Spectator articles from January 2008

Spectator archives from January 2008

1828 and all that.
January 5, 2008... The year 2008 marks the 180th anniversary of The Spectator. The original Spectator, founded by Addison and Steele, ran only briefly from 1711 to 1712, although its spirit lives on in our Coffee House blog. Today's Spectator was founded by...

Diary.(Diary entry)
January 5, 2008... My daughter has just got married and a beautiful and lively event it was, moving from her local church in St James's Gardens to the Dorchester via Routemaster buses. I took the opportunity in my speech to thank many for their efforts to be...

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody.(New Year's Resolutions )(Diary entry)
January 5, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's that time of year again My Fellow Compassionates! So here they are, my New Year's Resolutions for 2008! 1.) Go easy on the policy. I don't know about you but I'm suffering a major hangover in this...

Pakistanis now fear that anyone who speaks out will be silenced: Benazir Bhutto's son has none of his mother's glamour, says Christina Lamb, but he must now do his dynastic duty in a country cruelly deprived of its only pro-Western, liberal leader and in which no one feels it is safe to criticise the establishment.(Cover story)
January 5, 2008... Karachi On top of the bus carrying Benazir Bhutto from Karachi airport last October, at the start of the journey that had been planned as her triumphant return from exile but was to end so tragically, I fell into conversation with her...

Musharraf may now be the last best hope of Pakistan: Pervaiz Musharraf presides over a fearsomely chaotic and dangerous country, says Con Coughlin, but he is probably the only man who can save Pakistan from self-destruction.
January 5, 2008... Forget Iran, forget North Korea, forget the emerging Chinese superpower and forget the resurgent nationalism of Vladimir Putin's Russia. Even before Benazir Bhutto's assassination, Pakistan was the country that arguably posed the greatest...

An act of evil that recalled the atrocities of the SS: the murder and mayhem in Kenya this week were the result of tribalism and corruption, says Michael Gove, but the West must not lose faith in promoting democracy abroad.
January 5, 2008... Seldom can a New Year have dawned so bleakly as 2008 and rarely can a news story have spoken of evil so starkly as the New Year's Day report from Kenya of children being deliberately burnt alive inside a church. The calculated, heartless...

Is a TV drama about the royal family sacrilege? Clemency Burton-Hill, who appears in the new ITV series The Palace, muses on the outrage it has provoked and the taboos that still govern fictional portrayals of the monarchy.(Television program review)
January 5, 2008... Filming on The Palace was only a few weeks in when the rumours started flying. 'A tawdry and offensive affair' trumpeted the Sunday Telegraph; 'dreadful and offensive and very near to the bone', added Lord St John of Fawsley; 'a real danger [it...

Mind your language.(Column)
January 5, 2008... I am going to air a shocking proposal, now that we're safely into 2008. It is about all right. Can it be alright? The question is posed by a thoughtful reader whose letter I have left on the kitchen table in Gloucestershire, I realise. He...

Stand by for a year of nostalgia for 1968: Rod Liddle braces himself for a celebration of the events of 40 years ago--a time of leftist ferment and revolution, the dreary consequences of which we are still trying to shake off.(LIDDLE BRITAIN)(Column)
January 5, 2008... Uh oh--2008. Coming to a TV or radio studio near you, for the entirety of the year, is Daniel Cohn-Bendit. And probably Jurgen Habermas. And perhaps Joe Cocker. We are 'celebrating' the 40th anniversary of 1968--a year dear to the hearts of...

Hoggartian paradox.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: For a second time Simon Hoggart takes aim at The Blair Years, on which I was the principal interviewer. In his column of 8 December (Arts), he was cross about the fact that the programmes were made by the company Juniper TV, describing...

In defence of Ms Gibbons.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: How contemptible of Rod Liddle to use his column for an ad hominem attack on Gillian Gibbons ('The teddy-bear teacher was released too soon', 8 December). It leaves a sour taste when a journalist lays into a private individual in this way....

Give me a medal.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: I note with interest Barry Humphries's BT experience (Christmas notebook, 15-29 December). Our telephones failed recently and customer services instructed me over the phone how to test the external link and ascertain that the problem was...

