Spectator articles from May 2005

Spectator archives from May 2005

Portrait of the week.
May 7, 2005... Britain held a general election, except in South Staffordshire, where the death of the Liberal Democrat candidate after ballot papers had been sent out required the holding of a by-election later. More than five million requests for postal...

Not Howard's end.(Michael Howard and the Conservative Party)
May 7, 2005... The Spectator appears as the electorate goes to the polls, and any analysis of the outcome must therefore be hypothetical. Some points can be made with assurance. The first is that if Michael Howard wins, he will be rated a miracle-worker....

Diary.(obesity, AIDS, muggings)(Diary entry)
May 7, 2005... I was sitting in Holland Park in the sun on Bank Holiday Monday. Just in front of me, a group of young people were having a picnic: crisps, processed cheese, tortilla chips, pepperoni--all washed down with Coca-Cola. There were about eight of...

Why it is splendid to be a Tory this weekend.(POLITICS)(UK election, 2005)
May 7, 2005... As The Spectator went to press this week, the Conservative party hovered on the edge of the greatest electoral catastrophe of its history: a third consecutive election defeat and the certain prospect of 12 years in the wilderness. Nothing like...

The Spectator's notes.(Column)
May 7, 2005... Another week of this, and I think I would have ended up voting Labour. Ann Toward, the widow of Guardsman Anthony Wakefield, who was killed near Amarah, southern Iraq, on Monday, said that Tony Blair was to blame for her husband's death....

The way ahead for the Conservatives: Simon Heffer says that Michael Howard must remain Tory leader, and the party must commit itself again to small government and deregulation.(Cover Story)
May 7, 2005... If we political pundits were truly blessed with the gift of accurate prophecy, we would not be writing about one of the most sordid subjects known to man. We would be earning shedloads of money as astrologers, with premium-rate telephone lines...

The Blairs.
May 7, 2005... Cheri Blair gets into a stand up comedy routine like Mrs. Bush... NO, LISTEN! LISTEN! TONY CAME HOME LATE THE OTHER NIGHT! HE HAD LIPSTICK ON HIS COLLAR! YES, HE DID! I SAID WHO'S THE OTHER WOMAN! HE SAID DON'T GET IN A FLAP IT WAS HIS OWN...

Mind your language.
May 7, 2005... I was surprised by the number of people who disliked the Daily Telegraph's headline on the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to the papacy: '"God's rottweiler" is the new pope'. I don't think it was meant to be as rude as many thought. But what...

Sorry, the doctor can't see you now: Susan Hill says that Primary Care Trusts have left country people without adequate medical care.
May 7, 2005... Ten years ago this magazine printed an article in which I described how I almost died of a severe allergic reaction to a wasp sting, late at night. There is one ambulance based seven miles from our Gloucestershire farmhouse and it was out on...

Girls just want to have boys: Stephanie Sprague says forget about feminism: there is a marked preference for male babies.
May 7, 2005... 'If my next child's a boy, I'll stop. If not, then I'll keep trying until I get one.' These words weren't spoken by an Asian or Indian woman, desperate to give her husband an heir, but by a white woman, upper-middle-class and married to an...

How we betray the young: disruption in our schools is a serious problem, says Roger Graef, but adults must accept their share of the blame.
May 7, 2005... We were told this week by Coca-Cola GB that most of today's teenagers are more sober and hardworking than their older brothers and sisters. For anyone caring about this country's future this is good news, and it coincides with the rise in...

The trouble with Michael: Leo McKinstry says that Michael Portillo--scourge of the Tory establishment--has much in common with another political failure, Lord Rosebery.
May 7, 2005... If fate had taken a different course, the general election of 2005 could have been Michael Portillo's shining hour, the moment when he lived up to the brilliance of his promise by leading the Conservatives to victory. Yet instead of taking what...

