Spectator articles from October 2008

Spectator archives from October 2008

The leader we need.
October 4, 2008... The latest news in the financial crisis is that, after weeks of blame-calling by all parties--generally misdirected, as Dennis Sewell argues in our cover story--a single culprit has at last been identified. It is human nature--that incorrigible...

Diary.(Personal account)
October 4, 2008... I was without my dance partner last week. John Stapleton had abandoned me on the GMTV sofa for the comforts of a hotel in Manchester and a well-stocked mini-bar. Apparently this particular Labour party conference was like a family having...

Cameron has emerged as a serious man for serious times.(POLITICS)(David Cameron)
October 4, 2008... The champagne ban was nonnegotiable: David Cameron did not want any of his aides drinking bubbly at the Conservative party conference. Not that they needed much telling. The mood was already so sombre that some Tory staffers were decanting cans...

The Spectator's notes.(Column)
October 4, 2008... Birmingham David Cameron's 'statesmanlike' promise on Tuesday to do whatever is necessary to save the nation and reach 'across the aisle', as they say in Congress, is one of the dirtiest and oldest political tricks, but no less effective...

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody.(Column)
October 4, 2008... Sunday Am exhausted already. It's this earpiece. Every time I get settled into watching a debate or fringe event I hear Gary's voice shouting orders and I'm running off to some other place where an alleged BCR (Breach of Complacency Rules)...

[Cartoon].(Cartoon)
October 4, 2008... $500 billion! $600 billion! $700 billion! OUT!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! MAY I REMIND YOU THAT WE'VE ALL LOST! IT'S A FIX! WE'VE BIN STITCHED UP! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Clinton Democrats are to blame for the credit crunch; our current financial turmoil is not the fault of greedy bankers, says Dennis Sewell. In fact, the banks were bullied into lowering their lending standards by left-wing idealists intent on equal opportunities at any cost.(Bill Clinton, Democratic Party)
October 4, 2008... 'Let us be clear: this is a crisis caused on Wall Street,' insisted Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her consensus-strangling speech on Monday, shortly before her fellow members of the House of Representatives voted to reject the President's $700...

The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards.(Brief article)
October 4, 2008... Nominations for the inaugural Spectator's Readers' Representative award are now open. The entries received so far show that there are at least some elected officials who have earned both the trust and respect of their constituents. Oliver...

The masters of the universe have turned to drink; the failure of the $700 billion bail-out has driven her former City-boy chums to despair, says Venetia Thompson. But they must rally soon to keep the market moving.
October 4, 2008... It's possible to get a reservation again at Scott's. The City boys have well and truly left the building, and can now be found drowning their sorrows elsewhere, in dark corners of the West End and Chelsea, as far away from the prying eyes of...

Sex, lies and apparitions: millions travel to Medjugorje each year but, says Simon Caldwell, the world-famous pilgrimage site may soon be exposed as a fraud.(Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
October 4, 2008... The Medjugorje story begins early in 1976 when a Franciscan monk in the former Yugoslavia, Father Tomislav Vlasic, starts an affair with a nun who becomes pregnant. Frightened he will be exposed as the child's father, Father Vlasic persuades...

I'm proud to be famous for being rude: swearing and shouting are underrated, says Giles Coren. Four-letter words can be immensely satisfying and extraordinarily effective.
October 4, 2008... When I was ever so small and sweet, romper-suited and frilly-booted and really quite an angel to look at, I must have had a gob on me like an angry plasterer, because the only piece of advice I can remember my mother ever giving me is: 'If...

Why has the word 'grandmother' been banned by the guardian? Rod Liddle analyses the extraordinary list of mostly harmless words and phrases that are now considered inappropriate by one of our leading national newspapers.(LIDDLE BRITAIN)(Column)
October 4, 2008... There are too few active homosexuals and career women in the Third World. This is because blacks and Asians--from Australasia to Bangalore--have a tendency to put them in a pot, cook them and eat them. Primitive African tribes also eat crippled...

The church is culpable too.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 4, 2008... Sir: Will Rowan Williams start his call for 'fresh scrutiny and regulation in the financial world' ('Face it: Marx was partly right about capitalism', 27 September) by glancing at the institution he heads? I am told that the 2007 Church of...

