12 NOVEMBER 1988

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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

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'I see the best man won.' M r Nigel Lawson was reported to be considering means-testing various pension- ers' benefits. This alarmed the rest of the Government, and Mr Lawson...

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The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405

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1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 OUR AND POLAND h e Labour Party's reaction to Mrs Thatcher's visit to Poland is instructive. It demonstrates yet again the ambivalence of the...

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POLITICS

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Tuning in to the Hurd programme NOEL MALCOLM P olitical excitements come thick and fast these days in the House of Commons. No sooner had Mr Lawson sat down after his grilling...

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DIARY

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CHARLES MOORE I n Belfast last week, I met the leading figures of the North Down Conservative Association. The association already has 3 00 members and they are perfectly se-...

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INTO THE MOUTHS OF BABES AND SUCKLINGS

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The health of British children is increasingly at risk from the restoration of standards in school meals Nearly a decade after the removal of a national nutritional standard...

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DWARFED BY BUSH

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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard watched Dukakis as he learnt his fate Boston PEACE, prosperity, and experience pre- vailed. It is as simple as that. Democratic prospects rested on...

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•

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THE s p EcrivoR SUBSCRIBE TODAY — Save 15% on the Cover Price! RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK CI £49.50 D £26.00 Europe (airmail) D £60.50 D £31.00 USA Airspeed 0 US $99...

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THE ROAD FROM GDANSK

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Mrs Thatcher triumphed in Warsaw, but Timothy Garton Ash argues that her visit must be followed up Warsaw LET IT be said at once: Mrs Thatcher did an excellent job in Poland....

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FOOTBALL AND FORESKINS

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Gerda Cohen talks to the ultra-orthodox Jews who can break the Israeli government Jerusalem IT IS a deep-scented night. The cicadas are pulsing away like mad; and the God-...

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NOT LICKING LIQUOR

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Stephen Handelman on Mr Gorbachev's disastrous campaign against strong drink Moscow 'TO drink drunke is an ordinary matter with them every day in the weeke,' Dr Giles Fletcher,...

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STILL THROUGH THE ROOF

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The Government tries to stop house price rises with one hand, while it drives them up with the other, argues Richard Ehrman THE Government wants to see house prices stagnate...

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AN UNACCEPTED AUTHENTIC

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Outsiders: a profile of John Heath - Stubbs, a poet who never compromised AN outsider? One of the best — one of the few poets to emerge from the often- derided Forties,...

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WHY MEDIA FOLK ARE HATED

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Television: Paul Johnson thinks the new White Paper strikes a popular note THE CHANGES proposed by the Gov- ernment's White Paper on broadcasting are likely to prove popular...

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Fairer shares

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THE Budget for savings and ownership — it's four months ahead, but the headlines write themselves already' — must be the best chance yet for Esops. These fabulous entities...

CBI's wrong numbers

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I DO wish that John Banham would disconnect the telephone answering machine at the Confederation of British Industry. He has been director-general there for a year and more,...

Cooke's tour

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PETER Cooke has retired early from the Bank of England, leaving a monument all around the world. His financial diplomacy brought the agreement which established common standards...

CITY AND SUBURBAN

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Ups and downs of a stock which isn't for widows, orphans or pensioners CHRISTOPHER FILDES I knew Nigel Lawson was coming out fighting when he chose to confront Sir Robin Day...

Paying the Baker

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FROM the clam-infested shores of Bran- ford, Connecticut, I reported to you in July that the Treasury Secretary, James Baker, had turned on an election winning boom for his old...

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LETTERS Referee

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Sir: I do not hesitate to intervene in a row which has broken out in your columns concerning the conduct of the Daily Tele- graph. I have a certain standing in this matter since...

Unspiritual Ayer

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Sir: In his eagerness to refute me, Profes- sor Flew has failed to notice what I actually wrote. I suggested that in the very unlikely event of there being a number of well...

Half-baked

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Sir: Richard Munday (`Gunning for free- dom', 15 October) should state clearly whether he is in favour of guns of all kinds being freely available over the counter to anyone of...