Losing their religion: Brendan O'Neill says that Lapsed, or Recovering, Catholics are wallowing in their victim status now that a traditionalist has been elected Pope.
May 7, 2005... Lapsed Catholics are sorely disappointed that the 265th Pope of Rome, Benedict XVI, is--shock, horror--a strict Roman Catholic. The 20 million lapsed Catholics in America had hoped, according to an Ohio-based newspaper, that the Church would...

Spectator classics cup.
May 7, 2005... Some of the offerings for the first round of this year's Classics Cup had me laughing so hard I almost disgraced myself in the GNER dining car somewhere between Peterborough and Doncaster. In the Open prose section, for example, Peter Bryant...

Medal power: Paul Robinson says that Johnson Beharry, VC, is a very special person, but awards for gallantry are not always as special as they once were.
May 7, 2005... Pinning a Victoria Cross on the chest of Private Johnson Beharry last week, the Queen told him that he was 'very special'--a most British understatement. Since the Victoria Cross was created in 1856, it has become steadily more difficult to win...

The Bible contains the earliest example of a non-interventionist economic policy.(SHARED OPINION)
May 7, 2005... If this election campaign proved anything, it was that we would have been unwise to rely on it for any 'issues'. That is 'issues' defined, as they should be in elections, as large subjects about which those of opposing philosophies disagree....

All eyes on the Bank's weather-vane this one could go to a recount.(CITY AND SUBURBAN)
May 7, 2005... At last some excitement. The next vote is on Monday, and this one could go to a recount. All eyes will be on the weather-vane in the Bank of England's Court Room, which shows its directors how the wind is blowing. Next door, in an elegant...

'Where's the ball?' 'Out of the ground, sir.(AND ANOTHER THING)
May 7, 2005... This time of year my ancient love of cricket stirs in my blood. A vivid memory of my father saying to me unexpectedly one bright crystal morning when I was six, 'Not a cloud in the sky. Right, my boy, we're off to Old Trafford to see them...

Made in Britain.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 7, 2005... From Denis MacShane Sir: 'Today, the Mother of Parliaments has lost half its power, with Brussels making half of British laws,' says Anthony Browne ('Parliament of eunuchs', 30 April). My Conservative opponent in Rotherham goes further....

Messy Labour.(Letter to the Editor)
May 7, 2005... From Julian Pack Sir: Peter Oborne's article 'Victory will prove a humiliating experience for Tony Blair' (Politics, 30 April) is another outstanding piece. Mr Oborne never disappoints in both his incision and precision. Again he has...

Cheltenham races.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 7, 2005... From Ralph Prothero Sir: Germaine Greer implied, in her article about William Shakespeare ('The man who made England', 23 April), that John Taylor, who stood as the Tory candidate in Cheltenham in 1992, lost the election there because he...

On the beech.(Letter to the Editor)
May 7, 2005... From David W.G. Taylor Sir: It's hard not to share Paul Johnson's enthusiasm for beech trees (And another thing, 30 April). However, in southern England the beech (Fagus sylvatica) is at the northern edge of its natural distribution, and...

Moral problems.(Letter to the Editor)
May 7, 2005... From Dr Sophie Botros Sir: Professor Simon Blackburn (Letters, 30 April) runs together two separate questions: does morality need an objective underpinning and, if so, does it have to be theological? Many, including Paul Johnson, clearly...

'Tiger' roars.(Letter to the Editor)
May 7, 2005... From Naim Attallah Sir: Caroline Moorehead's review of my book The Boy in England (Books, 30 April) is fair enough. She is certainly not a fan. But why the continued obsession with Jennie Erdal's Ghosting, which is more of a fiction than a...

Is Saxony better than Tuscany? John Laughland says that German castles are ripe for restoration.(PROPERTY)
May 7, 2005... To slake the British thirst for property investment, estate agents are serving up ever more exotic countries with supposed potential. The in-flight magazines of our budget airlines are full of advertisements for property abroad, and they...

