ContentsContents

the week

Leading article 5

Diary Anne McElvoy 9

Politics James Forsyth 10

The Spectator’s Notes 11

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody 12

Flash Gordon 15

Ancient & modern 17

Letters 22

Another voice Matthew Parris 24

And another thing Paul Johnson 25

Mind your language 54

Europe returns to the Commons Fraser Nelson Both Brown and Cameron dread the Lisbon Treaty 14

Hands off my organs Rod Liddle Defy the medical profession’s zeal to grab our corpses 16

Just look at the X-rays James Hughes-Onslow An agonising tale of misdiagnosis and broken ankles 18

The true impact of Brown’s policies Irwin Stelzer Labour’s economic strategy has not led to a better society 20

business

Pakistan Inc

Elliot Wilson 26

After Northern Rock

Richard Northedge 27

books

Geoffrey Wheatcroft: Barbarism and Civilisation, by Bernard Wasserstein 28

Philip Hensher: The Second Plane, by Martin Amis 29

Jonathan Mirsky: Henry James’s Waistcoat, edited by Rosalind Bleach 30

Fiona Sampson: ‘Lens’: a poem 30

M. R. D. Foot: The Hunt for Nazi Spies, by Simon Kitson 31

Blair Worden: Earls of Paradise, by Adam Nicolson 31

Anita Brookner: Dans le Caféé de la Jeunesse Perdue, by Patrick Modiano 32

Arts Lloyd Evans

on ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ 33

‘Would you pass this on to him? I always give through a third party.’

Cover by Martyn Turner. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Hunter, Robert Thompson, Ray Lowry, Diz Dymott, Dish, Paul Wood, Colin Wheeler, Cookson, Ken Pyne, Adam Singleton, Nick Newman, Smith and Bernie.

Website: www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator, turn to page 28.

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Vol 306; no 9360 © 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: Matthew d’Ancona

Exhibitions: The Age of Enchantment: Beardsley, Dulac and their contemporaries 1890–1930 Andrew Lambirth 34

Theatre: La Cage aux Folles; The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer; Angry Young Man Lloyd Evans 34

Cinema: No Country for Old Men Deborah Ross 36

Opera: The Adventures of Pinocchio Michael Tanner 38

Music

Peter Phillips 39

Radio

Kate Chisholm 40

Television

Simon Hoggart 40

Life

Gardens

Ursula Buchan 41

High life

Taki 42

Low life Jeremy Clarke 43

Real life Melissa Kite 44

Bridge Susanna Gross 45

styLe And trAveL

Shooting star

Rory Knight Bruce 46

And finALLy . . .

Chess Raymond Keene 48

Competition; Crossword 48, 49

Status anxiety Toby Young 54

The Wiki Man Rory Sutherland 55

Your problems solved Mary Killen 55

www.spectator.co.uk THE SPECTATOR 19 January 2008 7