Welsh Stalin.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: I enjoyed Paul Johnson's essay on the Ozymandian transience of dictators (And another thing, 1 December), but I must take issue with him on his description of Henry VIII as the 'English Stalin'. The Tudor dynasty was Welsh, and owed its...

Top-shelf Spectator.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: I recently bought my copy of The Spectator in my local supermarket. After the checkout girl had scanned it in, she asked me if I was over 18. 'Eh?' I replied. It transpired that yours is classified as an adults-only magazine in my local...

Korngold uncut.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: Michael Tanner wrote that Decca's recording of Das Wunder der Heliane, released in 1993, was 'heavily and mercifully cut'. As the producer of the CDs, I can assure you that we recorded the opera uncut. Tanner should know better than to...

Demon in the stable.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: It was a pleasure to read Martin Gayford's excellent article on the Portinari altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes (Arts, 15-29 December), but I suspect the spirit of Christmas might have misguided him in regard to a couple of details. The...

Millions of Mohammeds.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: I agree with Charles Moore's curiosity The Spectator's Notes, 15-29 December) over the varying attitudes to the use of Jesus as a name in Christian countries (particularly Britain), in reference to Mohammed the teddy bear. What puzzles me,...

Mersey, Mersey me.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 5, 2008... Sir: May I congratulate you on a superb Christmas issue? I particularly loved Beryl Bainbridge's lament for the Liverpool of her youth. But when she says 'My Liverpool has gone for ever', she's not entirely right. The old Liverpool still exists...

Brown, like Major, is falling prey to the media's habit of linking unrelated stories.(ANOTHER VOICE)(Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Sir John Major)
January 5, 2008... Before Christmas, on the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Sir John Major gave his thoughts on politics ancient and modern. Since leaving Downing Street Sir John has been sparing with his public appearances, and because he has always commanded personal...

A cheer for the quetzal, a sigh for the heron.(AND ANOTHER THING)
January 5, 2008... By far the most entertaining show in London is the comprehensive exhibition of paintings by Millais at Tate Britain. In addition to his genius for creating an image which remains in the mind--the surest sign of a great painter--Millais had a...

Too much zeal.(Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming)(Book review)
January 5, 2008... Scared to Death: From BSE to Global Warming by Christopher Booker and Richard North Continuum, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 494, ISBN 9780826486141 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Many of...

Smitten for life.(The Bad Girl )(Book review)
January 5, 2008... The Bad Girl by Mario Vargas Llosa Faber, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 276, ISBN 9780571239337 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Ricardo Somocurcio, the narrator of The Bad Girl, is an...

Growing old gracefully.(Somewhere Towards the End )(Book review)
January 5, 2008... Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill Granta, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 183, ISBN 9781862079847 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Ninety may be the new 70, but it is also seriously...

Undoing the folded lie.(A New Waste Land )(Book review)
January 5, 2008... A New Waste Land by Michael Horowitz New Departures, 25 [pounds sterling] (hardback), 15 [pounds sterling] (paperback), pp. 464, ISBN 9781906061098/ 9780902689183 When you buy this book (and buy you should for reasons that follow), try...

From one extreme to the other.(Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed )(Book review)
January 5, 2008... Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed by Martin Evans and John Phillips Yale, 19.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN 9780300108811 [telephone] 15.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Decolonisation has not been...

Going on and on.(My Life)(Book review)
January 5, 2008... My Life by Fidel Castro, edited by Ignacio Ramonet, translated by Andrew Hurley Allen Lane, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 724, ISBN 9780713999204 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Fidel Castro,...

Always on the side of the wolf.(It Was the Nightingale)(Book review)
January 5, 2008... It Was the Nightingale by Ford Madox Ford Carcanet, 14.95 [pounds sterling], pp. 272, ISBN 9781857549324 [telephone] 11.95 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Poor old Fordie. That was Ford's eternal cry, and...

Take another look at Millais: Andrew Lambirth urges those who think they don't like this artist to go and see this show.(ARTS)
January 5, 2008... Last chance to see this large and lavish retrospective of the most famous of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Millais (Tate Britain, until 13 January). The Tate confidently asserts that John Everett Millais (1829-96) was the 'greatest' of the...

