Spectator articles from July 2008

Spectator archives from July 2008

The NHS needs its Reformation.(National Health Service)
July 5, 2008... The government has promised that from next year everyone aged between 40 and 75 will be offered an 'MOT' of their health. The patient most in need of a health check, however, was 60 this week: the NHS itself. To a limited extent the government...

Diary.(Personal account)
July 5, 2008... No matter what happens, Friday is always a big day for those of us who do five days of getting up at sparrow's cough. The prospect of two days of lie-ins is so exciting it makes me feel giddy. My self-imposed rule of no drinking and no caffeine...

Glasgow East is Brown's dirty little secret: a hideous, costly social experiment gone wrong.(POLITICS)(Gordon Brown)
July 5, 2008... When Tony Blair was Prime Minister he used to joke in private that his writ--like that of the Roman Empire--ended at Hadrian's Wall. Beyond that lay Gordon's land, a graveyard for Conservatives, home of the murky Scottish Labour party and a...

The Spectator's notes.
July 5, 2008... As the new Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans challenges the current running of the Church of England, where does this leave Gordon Brown? I ask because one of Mr Brown's first acts as Prime Minister was to get rid of his office's traditional...

Gordon's only chance is to stamp out all sleaze ...(Cartoon)
July 5, 2008... You're claiming expenses on your second home in Westminister! All the other do it. What about Ed... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's taxpayer's money! My money! Careful Gordon! You'll hurt him. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] And...

The great Spectator/[IQ.sup.2] debate.(Intelligence Squared)
July 5, 2008... Motion: Prince Charles was right: modern architecture is still all glass stumps and carbuncles. New rules at Intelligence Squared. For the debate on architecture the speakers were offered the use of a slide projector. Opening for the...

A very English coup--and the end of our national church: on the eve of the General Synod and the Lambeth Conference, Theo Hobson says that the sleeping giant of evangelical and orthodox Anglicanism has been awoken by liberal agitation and Rowan Williams's failed leadership. The church is damaged beyond repair.(Essay)
July 5, 2008... Some years ago a vicar gave a sermon in which he tried to explain the latest developments in the Anglican Communion to his congregation. Afterwards an old lady came up to him, a bit bemused. 'How does all this stuff about Anglicans affect us?',...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
July 5, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If Gordon has been more prudent with our money, we could afford to have a free-range chicken on our table.

Brown's security strategy is the worst of all worlds: it's draconian, expensive and ineffective, says David Davis. All the evidence shows that the Prime Minister is eroding our civil liberties pointlessly.(Gordon Brown)
July 5, 2008... As shadow home secretary for five years, it became an office joke that, faced with difficult policy questions, I would demand 'get me the evidence!' I am a scientist by training and, while 69 per cent of the public believe I took a principled...

A portrait of the artist as a tennis champion: Melissa Kite meets Martina Navratilova, nine times Wimbledon singles champion and now pioneer of 'tennising'--an artistic technique that creates Jackson Pollock-style patterns.(Interview)
July 5, 2008... The jet set are strolling across the manicured lawns of corporate Wimbledon. Glistening white marquees filled with champagne and canapes await them at the Fairway Village and Wimbledon Club, just over the road from the All England Club where...

The Law Lords are right to resist the government: Lord Lloyd of Berwick says that the government's emergency legislation to overturn their lordships' ruling on witness anonymity is part of a 'gradual usurpation' of our liberties.(Essay)
July 5, 2008... On 18 June 2008 the Law Lords gave judgment in the case of R. v. Davis. The defendant was charged with murder. The prosecution case was that he had shot and killed two men after an all-night party. There were three witnesses--and three...

Et tu, Scott? Bush's press aide turns on his boss: James Forsyth talks to Scott McClellan, former press secretary to the President, about his new book attacking the Bush administration, its methods and its deceits.(What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception; George W. Bush)(Interview)
July 5, 2008... 'Yes, I think there are,' replies Scott McClellan, George W. Bush's former press secretary, when I ask him if he thinks there are others like him who followed Bush from Texas to Washington but who are now disillusioned. McClellan was one of...

I was starstuck by David Cameron: in the week of the Spectator Summer Party, Steven Berkoff recalls another of our celebrations at which he sought out the Tory leader and forgave his confusion of Brando and Dean.(Marlon Brando, James Dean)
July 5, 2008... It was a large thickish card. '180th anniversary of the Spectator', to be celebrated at the Churchill Hotel in elegant Portman Square. It looked to be an event not to miss and I'm quite partial to a little schmoozing from the 'Right' since it...

