Beverley Hughes as immigration minister, Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, called a 'summit' at Downing Street to plan a 'cross-government assault' on failures in the system;...

I n ten months' time, according to America's timetable for the handover of power, Iraqis will be going to the polls. Men and women with large rosettes and wide grins will be...

inconvenient interruption to smoking. People keep asking me if I feel any better but I don't really. I have a permanent cold, excessive catarrh, I experienced hay fever last...

PETER OBORNE T he longer they stay in power, the more prime ministers lose their political touch. This seems to be an unbreakable rule, and Tony Blair is emphatically not an...

A t the weekend, one of the more lurid Sabbath newspapers published claims, duly denied, that David Beckham indulged in (to use the technical jargon) torrid sex-romps with his...

Identity cards threaten law-abiding citizens more than they threaten terrorists, says Peter Hitchens. Their introduction would signal the end of privacy — and of England T he...

Some Bush-loathers rejoiced in the Fallujah atrocities: Mark Steyn says that there is a virus of hate in the Democratic party New Hampshire 0 n 31 March, four civilian...

'It's all Greek to me,' said my husband, putting down his whisky glass, which was not wet but might have been, on the cover of Liddell and Scott. 'Oh, darling,' I said,...

John Laughland shows that the Democratic contender is more hawkish than Bush, and may appeal to the neocons this November A s the Bush administration comes under increasing...

Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, talks to Simon Heifer about the fight against terrorism 0 n 11 September 2001 Sir John Stevens, commissioner of the...

Justin Marozzi has noticed that politicians, bankers and computer people are all 'passionate' about their policies and products P assion, I see, is catching,' Antony remarks in...

American interventions in the Middle East have led many commentators to regard the USA as a new imperial power. But there are many ways to control an empire, as the Romans...

David Lovibond on why he is angry with the multiculturalists, who make colour, not culture, the measure of all things I t might have been the news that net foreign immigration...

lyv hen I go down to my house in the Quantocks, the first thing I do in Nether Stowey, even before I buy the West Somerset Free Press, paragon of local newspapers, is to inspect...

ii nside Baghdad there is another Baghdad. It is called the Green Zone and my Times colleague Richard Beeston wrote about it in The Spectator a few weeks ago. I visited the...

From The Rt Hon. John Prescott, MP Sir: Rod Liddle ('More destructive than the Luftwaffe', 3 April) told only part of the story on housing in this case. More than half the UK's...

From Ann Clwyd, MP Sir: Brendan O'Neill (Not a shred of evidence', 21 February) raised serious allegations that I had made 'uncorroborated and quite amazing claims' about the...

From Sir Michael Howard Sir: The similarity between America's neocons today and our own imperialists a century ago is even closer than Frank Johnson suggests (Shared opinion, 3...

From David Ramsay Sir: As Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, who directed the Dunkirk evacuation, Operation Dynamo, was my father. I was interested to read Nigel Buxton's article...

From Guy Black Sir: Stephen Glover's column (Media studies, 27 March) about Michael Howard's speech to a News International conference in Cancun contained a number of...

From Tom Carter Sir: Jeremy Clarke (Britain's most reviled man', 27 March) did not mention that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, is a Holocaust denier. When David Irving lost his...

From Lord Monson Sir: Ross Clark (The only good tax is a death tax'. 27 March) unjustly maligns James Callaghan. It was not Callaghan but that famous 'modewate', Roy Jenkins,...

From Sheridan Morley Sir: Given that Toby Young and I have not been the closest of friends (and for that I admit I am half-responsible), I was enchanted by his thoughtful letter...

STEPHEN GLOVEk M ichael Grade's appointment as the new chairman of the BBC has won universal praise from every quarter. Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, and Julie...

im y railway correspondent, I.K. Gricer, is a public interest director of Network Rail, along with 99 others, and he tells me that at least one of its targets is sure to be hit....

Christopher Woodward 1812: NAPOLEON'S FATAL MARCH ON MOSCOW by Adam Zamoyski HaTerCollins, £25, pp. 643, ISBN 0007123752 M y Ladybird book of The Story of Napoleon had two...

Stuart Wheeler PROFILES, PROBABILITIES AND STEREOTYPES by Frederick Schauer Belknap Harvard, $29.95, pp. 359, ISBN 0674011864 G ‘ ays are cowardly.' Capricoms are...

We pulled ourselves to the top of the hill. Past the crowds of wind which raced Against us with an idiot strength, and gained The shelter of a great beech tree, where we Blew...

John Shaw MOLVANIA: A LAND UNTOUCHED BY MODERN DENTISTRY by Santo Ciiauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob &itch Atlantic Books, f8.99, pp. 176, ISBN 1843542323 T here are hundreds of...

