The Spectator’s Notes
Plus: Qatar's role at Royal Ascot, doomwatch with the Prince of Wales, and a novel in verse
There’s no fighting paedophile panic. But I’ll try
I know the rumours. I think they’re mostly nonsense. I don’t expect a fair hearing
When did Israel start to seem so bafflingly foreign?
When was it, do you think, that Israel stopped being regarded as fundamentally a bit like Spain?
Gold-fixing was never like match-fixing but its days must surely be numbered
Plus: Who'd want their investments managed like a Tour de France team? And some cricket advice for Mark Carney
A very British witch hunt
With the good old 30-year rule, Britain can have self-righteous hysteria without anyone in charge ever suffering the consequences
That sinking feeling
Civil servants think they can transform our clean energy prospects. The market doesn’t agree. But you’re paying for their hunch anyway
Flying scared
All those ritual checks distract from the intelligence work that actually catches terrorists
The betrayal of Wales
We’ve lived with the Labour leader’s alternative to free-market reform for 15 years. The results are horrendous
Obama’s dearest enemies
The President’s second term is a perfectly ordinary disaster. This response is as irrational as it is counterproductive
Goodbye to all that
A review of The Last Empire: The final days of the Soviet Union, by Serhii Plokhy. Newly unearthed material sheds fresh light on the dying days of the 'Evil Empire'
Home sweet home
A review of Everyman’s Castle: The story of our cottages, country houses, terraces, flats, semis and bungalows, by Philippa Lewis. From inglenooks to top-shops, from boarding houses to bedsits, this compendium covers it all (almost)
Extra-ordinary
A review of England and Other Stories, by Graham Swift. These masterful tales about loss and absence conspire to bittersweet ends
Don’t do as I do
A review of How to be a husband, by Tim Dowling. There’s only one joke in this 300-page book – that Dowling’s a terrible husband – but it’s a corker
How to rule the world
A review of The Mongol Empire: Genghis Khan, His Heirs and the Founding of Modern China, by John Man. The Mongols made China, argues this book, which means it’s unlikely to get a Chinese translation any time soon
My Grandmother Said
It was the First World War. Her husband was away. So she knew fear, but also found new freedom in…
Through her eyes only
A review of Pleasures and Landscapes, by Sybille Bedford. Bedford journeyed through Italy, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Portugal and Yugoslavia and vividly noted the postwar evolution of Europe
The way we live now
A review of Mammon’s Kingdom: An Essay on Britain, Now, by David Marquand. An interesting diagnosis of why the secular Left failed Britain - with a shy attempt at a solution
The king is dead – get over it
A review of Elvis has Left the Building: The Day the King Died, by Dylan Jones. The GQ editor provides a lot of padding to the basic story, and makes no attempt to disguise it
I, spy
A review of Secrets in a Dead Fish, by Melanie King. It's John Le Carré - but a Janet and John version