How to get stabbed: you, too, can be knifed in a public place: Rod Liddle says that it helps to be aged between 14 and 30, white and male. Being drunk and argumentative speeds things along. And no public policy seems to dissuade those who do the stabbing.(LIDDLE BRITAIN)(Column)
July 5, 2008... Been stabbed yet? Give it time. The latest weapon of choice for our go-getting and imaginative young people, apparently, is the 'cat skinner', a thin and very sharp device properly used for removing the plastic jackets from electrical cables....

Cummins unstuck.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 5, 2008... Sir: Rod Liddle (Liddle Britain, 28 June) is mistaken to suggest that only Guardian journalists objected to articles published in the Sunday Telegraph under the pseudonym Will Cummins. My Sunday Telegraph colleague Alasdair Palmer and I (both...

Deeply exposed.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 5, 2008... Sir: In his review (Books, 14 June) of my book, Forgotten Voices of the Secret War: An Inside History of Special Operations During the Second World War, Andro Linklater bemoans the lack of space devoted to Operation Remorse and to the demise,...

Unarmed and dangerous.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 5, 2008... Sir: If Fraser Nelson's insight ('Very discretely, Cameron is writing his first Queen's Speech', 28 June) into what is being planned by the Conservatives is comprehensive, then it reveals a dangerous omission which should be unacceptable to any...

The point about Russia.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 5, 2008... Sir: Charlotte Hobson (Books, 28 June) obviously does not know Russia very well and does not like it. She did not read Jonathan Dimbleby's book with due attention as she fails to understand its central point, which the author expresses with...

I blame those who worked with Brown, knew what he was really like, but stayed silent.(ANOTHER VOICE)(Gordon Brown)(Column)
July 5, 2008... 'How the Guardianistas changed their tune,' was the heading to a Sunday Times factbox published in the paper last weekend. The intention was to mock those Fleet Street columnists, erstwhile fans of Gordon Brown, who have turned against their...

A gardener must be a philosopher but never an atheist.(AND ANOTHER THING)(Column)
July 5, 2008... Somebody asked: 'How do you express your love of country in this leaden age? How do you sweep aside the multicultural poison and simply assert--"I am an English patriot?"' I answer: 'Create a garden, or help those who do so.' There is no more...

Fading memories of the Raj in the tea gardens of Assam: Richard Orange says the Indian tea industry is enjoying a revival--but that the traditional tea-planters' way of life, established by the British, is passing into history.(BUSINESS)
July 5, 2008... There is not much to distinguish Dhanesheva Kurmi from the rest of the crowd at the Hautely Tea Estate, a remote garden an hour and a half's bumpy drive from the Assamese town of Jorhat. Dressed in ill-fitting Western trousers and grubby shirt,...

The market's favourite scapegoat.(SHORT SELLING)
July 5, 2008... Oh, dear, what a setback. The usual suspects have slipped through the net. They will have to be locked up in the Financial Services Authority's waterside fortress for 42 days, while the investigators try again to find some evidence. These...

Distinctions and likenesses.(House of Wits: An Intimate Portrait of the James Family)(Book review)
July 5, 2008... HOUSE OF WITS: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF THE JAMES FAMILY by Paul Fisher Little, Brown, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 694, ISBN 9780316726573 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 The...

Wit and wisdom.(Prose, vol. 3, 1949-1955)(Book review)
July 5, 2008... PROSE, VOLUME III, 1949-1955 by W. H. Auden, edited by Edward Mendelson Faber, 40 [pounds sterling], pp. 779, ISBN 9780571237616 [telephone] 32 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 'To enclose the...

Vocation.(BOOKS)(Poem)(Brief article)
July 5, 2008... Vocation Each cold October morning he went out. into the Gate Field and walked up and down, like the horse-drawn seed-drill quartering every inch to make sure the harvest was kept constant, reading his Office, every...

Mad, bad and incompetent.(Hitler's Empire)(Book review)
July 5, 2008... HITLER'S EMPIRE by Mark Mazower Allen Lane, 30 [pounds sterling], pp.725, ISBN 9780713996814 [telephone] 24 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 As we now know, the unimaginably awful Third Reich did not spring...

