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CONTENT i Leading article Slashing the acronyms iv Brown Study French letter Neil Brown v New Zealand sees the light on Auku Thanks to Winston Peters Kevin Andrews vi Biggest national security disaster New rules of law Jason Thomas vii Sunak’s sinking ship Nigel Farage final nail in coffin Mark Higgie viii ‘My word is my bond’ Yeah, right Judith Sloan ix A pandemic that should really scare The disease of socialism Maurice Newman x Gaslighting the Jews NSW Police are a joke and antisemites are laughing Rebecca Weisser xi Business/Robbery, etc Indefensible: the Albanese-funded EDO Michael Baume xii BoM refuses to see AI on the horizon Dictatorship of the woke bureaucrats Scott Hargreaves Follow us on Twitter: @SpectatorOz Spectator Australia letters to the editor and enquiries: editor@spectator.com.au Sa it with owers, 10 THE WEEK 3 Leading article 4 Portrait of the Week 5 Diary Labour is right to ditch its £28 billion green pledge Paul Mason 6 Politics Starmer’s Gaza gamble James Heale 7 The Spectator’s Notes Should King Charles have announced the news of his cancer? Charles Moore 11 Rod Liddle Suspend your disbelief 13 Barometer Butterfly numbers, Covid grades and swapping religion 15 Douglas Murray We live in a different Britain now 20 Mary Wakefield My XL Bully eureka moment 19 Ancient and modern Laughing stock 22 Letters St Blaise, the right to die and UAE censorship 23 Any other business Will Rachel Reeves scrap the private equity tax break? Martin Vander Weyer Le t march, 5 8 Extinction Rebellion The plot to take down Rishi Katy Balls 9 Julie Lumsden ‘Wonderful Tennessee’: a poem 10 Blooming obvious Women love flowers. Who knew? Henry Jeffreys 12 Smoke signals A fireside chat with Alan Garner Emily Rhodes 14 Royal treatment The problem with a ‘slimmeddown’ monarchy Hugo Vickers 16 Latest draft Inside Ukraine’s new plan for mass conscription Svitlana Morenets 18 ‘I am not intending to conquer Europe’ An interview with Éric Zemmour Freddy Gray 21 Letter from Antarctica We are truly isolated here – but rarely alone Robbie Mallett Cover by Sarah Dudley, illustration by Ben Davis. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Natasha Lawson, John Broadley, Robert Thompson, Kipper Williams, K.J. Lamb, Mike Stokoe, Nick Newman, Grizelda, RGJ. www.spectator.co.uk Rates for a basic annual subscription in the UK: £119; Europe: £195; Australia: AU$349.99; New Zealand: NZ$409.99; and AU$409.99 in all other countries. To order, go to www.spectator.co.uk/A151A or call 0330 3330 050 and quote A151A. Editorial and advertising The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7681 3773, Email: editor@spectator.com.au (editorial); letters@spectator.co.uk (for publication); advertising@spectator.co.uk (advertising); Advertising enquiries: 020 7961 0222 Subscription and delivery queries IPG Media PO Box 610, Kalamunda WA 6926, Australia. Tel: 1800 809 233. From NZ: +6189 362 4134. Email: spectator@ipgmedia.com.au Spectator Australia advertising Tel: +44 (0)20 7961 0222, advertising@pressholdings.com Spectator Australia marketing William Delmont, Tel: +44 (0)20 7961 0004. Email: wdelmont@spectator.co.uk. Spectator Australia Distribution enquiries Tel +61 (0)8 9362 4134. Vol 354; no 10,198 © 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 Spectator Australia Editor: Rowan Dean editor@spectator.com.au ii 10 2024 . . .
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Fat stacks, p41 Unholy smoke, p24 Agent provocateur, p24 BOOKS & ARTS LIFE BOOKS 24 Peter Frankopan Smoke and Ashes, by Amitav Ghosh 26 Francesca Peacock Parasol Against the Axe, by Helen Oyeyemi David Honigmann Teddy Boys, by Max Décharné 27 Stuart Kelly How I Won a Nobel Prize, by Julius Taranto 28 Alex Peake -Tomkinson Green Dot, by Madeleine Gray Jane Solomon ‘The Mattress’: a poem Horatio Clare One Crew, by Helen Doe 30 Michael Arditti James and John, by Chris Bryant 31 Alex Clark What Will Survive of Us, by Howard Jacobson ARTS 32 Laura Gascoigne Entangled Pasts, 1768-now: Art, Colonialism and Change 34 Classical music The Hallé – Desert Music; Chineke!/Suganandarajah Richard Bratby Pop John Francis Flynn; Margo Price Michael Hann 36 Dance Metamorphoses; Resolution Festival Rupert Christiansen 37 Cinema Occupied City Deborah Ross The listener Cheekface: It’s Sorted Rod Liddle 38 Television Curb Your Enthusiasm; Ted James Walton Theatre Till the Stars Come Down; Broken Water Lloyd Evans 40 Australian Arts Peter Craven CONTRIBUTORS Paul Mason, who writes this week’s diary on p5, is a former economics editor for Channel 4 News and Newsnight. Henry Jeffreys, who describes his conversion to flower-buying on p10, is the author of Empire of Booze and the weekly newsletter Drinking Culture. the spectator australia | 10 february 2024 | www.spectator.com.au Peter Frankopan, who writes about the opium trade on p24, is the author of The Silk Roads and The Earth Transformed: An Untold History. LIFE 42 No life Lloyd Evans 43 Real life Melissa Kite 44 Wild life Aidan Hartley Bridge Janet de Botton 45 Aussie Life Simon Collins Language Kel Richards AND FINALLY . . . 41 Notes on… Pancakes Hannah Moore 46 Chess Luke McShane Competition Lucy Vickery 47 Crossword Doc 48 No sacred cows Toby Young Battle for Britain Michael Heath 49 Sport Roger Alton Your problems solved Mary Killen 50 Food Tanya Gold Mind your language Dot Wordsworth 51 Jews denied equal protection Public policy determined by race hatred David Flint Horatio Clare writes in praise of the RNLI on p28. His own books include Running Wild, Heavy Light and Down To The Sea In Ships. Alex Clark is a writer, critic, editor and broadcaster. She reviews Howard Jacobson’s new novel on p31. iii

