More plausible destinations start on p55

Flying off the Handel, p48

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 6 Portrait of the Week 7 Diary Alain de Botton 8 Politics James Forsyth 9 The Spectator’s Notes 14 Barometer 17 Matthew Parris 23 Ancient and modern 24 James Delingpole 27 Letters 28 Any other business Martin Vander Weyer

10 Meet the Dalis Househusbands are getting more ambitious, and there are more of them Andrew M. Brown 11 Neil Powell ‘Knole’: a poem 13 Race card Talking to a Tea Party sensation

Melissa Kite 14 The age of the cabin crew We’ve given in to petty officialdom

Rod Liddle 16 Betrayals of the left Labour’s unequalled fury at ‘traitors’

Leo McKinstry 19 Free the Shetlands! Why stop at Scottish independence?

Laurance Reed 20 Model employer Aardman Animations’ tax dilemma

Lloyd Evans 22 Just business The people who can save capitalism

Patience Wheatcroft 23 Giving pleasure Wealth is more fun when spread

Jonathan Ruffer

BOOKS & ARTS

Books 34 Philip Mansel Blue-Water Empire,

by Robert Holland 36 John de Falbe An Ermine in

Czernopol, by Gregor von Rezzori Susan Hill The Greatcoat,

by Helen Dunmore 37 Minoo Dinshaw Savonarola,

by Donald Weinstein 38 Ian Thomson The Last Holiday,

by Gil Scott-Heron Hugo Rifkind You Can’t Read This

Book, by Nick Cohen 39 Jonathan Mirsky on Barack and Michelle Obama 40 Cressida Connolly Jack Holmes and His Friend, by Edmund White 41 Life and letters Allan Massie

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Kyle M. Webster, Ian Tovey, Robert Thompson, Grizelda, Nick Newman, Geoff Thompson, McLachlan, RGJ, Bernie, the Surreal McCoy, Russell and Kipper Williams. www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator for £104 a year, turn to page 61 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 318; no 9570 © 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 | 28 january 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk Alex Salmond vs the Vikings, p19

Do Hockney’s landscapes stack up?, p42

Arts 42 Andrew Lambirth assesses the artist Jackson Pollock in his centenary year 45 Cinema The Descendants

Deborah Ross 46 Exhibitions David Hockney: A Bigger Picture

Andrew Lambirth 48 Opera The Enchanted Island

Michael Tanner 49 Theatre Travelling Light; Constellations

Lloyd Evans 50 Radio Kate Chisholm 51 Television Simon Hoggart 53 Culture notes Nicola McCartney

LIFE

Travel: SOUTH OF FRANCE 55 Avignon lost and found Ysenda Maxtone Graham 56 The charms of Le Barroux

John Laughland Life 63 High life Taki Low life Jeremy Clarke 64 Real life Melissa Kite 65 Wild life Aidan Hartley Bridge Janet de Botton And finaly . . . 66 Chess Raymond Keene 67 Competition; Crossword 68 Status anxiety Toby Young Dave Michael Heath 69 Sport Roger Alton Your problems solved Mary Killen 70 Food Tanya Gold Mind your language

Dot Wordsworth

I wonder if Chris Huhne may succeed where Scargill failed, plunging the nation into darkness to fulfil his ideological vision Charles Moore, p9

Homosexual writers seem to be much better than straight ones at combining literary style with vastly enjoyable descriptions of filthy sex Cressida Connolly, p40

The National, we’re often told, needs fans. I’ll happily bring mine along to ventilate the fires that deserve to engulf this folly of a play Lloyd Evans, p49

Contributors

Leo McKinstry is a columnist for the Daily Express, and has written biographies of, among others, Lord Rosebery, Geoffrey Boycott and the Lancaster Bomber.

Patience Wheatcroft is a Conservative life peer. Previously, she was editor-inchief of the Wall Street Journal Europe and, before that, editor of the Sunday Telegraph.

James Delingpole’s new book on environmentalists, Watermelons, is out on 17 February.

the spectator | 28 january 2012 | www.spectator.co.uk

Philip Mansel’s Levant: Splendour and Catastrophe in the Mediterranean is now in paperback.

Susan Hill’s ghost story The Woman in Black will be released as a film on 10 February.

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