Fired again.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 4, 2008... Sir: My friend Toby Young listed the magazines and newspapers he has been fired from in the last 22 years (Status anxiety, 27 September). His list is incomplete: I would like to point out that I also fired him from GQ once, after I rashly hired...

Bad gun.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 4, 2008... Sir: It made me wonder, after reading Charles Moore's anecdote about a shooting accident where the perpetrator denied shooting one of his party (The Spectator's Notes, 13 September), if such a reaction isn't endemic. The very same thing...

The wrong Tarzan.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 4, 2008... Sir: I write on behalf of 'Cheeta', who went ape on seeing the caption under the photograph on page 37 in the most recent Spectator. The Tarzan shown in the photo is not the Romanian Johnny Weissmuller, whom Cheeta could not understand, but the...

Family fortunes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 4, 2008... Sir: Jonathan Mirsky's review of Alexander Waugh's book on the family Wittgenstein (Books, 20 September) perhaps reveals more about The Spectator's sturdy Europhobia than about the Wittgensteins themselves. He doubts if the Wittgensteins would...

On Bodmin Moor.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 4, 2008... Sir: 'On an exercise during misty weather on that fearsome place Bodmin Moor, I was the only one to get my platoon back safely,' says Paul Johnson (And another thing, 20 September). We cannot doubt this statement, since we know Mr Johnson to be...

From Hadrian to Gordon: sublime to ridiculous.(AND ANOTHER THING)(Gordon Brown)(Column)
October 4, 2008... Why do men want to rule the world? The question is prompted by the British Museum's exhibition of objects from Hadrian's day. They have gone to a lot of trouble. Worth it? Hadrian was one of those supremely busy, and colossally boring, people...

Was I wrong to turn down my chance to star on Tory TV?(SHARED OPINION)(television)(Column)
October 4, 2008... 'Would you be interested,' said the startlingly eager girl at the Birmingham conference centre, 'in recording a message in the Conservative Video Box?' God, I was pleased about that. There I was, neither a blond female, nor a readily...

Can Comrade Hank find a way through this crisis? The US Treasury chief sees his interventionism as a case-by-case response to unprecedented events, says James Doran, but his critics see it as inconsistent, dangerous and 'un-American'.(BUSINESS)(Hank Paulson)
October 4, 2008... New York It's hard to keep up with Hank Paulson, the grim-faced US Treasury Secretary and would-be architect of a new financial order. Over the past eight months, since the collapse of the investment bank Bear Stearns, Paulson has been...

Farewell to the bank that did Dull.(FINANCIAL CRISIS)(Lloyds TSB Group PLC)
October 4, 2008... This is getting serious--so serious that I've done something I may have cause to regret terribly a year or two hence. I have sold my shares in Lloyds TSB. I did so with a heavy heart, and an even heavier loss, since they were bought when the...

A laughing cavalier.(Cartoons and Coronets: The Genius of Osbert Lancaster)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... CARTOONS AND CORONETS: THE GENIUS OF OSBERT LANCASTER introduced and selected by James Knox Frances Lincoln, 15 [pounds sterling], pp. 224, ISBN 9780711229334 [telephone] 12 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p)...

Morality tale with a difference.(A Most Wanted Man)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... A MOST WANTED MAN by John le Carre Hodder & Stoughton, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 340, ISBN 9780340977064 [telephone] 15.19 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

A safe pair of hands.(A Political Suicide: The Conservatives' Voyage Into the Wilderness)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... A POLITICAL SUICIDE: THE CONSERVATIVES' VOYAGE INTO THE WILDERNESS by Norman Fowler Politico's, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 238, ISBN 9781842752272 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429...

Her First Ball.(Poem)(Brief article)
October 4, 2008... Hert First Ball For the school dance I wore a circular skirt-- full length, and a full-circle swirl of apple green; I bought the pattern; my mother made the frock. But what to do with my hair: so little-girlish, too...

Diving into darkness.(Connemara: The Last Pool of Darkness)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... CONNEMARA: THE LAST POOL OF DARKNESS by Tim Robinson Penguin, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 359, ISBN 9781844881550 [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In...

