A visit to the oracle, p18

Chewing over Tannhäuser, p34

The valley of the shadow of Gordon, p24

5 Leading article 9 Portrait of the Week 10 Politics James Forsyth 11 Diary Max Hastings 16 Mind your language 19 Rod Liddle 20 Hugo Rifkind 21 Letters 22 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer 44 Chess Raymond Keene 45 Competition; Crossword 46 Status anxietyTobyYoung Dave Michael Heath 47 The Wiki Man

Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen

12 Oops! We did it again How the bank bailouts created another bubble Johan Norberg 13 John Mole ‘Against Advice’: a poem 14 Egyptian notebook Driving a Toyota Corolla in the footsteps of Alexander the Great Mary Wakefield 15 Humour without honour Sportsmen and actors receive knighthoods. Why don’t comics? Michael Deacon 16 ‘Jesus hung out with freaks’ An interview with Jay Bakker,

minister to New York’s hipsters Theo Hobson Boks 24 Iain Martin on Gordon Brown 26 Cressida Connolly The Best of Books and Company,

edited by Susan Hill Francis King

Halfway House to Heaven, by Bill Colegrave 28 Alexander Chancellor Stalin’s Schoolboy, by Roy Kerridge 29 Jessica Ruston on first novels Bookends Peter Hoskin Arts 31 Harry Mount on Mark Wallinger’s ‘Sinema Amnesia’, overlooking the Dardanelles 32 Cinema The King’s Speech Deborah Ross 33 Exhibitions Thomas Lawrence Andrew Lambirth 34 Opera Tannhäuser Michael Tanner 35 Theatre King Lear; A Flea in Her Ear Lloyd Evans Dance The Nutcracker; Cinderella Giannandrea Poesio 36 Television James Delingpole 37 Radio Kate Chisholm Culture notes Scott Jordan Harris Life 41 High life Taki 42 Low life Jeremy Clarke 42 Real life Melissa Kite 43 Bridge Susanna Gross

Klaus and Other Stories, by Allan Massie 27 Matthew Leeming

Cover by Christian Adams. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Grizelda, Ian Tovey, Bernie, Richard Jolley, Evans, Robert Thompson, NAF, Royston, Nick Newman, Kipper Williams, Tony Husband and Roy Kerridge www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 42 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 315; no 9514 © 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 the spectator | 1 January 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk

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