The Spectator articles from November 2009

The Spectator archives from November 2009

Can Cameron deliver?(David Cameron)
November 14, 2009... There is something about 'compassionate conservatism' that infuriates the Labour party, as if the very phrase were a deceitful contradiction in terms. The notion sends Gordon Brown into apoplexy. He can handle the Tories talking about economic...

Spelling it out.(Gordon Brown's comfort letter with the soldier's name mispelled)(Brief article)
November 14, 2009... Sympathy for Gordon Brown is not a common emotion in Westminster, but this week only the coldest heart could fail to feel for the Prime Minister. It is mortifying to have misspelt the name of a fallen soldier, even if the mistake was minor. To...

Portrait of the week.(status of British forces in Afghanistan, DNA profiling, shooting at Fort Hood military base in Texas, USA )
November 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said that British forces would be fighting the Taleban in Afghanistan until at least 2014, by which date the Afghan National Army would 'be able to take the lead on security...

Diary.(women voters, bicycle safety, National Gallery's art exhibition)
November 14, 2009... Not long ago, I astounded the men sitting next to me at a dinner party (yes, dinner parties still take place here and there) by saying that I thought Gordon Brown was handsome, and indeed had sex appeal. The men exclaimed that I had gone off my...

The trouble with Grieve: Cameron may regret leaving the law to a lawyer.(POLITICS)(Dominic Grieve and David Cameron)
November 14, 2009... After a good meal, Tory MPs like to play a game: guess the first resignation from David Cameron's Cabinet. For a party that loves plots and intrigue, this goes some way to making up for the fact that everyone will be on their best behaviour...

How the Tories can still win in Europe: a week after David Cameron ruled out a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, hardly a squeak of protest has been heard from Eurosceptics in his party. It's not because they have accepted defeat, says Fraser Nelson, but because they are deadly serious about victory.(Conservative Party)(Cover story)(Essay)
November 14, 2009... Anyone who believed last week's talk of the death of Tory Euroscepticism should have booked a table at Bellamy's restaurant in Mayfair on Monday. There, the No Turning Back group of Tories had gathered to discuss tactics, and how to continue the...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
November 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Sleepwalking into disaster in Afghanistan: John C. Hulsman says that America's declining status will ultimately doom its Afghan campaign. Obama must learn from Britain how best to manage the decline of an empire.(Essay)
November 14, 2009... I have just returned from two weeks talking to my friends in the administration and it is horrifyingly apparent that the Obama White house is sleepwalking toward disaster in Afghanistan. The President, reminded by his domestic advisers of the fate...

Why is everyone determined to be outraged all the time: Rod Liddle wonders where it will end if every grievance must be taken seriously and anyone who is offended by anything expects a pint of blood.(LIDDLE BRITAIN)
November 14, 2009... There's been a rather wonderful debate bubbling along at the Guardian, about the French minister Pierre Lellouche's use of the word 'autistic' to describe the English Tories. Well, in fact that's not quite what the debate has been about; everyone...

Mind your language.(pronunciation of the words lieutenant and women)(Column)
November 14, 2009... Two rather odd pronunciations to have gathered ground this year are of the words women and lieutenant. I think I heard Evan Davies say lootenant the other morning, though it might have been a stumble. My husband does not like the pronunciation...

Kinnock and the Kremlin: in the second part of our investigation into Labour's dealings with the USSR, Pavel Stroilov reveals the secret Soviet diplomacy behind one leader's most famous victory.(LABOUR AND THE SOVIETS)(Essay)
November 14, 2009... Labour leaders, past and present, will be wishing this week that Anatoly Chernyaev had not been such an assiduous diarist. Along with thousands of documents left in the archives after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the diplomat's personal...

Listen up, Dave: to care is not to do: David Frum on the lessons the Tories can learn from the original conservative moderniser: George W. Bush, whose progressive policies often just didn't add up.(David Cameron)(Essay)
November 14, 2009... Political parties typically undergo a four-stage cycle after a major defeat. It goes something like this: 1. We didn't really lose. (The other guys just happened to luck into an appealing candidate--but the people still really prefer us.) 2. OK,...

