that the Prime Minister had broken his assurances that the UN would he more involved in the reconstruction of Iraq. Mr Blair, she told the Commons, should start thinking about...

Referendum est I _ t is hard to decide which is the most ludicrous of the articles of the forthcoming EU constitution, but article 14 must be a contender. Back in October last...

is the same work to do and that much less time in which to do it; as well as no time at all, in my case, to acquire a birthday present for my wife or take the limping, mewing...

get the Congressional Medal of Honour. the Prime Minister will be the first Briton ever to receive the Ellis Island Medal of Honour for International Leadership. The medals are...

S ()crates was never wider of the mark than when he said that the unexamined life is not worth living. He brushes aside some of the best lives ever led — if, that is, by 'best'...

Clare Short's resignation has finally shattered the party created by Tony Blair, says Peter Oborne. The mood is sullen and rebellious, and the Prime Minister is looking...

Andrew Gim son prophesies that Poland will be an important EU ally of Britain A nyone inclined to despair at the European Union's headlong rush towards statehood should visit...

Simon Nixon on a first-class mystery: what made the Conservatives save Blair's premiership and support an unpopular war? T ories are used to getting blamed for many things, but...

Sir Ned Sherrin is beautifully vindicated by Mrs Beeton. He had wondered (Mind your language, 15 March) whether 'morning performances' of plays mightn't, like other morning...

Mark Palmer told the police who had stolen his Vespa and where they had taken it. He was greeted with complete apathy I like my Vespa. In fact, I can't think of anything that...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade Investors stung by the endowment-policy and pension-plan mis-selling scandals, and in possession of poorly...

Neil Clark says that the Home Secretary is wrong about many things, but not about life-imprisonment for murderers L ike most New Labour ministers, David Blunkett gets...

Anthropologists and archaeologists, I believe, are in the habit of naming defunct societies and cultures according to a characteristic artefact that they leave behind them. For...

Emma Williams says good and conscientious Israelis live in denial of what is being done to the Palestinians L iving in Jerusalem for the past two and a half years has meant...

Melanie Phillips says the Arabs don't want a separate Palestinian state: they want the end of Israel C olin Powell has said that he can see signs of progress over the Middle...

The footballer David Beckham has had new tattoos imprinted on his arms, complete with Latin tags. One reads petfectio in spiritu, 'perfection in spirit', the other ut amem et...

Owen Matthews on the enigmatic results of the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. Have they all been looted? I , f there is any justice in the world. Captain Duane Haddock of...

is losing his grip on the Mirror I s the eight-year reign of Piers Morgan at the Daily Mirror drawing to a gentle close? Last October I wrote, 'My bet is that in six months'...

I s our Prime Minister now as mad as a March hare? Has the undoubted pressure of high office driven him quite doolally, to the extent that powerful drugs or some form of therapy...

I can't let him get away with some of his wilder conclusions about the BBC's local election programme ('Why is the BBC so scared of the truth?', 10 May). Liddle says that we...

Sir: I heard the 'voice of calm reason' that Philip Hensher describes (Books, 10 May) when Orwell gave a talk in 1942. When he started, he asked us to close our eyes for a...

From Katie Grant Sir: In answer to Stephen Glover's plea for more information about the Scottish election (Media studies, 10 May), the only thing he really needs to know is...

From Lord Black of Crossharbour Sir: Malcolm Rifkind, in urging Tony Blair to stand up to George Bush (That's enough grovelling, PM', 10 May), falls into the popular trap of...

From Professor John Holmes Sir: I only see The Spectator some weeks after publication, hence a slow response. However, I feel that I cannot let the remarks recently attributed...

From Dr Franz Metzger Sir: As historical parallels and comparisons seem much easier to find than Saddam's famous WMD, let me offer another one. Were one to look for slogans that...

From Mr Alistair Home Sir: Is there no limit to the short-termism of the British media? I always thought that Simon Hefter knew everything; now I am left wondering what history...