Beyond redemption.(Theatre)(Absurd Person Singular; Women of Troy; Cinderella)(Theater review)
January 5, 2008... Absurd Person Singular Garrick Women of Troy Lyttelton Cinderella Old Vic Five years as a critic and I've never seen anything by Alan Ayckbourn. With a flicker of apprehension in my heart I took my seat at the...

Caught napping.(Sleeping & Dreaming )
January 5, 2008... Sleeping & Dreaming Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, London NW1, until 9 March 2008 'To sleep, perchance to dream...'. If only. We are supposed to spend one third of our lives asleep, but many find getting their regulation quota a...

Just get over it, love.(Closing the Ring)(Movie review)
January 5, 2008... Closing the Ring 12A, Nationwide Cinema It would be good to be able to think of something nice to say about this movie, if only out of respect and affection for Richard Attenborough, who directed it, but what? Nope, it's just not possible....

Reasons to be cheerful.(Pop)(Wilco's Sky Blue Sky)(Sound recording review)
January 5, 2008... I am an idiot. Last month, in this space, I proffered the usual random selection of favourite albums of the year, not a single one of which had actually been released in 2007, for, like many people (I'd like to think), I can be a little slow on...

Amid the mudflats.(Radio)(The Estuary)(Radio program review)
January 5, 2008... If you've been waking up at 3 a.m. after yet another nightmare about climate change, there's been a well-timed antidote on Radio Four this week. On The Estuary (made by the wildlife team, Chris Watson as sound recordist, Mike Dilger as...

Lies and humiliation.(Television)
January 5, 2008... We said goodbye to Michael Parkinson and Andy Millman over Christmas. Andy Millman was the hero of Extras, whose finale went out on BBC1 on 27 December. This was what I think of as a sit-traj, a comedy with more misery than laughs. It was...

Downers and uppers.(High life)(Column)
January 5, 2008... New Year's Eve parties cannot be described in lyrical terms, recalling perhaps the elegance of poetry by, say, Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde's decadence being more like it. I am not among those who hate New Year's parties; in fact, on the contrary....

Hunting special.(Low life)
January 5, 2008... Foul weather and worse to come. Puddles in the farmyard. An 18th-century farmhouse with a cast-iron fox's mask for a doorknocker. The door is ajar. Inside, men in hunting waistcoats are gathered around a silver drinks tray. The warmth and...

High maintenance.(Real life)(Column)
January 5, 2008... Since when did we become incapable of doing anything for ourselves? It started off with cleaners. In the bad old days only rich people had cleaners. Now everyone has a cleaner. Cleaners have cleaners. The golden age of cheap foreign labour...

Love and war.(Bridge)(Brief article)
January 5, 2008... There's a cheering announcement in this month's English Bridge Union magazine about an elderly couple who met when one responded to the other's ad for a bridge partner; love blossomed at the table and they have just got married. It must be...

Anand's year.(CHESS)
January 5, 2008... One game played during 2007 stands out for its importance and that was the win by Viswanathan Anand, the new world champion, against Alexander Morozevich. This game was played at a tense moment in the tournament when a win by Anand would have...

Annus Mirabilis.(COMPETITION)(Poem)
January 5, 2008... In Competition No. 2525 you were invited to submit a poem in which the opening of Philip Larkin's 'Annus Mirabilis' was adapted so that 'two thousand and seven' was substituted for 'nineteen sixty-three' and sexual intercourse' replaced by...

1845: Wyth mynydd.(CROSSWORD)(Brief article)
January 5, 2008... The unclued lights reveal eight of a kind, five of which are to be read clockwise round the forty perimeter squares from square 8 to square 1, thus revealing their shape. These five, in order, are of two words, doubly hyphened, two words, one...

I may have to get divorced: this happiness stuff makes time go too quickly.(STATUS ANXIETY)(Column)
January 5, 2008... What happened? Where did 2007 go? Come to think of it, where did the last 10 years go? It's as though there's an egg-timer on my desk that measures how much time I have left, only it isn't working properly. When I keep my eyes on it, the sand...

Ancient & modern.(law making)
January 5, 2008... One moment laws against 'religious hatred', the next against smoking in cars, now mobile phones. What next? But then, law-making has been expanding ever since the Romans drew up their XII Tables, c. 450 BC, which were themselves originally a...

