Innocence abroad. T he Government claimed that a vote on the social charter to be taken by the Com- mons would have no effect on its intention to ratify the Maastricht Treaty....

Never mind what the lawyers say: this is a moral question SIMON HEFFER h e normally loyal minister was abnor- mally honest. 'We've done this,' he said of the statement that...

DEBORAH DEVONSHIRE h e g ap between town and country exer- cises the minds of country people for obvi- ous reasons. Town people are irritated by nur smu g , know-all attitude to...

Some family advice for the editor of the Sunday Times CHARLES MOORE C ity still in grip of Jews,' said the Sunday Times front page this week, and the `Style' section led with...

President Clinton has already broken his main election pledges. Stephen Robinson is not a bit surprised Washington P RESIDENT Clinton had some explaining . t ° do during his...

James Buchan tells the extraordinary story of the woman behind the icy continent's only airline Punta Arenas, Chile Iv!RS ANNE KERSHAW is the managing d?rector of Adventure...

Michael Heath

THAT A Member [of the House of Commons] should not take a bribe, or a party be supported by foreign money, Is perfectly clear; but why should not rich politicians assist poor...

Martin Vander Weyer on the country that dare not speak its name WHICH London ambassador is forbidden to visit the Foreign Office, has only recent- 1 Y been permitted to speak...

persist.. . MAN'S origins, so we are told by anthro- pologists who find bones in caves and are able therefrom to reconstruct our distant past, were on the savannahs of east...

John Simpson warns that republicanism could destroy the Commonwealth unless the royal family starts to show how much it cares THE ANGLICAN cathedral in Antigua is as big as a...

Alasdair Palmer discusses how social workers do not need training to break up families: sheer talent is enough ACCORDING TO those who know him, Mark Willis is a large and...

Bernard Levin pays tribute to a great editor of The Spectator; Brian Inglis, who died last week BRIAN INGLIS, who died abruptly last week at the age of 76, was deputy editor...

Marcel Berlins explains how the legal system is making monkeys out of the police, to the benefit of criminals HERE ARE three facts. The crime rate is rising. The workload of...

Veronica Lodge argues that the press obsession with the case of Darius Guppy is based on envy `ALL OF the other papers are going to write nasty articles about you, Mrs Guppy....

When the royal theatre goes dark PAUL JOHNSON A gifted young historian, with a sensi- tive imagination, should make a study of the interaction between charm and power. It is a...

Albert and the Lion come to court, because somebody had to be summonsed CHRISTOPHER FILDES I would not hang a cat at all, and I cer- tainly would not misjudge one on the evi-...

Sir: I am currently at the start of a study of the Gunpowder Plot, that still controversial episode in which Catholic conspirators did (or did not) plan to blow up the House of...

Sir: Your leading article (`Lands of inheri- tance', 13 February) on the leasehold enfranchisement measures in the Housing and Urban Development Bill, which received a...

ski-lift, I read with enormous plea- sure Giles Auty's excellent article. Giles Auty expresses the views of an enormous 'silent majority' on modern art over the last 30 years....

Sir: The response (Letters, 13 February) of the director of the Tate Gallery, Nicholas Serota, to my article 'A new age for art' (23 January) is either uninformed or disingenu-...

reminded me of a report in the German investor's magazine Effecten- spiegel of 22 December 1988 of a startling speech by Picasso in Madrid on 2 May 1952. I have translated it...

raises many points. May I reply to two which may particularly have misled your readers? As a public institution, the National Gallery attaches great importance to pub- lishing...

Sir: In the field of erogenous geography (Letters, 30 January, 6 February), the prize is surely claimed by the most prominent landmarks visible from my former home on Islay, the...

Sir: On the subject of the Princess of Wales's non-relations (Letters, 6 February), I was commissioned by Weidenfeld and Nicolson to write Sisters-in-Law, a view of the effect...

Sir: Several weeks ago I was amongst the crowd walking past Harrods, when the police cordoned us off following a bomb warning. I noticed a number of policemen going to the...

Sir: May I add a cri de coeur to Michael Daley's denunciation of the 'restoration' industry at the National Gallery (Arts, 30 January)? This is an international plague, as...

All great men make mistakes Richard Lamb CHURCHILL: THE END OF GLORY by John Charmley John Curtis/Hodder, £30, pp. 742 CHURCHILL edited by Robert Blake and Wm. Roger Louis...