Game of the name.(TRADE DESCRIPTIONS)(house buying)(Column)
May 7, 2005... A 'Rose Cottage' by any other name would smell as sweet, but it probably wouldn't sell as sweetly if that other name happened to be 'Osokozi' or 'Dunramblin". Names matter. A good one doesn't necessarily push up a property's value, but it can...

Upwardly mobile.(AIR RIGHTS)
May 7, 2005... In a land already bristling with rights, many of them offensive to reason and common sense, it is perhaps wilful to draw attention to yet another. But every property owner does in fact possess air rights, just by dint of having empty space...

Fair shares.(AFFORDABLE HOUSING)
May 7, 2005... In his book, The Likes of Us Michael Collins argued that the white working class was the only group that could be ridiculed and despised without risk of contumely. I'm not so sure. I think that middle-aged, middle-class single males are top of...

Hot property.(PROPERTY)(Lodnon, Engalnd)
May 7, 2005... Like the round-shouldered, haggard-looking subject of a TV makeover programme who emerges at the end buffed, styled and botoxed into one of life's pearly-toothed, wrinkle-free winners, Stratford E15, home to the real Albert Square, will shed...

The proximity of death.(A Long Way Down)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... A LONG WAY DOWN by Nick Hornby Penguin/Viking, 17.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 256, ISBN 0670888249 [telephone] (15.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Nick Hornby is a thoughtful writer, whose books give the...

Sparks from sifted embers.(The Sea)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... THE SEA by John Banville Picador; 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 264, ISBN 0330483285 [telephone] 14.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Prompted by a dream, Max Morden, the elderly narrator of John...

A shortage of intelligence.(Hitler's Spy Chief: The Wilhelm Canaris Mystery)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... HITLER'S SPY CHIEF: THE WILHELM CANARIS MYSTERY by Richard Bassett Weidenfeld, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 319, ISBN 0297846874 [telephone] 18 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 This life of the chief of the...

Fine and mellow.(With Billie)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... WITH BILLIE by Julia Blackburn Cape, 17.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 354, ISBN 0224075896 [telephone] 15.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Having obsessively admired Billie Holiday s singing for 50 years or...

Love lies bleeding.(The Trial of True Love)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... THE TRIAL OF TRUE LOVE by William Nicholson Doubleday, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 269, ISBN 0385608705 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 A writer. John Dearborn, known as Bron, persuades a...

Tricky regime change.(After Elizabeth)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... AFTER ELIZABETH by Leanda de Lisle HawerCollins, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 348, ISBN 0007126646 [telephone] 18 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 At Queen Elizabeth's funeral in April 1603, the predominant...

Two Funerals.(BOOKS)(Poem)
May 7, 2005... Two Funerals 'Such a beautiful service,' everyone said, But you missed your own party, because you were dead. We wolfed down the canapes, drained the champagne, And you'll be remembered like last ...

Psychic jaunts and jollities.(Beyond Black)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... BEYOND BLACK by Hilary Mantel Fourth Estate, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 452, ISBN 0007157754 [telephone] 14.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 It was always on the cards, to use a rather obvious metaphor,...

Love is all you need.(The Alchemy of Desire)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... THE ALCHEMY OF DESIRE by Tarun J. Tejpal Picador, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 518, ISBN 033043554X [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 'At last, a new and brilliantly original novel from...

The slog of high command.(Douglas Haig)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... DOUGLAS HAIG edited by Gary Sheffield and John Bourne Weidenfeld, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 550, ISBN 0297847023 [telephone] 23 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Almost every day throughout the Great War of...

Lord of misrule.(Disneywar)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... DISNEYWAR by James B. Stewart Simon & Schuster, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 572, ISBN 0743263812 [telephone] 18 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 According to the business press, the age of the 'imperial CEO'...

The black market of the ocean.(The Wreckers)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... THE WRECKERS by Bella Bathurst HarperCollins, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 326, ISBN0007170327 [telephone] 14.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Shortly before dawn on the 22 March 2003, as the cargo ship...

