House of Lords by 249 to 119 when a Liberal Democrat amendment to the Prevention of Terrorism Bill was passed — to apply the prior sanction of a judge rather than the say-so of...

T he latest crime-fighting proposal from the IRA is so boneheaded, so stunning in its stupidity, so stereotypically moronic, that if it had not come from a bunch of thugs and...

me to write a diary column. I always accept, though diaries, contrary to what might be supposed, are among the most difficult types of journalism to write. I accept partly...

M r Len Cook lives with his wife in a flat near Victoria and can often be seen eating a modest lunch at Goya, a quiet family restaurant in Pimlico. In the evenings he is a keen...

have more popular success, I feel, if the public knew what habeas corpus meant. The trouble is that, even translated into English, it is still obscure. H abeas corpus means, of...

Mary Wakefield talks to hip, fun-loving young people in Beirut and sees how cameras and lip-liner are helping to spread democracy in Lebanon O nTuesday, half a million people...

Toby Harnden talks to Walid Jumblatt, who has seen the error of his anti-American ways Mukhtara, Lebanon W ith his bald pate, droopy moustache and sad, bleary eyes, Walid...

Rod Liddle believes that the huge increase in the number of children with autism may be explained by modern mating habits W hy has there been such an enormous rise in the number...

THEODORE DALRYMPLE Having spent so long, if not in the lower depths exactly, at least among their inhabitants, it is not surprising, perhaps, that I see the lower depths...

A new prejudice has emerged — discrimination against people with low IQs. Michael Hanlon investigates T he strange notion of a dumb Britain has taken hold in the national...

Last year there was one Classics Cup on offer. This year there are no fewer than three: one for the Open competition (any 200-word piece from The Spectator in Latin or Greek...

Petronella Wyatt talks to Richard Layard, who believes that higher taxation can reduce envy and make us all happier R ichard Layard, the founder of the LSE Centre for Economic...

I enjoyed the book Long Live Latin rather more than the Spectator reviewer (5 February) seems to have done, and its author, John Gray, has put his finger on a misleading passage...

Allister Heath says it’s business as usual: next week’s budget will be another prosperity-destroying exercise in big government B ritain’s hard-pressed taxpayers may finally be...

Lloyd Evans joined a march against the Olympics, and returned more convinced than ever that London needs the Games N ecessary evils have been good to London. The Great Fire...

Tory plans to cut waste remind David Howell of Edward Heath’s failed initiative of 1970 I f the Tories want to know how Wars on Waste work out, the best test is to go back not...

From Lady Astor of Hever Sir: I am the mother of a daughter who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). For the past 23 years I have protected her and defended...

Sir: Leo McKinstry’s interesting article reminded me that in Australia, where the condition still tends to be referred to as ADD, sceptics — of which there are very many —...

From Robert Walls Sir: Rod Liddle says it is time that British teachers took back control of the classroom (‘Children can’t be trusted’, 5 March). When I was in Japan a few...

From Michael Cecire Sir: Michael Meacher’s flaccid charge that the Afghanistan war was in part about the Unocal pipeline (‘One for oil and oil for one’, 5 March) is just silly,...

From The Rt Hon. Lord Patten of Barnes Sir: Andrew Gilligan (‘Selling out to China’, 26 February) ascribes to me the view that Europe should end the arms embargo because it is...

From Sir Peregrine Worsthorne Sir: How will we know if democracy putting power in the hands of the people is really spreading throughout the Middle East? My answer would be...

From Chris Doyle Sir: Mark Steyn seems obsessed with trying tirelessly to prove that he was right about the ‘big things’ concerning the Middle East (‘The right side of...

From Rory Allen Sir: Mark Steyn’s otherwise astute article (‘Death of a Salesman’) in your 19 February issue missed the most obvious flaw in The Crucible . When I first heard...

From Philip Pullman Sir: I’m grateful to Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 26 February) for his neat demonstration of why I’m right in the grammar debate. The study of...

L anding a job, at an early age, which enabled him to hobnob whenever he liked with Piers Morgan, seemed to go to Mr Tony Blair’s head. That is the real message of the Morgan...

T he hurricane season has opened early in Florida, where a hedge fund has blown away, leaving some seriously rich investors seriously poorer. The $250 million question, so their...

N ot many people know much, or indeed anything, about the civilisation of Aksum. A pity: it is one of the jewels in Africa’s crown and absolutely genuine too, unlike most of the...

Stanislas Yassukovich says profit counts for far more than reputation in the modern City W hen I arrived in the City of London in 1961 to work for White, Weld & Co., a New York...

Simon Nixon says the City is now the driving force for European integration O ne of the most startling things about returning to work in the City after an absence of six years...

Heather McGregor says companies don’t need diversity in the boardroom but skill, commitment and experience ‘I n the corporate boardroom, the importance of the non-executive...

Just because the index has hit 5000 again, don’t be tempted to chase it higher, warns Matthew Vincent M rs Parker Bowles has done the City a favour. Not by obliging the Prince...

Martin Vander Weyer unravels the tale of an African oil venture which has startled the stock market W hite Nile is certainly a name to conjure with. It recalls Alan Moorehead’s...

