Mr Prescott loosens his green bell M r Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a pre-Budget state- ment that the standard state pension would rise by 75p a week,...

I met President Clinton for the first time a couple of weeks ago. As we waited for him in the Oval Office an intern divulged, without a trace of irony, that 'the President uses...

Gordon Brown should be more simple-minded and work less hard BRUCE ANDERSON T he Tory front bench knows what it would like to do to Gordon Brown. It would like to wipe that...

The only thing Mr Blair won't roll out is the barrel MATTHEW PARRIS P rosecuting tricksy politicians requires at times a sort of pedantry. Your witnesses will try to slip...

Norman Davies says that, ten years after the Wall came down, the Evil Empire is thriving — with the help of the West In reality, the fate of Chechnya is not a small matter. It...

Daniel Hannan says that the Europhiles cannot understand the languages of their new best friends THERE is no mistaking the champion lin- guist among Britain's MEPs. He is Dr...

George Walden laments that the French have surrendered their moral exceptionalism to Anglo-Saxon pietism EVERYONE is getting France wrong. Contrary to appearances, its...

Petronella Wyatt asks the BBC chairman about the alleged failings of his Corporation, and feels his wrath IN THE hall of Broadcasting House in London is a plaque that reads...

Michael Heath

Edward Chancellor on how a booming new economy could go bust with profound repercussions for the UK IT has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Its population is...

THIS snotching business is getting out of hand. The word had turned up in an early 18th-century account by a Wilt- shire rector of a man apparently struck dead by Providence for...

Norman Lamont goes to Chile and feels ashamed to be British HOW intriguing. Jack Straw, the Home Secretary responsible for the incarceration of General Pinochet, seems to have...

Philip Delves Broughton on how Bill Clinton's remorse and jealousy of his wife are pushing him off balance New York IT was meant to be a night for his wife. Broadway had laid...

We need a regime, an incentive, a hotline next, Gordon Brown's budget for sex CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he best moment in the Green Budget came early. Below the Chancellor's...

Ross Clark scorns the reverence of the cultured classes for the Elgin Marbles IT is a tragedy that H.M. Bateman is no longer with us. What fun he could have now. His Man Who...

but, says Charles Moore, neither is he New Labour, whatever Tony Blair may think SOMEONE once said that he didn't mind that Mr Gladstone always had a card up his sleeve, but he...

W.F. Deedes on the lessons of the Australian vote against a republic Melbourne WE went down to the great Victoria mar- ket here early, two hours before the polling stations...

Here is my list of the century's greatest political figures PAUL JOHNSON O nly six weeks to go before the end of the century: time to draw up a list of its political success...

The Guardian and the Sun climb into bed with Uncle Sam STEPHEN GLOVER T he Sun and the Guardian, you would think, are chalk and cheese. The two papers disagree about almost...

From Mr Toby Horton Sir: Lady Mosley is right to remind us that, after the war, Sir Oswald Mosley devoted his political life to the 'Europe as a Nation' movement (Letters, 6...

Belittling of a genius From Mr Simon Schama Sir: Philip Hensher (Books, 30 October) is perfectly entitled to his interesting opinion that Rembrandt's paintings show no evi-...

Oswald was, of course, 'not an extremist'. One's reaction can only be compared to that of Sir John Gielgud who, when asked his opin- ion of Olivier's eye-rolling cinematic...

From The Revd RG. Holloway Sir: Chris Patten did not 'invent' for Mar- garet Thatcher the brilliant phrase 'The facts of life are Tory' (Politics, 6 Novem- ber). Out of the...

From Mr Francis Johnston Sir: Earl Spencer (Diary, 6 November) does no justice to his family or to the peerage by flaunting the entirely bogus 'Despenser' ancestry of his...

From Mr David 0. Clark Sir: I have just read Martin Vander Weyer's article 'Fool's Gold' (16 October), in which he claims the Chancellor's decision to sell off part of our...

From Dr Dennis M. Jones Sir: In Lyall Watson's article on the sense of smell ('The Cinderella of the Senses', 30 October) he states that there are no societies dedicated to the...

