Contents Contents Contents ContentsThe weekLeading article 3 Portrait of the Week 7 Diary Dylan Jones 9 Politics James Forsyth 11 The Spectator’s Notes 13 Flash Gordon 15 Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody 19 Letters 27 Another voice Matthew Parris 29 Ancient & modern 62

Where will the Tory axe fall? Max Hastings Britain’s armed forces face hideous cuts

Here’s to you, Mrs Robinson Rod Liddle Her religious zealotry made ordinary life impossible

Business Any other business Martin Vander Weyer 31

Yemen shows the limits of our power Paul Wood Western intervention would unite the country behind bin Laden 18 Dave cold-shoulders the middle classes Ross Clark His policies seem to prefer toffs and paupers 21 Michael Gove vs the Blob Dennis Sewell The Tories will go to war with the education establishment 22 Dons should be eccentric Paul Johnson In the old days conformity was not asked of brilliant thinkers 24 Let Greece go bust Matthew Lynn They lied and cheated their way into the eurozone 26

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Books Sam Leith: Must You Go?, by Antonia Fraser 34 Peter Bland: ‘Working the Scrap Book’ and ‘X-Ray’: two poems 35 Michela Wrong: The Education of a British-Protected Child, by Chinua Achebe 36 Jonathan Mirsky: The Boat to Redemption, by Su Tong 36 Rupert Sheldrake: How the World is Made, by John Michell 37 Jonathan Sumption: The New Old World, by Perry Anderson 38 William Leith: Waking Up in Toytown, by John Burnside; The Freedoms of Suburbia, by Paul Barker 39 Ian Sansom: Imperial, by William T. Vollmann 40 Lucy Hughes-Hallett: The Marchesa Casati, by Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino 41 Allan Massie: Cold Snap, by Francis King 42 Lucinda Baring on guide books 43

Cover by Christian Adams. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Mazurke, Tim Bales, Wilbur, Bernie, Geoff Thompson, Nick Newman, Dallimore, Carla Millar, Holland.

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Arts Michael Kennedy on the remarkable popularity of Mahler 44 Exhibitions: The Conversation Piece Andrew Lambirth 45 Theatre 1: Rope; Generous Lloyd Evans 46 Theatre 2: Arabian Nights Patrick Carnegy 48 Olden but golden Charles Spencer 49 Opera: La bohème Michael Tanner 49 Cinema: Up in the Air; 44 Inch Chest Deborah Ross 50 Television Simon Hoggart 51 Radio Kate Chisholm 51

Life High life Taki

Low life Jeremy Clarke

Real life Melissa Kite

Bridge Janet de Botton

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And finaly . . . Chess Raymond Keene 56 Competition; Crossword 56, 57 Status anxiety Toby Young 62 The wiki man Rory Sutherland 63 Your problems solved Mary Killen 63

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THE SPECTATOR 16 January 2010 5