Carrie on shopping.(One Fifth Avenue)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... ONE FIFTH AVENUE by Candace Bushnell Little Brown, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 469, ISBN 9781408701119 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of...

Unruly children as parents.(Starstruck)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... STARSTRUCK by Cosmo Landesman Macmillan, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 324, ISBN 9780330446280 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If as a child you found your parents embarrassing then this hiss-and-tell memoir will make you feel a lot...

The pragmatic approach.(What Next? Surviving the Twenty-First Century)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... WHAT NEXT? SURVIVING THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by Chris Patten Allen Lane, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 459, ISBN 9780713998566 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION...

'The Half: Photographs of Actors Preparing for the Stage'.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'The Half' is how actors refer to the half hour before their play begins, when they ready themselves, steady themselves, for their performance. For 25 years Simon Annand has been allowed to catch these vulnerable...

The end of old Labour.(Downing Street Diary: With James Callaghan in No. 10)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... DOWNING STREET DIARY: WITH JAMES CALLAGHAN IN NO.10 by Bernard Donoughue Cape, 30 [pounds sterling], pp. 562, ISBN 9780224073806 [telephone] 24 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION...

Of cabbages and kings.(Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... GARDENS: AN ESSAY ON THE HUMAN CONDITION by Robert Pogue Harrison University of Chicago Press, 12.50 [pounds sterling], pp. 248, ISBN 9780226317892 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When I was a student, my Cambridge supervisor said, in...

Aitken Drum.(Poem)(Brief article)
October 4, 2008... Aitken Drum The older children carry their own drips and lines down the corridor for activities. Music today, two people with guitars and a box of percussion bash out Aitken Drum, once through for each child. ...

Back to simplicity.(Mlinaric on Decorating)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... MLINARIC ON DECORATING by Mirabel Cecil and David Mlinaric Frances Lincoln, 35 [pounds sterling], pp. 320, ISBN 9780711225411 [telephone] 28 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION...

Stage-effects in earnest.(Churchill's Wizards)(Book review)
October 4, 2008... CHURCHILL'S WIZARDS by Nicholas Rankin Faber, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 466, ISBN 9780571221960 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Deception plays a...

A very slippery book.(LIFE & LETTERS)(Column)
October 4, 2008... A review of another biography of that tiresome poser, Lady Hester Stanhope, sent me back to Kinglake's Eothen and the account of the visit he paid the Queen of the Desert, who dwelt in tents (as he found she didn't) and reigned over wandering...

A power to enthral: Henrietta Bredin on how book illustrations can bring the narrative to life.
October 4, 2008... The illustrations in children's books play a crucial role in expanding the imaginative horizons of the reader and fixing the story in the memory. The very best book illustration is so inextricably linked to the text that it is hard to think of...

Meditation on meaning.(Exhibitions)
October 4, 2008... Rothko Tate Modern, until 1 February 2009 The first thing that should be noted is that this exhibition is not the retrospective that its title implies. In fact, it's a severely limited show, concentrating on the late work only. There...

Losing is the new winning.(Cinema)(Movie review)
October 4, 2008... How to Lose Friends and Alienate People 15, Nationwide How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is based on Toby Young's best-selling memoir of the same name and, already, I know what you are thinking. You are thinking: what, a film...

iPod dilemma.(Pop)(Column)
October 4, 2008... A musician friend of mine acquired his first iPod recently, and like small boys who don't realise that everyone else went through this about five years ago, he and I frequently discuss our battles with the things. To be fair, though, there is...

Confusing frolic.(Opera)('La Calisto', 'Tosca')(Opera review)
October 4, 2008... La Calisto Royal Opera House Tosca Opera North, Leeds It's not often that you find the Royal Opera going as far back as the 17th century, no doubt for the good reason that operas written then are not suitable for performance...

Playing games.(Theatre)('Six Characters in Search of an Author', 'Riflemind')(Theater review)
October 4, 2008... Six Characters in Search of an Author Gielgud Riflemind Trafalgar Studios Pirandello, the master of pretentious bombast, is perhaps the most talent-free of all Nobel laureates. Here he is in the West End with one of his...