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CONTENT

i Leading article

Slashing the acronyms iv Brown Study

French letter Neil Brown v New Zealand sees the light on Auku Thanks to Winston Peters Kevin Andrews vi Biggest national security disaster

New rules of law Jason Thomas vii Sunak’s sinking ship

Nigel Farage final nail in coffin Mark Higgie viii ‘My word is my bond’

Yeah, right Judith Sloan ix A pandemic that should really scare The disease of socialism Maurice Newman x Gaslighting the Jews

NSW Police are a joke and antisemites are laughing Rebecca Weisser xi Business/Robbery, etc

Indefensible: the Albanese-funded EDO Michael Baume xii BoM refuses to see AI on the horizon Dictatorship of the woke bureaucrats Scott Hargreaves

Follow us on Twitter: @SpectatorOz

Spectator Australia letters to the editor and enquiries: editor@spectator.com.au

Sa it with owers, 10

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 4 Portrait of the Week 5 Diary Labour is right to ditch its £28 billion green pledge Paul Mason 6 Politics Starmer’s Gaza gamble

James Heale 7 The Spectator’s Notes

Should King Charles have announced the news of his cancer? Charles Moore 11 Rod Liddle

Suspend your disbelief 13 Barometer Butterfly numbers,

Covid grades and swapping religion 15 Douglas Murray

We live in a different Britain now 20 Mary Wakefield

My XL Bully eureka moment 19 Ancient and modern

Laughing stock 22 Letters St Blaise, the right to die and UAE censorship 23 Any other business

Will Rachel Reeves scrap the private equity tax break? Martin Vander Weyer

Le t march, 5

8 Extinction Rebellion

The plot to take down Rishi Katy Balls 9 Julie Lumsden

‘Wonderful Tennessee’: a poem 10 Blooming obvious

Women love flowers. Who knew? Henry Jeffreys 12 Smoke signals

A fireside chat with Alan Garner Emily Rhodes 14 Royal treatment

The problem with a ‘slimmeddown’ monarchy Hugo Vickers 16 Latest draft

Inside Ukraine’s new plan for mass conscription Svitlana Morenets 18 ‘I am not intending to conquer Europe’ An interview with Éric Zemmour Freddy Gray 21 Letter from Antarctica

We are truly isolated here – but rarely alone Robbie Mallett

Cover by Sarah Dudley, illustration by Ben Davis. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Natasha Lawson, John Broadley, Robert Thompson, Kipper Williams, K.J. Lamb, Mike Stokoe, Nick Newman, Grizelda, RGJ. www.spectator.co.uk Rates for a basic annual subscription in the UK: £119; Europe: £195; Australia: AU$349.99; New Zealand: NZ$409.99; and AU$409.99 in all other countries. To order, go to www.spectator.co.uk/A151A or call 0330 3330 050 and quote A151A. Editorial and advertising The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP, Tel: 020 7961 0200, Fax: 020 7681 3773, Email: editor@spectator.com.au (editorial); letters@spectator.co.uk (for publication); advertising@spectator.co.uk (advertising); Advertising enquiries: 020 7961 0222 Subscription and delivery queries IPG Media PO Box 610, Kalamunda WA 6926, Australia. Tel: 1800 809 233. From NZ: +6189 362 4134. Email: spectator@ipgmedia.com.au Spectator Australia advertising Tel: +44 (0)20 7961 0222, advertising@pressholdings.com Spectator Australia marketing William Delmont, Tel: +44 (0)20 7961 0004. Email: wdelmont@spectator.co.uk. Spectator Australia Distribution enquiries Tel +61 (0)8 9362 4134. Vol 354; no 10,198 © 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 Spectator Australia Editor: Rowan Dean editor@spectator.com.au ii

10 2024 . . .

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