Global warning.(spiv)
January 5, 2008... A friend of mine, a very busy man who knew that I had retired and had little to do except meet deadlines, asked me recently to help him find a flat for rent in a distant part of the country. It was part of the convenience of modern life...

Dear Mary.(YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED)
January 5, 2008... Q. I love my wife very much but would like your advice on how she might be cured of an annoying habit. Whenever a friend rings up and, no matter how long they talk for, my wife seems unable to wind up the call. This despite the fact that I know...

Change you can believe in.
January 12, 2008... In an interview with The Spectator last September, Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's chief strategist, advanced the following paradoxical political principle: 'What we have tried to do is make sure people understand that you need experience to bring...

Diary.(Diary entry)
January 12, 2008... Years ago my divorce liberated me from many things, not least of which was a wife's burden of organising the traditional family Christmas. Inevitably, come Boxing Day, I was whey-faced with fatigue and singularly lacking in 'ho-ho-ho'....

Cameron is making the intellectual running now--with a little help from the Blairites.(POLITICS)
January 12, 2008... What do you give a Prime Minister who wants nothing? The Indian government has been asking itself this for some time, ahead of Gordon Brown's official visit later this month. The famously frugal Prime Minister would have little interest in any...

The Spectator's notes.
January 12, 2008... Through all the apparent banality of campaign speeches, politicians do, in fact, convey a message about themselves. There is a vital distinction between candidates who, mentally, face outwards and those who face inwards. Ronald Reagan, Bill...

On to South Carolina: Hillary gets back on track: but it's all still to play for, says James Forsyth. Senator Clinton's astonishing comeback does not mean that Obama is finished by any means--and John McCain has injected much-needed energy into the Republican primaries, too.(Cover story)
January 12, 2008... Londonderry, New Hampshire Hillary Clinton has now done something that her husband never managed: she has won a contested New Hampshire primary. In doing so, she has revived her presidential campaign and ensured that the 2008 Democratic...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
January 12, 2008... THIS MAKEOVER IS GOING TO BE A NIGHTMARE! FIRST IT WAS HIS TEETH, NOW HE WANTS A CHARISMA, HUMOUR, CHARM TRANSPLANT! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Putin's Tories: welcome to the Vlad and Dave show: Denis MacShane says that the Conservatives' refusal to align themselves with other centre-right parties on the Council of Europe has driven them into a shabby alliance with Russia.(Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Politician David Cameron)
January 12, 2008... As Vladimir Putin moves seamlessly from being president to prime minister of Russia, amid mounting worry that Russia is slipping its democratic moorings, there is a group of 21st-century fellow-travellers the Kremlin can count on: the...

Mind your language.
January 12, 2008... I was looking at bird-feeders reputed to resist the attentions of squirrels as a suitable present for my husband, who already often sits in his armchair nursing his whisky glass and staring out of the window, when I came across a sinister...

When elephants fight, the grass suffers: Aidan Hartley says that the violence in Kenya reflects the failure of the political class: better paid than their European counterparts in a nation where many live on 50p a day.
January 12, 2008... Central Kenya As I write this, the crackle of gunfire is audible from the veranda of our farmhouse. Warriors of the Pokot and Samburu are fighting a mile away. A bushfire engulfs the horizon. I hear the tally in blood so far is three...

In less than a fortnight I turned down 2 million [pounds sterling]: Bryan Forbes is drawn into a cyberspace scam by an indignant 'happily married' woman who invites him to Madrid to arrange a princely payout.
January 12, 2008... It all began when an email greeted me one morning with 'Dear Esteemed Winner, we are pleased to inform you of the result of the Fatelgordo International Promotions Program. Your email address was attached to the winning number 08 15 30 31 34 43...

Birth order means more than school or faith: to understand those in power, says Alice Thomson, ask whether they are older or younger siblings. Brown, a middle son, is far less easy-going than Cameron, a youngest son.
January 12, 2008... Kirkcaldy High School vs Eton, Highland Scot vs Newbury toff, Edinburgh University vs Oxford. If you are choosing between Gordon Brown and David Cameron that's what the next election may come down to. Or is there another factor? No one ever...