Sound sensations.(Radio)('The Archive Hour', 'Jazz Library')(Radio program review)
October 4, 2008... Why do some sounds endure to jolt the memory and take us back to a specific moment in time, like Proust's taste sensations, while others fade away? The chunter-chunter-chunt of a steam train, for instance, is instantly recognisable even for...

Campaigning genius.(Television)('Jamie's Ministry of Food', 'Ian Hislop Goes Off the Rails')(Television program review)
October 4, 2008... 'People have a problem with me,' claims Jamie Oliver, but I'm not one of them. I've had my doubts in the past--overuse of phrases like 'luvly jubbly', the Sainsbury's ads, the general extreme jealousy of his stupendous wealth, ruining my...

Team tactics.(The turf)(Column)
October 4, 2008... An old friend in journalism, well aware that he was prone to conspiracy theories, especially where his own career was concerned, used to say to me, 'Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean the bastards aren't out to get me.' So were the...

In praise of older women.(High life)(Column)
October 4, 2008... When I read that actor Robert Wagner had had a four-year-long affair with Barbara Stanwyck back in 1952, my first reaction was that of envy and more envy. Wagner is 77 this year and Babs would have been 101, so when they were canoodling...

Health check.(Low life)(Column)
October 4, 2008... 'My life's over, doctor,' I said. 'A young man like you! Nonsense!' he said, peering at me over his half-moon glasses. He was that wonderful combination: a fat man squeezed into an old-fashioned waistcoat. Occasionally, he mopped the...

Horse Cure.(Wild life)(Column)
October 4, 2008... Wars never get easier. Since Georgia, I have had flashbacks of an elderly woman crying her eyes out after being driven from her village by Russian bombs. When I was younger I used to bring real black dogs home with me, but not so much nowadays....

Garden shorts.(LIFE)(Brief article)(Column)
October 4, 2008... Where do you stand on the most important issue of the day, namely, whether the BBC should have passed over Carol Klein, to be chief presenter of BBC 2's Gardeners' World after the retirement of Monty Don, in favour of Toby Buckland? The news...

Second-hand heaven.(Slow life)(Column)
October 4, 2008... The tent had been a big hit over the summer. They called it a tent, but it was big enough for elephants and tightropes: a big top as big as a ballroom and just as plush, lined and interlined like lush pair of curtains, certainly ridiculous, but...

Switching off.(Bridge)(Brief article)
October 4, 2008... Whenever I leave my mobile phone anywhere--which I do with alarming regularity--I feel as though I've been disconnected from the world. Still, there are times when mobiles can be a big nuisance: at plays, for instance, or concerts, or funerals....

Spectator mini-bar offer.(Buyers guide)
October 4, 2008... One thing I like about the wine trade is that people are always optimistic. If the country is prospering, why, they say, folk will spend loads more on wine. If we are in deep trouble, as today, we will eschew eating out and stay at home with a...

To the manner born: James Sherwood discovers a new meaning to the phrase 'fashion house'.(STYLE)(Tom Ford International)
October 4, 2008... It is both blessing and curse for luxury goods brands that they largely appeal to cads and parvenus. Would a true gentleman wish for a 15,000 [pounds sterling] white alligator attache-case or oversize sunglasses whose frames could accommodate a...

Championship.(CHESS)
October 4, 2008... On 14 October the most important event of the year commences in Bonn, the World Championship match between defending champion Viswanathan Anand and the former champion Vladimir Kramnik. The match will consist of twelve games and there will be a...

Spoil sport.(COMPETITION)(Column)
October 4, 2008... In Competition No. 2564 you were invited to submit a feature looking back at the Olympic Games written in the overblown style of a sportswriter with literary pretensions. High-brow followers of football are nothing new. And these days, as...

1884: counting the pennies.(CROSSWORD)(Brief article)
October 4, 2008... The unclued lights (two of two words), individually or as four pairs, are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Disciplined, cheerful, humble and truly nice--Simon Pegg is everything I'm not.(STATUS ANXIETY)(Column)
October 4, 2008... It is a strange experience interviewing the actor who has just played you in the film of your life. Simon Pegg has been cast as yours truly in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and the first thing he does is remind me that there is scene in...

