government spending, except that on health, education and pensions, and would fund increases there from economic growth. On the day he made his remarks, a report by the...

0 liver Letwin has laid the foundation for a Conservative victory at the next general election. We do not mean the Conservatives will necessarily win that election: that will...

I t had never occurred to me that India might have an obesity problem, but apparently it does. Just before leaving India this month to return to Britain, where I found an...

T his has been by far the dullest week in British politics since well before the 2001 general election. Yet it would be wrong to say that nothing is going on; far from it. A...

o infinity and beyond? Certainly not. To reality, with a bump. That's much more the experience of the Gordon Ramsay household. (Mr Ramsay, regular television watchers will...

you fat. So does food Rod Liddle says that the government's White Paper on public health won't help the fatties, but if we could overcome our fear of 'kiddie-fiddlers',...

Did Saddam Hussein really use industrial shredders to kill his enemies? Brendan O'Neill is not persuaded that he did F orgct the no-show of Saddam Hussein's WMD. Even George...

We can fight only one enemy at a time; therefore, says Bruce Anderson, we should concentrate our fire on the bombers and their backers 1 wants to make your flesh creep,' is the...

John Weeks, an American business consultant, is impressed by the culture of complaint in British banks S ome people, most of them British and many of them bankers, seem to find...

Parents who find the state education system unsatisfactory but cannot afford private schooling are getting together to hire tutors to teach their children at home. The Roman...

Simon Heifer believes that if the Tories are to have any hope of returning to power, they'll have to stop tinkering and go for Labour's jugular I , . n an impressive...

I blushed to learn I had been wrong all my life. 'Though Sir William Golding consistently pronounced the word as contsh in a lecture that he gave on The Lord of the Flies at the...

Sam Kiley says that our security is at risk because top spooks are bowing to political pressure I t had been a good week for 'Duncan'. Working deep inside a desert fastness...

Denis MacShane says only the mad, bad or stupid want to stop Turkey joining the EU T , here was a time when the Left loved Turkey. When Kemal Atatark died in 1938, he was given...

From Barbara Amiel Black Sir: A final comment for the record re the Eleanor Mills complaint. She writes (Letters, 14 February) that it is 'strange that she [Barbara Black]...

From William Shawcross Sir: I would like to echo Mark Steyn's praise for Conrad Black as owner of the Telegraphs and The Spectator (`The last press baron', 14 February). He has...

From Sir Michael Arrnitage Sir: Max Hastings's rant about UK weapons systems (`How to lose the battle for Britain', 7 February) takes too narrow a view of the Eurofighter, aka...

From Lord Tebbit Sir: Simon Heifer (The death of the Establishment', 7 February) is right to regret the decline of the Establishment which once influenced the conduct of...

From Dominic . Lawson Sir: Stephen Glover claims that no Sunday newspaper last week apart from the Independent on Sunday investigated the story of Mr Blair's apparent ignorance...

From Sir Jeremy Beecham Sir: In the parallel political universe evidently occupied by Edward Heathcoat Amory, the 'cleverest and most effective public servants' are all in...

From B. D. Kelly Sir: Your leading article on the tragedy at Morecambe Bay (14 February) was so humane, so clear, so well argued and so obviously correct to anyone of goodwill...

From Atjuna Kannangara Sir: You state that Pim Fortuyn disliked immigrants (Leading article, 7 February). This is absolutely untrue. His party, LPF, had a number of immigrants...

From Simon Butt Sir: Dave Johnson from Texas (Letters, 14 February) maintains that smoking damages the brain. If his hysterical letter is what passes for contemporary sanity,...

From F.T Webster Sir: After following President Bush's lead in going to war in Iraq and setting up an inquiry into intelligence failures, will Mr Blair also stand for...

From Susan Gledhill Sir: I was amused by Mary Wakefield's description of massed women priests at St Paul's Cathedral (Equal rites', 14 February). I suppose if one described any...

M any years ago, when she was a penniless teenager in Canada, Barbara Amidl coined a joke against herself: 'My extravagance knows no bounds,' she said, apropos of some minuscule...

nce in a generation, so Gordon Brown said when he took office as Chancellor, comes the chance for a radical reform of tax. How right he was, and what a shame that he muffed it,...

Caroline Moore THE LAST OF ENGLAND? by Randall Stevenson OUP, £30. pp. 624, ISBN 0198184239 D espite the title, this is not one of those gloom-mongering surveys of the state of...

Harriet Waugh GOOD MORNING, MIDNIGHT by Reginald Hill HarperCollins,,f12, pp. 407, ISBN 000712340X G ood Morning, Midnight is an excellent novel by that mistress of...

George Osborne BUSHWACKED by Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose Allison & Busby,17.99, pp, 347, ISBN 0002571803 AMERICAN DYNASTY by Kevin Phillips Penguin/Allen Lane. £18.99, pp. 397,...

