Rod Liddle on the Huhne family, p17

Let Edward Albee put you off your interval drinks, p51

Hitler’s children, p42

3 Leading article 7 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary Jeffrey Archer 10 Politics James Forsyth 17 Rod Liddle 18 Barometer 23 Mind your language 25 Ancient and modern 26 Hugo Rifkind 27 Letters 37 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

12 Welcome to the jungle Westminster’s Strauss-Kahn types

Carrie Fox 13 The pathology of politicians Matthew Parris 14 Someone else’s war

David Cameron and Afghanistan Con Coughlin 16 Ireland Notebook Mary Kenny 18 A green dark age A green target with disastrous results

Matt Ridley 20 Man of the resistance Interview with a Norwegian hero

Christian House 22 Who speaks for the world? The BBC surrenders to Al Jazeera

Dennis Sewell 25 Never-never land Liverpool, city of debt culture

Peter Hoskin INVESTMENT SPECIAL 29 The trend is your friend Learning from the Boy Plunger Tim Price 30 Grey rights More power for pensioners

Ian Cowie

33 Nature’s risks and rewards A crash course in commodities

Alex Brummer 34 Anything but gilts The next ‘trade of the decade’

Jonathan Price Books 40 A.N. Wilson The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress,

by Beryl Bainbridge 42 Hester Vaizey Wolfram, by Giles Milton;

Reluctant Accomplice, edited by Konrad H. Jarausch 43 David Sexton The Smell of Summer Grass,

by Adam Nicolson 44 Vernon Bogdanor The Origins of Political Order,

by Francis Fukuyama 45 Life and letters Allan Massie 46 Honor Clerk Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves,

by Jacqueline Yallop 47 Charlotte Moore Zero Degrees of Empathy,

by Simon Baron Cohen Bookends Fay Maschler

Cover by Christian Adams. Drawings by Michael Heath, Stephen Collins, Holland, Grizelda, RGJ, Geoff Thompson, Nick Newman, Bernie, Castro, NAF, Paul Wood, Dorrance and WS. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 66 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 316; no 9534 © 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 May 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk Battle of the broadcasters, p22

Arts 49 Is Bob Dylan overrated? Michael Henderson 50 Exhibitions The Cult of Beauty:

The Aesthetic Movement 1860–1900 Andrew Lambirth 51 Theatre A Delicate Balance; Bette and Joan

Lloyd Evans 52 Interview

Chris Beetles, collector of illustration and photography Henrietta Bredin 54 Opera From the House of the Dead;

Clemency Michael Tanner 55 Cinema Win Win

Giannandrea Poesio Olden but golden Charles Spencer 58 Radio Kate Chisholm 59 Television James Delingpole Culture Notes Andrew Lambirth Life 63 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 65 Real life Melissa Kite 66 Motoring Alan Judd 67 Bridge Susanna Gross Mini-bar offer Simon Hoggart And finaly . . . 68 Chess Raymond Keene 69 Competition; Crossword 70 Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 71 The Wiki Man Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen

Deborah Ross 56 Dance Triple Bill; Russian Ballet Icons Gala

Friends of Oscar, p50

Green energy targets take money off you through your bills, put up the price of your food, threaten your job and spoil your view Matt Ridley, p18

I’d like to think I could be as powerful as anything, and still quite easily sit in a taxi keeping my hands to myself Hugo Rifkind, p26

Have you no self-respect, Kite? I taunted myself… I was ashamed. I really was Melissa Kite, p65

Contributors

Carrie Fox (p. 12) is the pseudonym of a woman who works in Westminster.

Mary Kenny (p. 16) is an Irish journalist and broadcaster. Her books include Crown and Shamrock: Love and Hate between Ireland and the British Monarchy (2009).

Matt Ridley (p. 18) is the author, most recently, of The Rational Optimist.

the spectator | 21 May 2011 | www.spectator.co.uk

A.N. Wilson (p. 40) is a biographer and novelist, and a former literary editor of The Spectator. His Dante in Love is out next month.

Vernon Bogdanor (p. 44) is a research professor at the Institute of Contemporary History, King’s College London, and author of The Coalition and the Constitution.

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