A pleasant flight, on time, that I can change at any time impresses me. A hot towel doesn’t.

easyJet Flexi – the new business ticket with unlimited free date changes in a 4 week period.Includes 1 piece of hold, 1 piece of hand luggage and Speedy Boarding.

The easyJet Flexi Fare is paid in full at the time of booking. Any additional services must be paid for in full, at the time of booking. No refund applies if passengers are unable to fly. Date changes and Speedy Boarding subject to availability.

Date changes must be made at least two hours before original departure time. For full Terms & Conditions see our Carrier’s Regulations on easyJet.com Menace to the Big Society, p12

Watercolour country, p43

3 Leading article 7 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary Christopher Gibbs 10 Politics James Forsyth 11 The Spectator’s Notes 17 Rod Liddle 22 Barometer 29 Letters 30 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer Life 53 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 55 Wild life Aidan Hartley Bridge Susanna Gross

AND FINALLY… 56 Wine Club Simon Hoggart 58 Chess Raymond Keene 59 Competition;Crossword 60 Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 61 The Wiki Man Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen 62 Drink Bruce Anderson Mind your language

Hugo Rifkind, James Delingpole and Melissa Kite are away

12 Union wars This is Cameron’s greatest battle

Fraser Nelson 13 Roy Kelly ‘Drift’: a poem 14 Why I am back in prison My persecutors and I

Conrad Black 18 Confessional culture

The problem with revisiting abuse Brendan O’Neill 20 Carrying a torch for Hitler

A dodgy Olympic tradition Peter Jones 22 Young Turks

They make our lot look even worse Theodore Dalrymple 23 Kings and jokers Can satire change anything?

Simon Hoggart 25 Syria’s family business

Inside the Assad gang Douglas Davis 26 ‘Anti-Semitism is on the rise’

An interview with the Chief Rabbi Mary Wakefield Books 34 Sam Leith The Stranger’s Child,

by Alan Hollinghurst 36 Byron Rogers And God Created

Burton, by Tom Rubython Andrew Rosenheim A.J. Cronin,

by Alan Davies

37 Cressida Connolly The House in France, by Gully Wells 38 James Grande River of Smoke,

by Amitav Ghosh Brendan O’Neill Chavs, by

Owen Jones; The Bogan Delusion, by David Nichols 39 Dan Jones Sister Queens,

by Julia Fox 40 Simon Heffer Ed, by Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre Bookends Fay Maschler Arts 41 Niru Ratnam An identity crisis in British art 42 Culture notes Harry Mount 43 Exhibitions Masterpieces of English

Watercolours and Drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland Andrew Lambirth 44 Opera Tristan und Isolde; Two Boys

Michael Tanner 45 Theatre Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern Are Dead; Dr Faustus Lloyd Evans 46 Dance Sol Picó

Giannandrea Poesio 47 Cinema Larry Crowne

Deborah Ross 48 Radio Kate Chisholm 49 Television Fraser Nelson

Cover by Kyle T. Webster. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Ian Tovey, Herneman, Adam Singleton, RGJ, Bernie, Geoff Thompson, Nick Newman, Cookson, Nick Downes, Steve Way and Rob Murray. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 40 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 Spectator Scoff If you are an overseas reader and would like a copy of Spectator Scoff please email spectator@servicehelpline.co.uk with your name and address and subscriber reference if appropriate. 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 316; no 9540 © 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 | 2 July 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk

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