proposed a points system, measuring desirable skills and suchlike qualities, to determine which immigrants from outside the European Community would be allowed to settle...

T he Prince of Wales, it is said, employs a manservant for the task of squeezing toothpaste on to the royal toothbrush. The servant cannot have the most demanding of careers,...

A s the result of a hip operation (arthritis, but I encourage people to think it was made necessary by a riding accident), I won’t be able to follow hounds again before the...

W atching Labour’s 2005 election campaign unfold, I’m afraid words fail me. The great Democrat governor of New York Mario Cuomo once remarked that ‘we campaign in poetry...

CHARLES MOORE A ll journalists, by our nature, tend to favour freedom of information; but it does not necessarily follow that Freedom of Information is a good thing. The...

James Bartholomew says American healthcare is an expensive muddle that leaves millions unprotected, and yet it delivers much better results — for everyone — than the NHS W...

Andrew Gilligan says America’s best hope of spreading freedom is to rely on the attractions of capitalism, not the 82nd Airborne T o help us through the many longueurs of the...

Daniel Hannan offers the perfect way to cut taxes: withdraw Britain’s £12 billion EU contribution I have found it: the philosopher’s stone of politics, the fiscal elixir of...

Wednesday was the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, and it was also the Chinese New Year, the first day of the ‘Year of the Cockerel — Year 4702 in the Chinese calendar’...

Rod Liddle says debt forgiveness would merely entrench the power of corrupt Third World governments ‘My friend Kevin says that it’s as if we’re all living with an elephant...

Michael Henderson says that too many broadcasters have no idea how to speak our language L ast month at the British Library, as part of the admirable series of poetry evenings...

Mark Steyn says it’s time for limp, languid Tory toffs to join the fight for freedom New Hampshire O n the eve of the Iraq election, the Times treated us to a riveting...

From Jackie Ballard Sir: Jeremy Clarke’s article (‘Animals don’t have human rights’, 22 January) contains so many inaccuracies that it is virtually a fact-free zone. It...

From C. Schofield Sir: Max Hastings says in ‘Forgotten heroes’ (5 February), ‘The government decided that it would be politically unacceptable to send 18-year-old National...

From Alistair Cooke Sir: Terence Kealey (‘Science is for posh kids’, 5 February) asks why learning should be restricted to the few. We all know the chief culprits: Labour...

From Mike Farish Sir: The apparent swing from ‘liberalism’ to ‘neoconservatism’ that Rod Liddle detects among the Dutch people in the wake of the murder of Theo van Gogh...

And is it to do with Katharine Raymond? P olitical parties should not sue newspapers: that would certainly be my general view. But one can understand why the Tories should have...

Government continues drive for better, more efficiently organised public services In a guidance pack sent out today to Leaders and Chief Executives of all local authorities in...

A ll of us, whatever our politics, will be sad to hear that the Prime Minister is once again undergoing treatment from his spin doctors. Mr Alastair Campbell, president of the...

I don’t give a damn for grammar, or syntax either. Having learned to ‘parse’ as a small boy, and done ten years of Latin and eight of Greek, I take it all for granted. But...

B ill McDonough once preached to Wall Street from the pulpit of Trinity Church, taking his text from St Matthew and reminding his astonished hearers of their duty to their...

Noble Frankland P OISONED P EACE , 1945: T HE W AR THAT N EVER E NDED by Gregor Dallas John Murray, £25, pp. 739, ISBN 0719554780 ✆ £23 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T...

Richard Shone W ALTER S ICKERT : A L IFE by Matthew Sturgis HarperCollins, £30, pp. 768, ISBN 0002570831 ✆ £26 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W e are continually told that...

Stephen Abell VILLAGES by John Updike Penguin, £17.99, pp. 321, ISBN 024114308X ✆ £15.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T im Madden, the narrator of Norman Mailer’s...

Tony Gould EPILEPTIC by David B. Cape, £16.99, pp. 361, ISBN 0224075020 ✆ £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A book with a title like Epileptic does not raise high...

Lloyd Evans A W RITER ’ S V OICE by Al Alvarez Bloomsbury, £12.99, pp. 126, ISBN 0747576289 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I s there a more charming literary...

Julia Neuberger H UMAN C ARGO : A J OURNEY AMONG R EFUGEES by Caroline Moorehead Chatto, £12.99, pp. 336, ISBN 0701175958 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A s...

Brendan O’Neill S O N OW W HO D O W E V OTE F OR ? by John Harris Faber, £7.99, pp. 160, ISBN 0571224229 J ohn Harris, the mop-topped commentator from Manchester, better...

When the wind rides rough in a vagabond sky I think of the wagon I failed to buy a gypsy wagon with dandelion wheels and a rounded top as green as the hills; strong shafts to...

R ussian bandit capitalism — sorry, the joys of the free market — is reaching beyond the grave. Latest victim: Fyodor Dostoevsky. The novelist’s great-grandson Dmitri has...

Stephen Pettitt on how London’s churches add to the musical life of the capital I t’s often said — if mainly by Londoners — that London is the musical capital of the...

Andrew Lambirth Lee Miller: Portraits National Portrait Gallery, until 30 May Sponsored by Herbert Smith T he ravishing new exhibition of Lee Miller’s portrait photographs at...

Mark Steyn Mayor of the Sunset Strip 15, selected cinemas ‘ I danced with a man who danced with a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales,’ they sang in the Twenties....

Toby Young Don Carlos Gielgud Man and Boy Duchess Richard Herring Riverside Studios A s the lights came up in the interval of Don Carlos , a revival of Schiller’s...

Marcus Berkmann T ired. I am exhausted. For one reason and another the workload has been intense recently, and the pressures have been unyielding. After a while you wander...

Stuart Nicholson A couple of years ago, the Ken Burns television documentary Jazz was screened by the BBC. While some aficionados welcomed the ten-part series for bringing an...

Giannandrea Poesio Manon Royal Ballet O n the way home after a fairly good performance of MacMillan’s Manon, a friend asked me whether I still had something to say about that...

Michael Tanner La Traviata; Turandot Royal Opera House T his is the time of year when the Royal Opera aims to keep people happy by providing standard fare, usually, it almost...

Ursula Buchan N o one wants a garden any more, declared an estate agent friend to me recently, with a fine disregard for my feelings. Although hyperbole is to estate agents...

Michael Vestey W hen I was last in the United States, I was pleasantly startled to hear on the radio right-wing talk-show hosts, the scourge of Democrats and those on the...

James Delingpole T he best pop video ever made was the one Mark Romanek directed in 2003 for Johnny Cash’s swansong — ‘Hurt’. It’s also definitely the bleakest. The...

Taki St Moritz T his is the worst news I’ve had since Paulus’s Sixth Army surrendered in Stalingrad. I was speaking to a very old friend in St Moritz when she suddenly...

Jeremy Clarke W e’d had a tiff in the Strand and I’d stormed off. It was late. I didn’t have anywhere else to stay the night, and I live in Devon, so I had to storm off...

Petronella Wyatt T hailand and Japan have traditionally had some of the lowest cancer rates in the world. Recent reports, however, show that cancer, particularly of the breast...

FRANK KEATING O ne of Ian McEwan’s familiar setpiece exuberances in his acclaimed new novel Saturday — ‘undoubtedly his best’: Anita Brookner, The Spectator , 29...

Q. I sent a thank-you letter for dinner to a couple whom I know only slightly. In the thank-you letter, I asked them to dinner. I have had no reply and the date has come and...