Charity hopeth all things.(The End of Poverty)(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... THE END OF POVERTY by Jeffrey Sachs Penguin/Allen Lane, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 396, ISBN 0713998008 [telephone] 18 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.25 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 800 4848 Should rich nations give to poor nations? Put bluntly...

Revelation of space and time: Andrew Lambirth on an exhibition by one of the country's foremost sculptors.(ARTS)
May 7, 2005... Forms in Light and Shade, an exhibition of Nigel Hall's new work at Annely Juda Fine Art (23 Dering Street, W1, until 14 May), confirms him as one of our foremost sculptors, who has received too little official recognition in his country of...

Visual agility.(Exhibitions)(graphics)
May 7, 2005... Avant-Garde Graphics 1918-1934 Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, 39a Canonbury Square, N1, until 5 June, and touring It is difficult to place oneself in the position of the pioneers of graphic art shown at the Estorick Collection:...

Scottish dynamism.(Galleries)
May 7, 2005... It takes dynamic leadership and a favourable political climate to transform a small, long-established art institution into an international force, yet this has been accomplished by Sir Timothy Clifford and his able team at the National Gallery...

Friends reunited.(Olden but golden)(Cream)(Concert Review)
May 7, 2005... Now all the youth of England are on fire, declares the Chorus in Henry V. It wasn't quite like that at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday night when Cream played their first concert for almost 37 years. We were on fire all right, but we were the...

Welsh legacy.(Museums)
May 7, 2005... Conwy in north Wales is among the most enchanting of our small towns. It's like a toy fort, its encircling walls surviving intact until Thomas Telford had to breach them for his bridge. He did it elegantly, even delicately, creating a...

Out of touch.(Theatre)(Theater Review)
May 7, 2005... The Far Pavilions Shaftbury The Birthday Party Duchess Burlesque Arts Every once in a while, a musical comes along that is so breathtakingly awful--such a spectacular train wreck--that theatre buffs will move heaven...

Sonic shambles.(Music)
May 7, 2005... The television broadcasts of the late Pope's funeral and the marriage of Prince Charles, coming as they did on consecutive days, gave the opportunity to compare two different styles of choral singing at their most typical. Of course l am going...

Heroic success.(Opera)(Opera Review)
May 7, 2005... Ulysses Comes Home Birmingham Opera Company The Knot Garden Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House How should opera, and particular operas, be made 'relevant'? And what kind of relevance, anyway, should they try to achieve? The questions...

Death in Venice.(Radio)(Death of Faith)
May 7, 2005... When you are so addicted to writers' works and feel bereft after finishing all their novels, you become restless and fretful. It happened to me last year with the Aurelio Zen detective novels of Michael Dibdin, as I lamented in The Spectator...

Sugar fix.(Television)(The Apprentice )(Book Review)
May 7, 2005... The other night I went to see a man about a piano, a big German upright for which he's asking 1,800 [pounds sterling] including delivery and first tuning. I know exactly what all my business friends would do in this situation: they'd try to...

How to win.(High life)
May 7, 2005... Trust Tony Blair to call an election the day after The Spectator goes to press: 5 May is a lousy day for conservatives the world over. Karl Marx was born 5 May 1818 in Trier, the Rhineland. The only good thing about the date took place in 1816,...

Prize night.(Low life)(life styles)
May 7, 2005... It seems to be the season for the West Ham football hooligan memoir book launch. Last week it was Bill Gardner's autobiography, Good Afternoon, Gentlemen, the Name's Bill Gardner, co-written with Cass Pennant. Sharon made me take her to this...

Bamboozled.(Bridge)
May 7, 2005... SWEDISH international Gunnar Hallberg is not a man who often makes mistakes; he's as technically perfect as a bridge player can be. Getting the better of him at the table is, in football terms, as unlikely as getting the ball off Wayne Rooney....

Spectator mini-bar offer.
May 7, 2005... For this month's mini-bar we make a welcome return to The Vintry, the co-operative of wine lovers who discover their own favourites--chiefly in France, but increasingly elsewhere abroad--and sell them from their homes to friends and neighbours....

