Smash hit, p44

Case closed?, p14

The big squeeze, p50

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 6 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary WhatsApping Matt Hancock

George Osborne 10 Politics Are boats the new Brexit?

Katy Balls 11 The Spectator’s Notes

The perils of thinking you are good Charles Moore 14 Ancient and modern

Athenian plague 15 Rod Liddle

All civil servants hate the Tories 19 Douglas Murray

Please afford me this little gloat 20 Barometer Civil service careers,

food prices and March shivers 23 Matthew Parris

Safe asylum routes won’t work 27 Lionel Shriver

Despotic social controls cost lives 28 Letters Russia’s ‘friends’, DVDs,

origin myths, yew 30 Any other business Why listed companies are leaving London Martin Vander Weyer

BOOKS & ARTS

12 Ron vs Don

DeSantis and Trump gear up for a fight Freddy Gray 13 Fiona Larkin

Glowing Still, by Sara Wheeler 34 Mia Levitin

‘Borderland’: a poem 14 Worst Case scenario

Liliana’s Invincible Summer, by Cristina Rivera Garza Jamie Collinson

Can the cabinet secretary carry on? James Heale 16 Hot sources

Matt Hancock’s WhatsApps will be a historical goldmine Andrew Roberts 20 ‘I don’t like gold’

The Italian architect behind Putin’s probable palace Paul Wood 22 Scandi noir

Gathering evidence of war crimes Peter Pomerantsev BOOKS 32 Viv Groskop

Sweden’s street gangs are gaining power Paulina Neuding 24 ‘ There are no films I regret’

An interview with Michael Caine Tanya Gold 26 Letter from Ukraine

In Ascension, by Martin MacInnes 35 Andrew Lambirth

Surrealists in New York, by Charles Darwent 36 Katrina Gulliver

The Angel Makers, by Patti McCracken 37 Tessa Dunlop

The Windsors at War, by Alexander Larman Sam Dalrymple

Courting India, by Nandini Das 38 Michael Arditti

What You Need From the Night, by Laurent Petitmangin 39 Hugh Thomson

Banzeiro Òkótó by Eliane Brum Rebecca Watts ‘She Wishes for the Cliffs of Devon’: a poem

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Tim Bales, Mark Wood, Wilbur, K.J. Lamb, RGJ, Robert Thompson, A.J. Singleton, Nick Newman. 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 The Spectator customer services, Tower House, Lathkill Street, Market Harborough LE16 9EF; Tel: 01858 438 781; Email: subscriptions@the.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/ basic-rate or call 01858 438 781 and quote BAR; 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 351; no 10,149 © 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

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the spectator | 11 march 2023 | www.spectator.co.uk