Page ii

CONTENT

i Leading article

Quantum of decline iv Brown study

World’s most incompetent minister Neil Brown v Tory voters on strike

Britain’s grim march Mark Higgie vi Quantum delusions

Maths shows hopes are fantasies Michael Collins vii Return of the MFP

And other such rubbish Judith Sloan viii Oppression, dispossession and

massacres Welcome to classroom Victoria Bella d’Abrera ix Save the planet

Averting Lake Nyos Ian Plimer x Fatties for a Free Palestine

Useful idiots Rebecca Weisser xi Gay Rex

Collapse of our moral universe was predictable Lyle Shelton xii Asia’s new flashpoint

Attack on the Philippines? Kevin Andrews

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

THE WEEK Plum role, p20

3 Leading article 4 Portrait of the Week 5 Diary Can we really trust

our political leaders? Slavoj Zizek 6 Politics The battle of the pollsters

Katy Balls 7 The Spectator’s Notes

Labour’s insult to rural voters Charles Moore 13 Douglas Murray

We need to talk about Kevin 14 Barometer Left-wing heroes,

prison violence and biodiversity 15 Lionel Shriver

Why I hate hate speech laws 16 Ancient and modern

Sense of shame 19 Matthew Parris

Save us from this plastic plague 21 Letters Victorian childhoods,

Radio 3, and is Rishi the problem? 22 Any other business

We can stop cash reaching Russia but we can’t get our aircraft back Martin Vander Weyer

Electoral fraud, p48

8 Drama students

How universities raised a new generation of activists Yascha Mounk 10 Pitch battles

A dispatch from the student protests Angus Colwell 12 Wheels within deals

The Israeli-Hamas negotiations Anshel Pfeffer 14 Customer disservice

Why do people make excuses for surly staff? Mark Mason 16 ‘No to Russia!’

The streets of Tbilisi are heaving with anti-government protestors Svitlana Morenets 18 Friends like Xi’s

Can the Chinese leader keep his few European allies onside? Cindy Yu 20 Sex and the shires

Plum Sykes on why the Cotswolds scene is ‘soul-sapping and funny’ Freddy Gray

Cover by Morten Morland. Drawings by Michael Heath, Castro, Mark Wood, RGJ, Grizelda, Dredge, Nick Newman, Kipper Williams, Matt Percival, K.J. Lamb, Robert Thompson, Paul Wood, Bernie. www.spectator.co.uk Rates for a basic annual subscription in the UK: £119; Europe: £195; Australia: AU$395.99; New Zealand: NZ$479.99; and AU$479.99 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, Email: wdelmont@spectator.co.uk. Spectator Australia Distribution enquiries Tel: +61 (0)8 9362 4134. Vol 355; no 10,210 © 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

the spectator australia | 11 may 2024 | www.spectator.com.au