SERBHUMAN M r William Hague, the Conservative leader, said party divisions should be set at rest by a poll of party members endorsing his policy of rejecting British membership...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 GOVERNMENT EXPATRIATED 'W (irking men of all countries unite,' urged Marx and...

ANDREW NEIL he Tories have rarely gathered for a conference in such inauspicious circum- stances. William Hague continues to make zero impact on the country (even Tory vot- ers...

Nothing personal, William. Just the Tories' way with their leaders BRUCE ANDERSON lot of Tories are now questioning the wisdom of holding the euro ballot. Mr Hague had hoped...

I believe Mr Blair means it. The trouble is: means what? MATTHEW PARRIS S ix days with New Labour in Blackpool — far, far too long — leave this correspon- dent with the...

'SEX on TV,' said this magazine's editor. 'Is it true there's more of it — what with all this digital stuff?"Uh, sorry,' I replied. 'I think you've got the wrong man.' It's not...

MY HUSBAND went last week to another of those 'conferences' spon- sored by drug companies, which hap- pened to be in a pleasant historic pile in the mountains near Madrid. I...

A.N. Wilson on Lord Wyatt, The Spectator, the Queen Mother and himself A GOOD editor can make contributors forget their better judgment and write arti- cles they will probably...

Mark Webster on the implications of the first Balkan crisis since Mr Primakov became Prime Minister Moscow THERE they were, all beaming smiles and bonhomie, the new Russian...

Sixty years after the Commons debated myth that Labour stood up to Hitler 'A VOTE for the Tories is a Vote for War', declared the Labour party's 1935 general election...

Simon Hoggart, who was there on day two, looks back on three decades of the Troubles THIRTY years ago this week, a civil rights march in Londonderry was violently stopped by...

Lionel Bloch says that the Western media is still biased against Israel FOR MANY years now, the reporting of news from the Middle East in the broad- sheets and television...

Chapman Pincher on why so many scandal-ridden public figures specialise in military matters MUCH has been made of President Clin- ton's lack of judgment in indulging so dan-...

An article by Sir Ludovic Kennedy on 23 May commented on the imprison- ment in Northern Ireland of Guards- men Jim Fisher and Mark Wright and the evidence called at their...

How to save yourself 51 trips to the library . . . or over £48 on The Spectator If you're forced to share The Spectator with fellow students, then you'll know how difficult it...

TONY BLAIR has been writing for Sci- ence, a journal we scientists read every week. In a recent guest editorial he explained, as if addressing idiots, that 'sci- ence continues...

Why Tony Blair is right to take Communion in our churches PAUL JOHNSON I n a country where most people do not even know the Ten Ccimmandments, let alone keep them, you'd think...

MY BAD Advertisement Guide has its own reason for monitoring the IMF. Every third year the meeting moves out of Washington, and a year ago we were gathered together in Hong Kong...

IN TIMES of trouble, governments are always tempted to step in and make things worse. Their standing temptation is to reach for the controls. I know what, the tempters now tell...

A BIG HAND for the Republic of Palau, which this week becomes the IMF's 182nd and newest member. I cannot say where it is but my finger would be on the South Pacific. The last...

THE MONEY that flowed so freely all around the world has been flowing back again and has left debtors and creditors beached. When money dries up, value dries up with it. The...

The bankers cry into each other's champagne and catch each other's colds CHRISTOPHER FILDES T Washington he bankers' one bit of luck is that their crisis came on them so...

DON'T MENTION the G-word. The IMF may be running out of money, but there are some proprieties to be observed, and even if it is sitting on a vast horde of gold, it does not like...

Sir: Edward Heath is correct; Frank John- son is wrong (Shared opinion, 3 October). Munich was a disaster. Britain and France were far stronger vis-à-vis Hitler in 1938 than in...

Sir: Although the Iranian change of heart over Salman Rushdie is welcome, the fact remains that the Rushdie affair has already inflicted tremendous damage on freedom of...

Sir: Robert Hardman should be aware that Her Majesty has been badly advised in asso- ciating herself, however tenuously, with Manchester United ('More signings for Ma'am...

Sir: Jonathan Mirsky was off the point when he attacked Taki (Letters, 26 Septem- ber) for accusing the American journalist I.F. Stone of being a Soviet agent. Mirsky's rebuttal...

Sir: Edward Heathcoat Amory concludes that it is futile to speculate why four million Tory voters abandoned John Major in 1997 ('Who stayed home?', 3 October). He says that...

