Contents Contents Contents Contents

the week Leading article

5

Diary Hardeep Singh Kohli 9 Politics Martin Bright 10 The Spectator’s Notes 11 Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody 12 Flash Gordon 14 Standing room 23 Letters 26 Shared opinion Hugo Rifkind 28 You know it makes sense James Delingpole 29 Ancient & modern 62

Business Interview: Mike Lynch of the software company Autonomy David Crow 30 The business of politics David Young 31

This is a constitutional crisis Fraser Nelson David Cameron must sieze the opportunity it offers 14 Where’s my castle upkeep money? Rod Liddle And why are so many MPs posturing as victims of the system? 16 Not every MP is a Moran James Forsyth 17 Time to reprieve Pius XII Simon Caldwell The wartime Pope was no Nazi sympathiser 20 Sex in the sticks Rachel Johnson Actually, the countryside is not a great big romping ground 21 Disease, superstition and economic chaos Dan Jones The Middle Ages were just like the present day 22 Does Oxford want a celebrity or a poet? Olivia Cole On Derek Walcott and the Professor of Poetry elections 24

Books Alan Judd: Inside British Intelligence, by Gordon Thomas 32 Adam Nicolson: Home to Roost, by Deborah Devonshire 33 Anne Chisholm: Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel 34 Peter Ebsworth: ‘Sawdust Memories’: a poem 34 John de Falbe: In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, by Daniyal Mueenuddin 36 Matthew Parris: A Fortunate Life, by Paddy Ashdown 36 Byron Rogers: The Canterbury Tales, retold by Peter Ackroyd 37 Michela Wrong: We Have Tomorrow, by Peter Mackay 38 Eric Christiansen: Raymond Carr at 90 39

www.spectator.co.uk

Drawings by Michael Heath, Robert Thompson, Wilbur, Colin Wheeler, Bernie, Nick Newman, Geoff Thompson, Adam Singleton and Holland.

Website: www.spectator.co.uk

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@cisubs.co.uk

Newsagent queries Spectator Circulation Dept, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP Tel: 020 7961 0200 Fax: 020 7961 0057 Email: dstam@pressholdings.com

Distributor COMAG Specialist Tavistock Works Tavistock Road West Drayton Middlesex UB7 7QX

Vol 310; no 9429 © The Spectator (1828) Ltd. ISSN 0038-6952

Subscribe today from £127 a year in the UK

The Spectator is published weekly by The Spectator (1828) Ltd at 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP Editor: Matthew d’Ancona

Fine Arts sPeCiAL Dan Jones on how the Palace of Westminster’s Armada tapestries are being recreated 40 Exhibitions 1: Framing Modernism: Architecture and Photography in Italy 1926–65; Adrian Berg: Panoramic Watercolours Andrew Lambirth 42 Exhibitions 2: Art and Memory: New perspectives on memorial art Ariane Bankes 44 Sacred images in Seville Laura Gascoigne 45 Olden but golden Charles Spencer 46 Cinema: Angels & Demons Deborah Ross 47 Theatre: Waiting for Godot; Monsters Lloyd Evans 48 Opera: Götterdämmerung; Don Carlos Michael Tanner 49 Television Simon Hoggart 50 Radio Kate Chisholm 50

LiFe Gardens Ursula Buchan

High life Taki

Low life Jeremy Clarke

Slow life Alex James

Bridge Janet de Botton

51

52

52

54

55

And FinALLy . . . Chess Raymond Keene 56 Competition; Crossword 56, 57 Status anxiety Toby Young 62 Sport Roger Alton 63 Your problems solved Mary Killen 63

THE SPECTATOR 16 May 2009 7