century, embarked on a...

The Blairs.(Cartoon)
December 10, 2005... I'M SORRY TO HAVE LET EVERYONE DOWN, I KNOW LESS ABOUT HANDLING MONEY THAN A DRUNKEN SAILOR ON SHORE LEAVE. I'VE WASTED ALL YOUR HARD EARNED PENSION SAVINGS AND HELPED MAKE YOUR OLD AGE A NIGHTMARE. IT DOESN'T WORRY ME BECAUSE WITH YOUR MONEY,...

Use your head: Theodore Dalrymple believes that wearing proper hats--not hoods or woollen beanies--could encourage self-respect and civility in the young.
December 10, 2005... Why do men behave so badly nowadays? I know that the question has been asked for more than 2,500 years, but it just so happens that, this time, it is entirely apposite. Any doctor who has worked in the NHS will tell you so. The explanation...

Ancient & modern.(phonics)
December 10, 2005... The principles behind 'synthetic phonics', the latest educational reading nostrum, have been around for thousands of years. Heaps of papyrus exercises, exercise-books (and a primary school textbook) have been found, dating from the Greek world...

The great art bubble: William Cash on how record prices are making the contemporary art market an insider trader's dream.
December 10, 2005... Last week, on my second evening at Art Basel Miami, the Cannes Film Festival of the contemporary art I attended a dinner hosted by art-fair sponsors Bulgari in the old Dupont bank building in downtown Miami. Before dinner, the VIP collectors...

The best v. the worst: William Shawcross says that premature pull-out from Iraq would be a betrayal of everything we stand for.
December 10, 2005... Just over a year ago Charles Duelfer was almost murdered by a suicide bomber in Baghdad. He was saved by the Kansas National Guardsmen in his security detail, who sacrificed their lives for his. The incident provides an allegory for what is...

Mind your language.(entertaining)
December 10, 2005... The plum, says Mrs Beeton, 'is not a nourishing fruit, and if indulged in to excess, when unripe, is almost certain to cause diarrhoea and cholera'. That is from the first edition, of 1861, which I had for Christmas a couple of years ago in the...

How Europe betrays the poor: Neil O'Brien says that the EU will offer the Third World nothing at the world trade talks next week.
December 10, 2005... Next week ministers from 150 countries will meet in Hong Kong to try to salvage the current round of world trade talks. All the traditional colour and ritual of WTO talks will be on display: there will be the usual giant papier-mache models of...

Lessons from Latin America: Daniel Hannan on why South Americans don't want to imitate the European Union.
December 10, 2005... Euro-diplomats are grinding their teeth in frustration. For 15 years they have been urging the nations of South America to form a supra-national union in mimicry of the EU. They have held seminars to teach the Latinos about the joys of...

'Asians don't hug': Eric Ellis on the background to the hanging in Singapore last week of an Australian drug-dealer.
December 10, 2005... Singapore No one outside Singapore's steel-trap judiciary knows for sure whether Darshan Singh hanged Nguyen Tuong Van, of Melbourne, in Changi on Friday 2 December. A week earlier, Darshan said he'd been sacked as chief hangman after a...

My war in Spain with the the water terrorist.(ANOTHER VOICE)
December 10, 2005... Last winter, from the town of Manresa in Catalonia, I wrote on this page about an ancient house in the Pyrenees; a wicked 13th-century bishop; and the mysterious (some say divine) death-ray which shot from a shrine in the sacred mountain of...

I get a bung from the unjust steward--he must be due for an audit.(CITY AND SUBURBAN)(state budget)
December 10, 2005... Gordon Brown is a son of the manse, so he will have been brought up on the Parable of the Unjust Steward. As stewards have been known to do, this one, we are told, had been fiddling the figures, and realised that his accounts would soon be...

Austria and the Jews.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 10, 2005... From the Austrian Ambassador Sir: In Austria it is illegal publicly to deny the Holocaust ('Let Irving speak', 3 December). 'Words are deeds,' said Sigmund Freud, and in Austria we are aware of this connection. 'There is no more...

All style, no substance.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 10, 2005... From Nigel Tipple Sir: Peter Oborne excelled himself in his final Cameron campaign address (Politics, 3 December). 'A major presence on the national stage', 'massive achievement', 'most intriguing figure in British politics', etc. Hang on!...

Red or dead.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 10, 2005... From Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir: Unquestionably, as Oleg Gordievsky points out (Letters, 26 November), the Soviet Union, long after it had ceased to believe in communism, remained a military threat to the West. But did that military...