From Mr Tom Thatcher Sir: I enjoyed the article on Jerusalem arti- chokes (Arts, 30 October): they are a stan- dard feature of game strips around here, and my son has a patch of...

From Professor J.R. Vincent Sir: M.R.D. Foot salutes Churchill's deci- sion to fight on alone in May 1940 (Books, 6 November). There is an important ques- tion here. Was...

From Captain S.R. Martin (Rtd) Sir: Charles Moore's diary (30 October) reports the loyal toast of the Royal Regi- ment of Artillery as The Queen — our captain gunner'. As will...

From Mr Brian Basham Sir: I showed my wife John Laughland's article ('The massacres that never were', 30 October) which alleges that we were told a pack of lies about the scale...

From Professor Jonathan Riley-Smith Sir: Since in Damian Thompson's article on the Order of St John ('Out of Order', 30 October) I was criticised for 'glossing over' history, I...

The story that inexplicably died, a mystery letter and a false imputation of social liberalism FRANK JOHNSON T wo Sunday papers had something unusually interesting this week...

Not all plain sailing Philip Hensher PASSAGE TO JUNEAU by Jonathan Raban Picador, £16.99, pp. 435 J onathan Raban's complex and secretive new book, Passage to Juneau, is...

ADRIAN MOLE: THE CAPPUCCINO YEARS by Sue Townsend Penguin, £14.99, pp. 326 T he latest stage of Adrian Mole's trudge on life's pimply treadmill opens on election eve 1997 in...

James Michie HOME TRUTHS by David Lodge Seeker & Warburg, £6.99, pp. 115 me it is impossible to write a film play without first writing a story,' Graham Greene noted. David...

Francis King ANGELICA'S GROTTO by Russell Hoban Bloomsbury, £10, pp. 271 L ike its author, the protagonist of this novel, Klein, is a small man of 72, born in America but long...

Frederic Raphael MY MOVIE BUSINESS by John Irving Bloomsbury, £12.99, pp. 177 T he novelist and screenwriter run on parallel lines which sometimes meet at the bank. Even when...

Jane Ridley HARRIETTE WILSON: LADY OF PLEASURE by Valerie Grosvenor Myer Fern House, L1750, pp. 178 shall not say why and how I became at the age of 15 the mistress of the...

Christopher Montgomery GREAT HOUSES OF IRELAND by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, with photographs by Christopher Simon Sykes Laurence King, f40, pp. 272 I s any book worth £407...

Dot Wordsworth WORDS AND RULES: THE INGREDIENTS OF LANGUAGE by Steven Pinker Weidenfeld, 114.99, pp. 348 S teven Pinker is the Oliver Sacks of language, only, instead of men...

Richard West TRIOMF by Marlene van Niekerk, translated by Leon de Kock Little, Brown, £16.99, pp. 544 T he fall from power of the South African National Party has robbed the...

Richard Lamb MUSSOLINI'S SHADOW: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF COUNT GALEAZZO CIANO by Ray Moseley Yak, £19.95, pp. 302 T his is the only biography of Galeazzo Ciano in English, although...

Hugo Williams BURNT DIARIES by Emma Tennant Canongate, £12.99, pp. 231 W ell, should they have been? Did she snatch them back from the flames, thinking to herself, 'No, if he'd...

Simon Courtauld THE BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD by Mark Kurlansky Cape, f15.99, pp. 387 T his book has a rather grandiose title. True, Basque fishermen were among the first from...

William Feaver TOULOUSE-LAUTREC AND THE FIN-DE-SIECLE by David Sweetman Hodder, £25, pp. 511 T he shortness of Henri Toulouse- Lautrec has been exaggerated. True, Peter...

James Delingpole ARTIFICIAL PARADISES by Mike Jay Penguin, £9.99, pp. 416 A bout five years ago, I wrote a novel satirising the excesses of 'New Lad' maga- zines like Loaded....

Hugh Massingberd BLUE AT THE MIZZEN by Patrick O'Brian HarperCollins, £16.99, pp. 262 I n the course of a peripatetic, not to say profligate, life I have recklessly rid myself...

virile genius Jane Gardam SECRETS OF THE FLESH: A LIFE OF COLETTE by Judith Thurman Bloomsbury, £25, pp. 596 hen Colette was 61 the brilliant American journalist, Martha...