If you want men to spend time with their children, stop passing stupid laws: Rod Liddle, recovering from his Christmas parental responsibilities, is unimpressed by Harriet Harman's instructions to fathers, which are undermined by the very social engineering she espouses.(LIDDLE BRITAIN)
January 12, 2008... Harriet Harman's timing could have been a little more circumspect, don't you think? Unless it was a double bluff. The day the kids went back to school she announced that it should be the 'norm' for fathers to look after their children, that...

Forgotten Army Syndrome.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 12, 2008... Sir: Boris Johnson is to be praised for his intention to honour the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan ('How, as mayor, I would help our brave troops', 15-29 December). Unfortunately, I believe he is up against Forgotten Army Syndrome....

The Rwandan narrative.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 12, 2008... Sir: Michael Gove should be wary of accepting the standard Rwandan narrative, given his advocacy of democracy as a cure for Africa's ills ('An act of evil that recalled the atrocities of the SS', website only, 5 January). The French, according...

Wrong year, Rod.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 12, 2008... Sir: Rod Liddle is quite right to forewarn us of the dreary and right-on nostalgia for 1968 that will fall upon us this year ('Stand by for a year of nostalgia for 1968', 5 January). However, Rod overestimates the way rock music was affected by...

Not at your convenience.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 12, 2008... Sir: Robin Holloway has observed--as any viewer must--the Grainger museum's uncanny resemblance to (as he puts it) 'a public lavatory without users' (Arts, 15-29 December). This haunting architectural similarity became celebrated 70 years ago...

A legacy of democracy.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 12, 2008... Sir: I thoroughly enjoyed the splendid articles by Christina Lamb and William Shawcross on the late Benazir Bhutto ('The fears of Pakistanis'; 'At war with hatred', 5 January). As a former near-neighbour of Ms Bhutto's (in South Kensington), I...

Found in translation.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
January 12, 2008... Sir: I read with interest the results of your Christmas poll ('Do you believe in the Virgin Birth?' 15-29 December). Galatians iv 4 shows that in about ad 53 Paul hadn't heard of the Virgin Birth ('born of a woman, born according to the Law')....

It occurs to me that, with all this stress, Gordon may be having the time of his life.(SHARED OPINION)
January 12, 2008... The assumption, of course, is that Gordon Brown isn't having much fun. That is what lurks behind the question, every time. On Monday's Today programme, when Ed Stourton asked him if he was enjoying being Prime Minister, we all knew the...

What has sawing a lady in half to do with global warming?(AND ANOTHER THING)
January 12, 2008... At this time of year, exactly 70 years ago, I was taken to my first exhibition of professional conjuring. The magus called himself Dante--he was Danish-American and his real name was Harry Jansen. He had an amazing moustache and beard, wore...

The economy in 2008: chilly showers but no hailstorms: Allister Heath forecasts that Britain's economy will suffer less than America's, but that homeowners and consumers will still feel the pain--and blame it on.(BUSINESS)
January 12, 2008... First, the good news: there will be no recession next year in Britain. But while avoiding 'the Big R' will be some cause for celebration, the overall outlook for 2008 remains bleak. The economy will not shrink but it won't grow by much either....

Life after Wills: barely a whiff of smoke in the cosmopolitan gateway to the west.(CITY LIFE)
January 12, 2008... At the time of his death in 1972 my father worked for WD and HO Wills, the Bristol tobacco people. Wills were huge and rather enlightened employers and even now plenty of Bristolians remember the days when everyone either worked for the company...

Omissions and admissions.(How to talk about books You Haven't Read)(Book review)
January 12, 2008... Philip Hensher How to talk about books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard, translated by Geoffrey Mehlman Granta, 12 [pounds sterling], pp. 176, ISBN 9781862079861 [telephone] 9.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429...

Correction.(Correction notice)
January 12, 2008... In last week's issue the ISBN for A New Waste Land by Michael Horowitz was incorrect. The correct ISBN is 9780902689268.

An abstract debate.(Homecoming)(Book review)
January 12, 2008... Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink Weidenfeld, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 272, ISBN 9780375420917 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Bernhard Schlink's The Reader was one of the masterpieces of...