Varsity match.(CHESS)
May 7, 2005... This year's Varsity match was attended by the Lord Mayor of London Michael Savory, who opened the event. He also stayed for lunch, watched the games and proved a most congenial ambassador for the City of London. Cambridge scored 5 and Oxford...

Playtime.(COMPETITION)
May 7, 2005... In Competition No. 2390 you were invited to produce a poem which incorporates the titles of at least eight current West End theatrical productions. What with on the town, the anniversary, the birthday party, guys and dolls and blithe...

1713: who's who.(CROSSWORD)
May 7, 2005... One unclued light housed the remaining unclued lights (two of two words, and three pairs) which are of a kind. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Solution to 1710: Out of order Each clue was an anagram plus an anagram-indicator. First...

Meeting your match.(THE LOVE BUG)
May 7, 2005... WOMEN Seeking Men STUNNING, SOPHISTICATED, sexy blonde, 42, in need of tic from tall. gorgeous, cultured, professional businessman with wit, sophistication, a sensual, passionate nature and gsoh. Suffolk. Call me now on 0906 644 6844...

Kelly's eye.(SPECTATOR SPORT)(Ken Kelly, photographer)(Obituary)
May 7, 2005... Dotted about the house is the occasional sporting print. Flash, bang, wallop, what a photograph! At the top of our staircase is Herbert Fishwick's imperishable study at Sydney in 1928 of Hammond's pluperfect cover-drive--coiled power, poise,...

Your problems solved.
May 7, 2005... Dear Mary Q. My wife and I have been invited to an election-night party being given by neighbours of the opposite political persuasion to ourselves. We are very fond of these people but they are very much New Order and we are very much...

Portrait of the week.
May 14, 2005... Labour won a majority of 67 in the general election, securing 356 seats (of the 645 contested), 47 down, with 9,556,183 votes, 35.2 per cent of the total; the Conservatives won 197 seats, 33 tip, with 8,772,598 votes, 32.3 per cent of the...

Floreat Notting Hill.(UK election, 2005)
May 14, 2005... They are Achilles and Patroclus. They are David and Jonathan. They are Wallace and Gromit. Not since the emergence of the youthful Blair and Brown has there been a pair of politicians who have been so evidently close in ideology and outlook,...

Diary.(Column)
May 14, 2005... The trouble with country life is that it is so unhealthy. Where I used to walk to the Tube I now take the car. Where I used to go out and see friends I now ruin my eyes watching television. After 20 years in Leicestershire I am almost blind and...

The next election campaign starts now.(POLITICS)(UK election, 2005)
May 14, 2005... There has never been such a dramatic political decline. Three months ago, Tony Blair was full of plans for his third term. Now, he is a corpse waiting for a coffin. Three months ago, the Blairites were blithely dismissive of Gordon Brown. Now,...

The spectator's notes.(UK election, 2005)
May 14, 2005... The election has brought out the tension between Scotland and England (see last week's Notes). The Conservatives won more votes than Labour in England and, as before, managed only one seat in Scotland. Labour has 41 seats in Scotland, without...

The sad, strange, undignified end: Peter Oborne reports on how power has flowed invisibly but irrevocably from Tony Blair to Gordon Brown.(Cover Story)
May 14, 2005... A peculiar arrangement prevailed in 8th-century France, during the final decades of the Merovingian dynasty. The power of the kings, once savage and formidable, had subsided and then collapsed. They continued to enjoy the title of monarch, but...

The blairs.(Cartoon)
May 14, 2005... That reshuffle... NICE TO SEE YOU'VE ALL HAD THE MAKEOVER I SUGGESTED [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Why we lost: Boris Johnson says the Tories failed to convince the electorate that they were ready for government.
May 14, 2005... Now that there is not much chance of Michael Howard ever becoming prime minister, it is worth reflecting, for a second, that he would almost certainly have been very good at the job. He was a formidable home secretary. He did reduce crime. He...

