‘Bloody Uggie — showing off!’

Oscar fever, p11

What to do after your module splashes down, p22

The Beaton path, p43

THE WEEK

5 Leading article 9 Portrait of the Week 11 Diary Miriam Gross 12 Politics James Forsyth 13 The Spectator’s Notes 17 Rod Liddle 24 Barometer 26 Ancient and modern 31 Hugo Rifkind 32 Letters 34 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

14 The wind of change Cameron has finally seen through the wind farm scam Matt Ridley 15 William Wootten

‘Hay’: a poem 18 Emperor Putin

Russia is changing, its leader isn’t John Simpson 20 Secrets of Singapore

Lessons we can learn from the booming city-state James Bartholomew 22 An astronaut at 80

Alan Bean, fourth man on the moon Mark Mason 24 Coventry blues A short trip to the multicultural Midlands Theodore Dalrymple 26 ’A little bit extra’

The middle-class benefits cheats Melissa Kite 28 Private property

Privacy is a commodity Sam Leith

BOOKS & ARTS

Books 38 John Sutherland Wilkie Collins, by Peter Ackroyd 41 Jonathan Bate

What Are Universities For?, by Stefan Collini James Walton on the ‘Spoken

Word’ short stories collection 43 Nicky Haslam Beaton in Vogue,

by Josephine Ross 44 Charles Clover Moby-Duck, by Donovan Hohn 45 Leanda de Lisle The

Arch-Conjuror of England, by Glynn Parry 46 Charlotte Moore The

House on Paradise Street, by Sofka Zinovieff William Leith Over the Rainbow,

by Paul Pickering 47 Charles Glass Patriot of Persia,

by Christopher de Bellaigue 49 Andrew Taylor on recent thrillers Marcus Berkmann Bookends

Cover by Stephen Collins. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, K.J. Lamb, Paul Wood, Robert Thompson, Burton, Ian Baker, Tony Husband, Nick Newman, Geoff Thompson, Bernie, Adam Singleton, Kipper Williams, Holland. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 47 Editorial and advertising The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7961 0250, Email: editor@spectator.co.uk (editorial); letters@spectator.co.uk (for publication); advertising@spectator.co.uk (advertising); Advertising enquiries: 020 7961 0219 Advertising fax: 020 7961 0020 Subscription and delivery queries Spectator Subscriptions Dept., 800 Guillat Avenue, Kent Science Park, Sittingbourne ME9 8GU; Tel: 01795 592886 Fax: 0870 220 0290; Email: spectator@servicehelpline.co.uk Newsagent queries Spectator Circulation Dept, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7961 0057, Email: dstam@spectator.co.uk Distributor COMAG Specialist, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QX Vol 318; no 9575 © The Spectator (1828) Ltd. ISSN 0038-6952 The Spectator is published weekly by The Spectator (1828) Ltd at 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP Editor: Fraser Nelson

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the spectator | 3 march 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk Finding oddities in the familiar, p52

End of empire with Paxo, p65

Lindsay Duncan: pure Bliss, p61

FINE Arts SpECIAL 50 Interview The artist John Hubbard

Andrew Lambirth 52 Exhibitions Eric Rimmington:

Going Underground Laura Gascoigne 53 Visions of Mughal India: The

Collection of Howard Hodgkin Michael Prodger 54 Maastricht Fair

Susan Moore 56 Performance art

Niru Ratnam 59 Cinema Hunky Dory

Deborah Ross Opera La Clemenza di Tito;

Don Giovanni; Ernani Michael Tanner 61 Theatre Hay Fever; Bingo

Lloyd Evans 62 Dance Exposure: Dance 2012

Giannandrea Poesio

LIFE

63 Radio Kate Chisholm 65 Television James Delingpole

Culture notes Francesca Steele Life 69 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 71 Real life Melissa Kite 72 The turf Robin Oakley 72 Bridge Susanna Gross

And finaly . . . 74 Chess Raymond Keene 75 Competition; Crossword 76 Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 77 Wiki Man Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen 78 Drink Bruce Anderson Mind your language Dot Wordsworth

How much longer can people pretend that human rights, endlessly promoted in other spheres, apply so selectively to humans in the womb? Charles Moore, p13

Putin told me he watched the BBC to improve his English, and how much he liked it – you wouldn’t have thought so from some of his public comments John Simpson, p18

I’m sure that behind the luvvyish, double-cheek-kissing Islingtonian public persona that Paxo has adopted lurks a cross between Flashman, John Bull and a ginormous Victorian gunboat James Delingpole, p65

Contributors

John Sutherland’s latest books are The Lives of the Novelists and The Dickens Dictionary.

Jonathan Bate is Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, and the author of Soul of the Age: The Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare.

James Walton is the author of Sonnets, Bonnets and Bennetts. He presents The Write Stuff, a light-hearted literary quiz, on BBC Radio 4.

Charles Clover is the author of The End of the Line: How Overfishing is Changing the World and What we Eat.

Leanda de Lisle’s latest book is The Sisters Who Would be Queen: The Tragedy of Mary, Katherine and Lady Jane Grey.

the spectator | 3 march 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk

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