Robbie Millen HOLY MADNESS: ROMANTICS, PATRIOTS AND REVOLUTIONARIES, 1776-1871 by Adam Zamoyski Weidenfeld, f25, pp. 498 H istory has been held hostage, insult- ed and...

Lucy Hughes-Hallett KING OF THE WORLD: MUHAMMAD ALI AND THE RISE OF AN AMERICAN HERO by David Remnick Picador, £14.99, pp. 326 I n his prime Muhammad All was every- thing he...

`The erosion is catastrophic' A new report claims there is a serious decline in scholarship in our museums, says John Parry I t is a disturbing thought that a nation which so...

January) Stick to the wallpaper Martin Gayford hen I ask about English painters,' Picasso once mused, 'why does someone always start telling me about Duncan Grant?' It was a...

London Eats Out (Museum of London, till 27 February) Fare flair Bruce Boucher W e are what we eat, but when, where, and how we do it also defines our social status. Whether...

Dom Hans Van der Laan (Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, till 16 January) Didactic toys Alan Powers T he popular Lego building brick for children may have much to answer for. Its...

Corpus Christi (Pleasance) Celui Qui A Dit Non (Palais de Congres, Paris) Two Pianos, Four Hands (Comedy) Off-stage drama Sheridan Morley W hat matters about Terrence...

Diary of one who vanished (Lyttleton) Subverting Janacek Michael Tanner H ow far can media hype, packaging, pretentiousness and a betrayal, at once cal- low and callous, of a...

Unwelcome novelties Ursula Buchan I t is a quirk of personality from which, annually, self-knowledge fails to protect me. Faced with the opportunity to replant (having...

East is East (15, selected cinemas) Generation clash Kim Fletcher I f you were trying to publicise is film set in Salford in 1971 and featuring the tribula- tions of a large,...

A right rave James Delingpole W hen you're cooped up at home seven nights a week with a broken ankle, you do tend to watch an awful lot of televi- sion. And 99 per cent of it...

Educating Dickie Michael Vestey O ne of the few pleasures to be had in watching England bat in a Test Match was the sight of Harold `Dickie' Bird umpiring at the bowler's end....

Jeremy Deedes remembers the former editor of the Evening Standard who died last week I had forgotten how frightened we were of Charles Wintour, the legendary editor of the...

Fashionably French Robin Oakley I t was over a glass of the thick and foamy stuff, with an Irish band cheering the Sandown customers on Saturday, that I heard the one about...

Life's lottery Taki New York Watching a parliamentary debate the other night — yes, they show it on C-Span over here, but very late, after the kiddies are in bed — I was...

Cooking up trouble Leanda de Lisle W hen I was single my Sunday lunch was Palma ham and melon — an excellent hangover cure. When I first married and had the time to extend my...

Shopping around Petronella Wyatt I was under Gore Vidal. I suppose that was better than being under a number of people one might think of — I might have been under Ronnie...

Right & wrong Andrew Robson IN THE final match of each Thursday night's Teams event at my bridge club, the competitors play six interesting hands churned out by a computer...

1 - 10W strange that so many people's enjoy- ment of restaurants should mainly be deter- mined by the politeness and proficiency of the waiting staff. What other pleasure acti-...

Without prejudice Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2110 you were invited to provide a review of an imaginary book by a writer who, though he may have glanced at the blurb,...

The Ultimate Islay Malt. XRd b www.ardbes.com CHESS Awesome Wells Raymond Keene GRANDMASTER Peter Wells is one of the polymaths of chess. Over the board, he is A powerful...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's award-winning Late- Bottled Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 29 November, with two runners-up prizes of £20...

The Marshall art of terror Simon Barnes NO bowler in history has extorted fear from his opponents quite as much as Mal- colm Marshall. Last week Marshall died of cancer of the...

Dear Mary.. . Q. During the summer a friend and I were invited to stay as guests in the house of an English nobleman who lives in Tuscany. Since he is a man of some...