Mr Gaunt's Class.(BOOKS)(Poem)(Brief article)
July 5, 2008... Mr Gaunt's Class We down tools before they pass after the second morning bell: boy girl, boy girl, hand in hand along the infants' corridor. Their shoes gleam like new cars; clothes the colours...

Waves of geniality.(Grub Street Irregular: Scenes from a Literary Life)(Book review)
July 5, 2008... GRUB STREET IRREGULAR: SCENES FROM LITERARY LIFE by Jeremy Lewis Harper Press, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 330, ISBN 9780002559065 [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 No disrespect to...

A keen sense of duty.(Burghley: William Cecil at the Court of Elizabeth I)(Book review)
July 5, 2008... BURGHLEY: WILLIAM CECIL AT THE COURT OF ELIZABETH I by Stephen Alford Yale, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 412, ISBN 9780300118964 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 William Cecil, Lord Burghley, would be...

All you need to know about Wales.(The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales - English Version)(Book review)
July 5, 2008... THE WELSH ACADEMY ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF WALES (ENGLISH VERSION) edited by John Davies, Nigel Jenkins, Menna Baines and Peredur Lynch University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF 10 4UP, Tel: 029 2049 6899, 65...

Getting to know the General.(A Case of Exploding Mangoes)(Book review)
July 5, 2008... A CASE OF EXPLODING MANGOES by Mohammed Hanif Cape, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 297, ISBN 9780224082044 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 On 29 May 1989 Brigadier Tariq...

Broken.(BOOKS)(Poem)(Brief article)
July 5, 2008... Broken Something gets broken that will never be repaired. No use trying to fix it. Not possible. Once it's banjaxed you just have to live with it. Join the club. Everybody's looking for maximum...

A world elsewhere: Henrietta Bredin visits Oslo's new opera house and finds it impressive, both inside and out.(ARTS)(Oslo, Norway)
July 5, 2008... Oslo is a small city, with a population of just over half a million, but it now boasts, funded entirely from the public purse, and on budget--Olympic Committee, please note--a spanking new all-singing, all-dancing opera house which has already...

Distinctly lacklustre.
July 5, 2008... Radical Light: Italy's Divisionist Painters 1891-1910 National Gallery, until 7 September Sponsored by Credit Suisse Divisionism is based on the scientific theory of the prismatic division of light into the colours of the...

As Modern British art becomes ever more collectable, it is increasingly difficult for dealers to source quality work that isn't overfamiliar and overpriced.(Brief article)
July 5, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: As Modern British art becomes ever more collectable, it is increasingly difficult for dealers to source quality work that isn't overfamiliar and overpriced. Osborne Samuel has just pulled off this difficult...

What about the Iraqis?('Black Watch', 'Whatever Happened to Cotton Dress Girl', 'Divas')(Theater review)
July 5, 2008... Black Watch Barbican Whatever Happened to Cotton Dress Girl New End Divas Apollo Disney does death. That's how Black Watch looks to me. The hit show has arrived in London with its bracing portrait of the famous...

Inspired and thrilling.(Le nozze di Figaro)(Theater review)
July 5, 2008... Le nozze di Figaro Royal Opera House The first night of the latest revival of the Royal Opera House's Le nozze di Figaro I count among the dozen, or perhaps fewer than that, most glorious evenings have spent in the theatre. Figaro is...

A shire horse pulling a cart laden with two oversize, concrete marrows has just arrived in the grounds of Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.(Brief article)(Photograph)
July 5, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: A shire horse pulling a cart laden with two oversize, concrete marrows has just arrived in the grounds of Waddesdon Manor, near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. Entitled 'Perceval', this bronze and painted...

Here be monsters.(The Mist)(Movie review)
July 5, 2008... The Mist 15, Nationwide As any fan of Howard Hawks, George A. Romero or John Carpenter will know, it's not the monsters outside your window that you should worry about. It's the people who are trapped indoors with you. Your friends,...

Hitting the mark.(Pop)
July 5, 2008... It seems hard to believe, but on 29 August Michael Jackson will be 50 years old. Maybe fortunately in this case, the music industry doesn't really go a bundle on 50th birthdays: I believe there's another halfhearted greatest hits coming out,...

Criminally good.(Television)('Criminal Justice', 'Celebrity MasterChef', 'Marco's Great British Feast')(Television program review)
July 5, 2008... Years ago I was 'political consultant' on State of Play, the successful BBC drama serial that got very substantial ratings. It launched several acting careers, being one of the few TV series that was also watched by the people who make films....