Francis King RING ROAD by Ian Sansom Fourth Estate, £12.99, pp. 388, ISBN 0007156537 A preliminary riffle through this novel is not all that encouraging. Three pages of spoof...

Sandra Howard THE VOYAGE HOME by Jane Rogers Little, Brown, £16.99, pp. 370, ISBN 0316726710 T he Voyage Home is the third book I've read about Africa recently. Like the others...

Andrew Gimson EDWARD VII AND THE ENTENTE CORDIALE by Ian Dunlop Constable, £25, pp. 315, ISBN 1841195308 T here could scarcely be a more delightful way to remind oneself of the...

Sasthi Brata FUNDAMENTALISM: THE SEARCH FOR MEANING by Malise Ruthven OUP, £12.99, pp. 246, ISBN 0192840916 I f you were talking to a group of particle physicists and mentioned...

Clemency Burton-Hill BILL BRANDT: A LIFE by Paul Delany Cape, £35, pp. 335, ISBN 0224052802 1 f you'll excuse the pun, Paul Delany's biography of the man commonly dubbed 'the...

David Hughes BETTER THAN WORKING by Patrick Skene Catling Seeker & Warburg, £16.99, pp. 294, ISBN 0436206242 F mployed by Reuters in the early 1930s, the author's father...

Allan Mallinson THE IRAQ WAR by John Keegan Hutchinson, £18.99, pp. 254, ISBN 0097800188 S ir John Keegan's account of the origins and conduct of the war in Iraq is at once...

John Bayley LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK by Nikolai Leskov, translated by Robert Chandler Hesperus, £6.99, pp. 66, ISBN 1843910683 THE PRIEST WHO WAS NEVER BAPTISED by Nikolai...

:st year's mini-bar offer from Stone, Vine & Sun was a great success, and resulted in lots of repeat orders. I'm sure this will do just as well, partly because the prices are so...

Tiffany Jenkins believes that the education department should be kept away from museums m uch of the core work that museums do is being orientated around education. Many...

Andrew Lambirth Roy Lichtenstein Haywaal Ciallety, until 16 May T he whole of the Hayward Gallery has been given over to a retrospective exhibition of that American Pop master...

Mark Steyn 50 First Dates 12A, selected cinemas c0 First Dates is Groundhog Day meets Memento. But above and beyond that it's an Adam Sandler movie, so the first five minutes is...

Giannandrea Poesio Dance Theatre of Harlem Sadler's Wells Theatre A rthur Mitchell is known worldwide as the founder and artistic director of Dance Theatre of Harlem, the...

Marcus Berkmann E ither the volume knob on my CD player is broken, or pop music is going through a quiet phase. The higher reaches of the UK album charts have recently been the...

Michael Tanner A Midsummer Night's Dream; The Marriage of Figaro English Touring Opera. Cambridge nglish Touring Opera is so worthy and _L/indefatigable an institution that...

Lloyd Evans States of Shock Arcola Kangaroo Valley Southwark Playhouse Anything Goes Theatre Royal, Dnny Lane c ife is pain. The world is sick. Mankind „ I is lost. All is...

Michael Vestey T he banality of the affair that the former president Bill Clinton had with Monica Lewinsky was laid startlingly bare in a Radio Four drama, Monica and Linda,...

Simon Hoggart E otballers' Wives (ITV) bowed out with final episode that made Grand Guignol look like The Magic Roundabout. We had a bare-knuckle punch-up, violent homophobia...

Robin Oakley B eside the parade ring at Aintree on Saturday, as the wind sent the petals from the flowering cherries swirling around Philip Blacker's bronze of Red Rum, three...

Taki New York I was a bit tough on American women last week, but when I sat down to write I hadn't as yet heard of Michael Bergin. Now I have, and I take everything back. Give...

Jeremy Clarke I was driving home after yoga last week, thinking about Barry's tree pose and laughing out loud like some paranoid schizophrenic, when the car suddenly conked...

Petronella Wyatt really picked the wrong time to go to Morocco. A few weeks ago we read reports of wild parties in Marrakesh under blazing African skies. So how about it, I...

S an Carlo is the Italian restaurant that has been on Highgate Hill for as long as anyone can remember, if not longer. Having been brought up down the road in Golders Green...

Jaspistos In Competition No. 2335 you were invited to provide the dullest imaginable opening paragraph of a novel. For your judge this competition posed two problems. First,...

FRANK KEATING E ngland's cricketers might have won a ravishing victory in the Caribbean, but back home spring announces itself with humdrum business as usual. Around 10.55 a.m....

Q. My dilemma is about male wedding rings. I (born 1927) was brought up to believe they were 'non-U', and now I see all sorts of males wearing them. I have to know whether I am...