Off the rails

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Sir: While not wanting to be in the least churlish about Nigella Lawson's flattering review of Leith's Restaurant (22 October), may I point out one understandable mis- take. I...

Strip cultivation

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Sir: Nick Garland (`The birth of Bazza', 29 October) isn't sure if he invented Barry McKenzie, or not. He did — mostly. Nick and I lived near each other in 1963/4. I saw a...

Jaded palates

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Sir: Frank Dunne is in such a rush to put me right on modernism (Letters, 29 Octo- ber) that he cannot stay to read even what Auberon Waugh says I said about it. Waugh says I...

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Above average

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Sir: I have just received a letter from a Ms Susan Piper who describes herself as Marketing Director of an outfit called 'Leadership Skills Training'. This is the gist of it:...

Reading matter

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Sir: Felicity Wood's letter (15 October) on the Kariba dam wall saga reminded me of a piece in the Zimbabwe Herald which fol- lowed Rowlinson Carter's 13 August Diary report....

The Spectator offers its readers the definitive Pocket Diary. Slim,

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concise and handsomely bound in soft, navy blue leather, it offers all the facts, figures and numbers that are absolutely essential. Listings of top wine merchants by Auberon...

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REMEMBERING A THIRTY YEARS' WAR

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NIRAD C. CHAUDHURI D UE to my age, I take a more direct and personal view of the first world war than anyone I usually talk to. And as I passed through both the world wars the...

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One hundred years ago

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THE ten million and a quarter adult males who now take part in the election for the American Presidency, decided on Tuesday for Mr Harrison, the Re- publican candidate. Of the...

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SPE CTAT T HF O R

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BOOK OF CROSSWORDS The Spectator enjoys a high reputation for its crosswords, which attract a large weekly postbag. This collection of 100 puzzles fea- tures the work of their...

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BOOKS

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Another naughty Swift? Colin Welch THE COMPLETE BARRY MCKENZIE by Barry Humphries illustrated by Nicholas Garland Methuen, .£5.95,.pp.144 H ere at last is the whole saga of...

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A performing flea of poetry

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Francis King STE VIE SMITH by Frances Spalding Faber, £15, pp.33I S tevie Smith was one of those writers who leave living to their readers. From the age of three she made...

Special offer to Spectator readers:

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VIEWS FROM ABROAD THE SPECTATOR BOOK OF TRAVEL WRITING Foreword by Colin Thubron The pleasures of travel are often best en- joyed at a distance, distilled in the pages of...

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That's how the lady's still a vamp

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Anne Chisholm PRIME TIME by Joan Collins Century, £11.95, pp.356 W ell, Joan Collins has written a book. That is, it has all the superficial attributes of a book; pages with...

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Self-portrait in the Dutch manner

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Stephen Spender COLLECTED POEMS by Philip Larkin Faber, £16.95, pp.352 H ere are all the poems Philip Larkin wrote, including the juvenilia — placed together in the last...

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Last of the great survivors

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Jock Bruce-Gardyne REFLECT ON THINGS PAST: THE MEMOIRS OF LORD CARRINGTON Collins, £17.50, pp.400 C arringtons are not lightly to be tam- pered with: least of all by members...

A Question Does love, dear love, survive a grave?

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For ever absent while I live And constant in a silence No news will ever break, There by the margin of a lake Rests a boxed oblivion I would speak to, that will not speak. And...

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Sex objects and objections

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Brian Martin THE DURRELL-MILLER LETTERS, 1935-80 edited by Ian S. MacNiven Faber, £17.50, pp.560 A LITERATE PASSION: LETTERS OF ANAIS NIN AND HENRY MILLER, 1932 - 53 edited...

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SPECTATOR

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Write your own success story . . . The Spectator Young Writer Awards protide a unique opportunity - not only to have your writing talent recognised, hut to be launched on a...

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SPE IH CATOR How to save yourself 51 trips to the

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library . . . or almost £30 on The Spectator If you're forced to share The Spectator with fellow students, then you'll know how difficult it can be to track a copy down. Now...

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Legacy of the bubbly monk

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Edward Whitley hen the monk in charge of the cellars at Hautvillers Abbey began fer- menting wine twice, the second time in a bottle strong enough not to explode, he...