The 'bovver birds' are back: Sarah Standing's daughter was attacked by a girl gang--but it wasn't an isolated incident. Female thugs, of the sort who ran riot in the 1970s, are roaming the streets again.(Essay)
November 14, 2009... It was a beautiful balmy evening when my youngest daughter finished school last summer. The A-level results had just arrived, and she was happily ambling home from supper with two girlfriends. They were in no rush. They're 18 and were about to...

Yes to Bach, no to Debussy: the 'poet of the piano', Murray Perahia, talks to Igor Toronyi-Lalic about being championed by Horowitz, his rise to fame and how his injury taught him what to play.(Essay)
November 14, 2009... Murray Perahia was 17 when Vladimir Horowitz, perhaps the finest pianist of the 20th century, knocked on the door of his family house in the Bronx. 'Could I speak to Mr Perahia?' the great man said through the door. 'Hold on, I'll get my father,'...

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody.(male and female staff of politicians)
November 14, 2009... MONDAY V difficult to know how to respond to this one. Sometimes, something is so sad that it is better to just let it go. We had a big brainstorming session on Sunday with policy people, image consultants, focus group teams. In the end, it was...

Is running a country just too big a job for anyone?(SHARED OPINION)
November 14, 2009... You don't expect people to take their political inspiration from Jon Bon Jovi. Or at least I don't. Maybe that's terribly presumptuous of me. Maybe some people do. 'Tommy used to work on the docks/ Union's been on strike/ He's down on his luck,...

I'm famous at last--thanks to the internet (and this column).(YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE)(Column)
November 14, 2009... I don't know quite how to put this without sounding nauseatingly smug or dangerously hubristic, but I think I might finally have become almost-famous. The revelation occurred while I was doing Vanessa Feltz's show on BBC Radio London. I was...

Santander: the bank that escaped the credit crunch: Matthew Lynn investigates the rise and rise of the family-run Spanish bank that now has 24 million British customers--and wonders whether its story is too good to be true.(BUSINESS)
November 14, 2009... If ever a banking deal came with the curse of the black spot, it was the takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro at the height of the last boom in 2007. Three European banks teamed up to launch a hostile 49 billion [pounds sterling] raid, the largest...

A trade deficit in chief executives.(IN THE BOARDROOM)
November 14, 2009... One of the oft-repeated excuses for high executive pay is the need to compete for top talent in an international market. A scan through a list of heads of FTSE 100 companies certainly shows just how many boards go abroad for their boss: 41 of the...

Alternatives to poppy-farming and gun-slinging: Katrina Manson explores the challenges faced by plucky would-be entrepreneurs in Helmand province.(THE AFGHAN ECONOMY)
November 14, 2009... I finally get to ask my question of the man who says he knows every statistic in a notoriously data-less country. 'OK, mister-chief-statistics-officer-for-the-province,' I say in my best Pashtu, with a little help from my ever-smiling interpreter....

Christmas books I: the best and worst books of the year, chosen by some of our regular contributors.(Recommended readings)
November 14, 2009... MARCUS BERKMANN I tend to read non-fiction for review or research and fiction to keep me sane. This year I have rarely been more than two books away from another Georges Simenon. I started late last year with three old Maigrets I found on a shelf...

Was he anti-Semitic?('The Letters of T.S. Eliot, vol. 1-2')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... THE LETTERS OF T. S. ELIOT, VOLUME I 1898-1922 VOLUME II, 1923-1925 edited by Valerie Eliot and Hugh Haughton Faber, 35 [pounds sterling] each, pp. 871, pp. 878, ISBN 97805761235094, 9780571140817 [telephone] 28 [pounds sterling](plus 2.45...

Reader, beware.('Telling Tales: A History of Literary Hoaxes')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... TELLING TALES: A HISTORY OF LITERARY HOAXES by Melissa Katsoulis Constable, 8.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 328, ISBN 9781849010801 [telephone] 7.19 [pounds sterling](plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In this...

Facetious or scandalous?('An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain' and 'The Making of Modern Britain')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... AN UTTERLY EXASPERATED HISTORY OF MODERN BRITAIN by John O'Farrell Doubleday, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 375, ISBN 9780385616225 [telephone] 15.19 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 THE MAKING OF MODERN...