Mind your language.
May 14, 2005... 'What does SIM mean?' asked my husband, looking up like a sulky sunset from a mobile-phone instruction booklet. Well, I knew what it was, but not what the acronym stood for. This independence of word and significand allows the tiresome...

Is Belarus next in line? Julian Evans on why the EU supports the US in its drive for freedom in Belarus.
May 14, 2005... If you listen carefully, you can hear the drums of revolution beating once more in Washington. The neoconservatives have found another regime that needs changing, another enemy of 'freedom', and they are setting about putting matters right in...

Sachs appeal: Angelina Jolie tells Alex Bilmes about her enthusiasm for the hottest economist on the block.(Interview)
May 14, 2005... fRecently I found myself idling away an afternoon in Angelina Jolie's Winnebago. Angelina and I were discussing books. More specifically, she was talking me through her taste in erotic fiction, which spans the centuries from the Marquis de Sade...

Victory for the fringe: rejoice, says Rod Liddle. Last week we rejected the status quo and voted for nutters, outsiders and misfits.(UK election 2005)
May 14, 2005... The scariest thing about the election, the thing that really mystifies me, is how come down in Exeter a total of 22,619 people found it in their hearts to vote for Ben Bradshaw. More than a thousand years after the noble Bishop Leofric was...

Does prison really work? Douglas Hurd notes that the sensational increase in the prison population has not been accompanied by a sensational reduction in crime.
May 14, 2005... They have changed Armley Prison since I visited as home secretary. The Victorian gatehouse with its axe-head windows and battlements still frowns over the city. I hope that grannies in Leeds still warn their children that they will end up...

Tories must be less strident.(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From Stuart Baran Sir: Simon Heifer tells us that what the Conservative party now needs, above all, is 'stability' ('The way ahead for Conservatives', 7 May). But it cannot have escaped his notice that the level of success we have enjoyed...

London is safer.(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From Julian Joyce Sir: There is a simple solution to Susan Hill's problem ('Sorry, the doctor can't see you now', 7 May). She needs to move to the city where, as she acknowledges, GPs are far more likely to attend her in an emergency....

Junk these machines.(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From Jessica Johnson Sir: I sympathise with Nicola Horlick's horror at the unappetising and unhealthy victuals she witnessed being consumed at a picnic on Bank Holiday Monday (Diary, 7 May). The same day I had the misfortune to be in the...

Tories need a new 'narrative'.(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From David Harcourt Sir: There is nothing new about the distortion of truth into a coherent 'narrative' which encourages popular adherence to a particular world-view (Peter Oborne, 'What's truth got to do with it'?', 30 April). The Romans...

Promiscuity spreads Aids.(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From Dr James McEvoy Sir: I enjoyed Frank Johnson's analysis of the recent papal election (Shared opinion, 23 April), but it is a pity he repeats the canard that the Catholic Church helps to propagate Aids in Africa by advocating sexual...

Not so bel canto.(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From J.L.A. Hartley Sir: Peter Phillips (Arts, 7 May) wonders why there should be such a gap between the standards of the Sistine Chapel choir and the average English cathedral or collegiate choir. I agree, with qualifications, that there...

Critical errors.(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From Jeffrey D. Sachs Sir: Tim Congdon's review of my book The End of Poverty (Books, 7 May) is repeatedly incorrect. Here is a sampling of his errors. 'But the blunt truth is that malaria, one of the health scourges of sub-Saharan...

With friends like Taki ...(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From Manuel Escott Sir: Taki's column in which he hails the election of Pope Benedict (High life, 30 April) is one of his most richly comic to date. The German Holy Father will, I am sure, be gratified to know that Taki for one will be...

Hitler's canine guinea pig.(Letter to the Editor)
May 14, 2005... From Joan Kilford Sir: Charles Moore made an attempt to convince us that Hitler killed his dog out of pity, in case she fell into Russian hands (The Spectator's Notes, 30 April). People present in Hitler's bunker bear witness to the fact...