Tim Blair

Sounds like the only spectator was the magazine itself.
British Conservatives really are a breed apart - women with names like Petronella and Allegra. And how about a guy named Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
And I always thought British comedies made this kind of stuff up.

Where do you think they got their material?

Remind yourself that this is the milieu from which Evelyn Waugh got his best material.

Don't forget that Blunkett has been blind since birth - good to know he can still pull birds - even married ones!

Maybe if they would spend more attention brushing and flossing their teeth they'd have less time to bang each other.

Just a humble suggestion from across the pond.

Cheerio.

SMG

I wonder if this is connected to Mark Steyn's
website hiatus? His writing and Robert Thompson's
cartoons were far and away the best thing in
the Spectator.

I'm having serious Steyn withdrawals while he
is away from writing. I hope his issues will
soon be resolved and that he'll be back refreshed
and back writing soon.

I think the new online version of the Spekkie is much better. They've also improved it by getting rid of the tedious Taki and replacing his column with one by Joan Collins who is surprsingly literate and amusing (not just a bloated shoulder pad).

Now if the magazine could only come out from under the carapace of its adolscent anti-Americanism it'd be an even better read.

Kinda makes xeroxing 100 copies of your bum seem kinda tame, doesn't it?

Maybe if they would spend more attention brushing and flossing their teeth they'd have less time to bang each other.

Maybe if the Tories spent less time banging each other, they might actually get to run the country....nah...

Don't forget Petronalla's mother, Lady Wyatt (first name Verushka).

The really telling thing about the Tories is that their most successful politician in recent times was a grocer's daughter. Can't see their lot improving as long as their focus is on bonking girls with names like Myfwanny Farquhar-Farquharson and squandering daddy's money.

Compare and contrast with the 'typical' US conservative, usually regarded as salt-of-the-earth types whose conservatism has a moral and philosophical basis.

Perhaps the Conservative Party has simply decided to put an end to these disgusting exhibitions of rampant heterosexuality.Same gender coupling and/or flirtations with alternative species are surely preferable.

When did Johnson find time to sleep? According to the article he was not only the editor, he was also:

".. a member of parliament, a witty television celebrity, newspaper columnist and novelist.."

Add on the time taken up by his 'other affairs', and he was one busy guy.

Magoo in so far as Joan Collins goes, I am with you. My alltime favourite Spectator diary column entry was by Joan Collins.

It went as follows, refering to the then recent Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, she stated that from then on, Lewinsky would be known as the count of monti christo, give or take a vowel.

After Bush won, I sent a letter to the Spectator suggesting that Max Hastins could "osculate my hirsute, calypigious American posterior." I had no idea I was dealing with people who would treat that as a literal request.