From Mr Peter Fluck Sir: In his review of David Frum's book (Books, 3 May) on the Bush presidency, George Osborne lets slip that he shares Dubya's delusion that there is such a...

From Lucinda Ben-David Sir: I live in northern California and can only say that I dream of having the sort of showers that Nell Butler imagines we have ('What a shower!', 10...

T he year 1903 saw the birth of two remarkable writers and personalities: Malcolm Muggeridge, born in March, and Evelyn Waugh, born in October. They were both moralists of the...

Our artistic heritage is in danger of disappearing abroad, says Susan Moore t seems that hardly a week goes by without the threat of another great work of art leaving these...

Michael McMahon A s n hes to ashes, dust to dust; in the fulless of Time, even Rolexes rust. Fast cars, foxy clothes, fancy wines and fine jewellery are fun while you can enjoy...

Jonathan Ray I have always really, really hated flying. The first whiff of an airport and I'm scared out of my wits. But not only am I terrified; I also loathe and resent the...

Merlin Man-Johnson G olden days, golden child, as good as gold, heart of gold, golden oldie — from the cradle on, gold plays an important part in our language and imagination....

Gerald Warner I have been toying with the idea of foundling a Cyclops Club, drawing its membership from the dwindling band of individualists who persist in defying the...

James Leith I f you thought that wooden jigsaw puzzles were a quaint blast from the past, long consigned to the dustbin of recreational history, along with sticks, hoops, tops...

Mary Wakefield 1 — % on't worry,' said our guide, Niels Bryan1.1 Low, his eyes bright with malice, 'the only time a wild boar is really dangerous is if you get between a mother...

Adam Zamoyski GULAG: A HISTORY OF THE SOVIET CONCENTRATION CAMPS by Anne Applebaum Allen Lane! Penguin, £25, pp. 610, ISBN 0713993227 C with an Iron Fist We Will Lead Humanity...

Rupert Christiansen LAST OF THE DANDIES: THE SCANDALOUS LIFE AND ESCAPADES OF THE COUNT D'ORSAY by Nick Foulkes Little, Brown, £18.99, pp. 466. ISBN 0136855499 I n the course...

David Crane MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS AND THE MURDER OF LORD DARNLEY by Alison Weir Cape, £20, pp. 621, ISBN 0224060236 ELIZABETH I by David Loades Hambledon & London, £25, pp. 410,...

P. J. Kavanagh INJURY TIME: A MEMOIR by D. J. Enright Pimlico, ,£12.50, pp. 183, ISBN 184413315X 1 t is difficult to guess to what extent D. J. Enright reached what he called,...

Salley Vickers THE STORY OF MY FATHER by Sue Miller Bloomsbury, £12.99, pp. 173, ISBN 0747565198 A nyone who has Alzheimer's in their family will be familiar with the mixture...

Sebastian Smee THE COLOUR by Rose Tremain Chatto, £16.99, pp. 368 ISBN 0701172967 T he most obvious reason historical fiction is often seen as a less than serious option, best...

Patrick Skene Catling No TELLING by Adam Thorpe Cape, £16.99, pp. 360, ISBN 0224062344 T he early diaries of Adrian Mole were a witty caricature of pubescence, but pimples and...

Peregrine Worsthorne THE QUEEN AND US by Nigel Nicolson Weidenfeld, £14.99, pp. 149, ISBN 0297829408 D o we really need yet another book commemorating — rather belatedly, in...

Nicholas Barrow THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon Cape, £10.99, pp. 271. ISBN 0224063782 E ven the title of this book put me right off. The idea...

Montagu Curzon FIGHTER BOYS: SAVING BRITAIN, 1940 by Patrick Bishop HarperCollins, £20, pp. 406, ISBN 0002571692 T he same week the current Fighter Boys of the RAF sent smart...

David Pryce-Jones AL-QAEDA AND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MODERN by John Gray Faber, £10.99, pp. 145 ISBN 0571219802 S eptember 11 certainly caught the world by surprise. Who were...

