pubs that serve hot food. It also proposed the banning of television advertisements for 'unhealthy' food before 9 p.m., but this would be 'ineffective and disproportionate'...

T he last few days have seen some hysterical over-reporting of a minor adjustment in the personnel of the Tory shadow arts team, and a woeful underreporting of an excellent new...

contesting the nomination for the Conservative candidate who will fight the Prime Minister for his seat in Parliament. I make my speech to the assembled Tories: tax, Europe,...

hung parliament seems a real possibility S ince it is probably as well that those of us who earn a living by political punditry should occasionally have a spasm of humility,...

A 'though hunt supporters are right to point out that people of all classes hunt, Labour MPs are equally right to see their ban on hunting, now at last being enacted, as a great...

Peter °borne reveals that the Tories have a secret weapon — the Voter Vault — which has identified the 900,000 swing voters the party needs to capture at the next election A...

Toby Harnden accompanies American troops as they fight the insurgents with everything they've got Fallujah S lumped in a corner, his face drawn and smeared with grime after...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade Jonathan Dimbleby has been frightening late-night audiences on ITV with a documentary called the New World War....

Simon Jenkins on why the Tory party should campaign to restore power to local communities T he rebuilt town hall of the ancient Borough of Henley still stands brave over its...

Anthony Browne says that the terrible murder of Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam is further proof that radical Islam is not compatible with liberal democracy E ven by the grisly...

Government advisers are suggesting that religious education in schools should teach Christian, Islamic, Judaic, Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh beliefs. The purpose is to encourage...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft says the ban on hunting demonstrates the sheer rottenness of our sentimental, warmongering and crooked political culture I n the scheme of things, it may not...

BBC television is devoting a frenzied week to a children's knockout spelling competition. Goodness knows, spelling needs attention, if Veronica's vagaries are anything to go by....

THEODORE DALRYMPLE Many of my non-medical friends complain of the pointlessness of their jobs. What they do has no meaning, they say, no intrinsic worth, apart from paying the...

As Condoleezza Rice takes over as Secretary of State, Washington insiders are talking of a new axis of evil — France, Germany and Spain. Bruce Anderson reports Washington F or...

T . he 21st annual Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards, sponsored by Threadneedle Investments, were presented by the Rt Hon. Michael Howard, QC, MP, the guest of...

Ross Clark on how the government has used success in vocational courses to boost the exam results of failing schools Iv hen Tony Blair made his famous pledge to concentrate on...

N ew Labour wishes to market 'good health' as a desirable commodity to its feckless and stupid subject people, but government ministers are having a tough time of it A white...

M y father made a surprising remark to my mother and me last week. 'I have the impression,' he said, 'that young people are more intelligent these days.' 'What do you mean,...

0 ne of the hazards of writing a column about the press is that sooner or later you are bound to be cornered by an editor or journalist whom you have teased. I shall never...

T he postman who calls at 30 Able Road may be a new urban myth hut, as myths do, he tells a story. The people at number 30 found that they were getting post for 30 Baker Street,...

From John Swift Sir Peter Oborne seems to have spent too long in his stuffy London office and has developed a conspiracy theory too far concerning rural sports. He makes a...

From Yugo Kovach Sir: It would help if President Bush were to think the unthinkable and cut off all military and economic aid to the state of Israel ('The beginning of hope in...

Front Rear Admiral Guy Liardet Sir: Here's a worm's-eve view of the Blunkett effect in education (Blunkett coverage', 13 November). I've been a governor of a small infant school...

From Doris Lessing Sir: If Francis Bennion (Letters, 6 November) had troubled to read what I had written instead of what someone else said I had written, he would have seen...

From Hilary McLaughlin Sir: I recommend that James Bartholomew (`The death of decency', 13 November) reads The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead,...

Sir: In his lament on the death of decency James Bartholomew reports that the middle class of 1895 donated 10 per cent of their income to charity, and compares this with our...

Sir: I would like to thank your columnist Theodore Dalrymple for highlighting the very serious issue of the mentally ill being detained in prison rather than being treated in...