Caroline Moorehead THE TYRANT'S NOVEL by Thomas Keneally Sceptre, £16.99, pp. 293, ISBN 0340825251 T ucked into the pages of The Tyrant's Novel, Thomas Keneally has slipped a...

David Pryce-Jones VIXI: MEMOIRS OF A NON-BELONGER by Richard Pipes Yale, £19.95, pp. 320, ISBN 0300101651 W hen not thinking and writing, Richard Pipes tells us in these...

Michael Glover SPOKEN HERE: TRAVELS AMONG THREATENED LANGUAGES by Mark Abley Heinemann, £14.99, pp. 322, ISBN 0434011533 m ark Abley is a Canadian poet of Welsh descent who...

Sandra Howard A WILD RIDE THROUGH THE NIGHT by Walter Moers, translated from the German by John Brownjohn Vintage, £8.99, pp. 197, ISBN 0099450178 W alter Moers has cleverly...

Andro Linklater BEATRICE'S SPELL by Belinda Jack Chatto, £19.99, pp. 198, ISBN 0701171308 he death of Francesco Cenci has T the ring of a contemporary crime. A wealthy,...

James Fleming THE LONGSHOREMAN: A LIFE AT THE WATER'S EDGE by Richard Shelton Atlantic, £14.99, pp. 335, ISBN1843541610 'N aturalist-in-charge' was Shel ton's title as...

Douglas Johnson THE NEXT MOON: THE REMARKABLE STORY OF A BRITISH AGENT BEHIND THE LINES IN WARTIME FRANCE by Andre Hue and Ewen Southby-Tailyour Viking, £17.99, pp. 328, ISBN...

Henrietta Garnett _F rances Partridge, the writer and diarist and one of the last links to Bloomsbury, died on 5 February at the extraordinary age of 103. She would have been...

Martin Gayford visits the Menil Collection and finds a marvellous display of modern American art M ention the word 'Texas to the average European and what words would spring...

Alan Powers As I walked past the Hackney Empire a As of weeks ago on my way to look at the restored theatre, I saw an old lady standing by one of the terracotta columns at the...

Andrew Lambirth Blasting the Future! Vorticism in Britain 1910-20 Estonck Collection, until 18 April BLAST First (from politeness) ENGLAND CURSE ITS CLIMATE FOR ITS SINS AND...

Lloyd Evans A Doll's House Barbican The Oddest Couple Theatre Royal, Stratford East Crave Battersea Arts Centre Tpdating classics. Good Thing or Bad? My instinct is Bad but...

Michael Tanner The Tempest Royal Opera House I have no idea what I shall eventually think about Thomas Ades's new opera The Tempest, but initial impressions are...

Mark Steyn The Barbarian Invasions 18, selected cinemas I t's the best part of two decades since Denys Arcand gave us The Decline and Fall of the American Empire, a very...

James Delingpole I Vs May 1940, you're a captain in the British army and with what's left of your shattered, bedraggled unit, you've been told to hold off the swiftly advancing...

Michael Vestey S ince the rise of broadcasting, people have been asking whether newspapers have any future. It seems a rather futile question. The evidence is there for us to...

Tristan Garel-Jones T he winter season in South America offers European aficionados a pause for reflection. Daniel Hannan dealt effectively in these columns with the AngloSaxon...

Alan Judd T he hidden costs of motoring are just about bearable so long as they stay hidden. Depreciation, for instance, makes its painful presence felt only when you sell....

Simon Courtauld I n the beginning was the angler-fish, so called because of the fishing rod or aerial on top of its head which, with a piece of tissue on the end serving as...

Taki Gstaad D id he or didn't he? Get Kerry-ed away Land have it off with an intern. It's either one or the other, and I guess we have to take Alexandra Polier at her word and...

Jeremy Clarke I nmY experience a long coat on a man is often a sign of mental instability. Frankie's brown woollen overcoat was so long he kept stepping on the hem and treading...

Aldan Hartley The Bush J am briefly in London and I have been asked to talk about Africa at Policy Exchange, a 'centre-right' think-tank in Westminster. This group has...

Petronella Wyatt S o the fabled Dr Atkins was 18 stone when he died. His friends and relatives claim this was because of fluid retention. But, as a commentator wrote a few days...

Jaspistos In Competition No. 2328 you were invited to recall a shaming public moment in your life. Here are four snapshots of shame from my own life. I am 11, and it is my...

MICHAEL HENDERSON W hat's in a colour? Where football is concerned, quite a lot. Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, the most successful clubs in this country, wear red....

Q. When one is present at a dinner party where a politician is a fellow guest, I have noticed a tendency for the politician to hold forth with a monologue which brooks no...