ContentsContents

the week Leading article 5

Diary Nikki Bedi 9 Politics Fraser Nelson 10

The Spectator’s Notes 11 Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody 13 Flash Gordon 15

Ancient & modern 25 Letters 26

Shared opinion Hugo Rifkind 28

And another thing Paul Johnson 30 Mind your language 78

Business Sex scandals and Formula 1 Christian Sylt and Caroline Reid 32

Bye-bye gentlemanly capitalism Tim Curzon Price 34

Books Philip Hensher: Breath, by Tim Winton 36

Andrew Taylor on recent crime novels 37

Caroline Moore: Deaf Sentence, by David Lodge 38

P.J. Kavanagh: Isaac Rosenberg by Jean Moorcroft Wilson 40

Jonathan Sumption: McMafia, by Misha Glenny 40

Robert Stewart: Catherine Parr, by Susan James 41

Oliver Gilmour: Sergey Prokofiev: Diaries, translated by Anthony Phillips 42 Jerome de Groot: Wolf Totem, by Jiang Rong 43

Allan Massie: Life & letters 44 Alan Jenkins: ‘The Path’: a poem 44

Arts Peter Phillips

on a Zambian choir whose repertoire includes Byrd, Tallis and Tippett 45

Happy 60th birthday, Israel Melanie Phillips The nation has done brilliantly to survive against awful odds 14

Ed Balls and his tax on brains Irwin Stelzer The Schools Secretary has made a bad mistake 16

Why City girls love strip clubs Venetia Thompson Feminists fail to see that they are harmless after-hours crèèches 18

A Bill to end a child’s right to a father John Patten How an obsession with ‘discrimination’ defies common sense 20

Family history really is bunk Leo McKinstry The genealogy craze conceals every kind of snobbery 22

Home truths and the Austrian horror Rod Liddle Josef Fritzl’s sickening crimes add to parents’ confusion 24

Luxury goods The greatest oddity of all Olivia Glazebrook

Oasis in a foodie desert Alexander Chancellor

His nibs Christian House

Cranial craze Sophia Hesselgren

61

62

64

66

‘Well I never, a Scottish petrol punp!’

Cover by Martin Rowson. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Colin Wheeler, Nick Downes, S. Harris, Robert Thompson, Hunter, Meyrick Jones, Nick Newman, RGJ, Bernie, Holland and Adam Singleton.

Website: www.spectator.co.uk To subscribe to The Spectator, turn to page 43.

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Vol 307; no 9375 © 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: Matthew d’Ancona

Exhibitions: The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock; Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s Andrew Lambirth 46

Theatre: Gone with the Wind; Harper Regan; Footprints in the Sand Lloyd Evans 48

Cinema: Iron Man

Deborah Ross 50

Opera: Fidelio

Michael Tanner 50

Radio

Kate Chisholm 52

Television

James Delingpole 53

Life

The turf

Robin Oakley 54

High life

Taki 56

Low life Jeremy Clarke 56

Slow life Alex James 57

The table Richard Sennett 58

Bridge Janet de Botton 59

styLe And trAveL

The thrill of la chasse Rory Knight Bruce 68

Why Frederick was Great Simon Heffer 70

And finALLy . . .

Chess Raymond Keene 72

Competition; Crossword 72, 73

Status anxiety Toby Young 78

The Wiki Man Rory Sutherland 79

Your problems solved Mary Killen 79

www.spectator.co.uk THE SPECTATOR 3 May 2008 7