The Wiki man: a fortnightly column on technology and the web.(Column)
October 4, 2008... One of the most interesting books from the last year has been Revisiting Keynes: Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (MIT Press, 20 [pounds sterling])--a reprint of a 1931 essay by J.M. Keynes in which he describes what his readers'...

Dear Mary.(YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED)(Column)
October 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Q. Last week I gave lunch to my dear goddaughter and her equally dear mother in a fashionable restaurant. Both my goddaughter and I were rendered speechless when her mother produced a plastic bottle of water from her...

A necessary evil.(Editorial)
October 11, 2008... Though largely forgotten now, the headlines ten years ago this week had an uncanny resemblance to those of the past few days. There was an emergency bailout, demands to slash interest rates, bankers warning that the world's economic system was...

Diary.(Personal account)
October 11, 2008... Parliament is back and I can relax. A tiresome cliche holds that MPs have a three-month summer break. If only. I have spent more time canvassing, selling tombola tickets and doing politics than ever before. And then on the eve of the Commons...

It's worth giving Mandelson a job if it keeps him out of trouble.(POLITICS)(Peter Mandelson)
October 11, 2008... Gordon Brown's critics are confused. For months they have been accusing him of dithering, of timidity, of being unable to make the bold moves that are needed if his government is to get a grip on the unfolding problems in the financial sector...

The Spectator's notes.(Column)
October 11, 2008... We all know that everything about money comes down to confidence, but normally, because we have that confidence, we do not think about what this means. Now we must. We have learnt that mighty banks are nothing if customers--and other...

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody.(Column)
October 11, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MONDAY Everyone in a panic about our Greek taverna line. Am starting to wish I never mentioned it. DD keeps ringing up to tell Gids about big game hunting. 'I know, I know,' I told him. 'You'd better be sure you...

Amid the financial turmoil, Peter versus George is the key battle: stand by for a mighty clash between two politicians, says Fraser Nelson. The now infamous dinner between Mandelson and Osborne was a cordial parting for power-brokers of different generations who will fight each other savagely for electoral advantage.
October 11, 2008... The Taverna Agni is one of the more expensive restaurants in Corfu, but one would scarcely expect Peter Mandelson and George Osborne to slum it. As is normal for members of London's political elite, they found themselves in the same exotic...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
October 11, 2008... FOR GOD'S SAKE MANDY, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FINISH!?? Que Sera Sera What ever will be will be... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Maybe Polanski was right to flee America: P.G. Morgan goes in search of the truth about the great director's flight from the US courts--and uncovers some uncomfortable truths worthy of a scene in Chinatown.(Roman Polanski)
October 11, 2008... High above the heat and smog of Los Angeles, a small cardboard box sits on a shelf in LA's Superior Court building awaiting its Hollywood moment. The handwriting on the box--P v Polanski #A334129--has faded in the Californian sun. But the box's...

Only Abba can save the world financial markets: Martin Vander Weyer says that the collapse in the markets reflects a loss of confidence that is out of proportion to all reason: a trip to Mamma Mia! is the answer to this hysteria.
October 11, 2008... At the historic moment when the House of Representatives passed Hank Paulson's bailout bill last Friday night--thus, we must hope, despite early indications to the contrary, significantly improving the world's chances of avoiding economic...

An evening with the Muslim Facebook crew: Sarfraz Manzoor celebrates an iftar meal with homeless people and his fellow Muslims, a web-generated 'flashmob' observing an Islamic tradition of generosity to the needy.
October 11, 2008... It is sundown in Lincoln's Inn Fields, a large outdoor square behind London's Holborn Underground station. I am here to meet a man called Miqdad Asaria who had invited me to attend what he had described as a 'flashmob iftar'. During the month...

Strictly Come Dancing is not the BBC's core broadcasting: Rod Liddle--a former editor of the Today programme--says that the Corporation must stop pretending to be democratic if it is to keep the licence fee. Unashamed elitism is the only chance that the Beeb has in the new media world.(British Broadcasting Corporation)(Column)
October 11, 2008... One of the first things to go to hell when the Soviet Union collapsed was elitist early evening television. Within a remarkably short period of time the opera and the ballet and the documentaries moved down the schedules to be replaced by the...

