T here should be no right of trial by jury for defendants in less serious cases, accord- ing to a report by the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice. Amongst its 351 other...

071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 TRIAL BY JURY T he wrongful convictions of ten sus- pected IRA members nearly 20 years ago culminated this week in a recommendation...

The British Medical Association: just a mild dose of proctalgia SIMON HEFFER T his year the taxpayer will provide £37.4 billion for the National Health Ser- vice. The NHS is...

T he little hilltop town of Vezelay in Burgundy boasts the most striking Romanesque basilica imaginable; not from the outside, which seems a little unbal- anced and uninviting,...

Something that may still be relevant in the spirit of 1968 CHARLES MOORE O ne thinks of 1968 as a year of radical- ism triumphant, so it comes as a shock to realise that it...

Mark Almond reveals that the former Soviet intelligence service has not been much inconvenienced by the collapse of Soviet power FORMER KGB agent seeks employment in similar...

Graham Hutchings warns that the Chinese people are rapidly losing patience with the skulduggery of their political masters Peking OUTSIDE a drab office block on Peking's dusty...

Radek Sikorski returns to his old haunts in Afghanistan, a nation still recovering from the horror of war Herat THE LAST time I went to Herat, the jour- ney took six weeks, on...

MY BULGING post-bag includes a remarkable proportion of letters from abroad; expatriates, or expatriots as many of our newspapers render it, seem to nurture a tenacious care for...

Niall Ferguson says it is madness to cut the military in order to pay for yet more social services `PEACE DIVIDEND' is a phrase which used to trip lightly off politicians'...

THE ROYAL WEDDING went off admirably, to the disgust of the prophets of evil who went about repeat- ing that the Princess was unlucky, and that the ceremonial would be...

Theodore Dalrymple argues that the freedom of the criminal is a far more pressing problem than the jailing of the innocent A BRITISH professor of law recently tried to explain...

The Prime Minister has said News at Ten scenes of this treasured institution IT IS six minutes to ten on a Friday evening and a group of journalists is sitting in a small, dark...

THE RING of bollards would have been a good idea (perhaps a better idea) if the IRA had never come to the City. What counts is to be in walking distance — which is why Barclays...

THE CAREY family of ICI have been friends of mine for half a century, but in its history they go back further. In 1857 a research chemist called Eustace Carey joined a forebear...

IN IMPERIAL Chemical Industries' Mill- bank palazzo, I once asked Albert Edward Frost, who was finance director, why he was raising money. He brushed the question aside:...

TRIUMPH FOR the intrepid birdman of London City Airport. William Charnock and I met at the Savoy on Monday morn- ing, to test his claim that his airport could be reached from...

Christchurch would vote for dearer money, but the economy wouldn't CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he Christchurch by-election looms ahead, and if Kenneth Clarke wants to win it for his...

LEAVING THE ERM has been such a relief that the City is in no hurry to reboard the Eurobus to union. Easier to assume that the bus will not run, or not to time, anyway. We have,...

Sir: The first part of John Webber's letter (Letters, 26 June) concerning the activities of his company IMG in the classical music world only serves to confirm my article of 12...

We do care Sir: In his article Mot so many mansions', 19 June) Daniel Johnson writes: 'England has an established church which only rarely behaves as though it had a...

Sir: Whilst I agree with Sheridan Morley about the poor direction of Inadmissible Evidence at the National (Arts, 26 June) I must take issue with the rest of his review, which...

Sir: In his contribution on British Rail and London Underground's obsession with ter- razzo (Arts, 3 July) Christopher Howse cites the illustration of Kennington station in the...

Sir: I do not think that Taki can claim to be `the greatest Greek cricketer ever' (High life, 26 June). That honour surely has to go to his compatriot Xenophon Balaskas, whose...

Sir: My attention was caught by Patrick Leigh Fermor's letter, written from his hos- pital bed (Letters, 3 July), in which he takes issue with my review of Sarah Bradford's...

12 Months 6 Months UK 0 £77.00 ❑ £39.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £88.00 ❑ £44.00 USA Airspeed 0 US$125 0 US$63.00 USA Airmail 0 US$175 0 US$88 Rest of Airmail ❑ £111.00 0 £55.50...

Sir: Surely Jennifer Paterson in her receipt for Fillet a la Meerlust (Food, 27 March) has forgotten the essential eponymous ingredient, a generous splash (up to 1/3 cup) of an...

Sir: Lunching at Buck's on Referendum Day 1975 with the late and much lamented Toby O'Brien, I was informed by the bar- man that an authentic Buck's Fizz required, in addition...

Sir: It is time someone said it: The Spectator should form Her Majesty's next govern- ment. Of course you, sir, would be Prime Minister. Christopher Fildes, Giles Auty and Paul...

Sir: Recipe and receipt did, indeed, enter English at about the same time (and are derived from the same Latin verb), but contrary to what Dr Davis writes (Letters, 26 June) it...

