Tony Blair at the helm of the new privatised control tower at Milbank M r Frank Dobson, the choice of the national Labour leadership, beat Mr Ken Livingstone in the polls to...

How they spun the good news from Bruges to Ghent BRUCE ANDERSON In Ghent, Mr Blair had no intention of addressing the big questions. His aim was to blur them. So he set out to...

CHARLES MOORE A an editor, I find the Piers Morgan affair a little embarrassing. The Daily Tele- graph revealed last week that the editor of the Mirror bought shares in a...

Act II: the bodies return, knife in hand, to destroy their destroyer, King Tony MATTHEW PARRIS 6 W as it Jung who said. . . ?' is the coward's way out, but the only way I...

New Labour is looking for new ways to make you pay more tax, says Dominic Hobson. But be warned, Mr Brown: a great tax rebellion is on the way HONEST people everywhere know...

Martin Mears on a ruling that found the Crown Prosecution Service guilty of racism and sexism LAST year the Bedford Employment Tri- bunal found the Crown Prosecution Ser- vice...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit 'CHILDREN should be seen and not heard,' elderly aunts used to recite. But not even the aunts would have consid- ered...

Joe Hyam on the unexpected delights and mishaps of a journey through the Weald by public transport Tunbridge Wells FOR the first time in nearly 40 years we were without a car....

Michael Heath

Daniel Hannan says the collapse of Christian Democracy leaves a vacuum in Europe that the Conservatives can fill EUROPE is witnessing the strange death of Christian Democracy....

The genteel reputations of Christie's and Sotheby's have been shattered by the discovery of sharp practice, says Martin Vander Weyer THE world's two great auction houses,...

A.L. KENNEDY was on the wireless again the other day complaining about being a writer. Well, who said she was a writer? I only ask because last year I tried to read a very...

Chuck it, Parris, says Peter Hitchens: there's no such thing as right-wing political correctness SILLY people, the sort who take nothing seriously except themselves, think...

Sunshine in February reminds us that nature works beneficent miracles PAUL JOHNSON T here is no greater blessing of God than sunshine in February. The rains come too, to be...

The editor of the Mirror should go. He wasn't licensed to swill STEPHEN GLOVE Indeed, until he encountered his own spot of bother, Mr Morgan waged a cru- sade against fat...

are still simmering. Catholicism is still a hotpot in Great Britain. How can your correspondents com- plain? The Speccie is famous for its contro- versial views, that's why we...

From Sir Nicholas Serota Sir: By highly selective quotation from a panel discussion, Roger Kimball (Arts, 12 February) presents a parody of the views expressed by Glenn Lowry,...

From Mr Roger Alton Sir: Amid all the guff in Stephen Glover's extraordinary farrago last week (Media studies, 19 February), one bizarre fact leaps off the page: he claims the...

From Mr Adrian Hilton Sir: I must voice a word in defence of Julie Burchill's article on the Roman Catholic Church (Diary, 12 February), if only to bal- ance the histrionic and...

am a Catholic and am resolved to die a Catholic. I wish to defend Julie Burchill against my fejlow- Catholics Maria Niall and Walter Hooper. Surely, to a serious Catholic, Ms...

From Dr Eamonn Butler Sir: Your undergraduate authors (`It's time to scrap the Millennium Don', 12 February) might like to know — for I am sure no don has taught them it — that...

From Mr Christopher Booker Sir: May I leap to defend Rhodri Morgan against Bruce Anderson's charge (Politics, 19 February) that he is a man who 'always speaks from the heart...

From Professor G.H. Mc William Sir: Isn't it time you got yourself a new the- atre critic? Sheridan Morley's enthusiastic review of Goldoni's The Servant to Two Masters (Arts,...

From Mr Harry Cotterell Sir: I was interested to read that London Underground has banned flash photogra- phy from stations as it can temporarily blind drivers (Banned wagon, 19...

East European studies at Oxford and who sometimes (but not 'invariably') polishes my shoes (invariably made in my native Northampton) with a toothbrush, I suspect I may be one...

From Mr Gregory K Pilkington Sir: Your Country Life correspondent demonstrates (19 February) the gritty com- mon sense of the countryside to which we townies can only aspire....

to reassure the undergraduates I teach, especially those in their first year, by explaining that no one expects them to produce original philo- sophical ideas and arguments....

Ralph Fiennes's bottom, the rise of Jorg Haider and rebuffing Marilyn Monroe's advances FRANK JOHNSON F or this, my first appearance in this magazine in this millennium, I...

A long farewell to Millbank's limewood corridors — the Offswitchers are moving in CHRISTOPHER FILDES H ead offices are out of fashion, and Imperial Chemical Industries is...

Significant sound and fury Philip Hensher HARRISON BIRTWISTLE: MAN, MIND, MUSIC by Jonathan Cross Faber, £14.99, pp. 295 T owards the end of his life, Stravinsky remarked that...

