Away games, p61

Cold comfort, p39

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 6 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary What does Keir

Starmer stand for? Nick Robinson 10 Politics The Lib Dems march on Surrey Katy Balls 11 The Spectator’s Notes

A letter from Odessa Charles Moore 15 Rod Liddle How to lose voters 18 Ancient and Modern

Learning to be good 19 Douglas Murray

Our museums are run by cowards 23 Lionel Shriver Voters want to punish the Tories – and themselves 27 Matthew Parris

How repulsive is Nigel Farage? 28 Letters Tory decline, future demigods and Pitt’s port 30 Any other business

The G7 loan to Ukraine is a lily-livered half-measure Martin Vander Weyer

Life in Utopia, p38

BOOKS & ARTS

12 Lawfare

Keir Starmer will govern through the courts Ross Clark 13 Christopher James

‘The Collector of Rivers’: a poem 14 Don’t outlaw ‘Islamophobia’

Starmer may walk into the Islamists’ trap Ed Husain 16 The Blobocracy

Real power doesn’t belong to MPs Matt Ridley 18 Great unknowns

Why we love to be baffled Mark Mason 20 Video nasties

Allies wonder when it will end Owen Matthews BOOKS 32 James Campbell Balzac’s Paris, by Eric Hazan 34 Anna Aslanyan This Strange Eventful History, by Claire Messud Owen Matthews The First Cold War, by Barbara Emerson 37 Christopher Akers How the West Became AntiSemitic, by Ivan G. Marcus 38 Dorian Lynskey Neu Klang, by Christoph Dallach Tibor Fischer Deep Utopia, by Nick Bostrom 39 Olivia Potts Cold Kitchen, by Caroline Eden 40 Agnès Poirier What Everyone Knows About Britain* (*Except the British), by Michael Peel Alex Peake -Tomkinson Table for Two, by Amor Towles

Body cams are everywhere Panda La Terriere 22 Euros notebook

England’s hooligan days are over William Cook 24 Zelensky’s forever war

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, John Broadley, RGJ, Mark Wood, Robert Thompson, Kipper Williams, Royston, Bernie, Wilbur, Nick Newman, Matt Percival, Grizelda. 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: £119; Europe: £195; and £205 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 355; no 10,217 © 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 | 22 june 2024 | www.spectator.co.uk