Going for gold.(High life)(Personal account)(Column)
July 5, 2008... 'My legs are leaden, my throat is dry and I feel slightly sick with anxiety. As I make my way towards the arena the roar of the crowd gets louder. One question keeps edging into the small part of my mind which is functioning normally: what on...

Sober reflection.(Low life)(Personal account)
July 5, 2008... An extraordinary email from theatre critic Mr Lloyd Evans arrived in my inbox last week. He'd written a play, it said, a two-hander, and one of the characters was based on me. He'd based the character on me after we'd met at a Spectator...

Garden shorts.(Brief article)
July 5, 2008... There can be no prouder boast amongst the garden-minded rich than "we got Tom Stuart-Smith to design our garden before he was famous". Of course, when exactly he became famous can be a handily elastic concept but, for those not in the market...

Outrage permitted.(Real life)(Column)
July 5, 2008... The following events took place in a Lambeth Council parking shop just off Streatham High Road. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. This report contains scenes that some readers may find deeply disturbing. Melinda, a...

Male preserve.(The table)(barbecuing)
July 5, 2008... What passes for summer is finally upon us in the British Isles. Between bouts of rain, we can finally inhale the sun-tan oil, note that last year's swimsuit seems to have shrunk over the winter and fire up the barbecue. Cooking outdoors...

Detective work.(Bridge)(Brief article)
July 5, 2008... That absurd cliche 'Schooldays are the best days of your life' never fooled a born optimist like me--I knew it could not possibly be true. I remember daydreaming through most lessons and being brought back to dull reality by some old bat...

Moving pictures: John Torode watches his movie poster collection gain value.(STYLE AND TRAVEL)
July 5, 2008... I started collecting movie posters half a century ago. It was a nerdy and downmarket hobby for an ambitious East End grammar-school swot, and the posters were worth next to nothing. Yet, recently, the nerd quotient has dropped sharply. Can you...

Magnum force.(CHESS)
July 5, 2008... Magnus Carlsen, the 17-year-old Norwegian prodigy, has won a convincing victory at the Aerosvit tournament at Foros in the Ukraine. Significantly, he not only outclassed Vassily Ivanchuck, the current high-flier in terms of international...

Pen pals.(COMPETITION)
July 5, 2008... In Competition No. 2551 you were invited to complete in verse or prose a letter by Noel Coward, 'Dear 338171 (may I call you 338?)', to Aircraftman Ross (aka T.E. Lawrence) and Lawrence's reply. First an apology. Bill Greenwell points out...

1871: Alexander.(CROSSWORD)(Brief article)
July 5, 2008... The unclued lights, including one of two words, are connected by a theme. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Sean left strict orders: if he was kidnapped, I was to be kept away from the region.(STATUS ANXIETY)(Sean Langan)(Column)
July 5, 2008... Being muzzled is a very frustrating experience for a journalist. When the story broke last week that Sean Langan had been kidnapped in a remote region of Pakistan--he was released on 21 June after a long and tortuous negotiation--I got a stream...

Mind your language.(Column)
July 5, 2008... It was either Kung Fu Panda or Prince Caspian, so I took my nephew and niece to the latter. Aunts are only flesh and blood. A trailer for the Panda film featured him exclaiming 'Awesome!' Strangely enough this word is used in C.S. Lewis's...

Mighty Murray.(SPECTATOR SPORT)(Andy Murray)
July 5, 2008... If Gordon Brown really wants to make people start liking him, he could do a lot worse than turn to whoever's giving mighty Andy Murray some advice these days. For what was obvious in that stunning, thrilling, epic, heart-pumping comeback to...

Dear Mary.(YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED)(Column)
July 5, 2008... Q. I want to give a drinks party for 200 friends. The alcohol is within my budget. Most of my friends are recovering alcoholics and the others are too old to binge drink, but I have been quoted 30 [pounds sterling] a head for food. I do not...

The Glasgow doctrine.
July 12, 2008... In an unexpected plot twist, David Cameron and Gordon Brown are fighting over a woman: not, we hasten to add, as suitors, but as public moralists. The Prime Minister has long been a fan of Gertrude Himmelfarb, the American intellectual best...

Diary.(Personal account)
July 12, 2008... Rarely in my life have I enjoyed running. A tubby child and then a sickly teen, I spent games lessons hiding behind a piano with a book. Odd then, that this week I completed (half of) one of the toughest marathons in the world. Stranger still,...