Sir: Felix Pryor's disclosures about the Hemingway forgeries (The men who faked Ava Gardner's bra', 3 October) is fascinat- ing. Pryor is clearly well informed about archives...

Sir: In his review of Alan Clark's The Tories (Books, 3 October), John Redwood applauded the author's fondness for the Royal Navy, but is very wide of the mark in his claim that...

Sir: John Vincent's reckless disregard of fact in his review of The Political Conse- quences of Edward VII (Books, 3 October) is really shameful. To suggest that Queen Victoria...

Sir: Occasional reports on the dreadful 'ethnic cleansing' of a mere couple of hun- dred Serbs or Slays contrast strangely with the absolute silence about the 50th anniver- sary...

Sir: With all respect to Roger Gard (Let- ters, 3 October), I don't believe that combi- nations of open vowels and spitting noises make great poetry. Phedre (it seems that one...

Sir: It is a fact that Haig (Letters, 26 September) basked in patriotic popularity during the first world war, which made it more difficult for him to be removed. The battle of...

SPECTATOR READERS ARE INVITED BY TRAVEL FOR THE ARTS TO SELECT A CHRISTMAS OR NEW YEAR HOLIDAY TO COMBINE OPERA AND CONGENIAL COMPANY IN TWO DIFFERENT LOCATIONS. THE CHRISTMAS...

This is the BBC News and it confounds the beliefs of the marketing men STEPHEN GLOVER A fter nearly two years of preparation the BBC has finally produced its long- awaited...

More charming than a tank Alastair Goodlad THE COURSE OF MY LIFE by Edward Heath Hodder & Stoughton, .£25, pp. 560 T he Course of My Life is both Sir Edward Heath's...

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Fiction: The Perfect Treasure by Sophia Watson, Sceptre, £6.99 The Zigzag Kid by David Grossman, Bloomsbury, £6.99 The Untouchable by John Banville, Picador, £5.99 An Instance...

James Hanson LOSING MY VIRGINITY by Richard Branson Virgin, £20, pp. 469 H ave no fear, Branson is here! He grabs you on page one and never lets go. His story is compelling...

Hugh Lawson-Tancred CONSILIENCE by Edward 0. Wilson Little, Brown, 178.99, 5 1 .99, pp. 384 I ncest is universally taboo, the Theban variety being particularly evanescent. Why,...

Byron Rogers THE SNAKE-OIL DICKENS MAN by Ross Gilfillan Fourth Estate, £14.99, pp. 288 h is is an extraordinary book written by a man whose job has to be one of the most...

RATES (52 issues) 12 Months 6 Months (26 issues) UK 0 £97.00 0 £49.00 Europe 0 £109.00 0 £55.00 USA LI US$161 0 US$82 Australia U Aus$225 U Aus$113 Rest of World CI £119.00 0...

D. J. Taylor WHERE WAS REBECCA SHOT? PUZZLES AND CONUNDRUMS IN MODERN FICTION by John Sutherland Weidenfeld, £12.99, pp. 213 A quick glance around the study shelves establishes...

Philip Glazebrook EAST INTO UPPER EAST: PLAIN TALES FROM NEW YORK AND NEW DELHI by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala John Murray, £15.99, pp. 340 T hese complex and delicate stories, which...

koftheWeek The First World War by John Keegan John Keegan, the 1998 Reith lecturer and Defence Editor of The Daily Telegraph, fulfils a lifelong ambition to write the...

Ian Ousby THE FIRST WORLD WAR by John Keegan Hutchinson, £25, pp. 500 S o far, says John Keegan, there have been few satisfactory general histories of the first world war. He...

The philosopher Unamuno Doubted whether Alfonso XIII was numero uno — Which is why he had to endure a Long non-holiday on Fuerteventura. James Michie

Jane Ridley ON HUNTING by Roger Scruton Yellow Jersey Press, £10, pp. 161 M ost books about hunting are unreadable to people who don't hunt. Just occasionally someone writes a...

Andrew M. Brown LEADING THE CHEERS by Justin Cartright Sceptre, £16.99, pp. 246 I n his new novel, Justin Cartwright turns his attention to the USA. The narrator, Dan Silas, a...

Tony Gould AMERICA'S BOY by James Hamilton-Paterson Granta, £20, pp. 462 B ook reviewing is not the most reward- ing activity, but just occasionally a book comes along which...

