The trouble with older fathers, p14

Don’t drink and ski, p50;

do drink and ski, p65

Two centuries before Midsomer, p15

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 7 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary Alexander Chancellor 11 The Spectator’s Notes 15 Barometer 17 Rod Liddle 19 Mind your language 20 Ancient and modern 22 Matthew Parris 26 James Delingpole 27 Letters 35 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

12 One week to get a grip Can Osborne’s budget straighten out the coalition’s unsteady path? James Forsyth 13 George Szirtes

‘Southern Belle’: a poem 14 Old father time The selfishness of late parenthood

Carol Sarler 15 Cameron’s war cry The cost of posturing on Libya

Daniel McCarthy 16 Le Pen: the next generation France’s rising far right

Janine di Giovanni 19 Tokyo waits Neighbourliness after the quake

Tania Coke 20 Why the Saudis are in Bahrain The Middle East’s real dividing lines

John R. Bradley 24 Locked to the keys Why can’t I write without a laptop?

Mark Mason

BOOKS & ARTS

Boks 38 Victor Sebestyen Gulag Voices, edited by Anne

Applebaum; Gulag Boss, by Fyodor Mochulsky 40 Jonathan Cecil

The Actors, by Brian Masters, 43 Frederic Raphael French Cinema, by Charles Drazin 44 Jonathan Sumption Justice for Hedgehogs, by

Ronald Dworkin 45 Ian Thomson Edgelands, by Paul Farley and

Michael Symmons Roberts 46 Claudia FitzHerbert When God was a Rabbit, by

Sarah Winman Connie Bensley ‘I Am My Son’s

Fourth Child’: a poem Bookends Andrew Petrie

Cover by Nicholas Garland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Ian Tovey, Jonathan Cusick, Holland, Hunter, Adam Singleton, Grizelda, Geoff Thompson, Bernie, Nick Newman, Richard Jolley, Len, Cookson, Colin Wheeler, Tim Bales and Dorrance. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 44 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 9525 © 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 | 19 March 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk So… can you predict whether Lloyd Evans will like us?, p52

Exhibitions worth the climb, p51

Arts 48 Michael Henderson Learning from Beethoven 50 Cinema Chalet Girl; Route Irish

Deborah Ross 51 Exhibitions Susan Hiller; Georgian Faces:

Portrait of a County Andrew Lambirth 52 Theatre Blithe Spirit; Flare Path

Lloyd Evans 53 King Lear;Romeo and Juliet Patrick Carnegy 54 Opera Aida; Dialogues des Carmélites

Michael Tanner 55 Music Peter Phillips 56 Television Simon Hoggart 58 Culture notes

LizAnderson Radio

Kate Chisholm

The Garrick’s leading men, p40

LIFE

Life 65 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 66 Real life Melissa Kite 67 The turf Robin Oakley 67 Bridge Janet de Botton

And finaly . . . 68 Chess Raymond Keene 69 Competition; Crossword 70 Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 71 Sport Roger Alton Your problems solved Mary Killen

Like the new Census, which offers ever more recherché forms of ethnicity, the new passport has an extra layer of political correctness Charles Moore, p11

The idea of border police – or indeed, government – becomes more blurry the further from a Middle Eastern capital you go John R. Bradley, p20

The short talk has always been my favourite form on radio; the best way to learn anything Kate Chisholm, p58

INVESTMENT

SPECIAL p29

Contributors

Alexander Chancellor (p. 9) edited The Spectator from 1975 to 1984. He is now a columnist for the Guardian.

Daniel McCarthy (p. 15) is editor of the American Conservative.

the spectator | 19 March 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk

Janine di Giovanni (p. 16) is a former senior foreign correspondent for the Times. Her books include The Place at the End of the World.

John R. Bradley (p.20) is the author of Inside Egypt and Saudi Arabia Exposed.

Frederic Raphael (p. 43) is the author of, among other things, the screenplays Darling, Two for the Road and Far from the Madding Crowd.

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