A sporting chance, p61

The civil service’s candidate for mayor, p18

Manon (and on, and on), p44

THE WEEK

5 Leading article 9 Portrait of the Week 11 Diary Damian McBride 12 Politics James Forsyth 13 The Spectator’s Notes 17 Rod Liddle 26 Ancient and modern 27 Matthew Parris 28 James Delingpole 31 Letters 32 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

14 French farce

After the first round, it’s serious. For now, enjoy the circus Patrick Marnham 15 Tim Liardet ‘Babe Ruth and the

Jumping Woman’: a poem 18 A mayor for Whitehall Siobhan Benita is the insiders’ outsider Leo McKinstry 20 Job scheme An interview with Chris Grayling,

the Employment Minister James Forsyth 21 Rings of steel The Olympics suit totalitarians,

as I discovered in Moscow Christopher Booker 22 NHS envy

We in the US secretly want one, too Florence King 24 The Gove paradox

Can you be a populist on history teaching and a free-marketeer? Tristram Hunt 26 Rescued! My brush with the RNLI

Ian Thomson

BOOKS & ARTS

Books 34 Conrad Black A Price to Pay,

by David Bermingham 36 Michael Howard The Cardinal’s

College, by Judith Curthoys Philip Hancock ‘Pop’: a poem 37 Robert Chandler The Company They Kept, Volume II,

edited by Robert Silvers 38 Charlotte Moore Scenes from

Early Life, by Philip Hensher Lloyd Evans Things Can Only

Get Bitter, by Alwyn W. Turner 39 John Preston Escape from

Camp 14, by Blaine Harden 40 Sara Maitland The Great Animal

Orchestra, by Bernie Krauss Justin Cartwright

The A303, by Tom Fort 41 D.J. Taylor

Skagboys, by Irvine Welsh Bookends Matthew Dennison

Cover by Stephen Collins. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Ian Tovey, Holland, Nick Newman, Grizelda, Evans, Russell, Warner, Adam Singleton, Bernie, RGJ, Mazurke, Dish, K.J. Lamb and Geoff Thompson. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 36 Editorial and advertising The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7681 3773, 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 7681 3773 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 7681 3773, Email: dstam@spectator.co.uk Distributor COMAG Specialist, Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QX Vol 318; no 9582 © 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 | 21 april 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk Leaving London behind, p31

Faces of war, p46

Arts 43 Lloyd Evans The glorious silliness of the Cultural

Olympiad 44 Opera Don Giovanni; Manon/La Traviata

Michael Tanner 45 Cinema Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Deborah Ross 46 Exhibitions The Face of Courage:

Eric Kennington, Portraiture and the Second World War Andrew Lambirth 48 Theatre Long Day’s Journey into Night;

Oedipussy Lloyd Evans 49 Television Simon Hoggart 51 Radio Kate Chisholm Culture notes Lloyd Evans

LIFE

Life 55 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 56 Real life Melissa Kite 57 Long life

Alexander Chancellor Bridge

Janet de Botton

And finaly . . . 58 Chess Raymond Keene 59 Competition; Crossword 60 Status anxiety

Toby Young Dave

Michael Heath 61 Sport Roger Alton Your problems solved Mary Killen 62 Food Tanya Gold Mind your language Dot Wordsworth

Sketches from a North Korean prison camp, p39

Confected public grieving and irrational, incandescent fury when it is questioned have become a thing of our times Rod Liddle, p17

Although physical competition is a minor concern, the Olympics still tests human prowess in three main areas: advertising, pharmacology and municipal logistics Lloyd Evans, p43

I have hated Soho since I saw a man punch his way out of a brothel and a prostitute buy a cuddly toy that was bigger than she was Tanya Gold, p62

Contributors

Patrick Marnham, who considers the French elections on p. 14, is a writer and biographer, and a former literary editor of The Spectator.

Florence King, whose books include Memoirs of a Failed Southern Lady, lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and writes for National Review. On p. 22, she reveals Americans’ secret longing for an NHS.

the spectator | 21 april 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk

Michael Howard is a leading authority of military history and was educated at Christ Church, Oxford; he reviews Judith Curthoys’s history of the institution on p. 36.

Sara Maitland has lived a solitary life on Skye and is the author of A Book of Silence. On p. 40, she considers Bernie Krauss’s theories about the noises of nature.

Matthew Dennison’s The Twelve Caesars will be published next month by Atlantic Books. On p. 41, he evaluates the latest attempt to continue E.F. Benson’s ‘Lucia’ novels.

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