The king of peace.(Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace)(Book review)
January 12, 2008... LION OF JODAN: THE LIFE OF KING HUSSEIN IN WAR AND PEACE by Avi Shlaim Allen Lane, 30 [pounds sterling], pp. 720, ISBN 9780713997774 [telephone] 24 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 On 2 May 1953 two 18-year-old cousins were...

By so many, to so few.(A Blogger's Manifesto; The Bookaholics' Guide to Book Blogs; Net, Blogs and Rock N' Roll)(Book review)
January 12, 2008... A BLOGGER'S MANIFESTO by Eric Ringmar Anthem Press, 8.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 148, ISBN 9781843312888 [telephone] 7.19 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 THE BOOKAHOLICS' GUIDE TO BOOK BLOGS by Rebecca...

Would they have ended up grumpy old men?(LIFE & LETTERS)
January 12, 2008... The transition from iconoclastic youth to crusty age is common enough. The emergence of Martin Amis as a critic of Islam (at least in some of its manifestations) may be an expression of solidarity with his old friends Salman Rushdie and...

Her dark materials: Mary Wakefield talks to Eileen Atkins about acting as an out-of-body experience.(ARTS)(Interview)
January 12, 2008... The Eileen Atkins experience--the word 'interview' doesn't even begin to describe it--starts for me at about 3.30 on a brilliant, sunny afternoon in December. There I am in her elegant, airy sitting room overlooking the Thames, surrounded by...

Beguiled by a master.
January 12, 2008... Hidden Burne-Jones Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Road, London W14, until 27 January It's always a pleasure to visit Lord Leighton's house and imagine oneself in a more spacious era, venturing into the artists' quarter of...

Next stop, Lear.(Theater review)
January 12, 2008... Much Ado About Nothing Olivier The Masque of the Red Death Battersea Arts Centre The Winter's Tale Courtyard Theatre Simon Russell Beale is working through the complete works of Shakespeare like a Regency beau touring Italy. It's mid-winter...

Bombs and butts.(Charlie Wilson's War)(Movie review)
January 12, 2008... Charlie Wilson's War 15, Nationwide Mike Nichols's latest film is a mixed bag and a stuffed bag and, incredibly, none the worse for either. In its rat-a-tat, rapid-fire 95 minutes you get bombings, mines, refugee camps, casualties, hot...

Mercantile madness.(Radio)
January 12, 2008... How crazy is this! A huge great whopping oil tanker, 250,000 tons of rust-red steel, sails through one of the narrowest, most beautiful and most populated sea straits on the planet. And it's not the only one. There are 50,000 of them every...

Rallying point.(Television)(Top Gear)(Television program review)
January 12, 2008... My resolution this year is to make huge sums of money, buy a vast country estate, surround it with a moat and spend the rest of my life hunting, driving fast cars round my private race track and generally trying to maximise my carbon footprint....

Place your bets.(The turf)
January 12, 2008... I was given a new take on diplomacy the other day in what you might call the reflective postcoital stage of an interview with a foreign minister from eastern Europe. 'You know,' he said, 'diplomats are really like ladies of easy virtue. Most of...

Regrets, I've had a few ...(Motoring)
January 12, 2008... Most of my regrets are of sins of omission rather than commission; what I didn't do rather than what I did. (I'm thinking here of acquisitive opportunities rather than moral actions, where the balance of regret should probably be more even and...

Name fame.(High life)(Column)
January 12, 2008... Although I have to declare an interest, by far the most authentic comments about the Bhutto murder were those made by Jemima Khan in the Sunday Telegraph. As Jemima pointed out, Benazir never repealed the Hudood Ordinances, Pakistan's 'heinous'...

Friends reunited.(Low life)(Column)
January 12, 2008... On the last day of the year 22 of us turned up at the car park. We'd come for the ranger-led walk advertised in the Dartmoor Visitor Guide as an opportunity to watch the sun go down on 2007 from Hound Tor. Hound Tor is reputed to be the...

Addicted to dopamine.(Slow life)(Column)
January 12, 2008... How do you stop people taking cocaine? Illegality keeps it at bay a bit. It stops it being quite so freely available, but it makes it sexy, too. I wonder how much its illegal status really affects people's decision whether to take it or not. If...