A sinking currency, p16

Her next move, p20

The old ones are the best, p42

THE WEEK

5 Leading article 9 Portrait of the Week 11 Diary Ed stourton 12 Politics James forsyth 13 The Spectator’s Notes 16 Mind your language 19 rod Liddle 20 Barometer 29 Matthew Parris 31 Letters 33 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

14 How to bankrupt a country Ireland’s ruling elite makes even Britain’s look good Kevin Myers Polly Walshe ‘What is there to be known about Icelandic banks?’: a poem 16 the euro is dying Brussels won’t admit it

Irwin Stelzer 20 suu Kyi’s not going anywhere But neither are Burma’s generals

Alistair Horne 22 Have the Aussies gone soft? Cricket’s fiercest team cracks up

Ed Smith 25 Arrested for catching a thief My husband and the law

Susannah Jowitt 26 Let’s hear it for Britain’s somalis How a maligned group of immigrants helped save the Chandlers Aidan Hartley

BOOKS & ARTS

CHrIstMAs BOOKs II 38 Christopher Meyer Decision Points, by George W. Bush 41 Jonathan Keates Dante’s Invention, by James Burge 42 Christopher Howse Photography books 44 Jonathan Mirsky Passport to Peking, by Patrick

Wright 45 John Preston The Big Bang, by John Julius

Norwich 46 Ian thomson Amexica by Ed Vulliamy Colin falck ‘Message’: a poem 47 Philip Ziegler In Spite of Myself, by

Christopher Plummer 48 david sexton La carte et le territoire, by

Michel Houellebecq Bookends Cressida Connolly 49 Books of the year

Cover by Christian Adams. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Holland, Nick Newman, Bernie, Geoff Thompson, Adam Singleton, K.J. Lamb, Wilbur, Hunter, Paul Wood and Dish. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 45. 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. Overseas copies do not contain the Parliamentarian Supplement. To request a copy, please 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 314; no 9508 © 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 | 20 November 2010 | www.spectator.co.uk Don Giovanni without the sex appeal, p59

Picks of the year, p49

LIFE

Arts 52 Interview Penelope Keith

Lloyd Evans 55 Exhibitions Poussin to Seurat:

French Drawings from the National Gallery of Scotland; Counterpoint: Modern Realism 1910–50 Andrew Lambirth 56 Cinema Harry Potter and the

Deathly Hallows: Part 1 Deborah Ross 59 Opera Don Giovanni; Spinalba

Michael Tanner 60 Theatre The Train Driver; An Ideal

Husband; Heavenly Ivy Lloyd Evans 61 Olden but golden Charles Spencer Culture notes Ed Rex 62Television Simon Hoggart 63 Radio Kate Chisholm Gardens Ursula Buchan L i f e 73 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 75 Real life Melissa Kite 75 Bridge Janet de Botton And f i n al y . . . 76 Chess Raymond Keene 77 Competition; Crossword 78Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 79 The Wiki man Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen

A pitstop with Penelope, p52 TRAVEL S PECIAL p65

I was – like the police, it seems – completely unprepared for the student demonstrations Ed Stourton, p11

The victim saw my husband with her laptop, and pointed an accusing finger. ‘Yes, he did it!’ said the thief Susannah Jowitt, p25

Bloody cats, I thought. I’d rather strangle myself than get involved with a cat lover Jeremy Clarke, p73

Contributors

Kevin Myers (‘Going south’, p14) writes for the Irish Independent and is the author of Watching the Door.

Ed S mith (‘Ashes to Ashes’, p22) is a leader writer for the Times, and a former England cricketer. S usannah Jowitt (‘Citizen’s arrest’, p25) is a freelance journalist and author of several books, fiction and non-fiction. S ir Christopher Meyer (Books, p38) was British ambassador to the United States from 1997 to

2003.

the spectator | 20 November 2010 | www.spectator.co.uk

Ian T homson (Books, p46) won the Royal Society of Literature’s 2010 Ondaatje prize for Dead   Yard: A Story of Modern   Jamaica.

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