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Imperative cooking

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Now the game is up Digby Anderson s always at this season, the cookery columnists are busy suggesting more read- ers try cooking game. This alarming possi- bility is openly...

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Investment

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When wine stoops to folly Harry Eyres I must begin by declaring a moral pre- judice. The purchase of wine purely as an investment is a perversion of the natural order and...

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CHRISTMAS CLASSIFIED COLLECTION page 69

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FOOD AND WINE Designer restaurants

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And where is the flock wallpaper now? Deyan Sudj ic W alk into the Cafe Italien des Amis du Vin in Charlotte Street, past the dusty pink doors, the cream walls lined with...

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FOOD AND WINE

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Best cookery books The richest pickings for the kitchen Nigella Lawson I f you cook, you have probably got all the cookery books you need. At the most that will be two or...

`...and statistics'

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THIS boy's . • shirt with the St Michael label costs about £16.90 at Marks & Spencer in Paris — and only £10.00 in London. Main reason for that discrepancy: France charges...

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ARTS

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Exhibitions 1 Quieter voices Giles Auty Mary Newcomb (Crane Kalman, till 26 November) Elizabeth Blackadder (Mercury Gallery, till 19 November) Margaret Thomas (Sally Hunter...

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Exhibitions 2

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Dutch and Flemish Painting in Norfolk (Norwich Castle Museum, till 20 November) Going Dutch John Henshall R eaders of a naturally cynical disposi- tion may well utter a...

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Pop music

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It's sweeter with a tweeter Marcus Berkmann I have always loved those newspaper features which list the most stressful things that can happen to you, starting with death,...

Muddled Hackney: last week's reproduc- tion of a detail from

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David Hockney's 'Mulholland Drive: the Road to the Studio' was inadvertently printed the wrong way round. Our apologies.

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Theatre

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A Walk in the Woods (Comedy) The Heart of a Dog (Half Moon) The class of Guinness Christopher Edwards A lec Guinness is the reason for a visit to this cosy boulevard...

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Gardens

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Potted philosophy Ursula Buchan 11 over the country gardeners are grafting tomatoes, growing terrestrial orchids and discussing the merits of water- retaining polyacrylamides....

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Cinema

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Switching Channels ('PG', Odeon Leicester Square) London Film Festival (National Film Theatre) Unlikely bimbo Hilary Mantel S witching Channels could probably be described...

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Television

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Designer grit Wendy Cope A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that there was some French and Italian soft porn on The Media Show (Channel 4). A few days later I got told off by...

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High life

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The company they keep Taki B New York y the time you read this I hope the man with the moustaches for eyebrows will be back where he belongs, in the state Which for the last...

Low life

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Bolt holes Jeffrey Bernard I should never have gone to Barbados for the first time ten years ago. Since that time I have become increasingly obsessed with the sun, sea, rivers...

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Home life

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Wall to wall Alice Thomas Ellis W e got carried away by the carpet. Not as in 'magic' — although on Thursday evening I wished we had — but more by the Stakhanovite...

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CHESS

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Two day chess Raymond Keene hess will return to TV early next year in the shape of seven 45–minute program- mes on Thames. The tournament which provided the games to be...

COMPETITION

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Giggling through Jaspistos n Competition No. 1548 you were asked to supply a passage from 'the new sort of travel book', which describes hardships and ordeals with insouciant...

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Solution to 881: Bears out 'C R 2 U1 3 PE:T

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Ab MU ME N - 1 I R Ld r il C VARTHE IE% OIEFINIY USMUNDA ° HALFACRWNFIAE ' V SIBETERLETbH0 0 N PA P arC 6 A II11140IPAI . F NE . ITNICIAL +Lis I 11111 S E ONGEy a...

CROSSWORD

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A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 for the first three correct solutions opened on 28 November. Entries to: Crossword 884, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street,...

No. 1551: Shayk-al-Subair

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There is a popular belief in the Middle East that Shakespeare was an Arab. An extract, please (maximum 150 words) from a doc- toral thesis arguing this point of view. Entries to...