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‘Personally, I’d never accept a gift of clothing’, p10 Jog on, p42 Sausage negotiations, p11 THE WEEK 3 Leading article 6 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary My rules for reality television Rachel Johnson 10 Politics Lord Alli’s beneficence James Heale 11 The Spectator’s Notes On gifts in cash and kind Charles Moore 15 Rod Liddle We’ve got to talk about Lammy 17 Douglas Murray The West’s eunuch peacekeepers 21 Lionel Shriver Whatever happened to Lionel Shriver? 23 Barometer Hecklers, national debts and working from home 24 Ancient and modern Present moments 25 Matthew Parris Twilight of the pen-pushers 27 Letters Assisted dying, older cars and Chinese football 28 Any other business Private equity is fair game but don’t take aim at Aim Martin Vander Weyer 12 Fight club For once, Conservative party conference really matters Katy Balls 13 Pitching in The Tory leadership contenders state their case 16 Axis of indecision Is Israel trying to drag America into a war with Iran? Paul Wood 18 Hounded out Is it too late to save trail hunting? Flora Watkins 20 Trail blazers France’s school uniform experiment Jonathan Miller 22 Blurred lines The shifting definition of ‘victory’ in Ukraine Owen Matthews 24 Dead loss The erasure of widowhood Colin Brazier BOOKS & ARTS BOOKS 30 Claire Lowdon Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney 32 David Profumo Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton Candy Neubert ‘to the woman on the train on her laptop’: a poem Rodric Braithwaite Crimean Quagmire, by Gregory Carleton 33 Mark Bostridge The Peepshow, by Kate Summerscale 34 Rowan Pelling Want, collected by Gillian Anderson 35 Jonathan Boff The Price of Victory, by N.A.M. Rodger 36 Leyla Sanai The Third Realm, by Karl Ove Knausgaard 37 Ian Thomson Naples 1944, by Keith Lowe Fred Johnston ‘Mutual Dust’: a poem 38 Marcus Nevitt Republic, by Alice Hunt 39 James Ball Nexus, by Yuval Noah Harari Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, John Broadley, Tim Bales, Robert Thompson, Grizelda, Matt Percival, Nick Newman, Royston, Bernie, Mark Wood. 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 356; no 10,231 © 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 | 28 september 2024 | www.spectator.co.uk
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Hare highlights, p32 The right track, p50 How to speak Roonish, p30 LIFE ARTS 40 Michael Hann How TikTok brought has-been bands back to life 42 Radio & podcasts Dealcraft; Springsteen at the BBC Jenny McCartney Exhibitions Paris 1924 Laura Gascoigne 44 Pop On posthumous albums Graeme Thomson Television The Penguin Robert Jackman 46 Cinema Megalopolis Deborah Ross 47 Theatre Waiting for Godot; Two of Us Lloyd Evans 48 The listener Markus Poschner’s Bruckner Damian Thompson Opera Eugene Onegin; Rigoletto Richard Bratby 49 Dance Three Short Ballets; Giselle Rupert Christiansen LIFE 53 City life Cosmo Landesman 54 Real life Melissa Kite 55 Wild life Aidan Hartley Bridge Janet de Botton 57 Wine club Jonathan Ray AND FINALLY . . . 50 Notes on… Trams Christian Wolmar 58 Chess Luke McShane Competition Victoria Lane 59 Crossword Doc 60 No sacred cows Toby Young Battle for Britain Michael Heath 61 The Wiki Man Rory Sutherland Your problems solved Mary Killen 62 Drink Bruce Anderson Mind your language Dot Wordsworth CONTRIBUTORS Colin Brazier is a former presenter for Sky News and GB News. He is now training to be a farmer. On p24 he writes about the abolition of widowhood. Claire Lowdon is a writer, critic and author of the novel Left of the Bang. On p30 she reviews Sally Rooney’s new book. Rodric Braithwaite, who writes about Russian war reporting on p32, is a former ambassador to Moscow and author of books including Russia: Myths and Realities. the spectator | 28 september 2024 | www.spectator.co.uk I have to decide whether to go to the Spectator part y or back to my hotel to watch myself on television, although I do not say this out loud. Rachel Johnson, p9 There have been five Batman films in ten years, which is even more than the number of Emily Maitlis/ Prince Andrew dramas. Robert Jackman, p44 Voting Labour and getting a neo-liberal Chancellor is like going on a Club 18-30 holiday and bringing your parents along. Rory Sutherland, p61 Rowan Pelling is a former editor of Erotic Review. She writes about an exciting new collection of filth on p34. Christian Wolmar, who discusses the joy of tram travel on p50, is author of The Liberation Line: The Last Untold Story of the Normandy Landings. 5

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‘Personally, I’d never accept a gift of clothing’, p10

Jog on, p42

Sausage negotiations, p11

THE WEEK

3 Leading article 6 Portrait of the Week 9 Diary My rules for reality television Rachel Johnson 10 Politics Lord Alli’s beneficence

James Heale 11 The Spectator’s Notes

On gifts in cash and kind Charles Moore 15 Rod Liddle

We’ve got to talk about Lammy 17 Douglas Murray

The West’s eunuch peacekeepers 21 Lionel Shriver Whatever happened to Lionel Shriver? 23 Barometer Hecklers, national debts and working from home 24 Ancient and modern

Present moments 25 Matthew Parris

Twilight of the pen-pushers 27 Letters Assisted dying, older cars and Chinese football 28 Any other business

Private equity is fair game but don’t take aim at Aim Martin Vander Weyer

12 Fight club

For once, Conservative party conference really matters Katy Balls 13 Pitching in

The Tory leadership contenders state their case 16 Axis of indecision

Is Israel trying to drag America into a war with Iran? Paul Wood 18 Hounded out

Is it too late to save trail hunting? Flora Watkins 20 Trail blazers

France’s school uniform experiment Jonathan Miller 22 Blurred lines

The shifting definition of ‘victory’ in Ukraine Owen Matthews 24 Dead loss

The erasure of widowhood Colin Brazier

BOOKS & ARTS

BOOKS 30 Claire Lowdon

Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney 32 David Profumo

Raising Hare, by Chloe Dalton Candy Neubert ‘to the woman on the train on her laptop’: a poem Rodric Braithwaite Crimean Quagmire, by Gregory Carleton 33 Mark Bostridge

The Peepshow, by Kate Summerscale 34 Rowan Pelling

Want, collected by Gillian Anderson 35 Jonathan Boff

The Price of Victory, by N.A.M. Rodger 36 Leyla Sanai

The Third Realm, by Karl Ove Knausgaard 37 Ian Thomson

Naples 1944, by Keith Lowe Fred Johnston ‘Mutual Dust’: a poem 38 Marcus Nevitt

Republic, by Alice Hunt 39 James Ball

Nexus, by Yuval Noah Harari

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, John Broadley, Tim Bales, Robert Thompson, Grizelda, Matt Percival, Nick Newman, Royston, Bernie, Mark Wood. 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 356; no 10,231 © 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 | 28 september 2024 | www.spectator.co.uk

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