T he Northern Ireland Executive was res- urrected, with Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein once more as education minister, after the man who is now once again First Minister, Mr...

1706; Fax 020-7242 0603 LONG LIVE ELITISM N o words arouse the wrath of the m ean-minded with greater certainty than the words 'elite' and 'elitist'. To the envi- ous and the...

ULRIKA JONSSON T he 20th of May saw the long-awaited, much talked about, highly competitive, verti- cally social-climbing, potentially embarrass- ing and unashamedly...

Populism can mean better policies and more votes BRUCE ANDERSON H igh-minded persons who care about political morality will not enjoy the next few months. Between now and the...

I rang the Chancellor and asked him to explain himself but he was watching football BORIS JOHNSON W ar is terrible. War is hell. War makes a man do unaccustomed things,...

Lloyd Evans joins the vegans and veggies picketing the 'Nazis' in charge of a scientific research lab I'M standing in the middle of Auschwitz try- ing to stifle a contemptuous...

UNDUE socialist influence on Anglo- French relations has been detected by an ever-alert reader in Antibes. In his Oxford/Hachette French–English Dictio- nary (£23.99) he...

his encounters with resentful and socially insecure state-school teachers `AS soon as you came in I thought "Tory MP", so I am afraid I wasn't going to give you the job,' an...

Edward Heathcoat Amory wonders if Charles Kennedy has lost his political bite by attempting to curry favour with Labour IF he stood in for Carol Vorderman on the next celebrity...

My late father, Woodrow Wyatt, adored old Champagne, preferably drunk from a silver mug. This non- plussed dinner guests who couldn't understand why their glasses were snatched...

Andrew Gilligan discovers that in eastern Sierra Leone the rebels are engaged in joint mining ventures with the pro government militia Freetown IN so many ways, Sierra Leone...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit TEENAGE rebellion is widely accept- ed as a natural stage in the evolution of the individual. But then again it might...

Robert Penn discovers a nightmare of conformity and cleanliness in North Korea, and an interesting way of cooking grass Pyongyang A LEXANDER Potemkin is remembered as the man...

John Hughes - Wilson on the ideologues who have brought false hope to those who want pardons for soldiers shot at dawn TOM Stones is angry. Before the 1997 election he was...

Free Phone 0800 214 363 RAM 12 months (52 issues) 6 months (26 issues) UK 0 £97 0 £49 Europe 0 £109 0 £55 USA 0 US$161 0 US$82 Australia 0 Aus$225 0 Aus$113 Rest of...

Nicholas Farrell warns Britons against jumping to conclusions following the sudden invasion of Sweden by crack Italian troops Predappio NO doubt you all had a good laugh in...

`Clap your hands!' says Peter Pan as the alien geese meet their doom PAUL JOHNSON T here was a morning, earlier this month, when all nature conspired to delight the eye, and I...

Mr Gim- son's frustration about finding a ff ordable housing in London, and while I happen to r e with him that some speculative fo und his seem to have emerged in the capital,...

From Mr Christopher H. Dams Sir: Professor McWilliam asserts, as a refu- tation of the Oxfordian case (Letters, 20 May), that 'the playwright [Shakespeare] knew absolutely...

From Mr Irwin M Stelzer Sir: That such as Andrew Gimson CA city of spivs and speculators', 27 May), with his peculiar bundle of prejudices and his ability to confuse...

From Mr Alasdair Ogilvy Sir: It frightens me to contradict Christo- pher Fildes (City and suburban, 20 May), but even he walks close to the trap of con- fusing technology and...

From Mr Charaf-Eddine Lamriki Sir: Rupert Hambro (Diary, 20 May) wrote that there is 'only one flight a week from London to Marrakesh, and none at all by BA'. Leaving aside the...

has many assets — mainly in his lower abdomen! He is one of the world's great networkers who happens to be part-owner of Wiltons, one of London's most expensive restaurants,...

From Dr Aubrey Wilson Sir: Surely your competition asking for poem in the style of Ogden Nash on Englishness (20 May) will never better Nash's own views. Let us pause to...

From Mr John Crookshank Sir: 'Old reporter', Frank Johnson, judi - ciously edits (Shared opinion, 27 May) Churchill's speech to the Cabinet on the evening of 28 May 1940 to...

From Mr Michael Fabricant, MP Sir: I read Charlotte Edwardes's Diary (27 May) concerning her experiences with the French authorities following a mugging in Cannes with a sinking...

From Mr J. Morrish Sir: While Michael George's anecdote (Let- ters, 27 May) is amusing, I would be very surprised if the then Academy sergeant- major, the late Jackie Lord, had...

There is only one person in Britain to touch Miss Hurley and that is Mr Blair FRANK JOHNSON D riving from central London to Hen- ley-on-Thames over the Bank Holiday weekend,...

Fighting on the beaches Alan Sked T he Anglo-French naval attack on the Dardanelles in March 1915 followed by the Allied military campaign on the Gallipoli peninsula between...

Raymond Asquith FIRST PERSON by Vladimir Patin Hutchinson, £9.99, pp. 219 T his is a well crafted book, calculated at perfect pitch to appeal to several Russian and ex-Soviet...

Julian Mitchell WHICH LIE DID I TELL? by William Goldman Bloomsbury, £16.99, pp. 490 I read this book in a heat-wave far up Hardangerfjord in Norway, where ten professionals,...

