M r Peter Lilley, the Secretary of State for Social Security, launched a campaign with the slogan: 'Know a benefit rip-off? Give us a telephone tip-off.' It was intend- ed to...

Londonderry's walls have a dual symbolism: both hold Ulster in their grip BRUCE ANDERSON L ndonderry is the second city of Northern Ireland, and recently it has enjoyed...

I ant looking forward to seeing Jude Kelly's Chichester production of J.B. Priestley's comedy classic When We Are Married, with Leo McKern as Henry Ormonroyd, the bibulous...

The thing about IRA terrorism that I have never heard officially acknowledged MATTHEW PARRIS W riting in last week's Times, Simon Jenkins looks at reaction to the Atlanta bomb...

Tony Blair only meant Clause 4 when he told Labour to think the unthinkable. Instead, Anne McElvoy offers the choices after the most unthinkable thought of all: defeat IT IS...

Nicholas Farrell says that, instead of blaming a lack of state spending, Mr Blair should look nearer home to explain our Olympic showing TONY BLAIR'S reaction to Britain's...

Michael Heath

I WAS thinking of the poor Queen aboard Britannia, bound for Scotland for the last time, with a box of summer reading chosen by her advisers — lain Banks and such horrors...

Margot Sheehan feels, she can tell the truth about the city where the Republicans are convening. She comes from there THE REPUBLICAN National Conven- tion will descend on San...

He upsets Tokyo's former victims by visiting a shrine to the Japanese war dead. John Casey says why LAST WEEK the Japanese Prime Minis- ter, Ryutaro Hashimoto, officially...

Tunku Varadarajan explains why. It's because they admire the English gentleman LET ME slap my prejudice on the table. I dislike Ian Botham. And my feelings are shared by...

If we banish Sunday for good, we are sure to miss it PAUL JOHNSON W hen, in the 1920s, the British athlete Eric Liddell refused, on principle, to run an Olympic race on a...

Let's have a look at another five? No, deal me out of Lloyd's CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he finality statements have gone out from Lloyd's of London. This is what Lloyd's calls the...

Sir: Pursuant to Michael Tanner's superb analysis of Wagner's alleged anti-Semitism (Arts, 27 July), heretofore unknown is the fact that the best friend of Wagner's only child,...

Sir: We write as the three members of the Scott Trust who are independent of both the Guardian and the Scott family to cor- rect the abusive attack on its chairman, Hugo Young,...

Sir: But Benjamin Britten did have a dog(s) (Letters, 3 August). Years back on holiday at Aldeburgh we were sheltering from the wind beside a breakwater and he came run- ning...

Anti-establishment Sir: Douglas Johnson (The high cost of French politics', 27 July) makes no mention of a major reason for so many French politicians and business leaders...

Sir: Why is poor old Milton Shulman, the King Canute of theatre criticism, still trying to belittle the changes he opposed during his working lifetime (`Look back at myths', 3...

Sir: Keith Waterhouse bemoaned that he had to abandon the dramatisation of Alan Clark's Diaries (Diary, 3 August). But he must not despair. Perhaps the theme of his next...

Sir: Poor 'little Winston'I He cannot even read my first name - well enough on the review of his book to spell it, as The Specta- tor has always done, correctly. The late member...

Sir: Your leader (3 August) commenting on the reaction to the prices paid for the ser- vices of Alan Shearer and Cedric Brown misses an important point — that, unlike Alan...

Sir: Does Sheridan Morley ever go to the theatre for fun? Voyeurz, which he knocks mercilessly in your 3 August, issue doesn't pretend to be anything else. Why should it? It is...

Sir: It is ungracious of John Berkeley to hope (in print) that he is never invited to join a lady on one of her picnics, especially when the lady is Anne McElvoy and his...

Sir: The most pertinent question concern- ing Petronella Wyatt's quest for the Gold- smith voter (Furthermore, 20 July) is, where did she find an ironmonger's in Putney?...

Sir: Jaspistos is perfectly correct. 'I get no kick from champagne' is the first line of the chorus rather than of the verse (Competi- tion, 3 August). By the same token, may I...

Bribes don't work in Italy any more. So neither does much else PETRONELLA WYATT I had been on holiday in Italy only a few days before an expatriate English friend complained,...

It's nigh or never David Sexton THE END OF TIME by Damian Thompson Sinclair-Stevenson, L16.99, pp. 365 B eing stood up is always embarrassing, especially in public. What do you...

