Contested land, p30

Pause for thought, p23

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 6 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary The fire and fury of

America’s abortion debate Andrew Sullivan 10 Politics The losing game

James Forsyth 11 The Spectator’s Notes

A living history lesson Charles Moore 15 Rod Liddle Auntie’s issues 17 Lionel Shriver

Britain’s national character flaws 18 Barometer Biergate, plane emissions and British dentists 20 Ancient and modern

Putin’s emperor complex 21 Matthew Parris

How to handle the next pandemic 25 Douglas Murray What gets lost amid silly scandals 27 Letters Northern Ireland, David

Davis and Putin’s nuclear power 28 Any other business

Haldane would have been a smarter inflation fighter than Bailey Martin Vander Weyer

Real menace, p42

12 Can Keir escape?

Labour after Starmer Katy Balls 13 A fine mess

The lockdown penalty charges keep coming Michael Simmons 14 Theatre of war

Russians must mobilise their own culture against Putin C.J. Farrington 16 New Aussie rules

Conservative values have fallen out of fashion Alexander Downer 18 Who’s out

The negative discrimination of Oxbridge admissions David Abulafia 20 Carbon paper

The new GCSE in global warming Bjorn Lomborg 23 Pause célèbre

The march of the ‘menosplainers’ Michele Kirsch 24 Daylight robbery

Why won’t banks help fraud victims like my daughter? Stephen Robinson

BOOKS & ARTS

BOOKS 30 Justin Marozzi

The Bride, by Roger Hardy 32 Marcus Nevitt

Conspiracy on Cato Street, by Vic Gatrell 34 Duncan Fallowell

The Very Last Interview, by David Shields Lucy Lethbridge

A Village in the Third Reich, by Julian Boyd and Angelika Patel 35 Sara Wheeler

Exiles, by William Atkins 36 Boyd Tonkin

Bad Actors, by Mick Herron 37 Daniel Rey

Young Mungo, by Douglas Stuart Jay Elwes

Liberalism and its Discontents, by Francis Fukuyama 38 Andrew Roberts

Winston Churchill, by Tariq Ali 40 Chloë Ashby

Bad Relations, by Cressida Connolly Margie Orford The Perfect Golden Circle, by Benjamin Myers

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Tim Bales, Nick Newman, Banx, Grizelda, Wilbur, Bernie, K.J. Lamb, Kipper Williams, Russel Herneman. www.spectator.co.uk Editorial and advertising The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Email: letters@spectator. co.uk (for publication); advertising@spectator.co.uk (advertising); Advertising enquiries: 020 7961 0128 Subscription and delivery queries Spectator Subscriptions Dept., 17 Perrymount Rd, Haywards Heath RH16 3DH; Tel: 0330 3330 050; Email: customerhelp@subscriptions.spectator.co.uk; Rates for a basic annual subscription in the UK: £111; Europe: £185; Australia: A$279; New Zealand: A$349; and £195 in all other countries. To order, go to www.spectator.co.uk/A263A or call 0330 3330 050 and quote A151A; Newsagent queries Spectator Circulation Dept, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7681 3773, Email: dbrown@spectator.co.uk; Distributor Marketforce, 161 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9AP. Tel. 0203 787 9001. www.marketforce.co.uk Vol 349; no 10,107 © 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

4

the spectator | 14 may 2022 | www.spectator.co.uk