Labour needs someone with the guts to tell the party what it must do to avoid disaster.(POLITICS)
July 12, 2008... Gordon Brown is not used to being spoken back to in Cabinet, which made a recent session on tackling David Cameron all the more memorable. The civil servants were sent away, as is the custom at political Cabinet meetings, and the Prime Minister...

The spectator's notes.
July 12, 2008... It is probably just as well that the Ray Lewis fiasco happened to Boris Johnson as Mayor, because otherwise it might have happened to David Cameron as Prime Minister. As soon as he became Conservative leader, Mr Cameron went round to see Mr...

The Establishment paedophile: how a monster hid in high society: Roger Took was a pillar of academia, with an enviable Chelsea address. He was also a vicious paedophile. Charlotte Metcalf shows how the veneer of social respectability can protect even the worst offenders.(Cover story)
July 12, 2008... The five-year-old girl cowers naked and crying in a corner. She is so frightened that she urinates. One of the men in the room hits her repeatedly. The others laugh. Another man picks her up and throws her face down on the bed. Then the men...

I feel for Ingrid Betancourt--I was kidnapped, too.(Essay)
July 12, 2008... I was once kidnapped and held hostage by political terrorists in South America. My ordeal only lasted about an hour--but it was rather frightening. Like Ingrid Betancourt, it was partly my own fault for ignoring obvious security advice. Unlike...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
July 12, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I can't eat anymore! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Waste not, want not! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Yuk! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I feel sick! Gordon says we must eat it all up! [ILLUSTRATION...

Shouting abuse at fat people is not just fun. It's socially useful: Rod Liddle is impressed by David Cameron's speech in Glasgow and the Tory leader's call for greater personal responsibility. Antisocial behaviour needs to be stigmatised, not treated as an illness to be cured.(LIDDLE BRITAIN)(Column)
July 12, 2008... Good for David Cameron. There was a grotesquely fat woman in front of me in the checkout queue at Sainsbury's this week, so fat I couldn't see the car park; she looked like 26 Ethiopians, if you put them in a blender, added some bleach and...

I fell helplessly in love with Christine Hamilton: in the second of an occasional series, Martin Rowson interviews Neil and Christine Hamilton. To his alarm, the arch-satirist finds himself warming to the disgraced couple.(Interview)
July 12, 2008... Scotland had the Macbeths and Romania had the Ceausescus. But while Tony and Cherie made a pretty good stab at it, in the annals of notoriety in British politics no husband and wife team can compare to the Hamiltons. Or at least it seemed like...

The web is the most conservative force on earth: digital technology has made us a society of mass archivers, says Charles Leadbeater. Far from rotting our brains, the web enables us to preserve all our memories.(Essay)
July 12, 2008... Archiving is not regarded by most people as sexy, glamorous or even interesting. Odd then that most of us, and especially the young, hip and trendy, seem to have become avid archivists without even realising it. My archive, which I keep on...

Our survey shows British Muslims don't want sharia: don't believe the Lord Chief Justice any more than the Archbishop of Canterbury, say Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi.(Nicholas Phillips, Rowan Williams)
July 12, 2008... A senior establishment figure has once more raised the question of whether sharia law should be introduced as a parallel system of justice for British Muslims. Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice, was following in the...

A pariah writes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 12, 2008... Sir: I dealt for 30 years with hundreds of Muslims, at first in Mr Doyle's organisation, so I am not 'ignorant' of Islam (as he claims, Letters, 5 July), which seeks to conquer this world, not the next, politically. If he disagrees, he should...

Bad times.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 12, 2008... Sir: Rod Liddle's 'How to get stabbed' (Liddle Britain, 5 July) was perceptive and spot on in all respects. The last three homicides I attended involved multiple stabbings and sexual assault. All three perpetrators had imbibed vast quantities...

Brown study.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 12, 2008... Sir: Matthew Parris is only partially right in his analysis of why the deep-rooted deficiencies of Gordon Brown were ignored in his apparently effortless rise to the premiership (Another Voice, 5 July). In fact, his bullying, foul-mouthed...

Engraved stationery.(LETTERS)(Leeming Brothers)(Brief article)
July 12, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Engraved--or die-stamped--printing, in which the text is printed from a copper die and raised from the paper, is the very best type of printing there is. From shops in Bond Street it is very expensive, but the same...