STONEHENGE: NEOLITHIC MAN AND THE COSMOS by John North HarperCollins, f25, pp. 609 T he blurb to this book says that Profes- sor North is one of Europe's most distin- guished...

Eric Christiansen A HISTORY OF READING by Alberto Manguel HarperCollins, £25, pp. 372 A dilettante, said Sir Lewis Namier, is one who is more interested in himself than in his...

Francis King PLAYING THE HARLOT by Patricia Avis Virago, £6.99, pp. 252 T his novel, completed in 1963 but only now posthumously published, elicited from Philip Larkin a...

Philip Glazebrook SPY ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by Sydney Wignall Canongate, L16.99, pp. 247 I f you imagine the Iliad done as a Cony On movie, you get an idea of the...

Hilary Corke WHITE GLOVES by John Kotre Simon & Schuster, £15.99, pp. 276 T he subtitle of this attractive-looking treatise by a professor of psychology at the University of...

Kate Hubbard GHOSTING by John Preston Black Swan, £6.99, pp. 320 W hy should I, an apparition to so many, be troubled by apparitions myself?' So speaks Dickie Chambers, hero...

D. J. Enright SELECTED POEMS, 1933-1993 by Gavin Ewart Hutchinson, f9.99, pp. 197 S ince the warnings are seen to have failed, we may be tempted to say that all a Poet can do...

A very French affair Harry Eyres finds this year's Avignon Theatre Festival stylish, serious and surprising K afka has a particularly resonant para- ble about leopards breaking...

Independence Day (12, selected cinemas) My Beautiful Laundrette (15, selected cinemas) One giant leap for machines Mark Steyn B ob Dole, in the midst of his auto-sub- versive...

Michael Tanner says he never intended to suppress the issue of Wagner's anti-Semitism B arry Millington's concluding question 'Is this the way they teach at Cambridge these...

Pulling in the punters Edward Lucie-Smith T he Hayward Gallery, in trouble over attendances, seems to have envisaged its current Oldenburg show as just the thing to pull in the...

The General from America (Stratford Swan) The White Devil (Stratford Swan) Paint Your Wagon (Open Air, Regent's Park) Rich, rare and remarkable Sheridan Morley C losing the...

Power struggle Michael Vestey I n order to become the master the politi- cian poses as the servant. I was reminded of this rather apt observation of General de Gaulle's while...

Belgian delights Gavin Stamp A ugust, and the thoughts and aims of so many turn towards the seaside. Mine do not, for sun and sea and inactivity seem to me to be worse than a...

No more Mr Nice Guy James Delingpole T he other day I discovered I have a famous fan. I'd gone to interview Andrew Davies about his upcoming adaptations of Emma and Moll...

Summer treats Robin Oakley 6 Let us divide the potential audience into two categories,' a lecturer invited a BBC seminar the other day. On the one hand we have politicians,...

You can go off people Jeffrey Bernard O edema sounds like an orchestral suite by Sibelius and the written word even looks like one. Unfortunately, it is a build- up of...

Fame and fortunes Taki Gstaad A of today, I declare the silly season open. Macrologist gentlemen of the press, and I use the G word in its broadest sense, should feel free to...

What a nightmare Leanda de Lisle n the last night of our holiday in Por- tugal I had a terrible nightmare: Peter, the children and I were attacked by pod people who wanted to...

Déjàvu Andrew Robson BORIS SCHAPIRO, Great Britain's octo- genarian ex-World Champion who is still playing competitive bridge, once conducted the following post-mortem with...

1, 44-1*-0 The irritation is not just with the socialist character of restaurants: same size portion for all, regardless of appetite; same chair for all, regardless of bottom...

Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1944 you were given two rollicking opening lines of poetry and invited to continue in your own way. The two lines floated into my head just after...

IN•TIIE•STRA NI) SIMPSON'S IN•THE-STRA NI) CHESS Tireless Raymond Keene I LIKE to think of this column as a chroni- cle of record of all the important events in the chess...

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 27 August, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...

Muhammad Ali triumphs Simon Barnes IT NEVER fails. Produce Muhammad Ali and all America and most of the world break down in a storm of cheers and tears. They brought him out...

Dear Mary. . Q. With reference to references (13 July) and the difficulty of being frank about a bad nanny who is still in your employ, your readers might be interested in how...