Christopher Howse VERBATIM edited by Erin McKean Pimlico, £12.50, pp. 353, ISBN 0712645977 C onsider these American place names: Cheesequake, New Jersey; Jot 'Em Down, Texas;...

Honor Clerk WATER LILY by Susanna Jones Picador, £15.99, pp. 294, ISBN 0330485822 1 n the 1980s when the yen and the museum world in Britain formed an unlikely alliance, I had...

Robert Edric THE NORTH OF ENGLAND HOME SERVICE by Gordon Burn Faber, £16.99, pp. 221, ISBN 0571195458 T his is no place for another report on the life or death, the survival or...

Mark Glazebrook on how the British Council's cultural activities still give good value for money T hose of us who worked at the Arts Council of Great Britain, some 40 years...

Andrew Lambirth Saatchi Gallery County Hall, South Bank, SE] I "'admire Mr Saatchi. He seems to be a man who knows what he wants and how to get it. I may disagree with his...

Charles Spencer T he other day I was sitting with my tenyear-old son Edward while he had his bath when he raised a profound question. 'Dad,' he said thoughtfully, for he is a...

Lloyd Evans Caligula Donmar Warehouse Richard II Shakespeare's Globe Thousands have been flocking to 1 Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse. I had no idea Albert Camus was so...

Michael Tanner The Trojans at Carthage Coliseum I t is some kind of tribute to the integrity of Berlioz's masterpiece The Trojans that if it's performed in two parts, as at...

Stuart Nicholson The sound of jazz is changing. Suddenly he on the threshold of a new way of hearing the music. More and more albums have credits for mysterious tasks such as...

Giannandrea Poesio Romeo and Juliet Royal Ballet of Flanders - Clew choreographers can resist the lure of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. It's a pity that what comes across as...

Simon Hoggart I was next door in the Brighton Metropole on the early morning of 12 October 1984 when the bomb exploded in the Grand Hotel. I was too tired and too drunk even to...

Michael Vestey T he unexpected discovery of 2,670 episodes of The Archers made in the 1960s has inspired Radio Four to broadcast a two-part programme about the series as it was...

Daniel Hannan A good bullfight, or corrida, requires .t - Vthree ingredients. First, you need brave matadors. They must be willing to work next to the bull's horns,...

Robin Oakley S uitably lubricated at karaoke parties, I can still perform a spirited rendition of 'Rock Island Line'. (OK, so the audience leaves. It isn't a perfect world.)...

Simon Courtauld S ale Bay. I had always assumed, was where the Dover soles came from which I have often bought on the Suffolk coast at Aldeburgh. This may well be so, but I...

Taki New York T he Big Bagel is facing one of the worst financial crises since the city teetered on going broke during the Seventies, when it actually defaulted on its bonds,...

in Jeremy Clarke W e were supposed to report to the Household Cavalry barracks in west London at 8.45 but didn't wake up, in south London, with a crucifyin g han g over, till...

PetroneIla Wyatt T ike most people, I first heard or , rather read of the Gothic novel in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. The heroine and her friend are gabbing away about The...

Bristol, one of our oldest and finest wine merchants. Not only are they offering an eclectic assortment of old and new fine wines, but selling them to us at startling discounts....

of it and lakes of it and it comes in rivers and streams and brooks and it falls from the sky and goes round your washing machine (splishsplosh) and splashes into your bath, so...

MICHAEL HENRSON 1 , 4 ever meet your hero, it is often said. You will only be disappointed. Well, I met mine last week, and I couldn't have felt much better. Francis Lee was a...

'high-profile guests' who keep their hosts waiting while they decide whether or not to accept an invitation (26 April). Their so-called `ruthless insistence on flexibility where...

nose. I have suggested getting a pair with hooks (over the ears), but my optician, my wife and all my children treat the idea with scorn. Are hooks permissible? T.J., London...

birth, I have been asked by friends, acquaintances and complete strangers (in the street!) if they were conceived by IVF. As it happens, they were conceived naturally, but! am...