Erica Wagner MERMAIDS IN THE BASEMENT by Marina Warner Chatto, f9.99, Indigo, L5.99, pp. 228 I n her new collection of short stories, Marina Warner has set herself a difficult...

Francis King MAYBE THE MOON by Armistead Maupin Bantam, f14.99, pp. 307 T hirty-one inches tall, the Jewish hero- ine of this novel, Cadence Roth, first achieved fame as a...

Raymond Carr THE BATTLE OF POLTAVA: THE BIRTH OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE by Peter Englund Gollancz, £20, pp.287 I t is hard to imgine the Sweden we know — resolutely neutral,...

Andro Linklater LIFE AND HOW TO SURVIVE IT by Robin Skynner and John Cleese Methuen, £16.99, pp. 413 J ohn. The first thing to say about this book is that it's unreadable....

Anthony Daniels O n my 21st birthday, rather more than half a lifetime ago, three friends gave me as a present a black-covered Penguin book with a small red flag on the front,...

Dermot Clinch NO OTHER LIFE by Brian Moore Bloomsbury, f14.99, pp 216 T here's nothing like a good read, and a novel by Brian Moore is almost a guaran- tee of that. No Other...

Nicky Haslam ELSIE DE WOLFE: A DECORATIVE LIFE by Nina Campbell and Caroline Seebohm Aurum, f19.95, pp. 143 I t appears that not long ago the Queen was asked what she felt...

Sara Maitland NO EXIT by Julie Burchill Sinclair-Stevenson, £12.99, pp. 289 hen I was asked to review No Exit I told myself that I would like it; I would write a favourable...

Roger Seelig THE INSIDERS by Judi Bevan Piatkus, £14.99, pp. 385 J udi Bevan's background as a financial journalist has enabled her to provide a live- ly insight into those...

Exhibitions Yvonne Hawker (Redfern Gallery, till 18 March) Leon Kossoff (Anthony d'Offay, till 6 March) Spirit worlds Giles Auty I must apologise for being unable to answer...

Tristan und Isolde (New Theatre, Cardiff) Love's dream Rupert Christiansen A lthough I count myself a committed Wagnerian, a little worm of scepticism has always wriggled...

Magic in residence Robin Holloway I n these troubled times even so well- established a feature of our musical life as the BBC's regional orchestras have felt the axe's...

Curiosities and a cat Alistair McAlpine he sad state of the art market can be judged by a visit to the desks that sell the catalogues in London's great auction hous- es. One...

Shadows and Fog (`15', Lumiere) Olivier Olivier (`18', selected cinemas) No illusions about Woody Vanessa Letts W oody Allen shouldn't be allowed to release more than one...

Greasepaint (Lyric Hammersmith) Richard III (Donmar Warehouse) Starting Here, Starting Now (The Link) The Prisoners of War (New End) Tour de force Sheridan Morley I n a...

Whiter man's burden Martyn Harris I n the event it was all the things that Walter Bagehot warned against: a tearing down of curtains, a letting in of light, a destruction of...

Wheel of fortune Taki E very 12 years or so I make rather a large contribution to my favourite London charity, John Aspinall. The charity involves me getting dead drunk in...

School for Soho Jeffrey Bernard I have been invited by Pangbourne Col- lege to go down there next week to talk to the sixth-formers. They expect me to talk about the low life,...

Luxuriating in Bath Nigel Nicolson P ity those who live in Bath, because they will forfeit the delight of revisiting it once every five years. Rather than endure as a resident...

A touch of class Auberon Waugh Now for the wines. I have never offered a Gascony wine from the Gers before, largely on class grounds. One can never tell what grapes have gone...

the deluge of hype that has accompanied the opening of Quaglino's in St James's. The extent of my briefing, before I arrived at the restaurant, was that Sir Terence's aim was...

Boheara Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1766 you were in- vited to describe a visit to a modern sufferer from Boheara, Firbank's fictional 'new and fashionable epidemic,...

Raymond Keene J udit Polgar has beaten Boris Spassky in their match in Budapest. By drawing the ninth game she reached the score of 5 1 /2-31/2, an unassailable lead. Spassky's...

A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 8 March, with two runners-up prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers,...

Trials of touring Frank Keating THE CRICKET news from India has been so abject that I am not going to bother switching on the dawn radio this weekend, even if the grapevine...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I recently went abroad for a weekend with someone I would describe as both a friend and an employer. I had never trav- elled with him before and I had no idea...