P. J. Kavanagh THE SONG OF THE EARTH by Jonathan Bate Picador, £18, pp. 322 T his book is an analysis of the progress of our disconnection from `nature', though there is no...

Charles Osborne AARON COPLAND by Howard Pollack Faber, £30, pp. 704 T he United States of America pro- duced some of the 20th century's most important composers, ranging from...

Richard Shone BERTHE MORISOT: THE FIRST LADY OF IMPRESSIONISM by Margaret Shennan Sutton Publishing, £14.99, pp. 342 F ew paintings by Berthe Morisot are Widely familiar, the...

Victoria Glendinning GEORGE MOORE, 1852-1933 by Adrian Frazier Yale, £29.95, pp. 604 G eorge Moore was a brilliant and important writer who slips through the net. He should be...

The Straits of War Galipolli Remembered The landing by British and Anzac troops on the Gallipoli peninsula in 1915 was the great- est amphibious opera- tion to be undertaken...

Jonathan Sumption THE BATTLE FOR GOD: FU NDAMENTALISM IN JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM by Karen Armstrong HarperColilins, £19.99, pp. 442 T his his rather indigestible book...

Nicholas Fearn THE QUESTION OF BRUNO by Aleksandar Hemon Picador, £12.99, pp. 230 W ith the publication of Zadie Smith's White Teeth, and now The Question of Bruno by...

Jonathan Mirsky WAITING by Ha Jin Heinemann, £10, pp. 308 very summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shu Yu. Together they had appeared at the court-...

Byron Rogers LEI I hRS FROM WALES edited by Joan Abse Seren, £14.95, pp. 336 1 w ales was a bit of a shock. If you W in with an army it was much like Eng- la ent nd today...

Sarah Jane Checkland on the effect of Young British Artists commanding such huge prices T ime was when the Tate Gallery ignored the existence of the avant-garde. It took a...

Artists represented by Jay Jopling Damien Hirst (b. 1965): £1 million for 'Hymn, based on £14.99 child's toy. Antony Gormley (b. 1950): £1 million asking price for 'Critical...

Summer Exhibition (Royal Academy, till 7 August) Accent on change Andrew Lambirth T he RA Summer Exhibition is with us once again, still phenomenally popular with the general...

ABCDavid Kindersley, a life of letters (Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, till 25 June; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Bretton Hall, 14 July-28 August) Writing for pleasure Alan Powers t...

Sibling rivalries Marcus Berkmann I t's strange, almost eerie how often this column seems to return to the subject of Oasis, although the Gallagher brothers' capacity to...

treat Michael Tanner T here are some interpretations, espe- cially on the operatic stage, which seem so evidently to say the last word on a role, and, if the performer is...

The Tempest (Shakespeare's Globe) Albert Speer (National) Notre Dame de Paris (Dominion) Dolly West's Kitchen (Old Vic) A good time out Sheridan Morley T he Shakespeare Globe...

What a whopper Michael Vestey I didn't listen to the radio much last week as I spent every day salmon fishing on the Tay. I went to Scotland with the best intentions, taking a...

A toast for tea James Delingpole B ecause I like my weekend TV viewing to be as intellectually undemanding as pos- sible, I can't pretend I was delighted when my father-in-law...

Diminishing opportunities Robin Oakley B y the time you read this I will be in the swamps of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Betting opportunities there seem to be limited to...

Small is beautiful Simon Courtauld 0 n a flight to Bilbao a few years ago for a weekend conference, I was seated next to Sir Jeremy Isaacs, then general director of the Royal...

Identity crisis Taki ast week I promised you a world exclusive about Hillary Clinton and how she has a double life posing as a male writ- er for the Big Bagel Times. Well, I...

Abused by Elizabeth Toby Young T he telephone call from Elizabeth Hur- ley was brief and to the point. 'Toby,' she said, 'you're a complete scumbag, d'you hear me? A complete...

Getting one's priorities right Leanda de Lisle W hat is more important, your garden or your children? Should we have gone to the Chelsea Flower Show last week, or held my...

University challenge Petronella Wyatt I t's time I threw in my ten cents worth Over the Laura Spence business. First of ail, if I hadn't got into Oxford I would probably be...

Risking it Andrew Robson THE CURRENT trend among top players is to overcall freely at the one-level, but to require considerably more playing strength to overcall at the...

Contrariness Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2138 you were invited to supply an imaginary passage from a famous author, written in his/her style but expressing startlingly...

The Ultimate Islay Malt. www.ardbeg.com By the book Raymond Keene IN a timely move, Everyman Chess, as if guessing that the Russian grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik would be the...

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You are invited to supply a plausible piece of prose (maximum 150 words) incorporat- ing the following words in any order: corn cordite, coruscating, corgi, co-respondent,...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's award-winning, Late- Bottled Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 19 J. one, with two runners-up prizes of £20...

SO, off to the Ivy. . . . Ha, ha! Ho, ho! Caught you out there, didn't I? You thought I was going to get straight down to it. No mad preamble. No slagging off Vanessa Feltz. No...

Bowled over Simon Barnes THE links between sex and sport have been explored only tentatively: a pity, because it is a wonderfully rich field for wild speculation, Freudian or...

Dear Mary. . . Q. Since my dog was run over I feel self- conscious going for a country walk on my own. What should I do? C.H., Wick Pershore, Worcestershire A. Always carry a...