A television channel has reached a sorry state when the structure of its ownership is more exciting than what it broadcasts. Yet this is precisely what has happened to ITV,...

known as the Business, later the Arts and more recently the Media, I was warned not to express opinions openly, for fear of alienating the Public. Added to that, my generation...

W hen Ernest Bevin was appointed to run Britain’s wartime economy, he saw his chance to fix policy for decades. ‘They say Gladstone was at the Treasury from 1860 to 1930’, he...

country approaches, Tony Blair expresses ‘deep sorrow’ for British involvement in the trade. Extraordinary that he should feel the need to adopt such a tone when the act...

MONDAY Trust Labour to go and apologise for the slave trade. The cheek of it! We played just as big a part, if not bigger, in the atrocities of Roots . It’s just as much ours...

Gloom and doom are in fashion. But, writes Allister Heath , a remarkable collection of economic statistics shows that the reality is much, much cheerier. For all our laments to...

The poisoning of the spy in London is not a big story in Moscow, writes Rachel Polonsky . People are too obedient or too frightened to trouble themselves with the truth Moscow...

Fraser Nelson talks to Andy Burnham, Minister to Watch in our Parliamentarian of the Year awards, and one of a younger New Labour generation who must take on David Cameron A ndy...

David Selbourne finds no reason and much hate on American blog-sites, where the Left pillories ‘fascists’ and ‘racists’, and the Right attacks Muslims with terrifying verbal...

Rod Liddle says that the departing BBC chairman has no understanding of or interest in public-service broadcasting, and that the Corporation’s progress under his watch was...

Elephants have been characterised as highly sensitive, socially aware and intelligent because they have noticed in the mirror a white cross marked on their head. What a pathetic...

On Sunday, Venezuela goes to the polls. The likely triumph of Hugo Chávez, writes Daniel Hannan , reflects a phenomenon sweeping Latin America that feeds not on hope but on...

There has been a mysterious change in the way people use the word as . It is in the construction of the kind, ‘Tall as he was, he could not reach the branch.’ Now they introduce...

Robin Lee Navrozov talks to the 83-year-old director about his operatic productions, his anxiety about his forthcoming memoirs, and the similarity between Callas and Thatcher T...

Celia Walden says that Royal and Cameron are cut from the same cloth: she uses her femininity as he uses his class. And they even look alike T he resemblance first struck me...

The pressure on the ancient universities to admit undergraduates from state schools has never been greater. But, writes Charlie Boss , many such students fare badly T he Laura...

From the Attorney General Sir: Stuart Wheeler’s article (‘Why the Tories must say No to torture’, 25 November) includes a quote from me about deportation. Taken from a Human...

From John Duffield Sir: The case of Nadia Eweida and her cross (‘The BA row is about fair play’, 25 November) highlights the way in which the entirely laudable aim of ensuring...

From John Weston Smith Sir: In exposing that bullying and bumbling body, TV Licensing, Charles Moore chose a ripe target (The Spectator’s Notes, 25 November). Recently I bought...

Sir: Like Charles Moore, I am innocent of owning a TV set and I received the same threatening letter. I phoned the 0870 number and the employee (who refused to give his name)...

From Simon Preston Sir: With reference to Simon Nixon’s article (‘Philanthropy is back’, 18 November) a contributory reason why US charitable giving is double the UK’s is that...

From Richard Soper Sir: David Rennie, in his article on Ségolène Royal (‘Ségo and Sarko: not so different, after all’, 25 November), commented on her support for a rare breed...

P rince Charles’s intervention seems to have played some part, earlier this month, in the release from a Pakistan jail of a British man, Mirza Tahir Hussain, who had languished...

G ood manners are an outward sign of inward grace, a harbinger of nicely judged moral actions, warmly reflecting decency in thought. And by good manners I do not mean Osric-like...

Matthew Lynn says Porsche is supremely successful in its own niche, but that does not qualify it to run Europe’s largest mass-market car maker T here are only three hard and...

Matthew Vincent ‘Dinosaurs ... think inside the box. Dolphins ... occupy the space outside the box. The dinosaurs’ negative headset creates a lose-lose situation, whereas the...

Richard Northedge argues that the way to stop house prices soaring is to restrict mortgages — just like the old days T he latest non-job in Britain’s town halls is the...

I n the mountains south of Zurich, as winter approaches, the farmers bring their cows down. The snowbound higher pastures will soon be empty, and the precious cattle walk down...

Anne Chisholm DECCA: T HE L ETTERS OF J ESSICA MITFORD edited by Peter Y. Sussman Weidenfeld, £25, pp. 744, ISBN 0297607456 ✆ £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n the autumn...

Bevis Hillier I n the 1960s I lived in Hampstead, though all these years I have managed not to write a novel about Hampstead dinner-parties. The area was, and still is, rich in...

Martell’s country weblogger explains... Winter shopping HELLO! What a curious week. You may remember Geoff was taking me on a surprise winter shopping trip and my friend Mary...

Tony Gould T HE G HOST M AP : A S TREET , A N E PIDEMIC AND THE T WO M EN WHO B ATTLED TO S AVE V ICTORIAN L ONDON by Steven Johnson Allen Lane, £16.99, pp. 299, ISBN...

Byron Rogers C ONRAD AND L ADY B LACK : D ANCING ON THE E DGE by Tom Bower HarperCollins, £20, pp. 436, ISBN 0007232349 ✆ £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 M y one contact...