Keen.(BOOKS)(Poem)
November 14, 2009... I'll show the bastards. First in, he flicks on the strip lights, scours the enamel jug spotless, the five tea mugs, plugs in the kettle. After binning the bin bag, he wipes down the table. Not a stick in sight for them to beat him...

Just the bare bones.('The Humbling')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... THE HUMBLING by Philip Roth Cape, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 140, ISBN 978 0224087933 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45[pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is impossible (as I prove in this sentence)...

Chic lit.('Redeeming Features')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... REDEEMING FEATURES by Nicholas Haslam Cape, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 348, ISBN 9780224089715 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] First, I must declare an interest. I have...

Man and urchin.('Best Seat in the House')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE by Frank Johnson J. R. Books, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 338, ISBN 9781906779337 [telephone] 15.19 (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Frank Johnson, the finest and funniest...

When words were scarce.('Where the Hell Have You Been?')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN? by Tom Carver Short Books, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 246, ISBN 9781906021535 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Most of us are brought...

Delight and horror.('Love to the Little Ones')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... LOVE TO THE LITTLE ONES edited by Louisa Lane Fox Frances Lincoln, 14.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 303, ISBN 9780711229402 [telephone] 11.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'Everything...

Behind the white face.('The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... THE PANTOMIME LIFE OF JOSEPH GRIMALDI by Andrew McConnell Stott Canongate, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN 9781847672957 [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Has there ever been a more...

The last man to know everything.('Athanasius Kircher's Theatre of the World')(Book review)
November 14, 2009... ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S THEATRE OF THE WORLD by Joscelyn Godwin Thames & Hudson, 40 [pounds sterling], pp. 304, ISBN 9780500258606 [telephone] 32 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Joscelyn Godwin, the author...

Dallas bucks the trend: Henrietta Bredin talks to Spencer de Grey, architect of the new opera house in Texas.(ARTS)(Interview)
November 14, 2009... There can't be a gesture much more brave and defiant than building a new opera house in the current doom-laden financial climate. Deep in the heart of Texas, in the centre of its freshly revamped arts district, Dallas has done exactly that. The...

Risque associations.(Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska, Gill)
November 14, 2009... WILD THING: EPSTEIN, GAUDIER-BRZESKA, GILL Royal Academy, until 24 January 2010 Supported by BNP Paribas and The Henry Moore Foundation It's an unlikely grouping, this alliance of Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska and Gill. In many ways, this should be...

Top of the class.('L'assedio di Calais')(Opera review)
November 14, 2009... L'assedio di Calais Guildhall School of Music and Drama This is the time of year, before the long hibernation of opera companies sets in, when there is sometimes a choice of several operas per night, many of them performed by the schools of...

Present, conserve, explain.(Ashmolean Museum)
November 14, 2009... 'Thank you. It's magnificent,' said Philip Pullman as he opened the new extension at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford at the end of October. And magnificent it certainly is, a triumphant reinvention of the Ashmolean, with 39...

Darwin revisited.('Origin of Species' and 'Seize the Day')(Theater review)
November 14, 2009... Origin of species Arcola Seize the Day Tricycle Oh, not again. Yup, I'm afraid so. I had no wish to return to the vexed topic of Darwinism but a much-praised show in east London tempted me out on a frosty night to the Arcola theatre. Bryony...

Male power.('The White Ribbon')(Movie review)
November 14, 2009... The White Ribbon 15, Nationwide Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, which won the Palm d'Or in Cannes, is coldly manipulative and, in a way, probably quite facile but, God, it is good. It is so powerfully intriguing that, for 143 minutes, I did...

Words are not enough.(Music)
November 14, 2009... Stravinsky once said that music was powerless to express anything at all. Leaving aside the niceties of whether a rising scale can at least represent something hopeful or aspiring, his music, like so much music, does nonetheless have the capacity...

Bare essentials.('Triple Bill')(Dance review)
November 14, 2009... Triple Bill The Royal Ballet Although George Balanchine's 1957 ballet Agon is not based on a Greek myth, it is traditionally regarded as the third instalment of the 'classical antiquity' series, following Apollo (1928) and Orpheus (1948)....

