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Saturday 17 May 2008

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The latest culture as recommended by our staff

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Tatarstan is the Muslim girlfriend Putin locks up

Venetia Thompson

2nd April, 2008

Venetia Thompson dislikes the resignation she finds in the most quiescent of Russia’s Muslim states. But other republics will be less apathetic in the face of Moscow’s provocations

You’d think Prince Charles would approve of foie gras

Alexander Chancellor

2nd April, 2008

Alexander Chancellor says that it is the sort of food which the Prince should like: free of chemicals and genetic manipulation, produced on small family farms, and steeped in tradition

Death of a Post Office

Deborah Devonshire

2nd April, 2008

Deborah Devonshire laments the death of a post office

We live in a state of emergency: and we are getting angrier

David Selbourne

26th March, 2008

Britain has lost its identity and its sense of nation, says David Selbourne. The citizen is treated as a mere ‘consumer’, liberty reduced to the ‘freedom to choose’, politicians held in contempt and hostile forces such as Islamism appeased. The stakes could scarcely be higher.

The soft diplomacy of Belgian chocolates

Emily Maitlis

26th March, 2008

Emily Maitlis reports from Libya on a land newly entranced by our brands — even M&S — where the West tolerates Gaddafi for fear of the insurgent alternative

Taki is right: we are all still snobs

Vassi Chamberlain

26th March, 2008

Vassi Chamberlain was taken to task by the poor little Greek boy over her powers of social observation. On reflection, she concedes that snobbery has never truly gone out of fashion

Milburn: What’s it all about, Gordon?

Fraser Nelson

26th March, 2008

Alan Milburn gives his first interview since Brown became PM, and tells Fraser Nelson that Gordon has converted to Blairism too late. Something new is needed now

I know why the government wants to send homosexuals back to Iran to be hanged

Rod Liddle

26th March, 2008

Gays are law-abiding, better-educated than the norm, economically productive and tend to be less of a drain on the state, says Rod Liddle. They don’t stand a chance in this country

To bring peace to the Afghans, talk to the Taleban

Adam Holloway

26th March, 2008

Adam Holloway says that Britain’s strategy in Afghanistan is misconceived. Nato’s military presence should be reduced and the battle for hearts and minds fought more imaginatively

Al-Qa’eda’s secret UK gangs: terror as a ‘playground dare’

Fraser Nelson

18th March, 2008

As Brown unveils his National Security Strategy, Fraser Nelson talks to those in the front line against Islamic extremism. MI5 has expanded successfully, but faces in al-Qa’eda an enemy that is organic, elusive and constantly mutating: gangs built on deadly bravado

Pullman gives God a break for Easter

A.S.H. Smyth

18th March, 2008

The author of His Dark Materials talks to A.S.H. Smyth about the latest episode in the saga in which he turns towards politics — with a nod to The Magnificent Seven along the way

Pity the monks of Tibet who dare to hope that anyone will come to their aid

Rod Liddle

18th March, 2008

Rod Liddle is appalled by the appeasement of China, a country that now combines the most oppressive aspects of state Marxism with the most brutally rapacious aspects of capitalism.

Mugabe is the Mobutu of our time

Marian L. Tupy

18th March, 2008

Marian L. Tupy wishes that Zimbabwe would follow the lead of Botswana, a market democracy. For now, it swelters under the oppressive rule of a tyrant who is wrecking his country.

A holy man tipped to lead the nation’s Catholics

Mary Wakefield

18th March, 2008

Mary Wakefield meets Dom Hugh Gilbert, the Benedictine Abbot of Pluscarden — said to be the Pope’s ‘dark horse’ candidate to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor

The miners’ strike and the fight against Islamism

Charles Moore

18th March, 2008

Extremism dies when its lack of legitimacy is revealed, Charles Moore says. Muslim fundamentalism is as brittle as union militancy was in the Eighties

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Intelligence Squared debate report - "The West is provoking a new Cold War with Russia"

Lloyd Evans

19th March, 2008

Lloyd Evans reports on the latest Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate

‘They have guns’: a Sloane at large in gangsta land

Venetia Thompson

12th March, 2008

Tired of Euro-Sloane bores in Chelsea, Venetia Thompson tours the clubs of Harlesden, the UK’s ‘gun capital’, and experiences a world where a firearm is as normal a status symbol as a Chanel handbag or a Rolex watch would be in SW3

Go nuclear, but keep your hand on your wallet

Irwin Stelzer

12th March, 2008

The government claims that the private sector will meet the costs of new nuclear plants, says Irwin Stelzer. But there is every risk that the public will end up footing the bill

A film-maker who lives in the shadow of a fatwa

Douglas Murray

12th March, 2008

Geert Wilders, the controversial Dutch politician, says that the Koran should be banned but his film attacking it must be seen. He makes his case to Douglas Murray