Try before you buy.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 12, 2008... Sir: Charles Moore's wife (The Spectator's Notes, 5 July), in refusing to pay the postal surcharge on an unfranked postcard after she had looked at it, exactly explains why the penny post was invented. Before postage stamps, which for the first...

Not mocked.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 12, 2008... Sir: I would like to think that it did not occur to you for one moment that the front cover of your last issue would be deeply offensive to Russian, Greek or any other Orthodox Christians. I can understand that we are such a small minority that...

Break point.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
July 12, 2008... Sir: I am surprised that Roger Alton (Sport, 5 July) fell, like most of the media, for the obvious over Alla Kudryavtseva's claim that 'I don't like her outfit', especially as he is no fan of Maria Sharapova. It took Tracy Austin to point out...

If you had Jerusalem Syndrome, your Solomon hands would fear your Jesus hair.(SHARED OPINION)(Jerusalem, Israel)(Travel narrative)
July 12, 2008... Jerusalem As ever, the great disappointment of Jerusalem is the lack of swivel-eyed loons wandering around believing themselves to be Jesus. Or Solomon or David or Mohammed. Or Elvis, even. You come to Jerusalem, you want to see Jerusalem...

The truth little Red Rum can teach those clever dons.(AND ANOTHER THING)(Column)
July 12, 2008... One of the most moving stories in the history of animal life is the racing career of Red Rum. This little horse won the Grand National in 1973 and 1974, came second the next two years and then, amazingly, won it again in 1977. This third...

Good news for the prudent: we're heading for recession: Richard Northedge says those who did not overspend during the boom years will soon be able to buy whatever they want at bargain prices, perhaps even with borrowed money.(BUSINESS)
July 12, 2008... So Britain is talking itself into recession. Keep chattering. If people want a recession, let them have one, so that the rest of us can benefit from it. This is not a suggestion that cold showers do us good or that a spell of reality in the...

School fees: a luxury you can't afford.(PRIVATE EDUCATION)
July 12, 2008... The credit crunch is taking a terrible toll on the middle classes. They've started to give up their organic boxes (sales are down 10 per cent at some companies), their foreign holidays (can the new fad for camping really be a choice thing?),...

Is it wrong to do business in Zimbabwe? Remember what Mandela said to Shell.(ANY OTHER BUSINESS)(Nelson Mandela)(Column)
July 12, 2008... Shell and Barclays were the two highest-profile British companies in South Africa during the apartheid era. Both pursued nonracial business practices as far as they could, but both endured years of disrupted shareholder meetings and flak from...

Last tales from the West.(The Lost Decade: Short Stories from Esquire, 1936-1941)(Book review)
July 12, 2008... THE LOST DECADE, SHORT STORIES FROM ESQUIRE, 1936-1941 by F. Scott Fitzgerald, edited by James L.W. West III CUP, 55 [pounds sterling], pp. 296, ISBN 9780521885300 THAT GHOST SCOTT FITZGERALD Scott Fitzgerald sent this cable to...

A little goes a long way.(The Importance of Being Trivial)(Book review)
July 12, 2008... THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING TRIVIAL by Mark Mason Random House, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 304, ISBN 9781847945174 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 No book can be entirely bad...

Cheap and deadly.(The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage)(Book review)
July 12, 2008... THE CHINA PRICE: THE TRUE COST OF CHINESE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE by Alexandra Harney Penguin, 15.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 336, ISBN 9781594201578 [telephone] 12.79 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Another tragic Russian heroine.(Sashenka)(Book review)
July 12, 2008... SASHENKA by Simon Montefiore Bantam, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 540, ISBN 9780593056370 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Karl Marx wrote that history repeats itself, the...

The sins of the son.(The Assassin's Accomplice)(Book review)
July 12, 2008... THE ASSASSIN'S ACCOMPLICE by Kate Clifford Larson Perseus Group, 15.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 263, ISBN 9780465038152 In the spring of 1865 Washington was celebrating victory in a bitterly fought civil war. It had begun in 1861...

How many Russians does it take to change a lightbulb?(Hammer and Tickle: A History of Communism Told through Communist Jokes)(Book review)
July 12, 2008... HAMMER AND TICKLE: A HISTORY OF COMMUNISM TOLD THROUGH COMMUNIST JOKES by Ben Lewis Weidenfeld, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 354, ISBN 9780297853541 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429...