This sensation We say is the nation Acting its destiny. How like is it To the smaller act which here we see, The incomplete Devil paying a visit? We know it is our Fate to...

Nicholas Fearn T HE F ORM OF T HINGS by A. C. Grayling Orion, £12.99, pp. 243, ISBN 0297851675 ✆ £10.39 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 C. Grayling once helped put an end to a...

Mary Keen A spiration. Aspiration. Aspiration is still the watchword for publishers of gardening books. How many heavy, glossy productions filled with Get-theLook pictures does...

Matthew Dennison T HE F ORTNIGHT IN SEPTEMBER by R. C. Sherriff Persephone Books, £10, pp.326, ISBN 1903155576 T his is the second time The Fortnight in September has been...

Nicolas Barker O UT OF P RINT A ND INTO P ROFIT : A H ISTORY OF THE R ARE AND S ECOND -H AND B OOK T RADE IN B RITAIN IN THE T WENTIETH C ENTURY edited by Giles Mandelbrote...

Christopher Ondaatje M ELLON : A N A MERICAN L IFE by David Cannadine Penguin, £30, pp. 560, ISBN 0713995084 ✆ £24 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 I n this current climate of...

David Ekserdjian T he seemingly unstoppable rise of the exhibition catalogue happily does not mean that nothing else gets published, and my selection of glossy delights to...

Anita Brookner T he Prix Goncourt was awarded, as of right, to Jonathan Littell for Les Bienveillantes (Gallimard). Les Bienveillantes , the Kindly Ones, is the name usually...

W riting here (18 November), Anita Brookner described Joseph Roth’s reports from France 1925-39, The White Cities , as ‘her best read of the year’. I’ve had a copy for several...

Henrietta Bredin talks to the composer Jonathan Dove about his latest commissions T he titles of Jonathan Dove’s musical works — Flight, Tobias and the Angel, Palace in the...

Cita Stelzer The Artist’s Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, until 18 March 2007 T he National Gallery of Art in Washington...

Tom Rosenthal Louis le Brocquy: Homage to his Masters Gimpel Fils, Davies Street, W1, until 13 January 2007 (closed 22 December to 7 January) L ouis le Brocquy is 90 this...

Andrew Lambirth Francis Bacon: Paintings from the 1950s Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, Norwich, until 10 December Stanley Spencer: Painting...

Lloyd Evans Frost/Nixon Gielgud The Lightning Play Almeida Drunk Enough To Say I Love You? Royal Court B affling. That’s all I can say about Frost/Nixon . The critics have...

Deborah Ross Stranger Than Fiction 12A, Nationwide H onestly, before I took up this beat I had no idea how many new movies aren’t that great and aren’t truly terrible but are...

Michael Tanner Cosi fan Tutte; The Turn of the Screw Glyndebourne Touring Opera, Norwich G lyndebourne on Tour is having a vintage year, and that’s not counting its Die...

Robin Holloway ‘H e’s composing me!’ cries the horrified poet in Strauss’s Capriccio as the musician takes the new sonnet and violates its purity by setting it to music. But...

Kate Chisholm T he death of Nick Clarke, The World at One , Any Questions and Round Britain Quiz presenter, jolted many commentators — and listeners — to bewail the loss of a...

Simon Hoggart T here was much pre-publicity around Tsunami — The Aftermath (BBC1, Tuesday) implying that the second anniversary of the disaster was a little early to turn it...

Robin Oakley ‘ ou won’t have to stray too far from Y Paul Nicholls’s elbow today,’ Henrietta Knight told me after the second at Newbury on Hennessy Gold Cup day. Sure enough,...

Simon Courtauld T here won’t be any wild turkeys eaten in Britain this Christmas. However, a few of these birds, which are indigenous to north and central America, are being...

Taki New York F irst it was Mel, as in Gibson, now it’s Michael, as in Richards. I’m sure none of you has ever heard of the latter, but he’s a big shot in America, especially...

Jeremy Clarke I studied the seating plan of the Club Taurino of London’s 47th anniversary dinner without recognising any of the other names. (I’m a relatively new member.) The...

Roy Hattersley W e lost our post office five years ago, long before losing post offices became fashionable. So we had to run our ‘stop the closure’ campaign without the support...

it comes to Swedish food. Yes, I’ve been to Ikea — so many veneers, so little time! and, yes, I’ve had the meatballs in the café but, judging by the taste and texture, I think...

Rachel Johnson on the pesky gift that keeps on giving I went to see a friend the other day. At the door, she clutched at her Pre-Raphaelite, wheaten locks and cried, ‘Don’t come...

Theo Fennell puts on his blue suede shoes and pays homage to the King T here is a romance attached to American place names that simply doesn’t exist in their English...

Annabel Rivkin reports on a new hip, happening gallery in Soho O ver the past few months, a building on the wrong side of Soho has been discreetly reinventing itself by virtue...

FRANK KEATING F ootball’s European Champions’ League awaits the serious new year stuff once a few loose ends are tied on Wednesday. Arsenal and Manchester United each need only...

that one leaves 10 per cent of the bill and hopes it will go to the staff. The bill, however, includes both hidden VAT on the cost of the meal and a mark-up of 250 per cent or...

would like to say something about the phenomenon of cutting acquaintances at parties. Being an Irishman, I know that there is a gesture I’ll call the ‘Irish nod’. It’s a very...

Over the years I have put huge physical and mental effort into finding things to give them for Christmas which they do not already have. This has become increasingly difficult,...