Sir: Until I read Christopher Hitchens' complaint about Anthony Howard's review of his own book (Letters, 19 June), I had decided to swallow my irritation about Howard's review...

Grave man's White's Alastair Forbes WHITE'S: THE FIRST THREE HUNDRED YEARS by Anthony Lejeune A & C Black, .£3.5, pp. 244 W hite's? Now which one is that?' will almost...

I ought to ring the man about the diving. Yes, I have tried; but he is never there. In what blind depth — I ought to send a note. Still you keep asking me; I do not think Your...

Raymond Carr HISTORY AND ITS IMAGES: ART AND THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST by Francis Haskell Yale, £29.95, pp. 218 I t is a daunting task to review a book that will be...

Frank McLynn LONDON IN THE 1890s: A CULTURAL HISTORY by Karl Beckson Norton, f19.95, pp. 445 L 'terary London a century ago was awash with scandals: the Wilde trial, the fall...

Byron Rogers THE WINE DARK SEA by Patrick O'Brian HarperCollins, £1 4.99, pp. 256 h is has to be the most extraordinary work I have read by a contemporary. It is the 16th in a...

David Wright SWEETAPPLE EARTH by John Heath-Stubbs Carcanet, £Z 95, pp. 70 HINDSIGHTS: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by John Heath-Stubbs Hodder, £25, pp. 308 J ohn Heath-Stubbs celebrates...

Fiction: Fraud by Anita Brookner, Penguin, £5.99 Black Dogs by Ian McEwan, Picador, £4.99 The Tap Dancer by Andrew Barrow, Picador, £5.99 The English Patient by Michael...

Francis King THE MAKIOKA SISTERS by Junichiro Tanizaki Everyman's Library, £10.99, pp. 498 O f all novels that I have ever read, Tanizaki's The Makioka Sisters provides my...

A graveyard likes a sunny day, Especially in those corners where The stones' preponderance of grey Collects the monolithic air And cockeyed headstones lend their weight To...

Sandra Howard HONOUR AMONG THIEVES by Jeffrey Archer HarperCollins, £14.99, pp. 419 J effrey Archer is Britain's best-selling novelist. Unlike his nearest rivals he doesn't go...

Conservation Taxed out of existence I t is nearly 20 years since the Destruction of the Country House exhibition at the V & A, and yet the sorry tale continues. Michael Sayer,...

Copier Creer. De Turner a Picasso: 300 oeuvres inspires par les maitres du Louvre (Louvre, Paris, till 25 July) The great art of copying Alasdair Palmer I n July 1793...

Robert Gober (Tate Gallery, Liverpool, till 22 August) Henry Moore and the Sea (Pallant House, Chichester, till 19 Septem- Plugging his cause Giles Auty L ast week's travels...

Wrinkles are in Marcus Berkmann P op music's greatest strength has tradi- tionally been its capacity to surprise, and there can have been no greater surprise in recent years...

The Kirov Ballet (London Coliseum) The Ghana Dance Ensemble (Old Spitalfields Market) How the mighty have faded Sophie Constanti T here is no shaking the conviction held by a...

Separate Tables (Albery) Oleanna (Royal Court) Table for two Sheridan Morley W hen Rattigan's Separate Tables was first staged in 1954 — and we have had only one revival in...

Essential oil Martyn Harris A reader has written to complain about my review of the Tiny Rowland documen- tary a few weeks ago. The 'fiddles and bribes' that Rowland's Lonrho...

Victory for Sparta Taki W hen Andy Warhol was shot by a woman who was seeking her 15 minutes of fame, he uttered probably the only true words that ever emerged from his mouth....

Getting away from it all Jeffrey Bernard T his week's home help, a kindly Irish- woman standing in for an injured Vera, seems to think I have Alzheimer's disease. She talks to...

Remembering Ben Nigel Nicolson E arlier this week the 90th birthday of the Burlington Magazine was celebrated by a reception for art-historians, artists, muse- um curators,...

centration of serious eater-outers than any- where else in London, and yet, for all that, its restaurants have never been up to much. Perhaps, though, the mistake is to consider...

Choice of three Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1786 you were invited to produce a piece of prose to fit one of these titles: Arithmetic by smell, The average flush of...

I CHESS . C.ODO an 33 SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA Beauties and the Beasts Raymond Keene AS THE SWISS MAGAZINE Schach- woche somewhat unkindly notes, 'Youth and beauty have triumphed...

i j GRAHAM'S PORT r CROSSWORD GRAHAM'S PORT r 1117: Not the chemists by Columba A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first...

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Jack Robinson, Murphy's Law, Buggins's turn, the real McCoy, the life of Reilly . . . the originals of such proverbial characters are sometimes successfully explained in...

Under the hammer Frank Keating THE APPARENT shortage of spare dash to be spent on fripperies seems not to have bothered those obsessive collectors of sporting memorabilia....

Q. I will soon be publishing my first novel and understand that word-of-mouth recom- mendation can be worth as much as good reviews, which I am not expecting to get. Can you...