Charlotte Moore I t is hard to avoid The End of the Affair these days, but for anyone not sated with Graham Greene's examination of faith and faithlessness, I recommend Michael...

Byron Rogers SWAGGART by Ann Seaman Continuum, £16.99, pp. 438 W hen I was a boy there was a drama- tisation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Face in the Rock on Children's Hour....

John McEwen GEORGIA O'KEEFFE by Barbara Bubier Lynes Yale, L'100, 2 volumes, pp. 1198 G eorgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) is prob- ably America's most famous female artist. Her...

William Keen JAFSIE AND JOHN HENRY: ESSAYS ON HOLLYWOOD, BAD BOYS AND SIX HOURS OF PERFECT POKER by David Mamet Faber, £9.99, pp.171 WILSON: A CONSIDERATION OF THE SOURCES by...

John Charmley DAY OF DECEIT by Robert B. Stinnett Constable, £25, pp. 386 H ere is yet another definitive book proving that Roosevelt knew that the Japanese were going to...

Brian Masters PRESCRIPTION FOR MURDER by Brian Whittle and Jean Ritchie Warner Books, £5.99, pp. 348 h ere is one crucial discipline which must be exercised whenever one writes...

Patrick Skene Catling STILL MEMORIES by John Mills Hutchinson, £20, pp. 208 T hat most lovable and loving of luvvies, Lewis Ernest Watts Mills — Sir John Mills — rejoices in a...

Philip Ziegler FIRE IN THE NIGHT: WINGATE OF BURMA, ETHIOPIA AND ZION by John Bierman and Colin Smith Macmillan, £20, pp. 434 0 rde Wingate was viewed with some uncertainty by...

t's official then, London sucks. So at any rate declares the latest edition of the Lonely Planet Guide, berating the city's inhabitants for their bad manners and deploring the...

Face to face with Christ The National Gallery has triumphed where the Churches have failed, says A.N. Wilson W ith the dawn of the Millennial year, we might have looked to the...

The Silver Tassie (English National Opera) Cup fever Michael Tanner rvi ark-Anthony Turnage's new opera The Silver Tassie has been launched with all the publicity appropriate...

A Place at the Table (Bush) Freelancers (Man in the Moon) The now and then Sheridan Morley I s writing for television a life or merely a livipg? Simon Block's bitchy, black...

Offenbach in the Underworld (Scottish Ballet, New Victoria Theatre, Woking) Underworld delight Giannandre a Poesio T he contagious buoyancy and the catchy immediacy of...

Pillar of the establishment Robin Holloway S uddenly the contemporary music scene in London is more active than for many years. A new boost in funding, a new breath of...

The Talented Mr Ripley (15, selected cinemas) The making of Law Mark Steyn I n motion pictures, adaptation is the art of compression. The novel has too many characters, too...

We do care James Delingpole S omething bothered me about the BBC's trendy new eco-drama series Nature Boy (BBC 2, Monday) but I didn't work out what it was until about ten...

Vacuous lives Michael Vestey 0 n Saturday morning, unable to get to the radio in time to switch it off, I heard John Peel telling listeners to stop 'coveting their neighbour's...

Brave souls Robin Oakley T he billionaire Nubar Gulbenkian once said that the ideal number for a dinner party was two: 'Myself and a damn good head waiter.' That was taking...

Foul play Taki Mind you, football back then reflected society, and Greek society was still very conservative. Most players had brought their families to Athens and lived with...

Planetary turmoil Toby Young H aving moved in with my girlfriend four weeks ago, I have decided the time has come to seek some 'relationship coun- selling', particularly as...

Follow your prejudices Leanda de Lisle A survey in this month's Health Which? found that most people who buy organic food do so for health reasons. The Con- sumers Association...

Spoiled for choice Petronella Wyatt G osh. Blimey. Three marriage propos- als in one day. I'll bet that Elizabeth Tay- lor, when sublimely fresh, or even my fellow Hungarian...

Well played Andrew Robson GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY claims that the brain is more receptive when it can compartmentalise and organise. So forgive me for categorising declarer's...

EVERY day for the last two months I have reflected that I must have suffered a moment of madness — as we politicians describe the spasm of succumbing to ungovernable urges —...

The Ultimate [slay Malt. Rdbeg www.ardbeg.com CHESS Playing the Blues Raymond Keene NEXT Saturday (4 March) sees the clash over the chessboard of the Dark Blues and the...

Metre and meter Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2124 you were invited to write a taxi-driver's poem. This begged for the lyrical talent of W.S. Gilbert, though even he would...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's award-winning, Late- Bottled Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 13 March, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or,...

Banishment of boy Beckham Simon Barnes WHEN a father meets a son at the cross- roads, it is generally the beginning rather than the end of a story. The inevitable row about...

Dear Mary. . . Q. I am a British diplomat and, as such, have a soft spot for foreigners who, after all, cannot help it. A few years ago I was attending an important function in...