Merryn Somerset Webb says financial advisers are too eager to sell us products we don’t need S uppose you want to buy a newbuild buy-to-let flat, and the estate agent says he...

Sam Leith E arly on in Piers Morgan’s memoir of his career as a tabloid editor, there is a very funny incident. It is a Saturday in 1994 and Morgan, then editor of the News of...

Sandy Balfour M AD A BOUT THE M EKONG : E XPLORATION AND E MPIRE IN S OUTH -E AST A SIA by John Keay HarperCollins, £20, pp. 294, ISBN 0007111134 ✆ £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870...

Paul Binding T HE I CE M USEUM : I N S EARCH OF THE L OST L AND OF T HULE by Joanna Kavenna Viking, £16.99, pp. 334, ISBN 0670913952 ✆ £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n...

Andrew Barrow A F ACTORY OF C UNNING by Philippa Stockley Little, Brown, £14.99, pp. 377, ISBN 0316729280 ✆ £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T his is a thoroughly rotten...

William Brett E MPIRES OF THE W ORD by Nicholas Ostler HarperCollins, £30, pp. 614, ISBN 0007118708 ✆ £26 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A pparently, this book is a work of...

Andrew Roberts T HE U NKNOWN H ITLER : N OTES FROM THE Y OUNG N AZI PARTY by Ernst Hanfstaengl Gibson Square Books, £17.99, pp. 449, ISBN 1903933242 H ITLER ’ S P IANO P LAYER...

Digby Durrant 44 S COTLAND S TREET by Alexander McCall Smith Polygon, £14.99, pp. 325, ISBN 1904598161 ✆ £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W ill Alexander McCall Smith’s...

Ian Garrick Mason E NGLAND ’ S L OST EDEN by Philip Hoare Fourth Estate, £25, pp. 548, ISBN 0007159102 ✆ £23 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W hile the Victorian age was...

Grey Gowrie M ATISSE : T HE M ASTER by Hilary Spurling Penguin, £25, pp. 512, ISBN 0241133394 ✆ £23 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W hat in the world has happened to the...

David Hughes ALIENS by Bryan Appleyard Scribners, £15.99, pp. 340, ISBN 0743256859 ✆ £13.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I read this nice well-intentioned book with devotion,...

Olivia Cole STRANGERS by Taichi Yamada Faber, £9.99, pp. 203, ISBN 0571224369 T HE G REAT S TINK by Clare Clark Penguin, £12.99, pp. 358, ISBN 0670915300 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.25...

Tim Congdon A GAINST THE F LOW by Samuel Brittan Atlantic, £25, pp. 385, ISBN 184354377X ✆ £23 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 S ir Samuel Brittan has long been a national...

The Roundhouse will reopen later this year. Ariane Bankes reports on its progress I t is a clever conceit to fundraise by degrees, and one that fell into the lap of those...

Andrew Lambirth Matisse, His Art and His Textiles: The Fabric of Dreams Royal Academy, until 30 May Sponsored by Farrow & Ball A good many years ago I wrote a short article...

Giannandrea Poesio Highland Fling: New Adventures Sadler’s Wells Theatre U nlike Giselle, Coppelia, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake , the romantic ballet La...

Marcus Berkmann O ld, dying and dead rock stars seem to crop up quite frequently in this column, but then many of the musicians I like seem to fall into one of those three...

Mark Steyn Flight of the Phoenix 12A, selected cinemas T he Flight of the Phoenix rises from the ashes. Remember the original? James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Ernest...

Michael Tanner L’Incoronazione di Poppea Festival Hall M onteverdi’s last and greatest secular masterpiece, L’Incoronazione di Poppea, is an opera we get far too few chances to...

Ursula Buchan O n a mild, wet, early morning last autumn, I came across two earthworms ( Lumbricus terrestris ) mating on the lawn. At the vibration of my tread, they split...

Toby Young Primo Hampstead A Raisin in the Sun Lyric Hammersmith The Dresser Duke of York’s I sat down to watch Primo with a good deal of scepticism. Surely, this one-hander...

James Delingpole T he programme I’m enjoying most at the moment is The Apprentice (BBC2, Wednesday), in which teams of men and women, all of whom have supposedly resigned from...

Michael Vestey I ’ve long been intrigued by the language of EU-fanatics, particularly when they ascribe motives to those opposed to the EU constitution and the euro. There’ve...

Taki A letter to the editor from Frederick Forsyth takes me to task. Enough about Gstaad is its message. OK, but only because it’s you, Freddy baby. Instead, I will treat you...

Jeremy Clarke ‘S wim, please,’ I said. ‘Member.’ The receptionist swiped my card and looked at her computer screen. Optimism, surprise, puzzlement and finally despair swept...

SIMON HOGGART Y ou may remember the scene from one of Jancis Robinson’s excellent wine programmes. She offers a Burgundy vigneron the best selling Chardonnay in Britain. He...

FRANK KEATING T o tell the truth, I am not a mad racing man, nor has betting much bothered me. Down the years I was dispatched often enough by the Guardian (then drearily...

Q. What can one give as a present to friends, in their fifties, who are getting married? Both have previously been married to other people and already have all the material...