From Christopher Booker Sir: It might seem churlish to quibble with such a charming and generous review as that given by John Bayley to my hook The Seven Basic Plots, Why We...

Deborah Clarke Sir: Petronella Wyatt has clearly joined the ranks of those who labour under the delusion that full-time mothers don't do anything that is not related to...

From IM. Woolley Sir: Get it right, Jonathan Cecil. John Fraser's muffed entrance as the Messenger in Macbeth (Books, 13 November) is even funnier. He said, 'Your Lord, my Queen...

From Sue Doughty Sir: May I urge any readers who have electrical work to do that they get it done before 1 January 2005? From that date, local building regulations will apply,...

Nv hatever else the re-election of Bush signifies, it was a smack in the face for the intelligentsia. Like a crazed Kappelmeister sitting at a nightmare organ, they pulled out...

A selection of the best and worst books of the yeat; chosen by some of our regular contributors Jonathan Sumption There is no point in mincing words about the Oxford Dictionary...

Philip Hensher IN TASMANIA by Nicholas Shakespeare Hari/1, £20, pp. 374, ISBN 1843431572 08 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 0 ne of the things which drew Nicholas Shakespeare...

Sarah Bradford THE SCARITH OF SCORNELLO: A TALE OF RENAISSANCE FORGERY by Ingrid D. Rowland University of Chicago Press, £16, pp. 192, ISBN 0226730360 T here is something...

Charles Allen LAST CHILDREN OF THE RAJ: BRITISH CHILDHOODS IN INDIA, VOLUME I, 1919-1939, VOLUME II, 1939-1950 compiled by Laurence Fleming Radcliffe Press, £27.50 each, pp....

Byron Rogers THE LAST OF THE CELTS by Marcus Tanner Yale, £25, pp. 398, ISBN 0300104642 £20 (plus /2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T he most startling historical fact I have come...

Jonathan Keates NEW SELECTED POEMS, 1984-2004 by Carol Ann Duffy Picador, £14.99, pp. 253, ISBN 0330433946 t £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 1 n a poem called 'House',...

Harry Mount THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR: ATHENS, SPARTA AND THE STRUGGLE FOR GREECE by Nigel Bagnall Random House, £12.99, pp. 318, ISBN 0712698817 V £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800...

Christopher Howse BLOOMSBURY ENGLISH DICTIONARY editor in chief, Kathy Rooney Bloomsbury, £30, pp. 2,166, ISBN 0747562431 't £26 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 SAMUEL JOHNSON'S...

Sandy Balfour THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: 80 YEARS OF CRYPTIC CROSSWORDS by Val Gilbert Macmillan, £9. 99, pp. 280. ISBN 1405049235 y our Aunt Agatha will he pleased, and so she...

Ian Garrick Mason ON BEAUTY edited by Umberto Eco Secker, £30, pp. 438, ISBN 0436205173 r) £26 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A HISTORY OF HUMAN BEAUTY by Arthur Marwick...

Elfreda Pownall L ong before she became a fingerlickin' television star Nigella Lawson's ability to conjure tastes in vivid prose and her celebration of the pleasures of eating...

David Edeisten THOMAS HARDY'S 'FACTS' NOTEBOOK edited by William Greenslade Ashgate (Tel: 01252 351855), £49.50, pp. 365, ISBN 1840142359 T he inconsistency between how they...

deal had been signed and the two banks were now merging. I was now CEO of one of the largest brokerage firms in the City. Tonight I was on a high. City dinners are often a bore....

For the first time, we are delighted to be able to offer our readers Spectator Christmas cards for sale in packs of 8 assorted cards and envelopes at a cost of £10.50 per pack...

David Caute NIXON AT THE MOVIES by Mark Feeley University of Chicago Press, 119,50, pp. 399, ISBN X0226239683 A staff writer for the Boston Globe, Mark Feeley is also a...

Harriet Waugh the Nixon home at San Clemente in California among them) is the Secret Service Diary. Clearly Nixon saw far more films than Stalin, another addict, ever managed,...