Christopher Ondaatje A RAGE TO LIVE: A BIOGRAPHY OF RICHARD AND ISABEL BURTON by Mary S. Lovell Little, Brown, ,E25, pp. 928 One of the gladdest moments in human life,...

Berlin: a city under wraps Martin Gayford finds signs that the new German capital may see an artistic renaissance A while ago, despite the disapproval of ex-Chancellor Kohl,...

London dealers are determined to stay on top of the Asian art market. Susan Moore reports Tripod censer with peonies, Kangxi yuzhi (1662-1722), on show at the Royal Academy in...

Publishers should remember that CDs must be used in a different way to books, says Robin Simon T he most common computer tool is the 'scroll': the tedious unwinding of a text,...

Balfour OBE, who died last year, has been launched by the Contemporary Art Soci- ety. Nancy Balfour was chairman and then president of the Society. Works from her collection —...

A welcome blast of fresh libido has come to Pigalle, as Nicholas Powell discovered J Paris aded is not the word. Unless being shouldered off the pavement by coach loads of Dutch...

Peter Phillips was asked to arrange a series of concerts around an exhibition in Italy T he paintings of Dosso Dossi (1486? - 1542) were perhaps a slightly off-centre theme...

Andrew Lambirth on the value of interviewing artists as a means to understanding their work R ecently rereading David Sylvester's endlessly fascinating book Interviews with...

The Ring (Royal Opera, Albert Hall) Master of the first rank Michael Tanner Once more: Wagner is admirable and gra- cious only in the invention of what is small- est, in...

The Truman Show (PG, selected cinemas) Faking it Mark Steyn C ue the sun,' instructs Ed Harris, and, presto, dawn breaks in the small town of Seahaven. There's no real...

Haroun and the Sea of Stories (National) Annie (Victoria Palace) Homage to Love (Drill Hall) The Last Flapper (Man in the Moon) Mimickry, mime and magic Sheridan Morley I t is...

Distinctive traits Giannandrea Poesio T his year's Dance Umbrella could not have kicked off in a better way!' someone exclaimed enthusiastically at the end of the Siobhan...

Airwave newcomers Michael Vestey I t's odd to think that it is only 25 years since commercial radio came into exis- tence, breaking the BBC monopoly, though there were, of...

From despair to joy James Delingpole T ake back everything I said about my gorgeous, gorgeous son Ivo. Babies, I now realise, are totally evil. They deprive you of sleep, they...

A monstrous fraud Gavin Stamp I have again been in Budapest — that extraordinary metropolis which can boast the oldest underground railway in Conti- nental Europe, that...

Lock up your daughters Robin Oakley But if it was Peslier's day once again at Longchamp it was a reminder, too, that even the great, big race jockeys have their off days. I...

A culture of greed Taki Mind you, I'm not exactly a neophyte where football is concerned. My father was chairman of AEK, one of Greece's top three teams, and I spent years...

Whiter shade of pale Leanda de Lisle N ew Labour, new decor. Pelmets, reproduction furniture and chintz look altogether too Thatcherite, and now we're poised to decorate the...

Making sure Andrew Robson BRIDGE teaching methods are changing radically under the new 'Bridge for All' scheme led by the English Bridge Union Teachers Association. At their...

opened his first restaurant, Aubergine, in Park Walk off Fulham Road, as part-owner and chef. He had originally planned to be a professional footballer, was signed up by Glasgow...

Sic transit ... Raymond Keene TWO RECENT developments have under- lined just what a loss to chess the collapse of the USSR was. From 1948, when Botvinnik first won the world...

Bloody Sunday Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2054 you were invited to write a poem on the words, 'Hideous Sunday, enemy of humanity!', using them as either the first or last...

Carroll's Alice had a fascinating chat with Humpty Dumpty. You are invited to sup- pose that she also met another nursery rhyme character and to provide an intrigu- ing...

Out of this world MIA 1:121114N al N 0E113 i sA n a rrAT 10 Nc HON El N a E la DI> R CIO ArlOnD ijO N a T , em / E H orumia,riR on. a T 0131311 o 1 new . A T...

GRAHAM ' S PORT CROSSWORD A first prize' of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Six Grapes Port for the first correct solution opened on 26 October, with two runners- up prizes of...

Run, rabbit, run Simon Barnes THERE was a custom at the coll. — the educational establishment in Stalky & Co. — in which a boy showing funk was 'decreed a rabbit'. That is...

Dear Mary. . . Q. Since birth, our four-year-old daughter has been clothed exclusively with friends' children's cast-offs. Now she is approaching school age, I have noticed...