The blame game.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 11, 2008... Sir: While I do not flinch from looking on the Clinton era as a disaster for its neglect of the threat to global security posed by bin Laden et al and the tacit encouragement of Enron-style corporate accounting, I think blaming the Democrats...

Linguistic thickets.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 11, 2008... Sir: I am pleased that it annoys Rod Liddle (Liddle Britain, 4 October) as much as it does me that BBC newsreaders have the annoying habit of affecting the local dialect to pronounce the names of foreign cities and leaders who the BBC...

A firm line on Medjugorje.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 11, 2008... Sir: It is good that the Vatican is finally taking a firmer line against the Medjugorje cult ('Sex, lies and apparitions', 4 October). Too many of my fellow Catholics have been throwing their money away to support this fraud, despite the...

A place of miracles?(Letter to the editor)
October 11, 2008... Sir: In your article focused on Medjugorje the overdue action by the Vatican against the known activities of Fr Vlasic is of course a defence of the Medjugorjian phenomenon rather than a 'blow against it'. The priest in question has not been in...

Bullets in the bottom.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 11, 2008... Sir: Peter B. Martin's letter (Letters, 4 October) took me back to a rain-swept moor near Catterick Camp in September, 1954. National service recruits from the 65th Training Regiment, RAC, were acting as beaters for a senior officers' shoot....

On Charles V and the Pope.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 11, 2008... Sir: As Paul Johnson should know (And another thing, 4 October), there never was an Emperor Charles V of Spain. Karl V of Austria (technically a Duchy) was also King Carlos Primero in Hispanidad, and elected Holy Roman Emperor in the German...

'Market': a dirty word?(Letter to the editor)
October 11, 2008... Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator's Notes, 4 October) touches on an issue which has been the occasional subject of my thoughts since the Conservatives coined their slogan 'Of course there's such a thing as society--it's just not the same thing...

Pride and infamy.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
October 11, 2008... Sir: Your new acquisition Giles Coren ('I'm proud to be famous for being rude', 4 October) says he is proud to be famous for being rude. I wonder what Dot Wordsworth thinks of that. If the English language still means anything, surely the word...

Sit back and enjoy the world economic crisis in three minutes.(ANOTHER VOICE)
October 11, 2008... DRAMATIS PERSONAE: Joe Citizen (a citizen) Jack and Jill Jones (Joe's neighbours) Mr Whatam-Ibid (a surveyor) Mr Ballpark-Estimate (a valuer) Ms Dreamhomes (an estate agent) Mr Moneybags ...

The cartoonist who could make even God the Father laugh.(AND ANOTHER THING)(James Thurber)(Column)
October 11, 2008... People who are infuriated by the huge sums paid for stuffed animals in tanks and the adulation heaped on Francis Bacon's squiggly horrors should grasp that there is no reason or logic in aesthetics. Andy Warhol, no mean exponent of effrontery,...

Safe as houses: why Nationwide survived: Matthew Lynn says Britain's largest building society prospered by refusing to follow fashion--while its bolder, greedier rivals have all gone bust or been taken over.(CITY & FINANCE)
October 11, 2008... Over the last 25 years, Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare has been a poor guide to financial markets. As the swashbuckling investment banks rose in power and influence, everyone had their money on the fast, fluffy creature with the big...

The No. 1 tax detective agency.(THE TAXPAYERS' ALLIANCE)(TaxPayers' Alliance)
October 11, 2008... Seldom has tax featured in the media over the past decade without the lanky figure of Robert Chote of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, or his predecessor Andrew Dilnot, popping up to discuss it. Yet recently the IFS's monopoly has come under...

A riposte to the Archbishop: leading hedge-fund manager Paul Marshall says Rowan Williams was wrong to scapegoat share traders.(SHORT-SELLING)
October 11, 2008... When Rowan Williams and John Sentamu took up their crosiers against shortsellers, they chose strange company: Ken Lay, the disgraced chief executive of Enron, Dennis Kozlowski, the jailed boss of Tyco (who took out full-page ads against...