Hugh Massingberd THE Two OF US: MY LIFE WITH JOHN THAW by Sheila Hancock Blooinshuly, f17.99, pp. 301, ISBN 0747570205 . 15.99 (plus /2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n this...

Matthew Dennison LADY ROSE AND MRS MEMMARY by Ruby Ferguson Persephone, £12, pp. 222, ISBN 1903155436 T here is nothing new about the 'had-it-all, lost-it-all' plot. It...

John de Falbe WINDS OF SORROW by Alan Ogden Orchid Press, £12.99, pp. 359, ISBN 9889776413 I f the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator, is one of those world...

Laura Gascoigne Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: A Life in Motion Annely Juda Fine Art, 23 Den'ng Street, London WI, until 18 December I f you were looking for someone to blame for the...

John M c Ewen Robert Frank: Storylines Tate Modem, until 23 .1 illUILITy 2005 (sponsored by Deutsche Borse) Tt is not Robert Frank's fault, but one Imight think from the hype...

Lucy Vickery A 8.30 a.m. on a crisp autumn Sunday a roup of 20 huddled on King's Cross station's platform nine and three-quarters — empty but for a smattering of cameratoting...

Lloyd Evans The Mandate Cortesloe H ere are six words to chill the blood: Forgotten Russian Masterpiece Discovered At Cottesloe. Forgotten masterpieces get forgotten for a...

Mark Amory The Manchurian Candidate 15, selected cinemas rrhey don't make 'em like The 1 Manchurian Candidate of 1962 any more. That weird, creepy, paranoid thriller of the...

Petroc Trelawny Vienna W hen the Kaiserjubilaums Stadttheater opened here in 1898, it was heralded as one of the finest theatres in the city. An intimate house, with good...

Michael Tanner Siegfried Coliseum E NO's Siegfried is not a disaster, but JI—Lithe margin isn't as large as one might wish. Seeing it hot on the heels of Opera North's Cosi, I...

Michael Vestey A t t the time of writing, Mark Damazer, he new controller of Radio Four, has yet to appear on Feedback on Radio Four to outline his plans for the network; nor,...

Simon Hoggart W atching North and South (BBC1, Sunday), I reflected how much life had changed in Mrs Gaskell's location. Some years ago I was doing What the Papers Say in...

Alan Judd T he one-year-old Bentley Continental GT coupe is still sometimes called the Baby Bentley, but since it weighed in at just under two and a half tonnes at birth it's...

Robin Oakley R acing folk know you can't always believe what you see. But it seems a lady in Arkansas, whose story has been sent to me by a friend, didn't know this. She was...

Taki New York W ith the exception of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg — whose circle of defenders and sympathisers have just come together at the Museum of Jewish Heritage here for...

Jeremy Clarke rr he taxi-driver made no attempt to ingratiate himself with his passengers. He kept his eyes on the road and tried conscientiously to get us through the Palermo...

Aidan Hartley Laikipia I was in Nairobi traffic when I received an ISMS message on my phone from the farm: LIONS ATE DONKEY LAST NIGHT. ONLY ONE HOOF LEFT. We have seven...

1 t's our final Christmas offer this week, and we start with a tremendous treat. Amanda Skinner of John Armit Wines has knocked . £40 per half dozen off Pol Ro g er White...

and I have the house back to myself during the day. Oh, how I miss him, or would do if I wasn't so thrilled to get rid of the pesky old so-and-so. Oh dear, school today, I said...

FRANK KEATING T his Saturday, 20 November, and next, Twickenham's presumptuous clan gathers its travel-rug, round its knees and bays for colonials' blood. Likewise, the...

I thought it worth a try. About 15 years ago, 1 was charged, while on holiday in Australia, with a very minor offence which 1 felt was quite unjustified, and did not feel...

allow one to eat a lot of food without putting on vveight. Can you advise me how! can actually 'contract', if that is the word, a tapeworm? A.A., London SW11 A. Your...