Peel appeal.(Olden but golden)('Kats Karavan' and 'The Pig's Big 78s')(Sound recording review)
November 14, 2009... If someone had asked me last month when it was that the revered Radio One DJ John Peel had died, I'd have said a couple of years ago. In fact he died in Peru on 25 October 2004, while on a trip for the Telegraph's travel pages. This is one of...

Quiet courage.(Radio)('Behind Enemy Lines' and 'Child of the State')(Radio program review)
November 14, 2009... 'Listeners may find some of the content disturbing,' said the announcer before the programme began (a warning that was also given in the Radio Times). You'd have thought we were about to hear a particularly raunchy play, or some horrific accounts...

Spectator sport.(Television)(The X Factor, The Thick Of It, Digging Up the Dead)(Television program review)
November 14, 2009... The X Factor (ITV, Saturday and Sunday) is the most popular show on television at the moment. I felt I should watch it so that you don't have to. It's very loud. There is a lot of clashing and banging and whooping and whooshing. A voiceover booms...

Follow the leader.(High life)(David Cameron)
November 14, 2009... New York At an outdoor luncheon party in Sussex celebrating Willy Shawcross's birthday some years ago, I asked his then 95-year-old father whom he found the most interesting man at Nuremberg. 'Goering,' was the monosyllabic reply. 'I mean from...

Opportunity knocks.(Low life)
November 14, 2009... I met Combo at dawn. I was standing on the Malawian shore of the lake watching the sun rise over the mountains in Mozambique and she came and stood wordlessly beside me and we watched together. After a while I offered her a swig from the bottle I...

Bazaar practices.(Real life)
November 14, 2009... The recession has been a huge disappointment to me. It's the lack of haggling I find so hard to come to terms with. When the great financial crisis began we were told we were going to get all sorts of eye-watering bargains. Everything was...

Heated debate.(Bridge)
November 14, 2009... Susanna and I have so much in common we could have been separated at birth --and I'm not talking about the huge age difference! Our bridge 'discussions' have raged for over a decade, during which my infuriating arrogance has often reduced her to...

Mens sana.(Chess)
November 14, 2009... A new craze is the somewhat incongruous sounding sport of chess boxing--where contestants slug it out in alternate bouts of chess moves and pugilism in the ring. Several events have now been organised in London sporting clubs; for more information...

Mixing it.(COMPETITION)(combining two existing publications and providing an extract)
November 14, 2009... In Competition No. 2621 you were invited to invent a new magazine combining two existing publications and provide an extract from it. It was with great reluctance that I disqualified Josh Ekroy's poignant portrait of an angst-ridden budgerigar....

1940: groupies.(CROSSWORD)
November 14, 2009... The unclued Across lights (verifiable in Brewer) are of a kind, as are the unclued Down ones. They can be paired. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Solution to 1937: Flighty [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The unclued lights are, or were, NATIONAL AIRLINES. First...

I must be prevented from becoming a Neighbourhood Champion at all costs.(STATUS ANXIETY)
November 14, 2009... I was slightly alarmed by the news that Harrow Council is recruiting 2,000 residents to join a network of 'Neighbourhood Champions'. Their job will be to keep an eye out for evidence of graffiti, fly-tipping, littering and excessive noise, posting...

Ancient & modern.(attraction to intelligent and beautiful women)
November 14, 2009... Girls at Cambridge are, apparently, insulting feminism by allowing themselves to be photographed in bikinis. As usual, a movement to impose 'rights' will applaud any passing 'right', except the right to deny that movement's 'right' to impose them,...

Tales from the riverside.(SPECTATOR SPORT)(Fulham Football Club's coach Roy Hodgson)
November 14, 2009... Amid the great and the glamorous sipping champagne at Sotheby's recently when Sebastian Faulks launched his new novel, A Week in December, one diminutive figure caught the eye as he moved effortlessly among the mini-burgers and drizzled tuna,...

Dear Mary.(YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED)
November 14, 2009... Q. A good friend and respected colleague, a QC who crossed into commerce, has of late enjoyed some success in that field, becoming chairman of two significant companies. This has buoyed his self-esteem which was not previously especially low in...