Hey, you! I told you to get out of my palace!' S inn Fein went to law, arguing that because it was not identical with the Irish Republican Army it should not be excluded from...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 WET WORK NOT NEEDED T he cameras are ready to roll, the smart bombs are poised...

Is Lord Irvine wise to treat Mr Mandelson like an office-boy? BRUCE ANDERSON M inisters bitching at one another, briefing against each other, openly ques- tioning their...

DEBORAH DEVONSHIRE I suppose our friends are as honest as the next lot, but it is odd how books disappear. Not the fat and heavy biographies of politi- cians in two volumes...

I accept that he's evil, but the alternative could be worse FRANK JOHNSON S ome people are old enough to remem- ber that the same sort of thing was said about Nasser. Once...

Much of the media is afraid even to speculate. Edward Heathcoat Amory explains why and looks at the tycoon's prospects RICHARD Branson's corporate reputa- tion is built on a...

Alan Cochrane suggests that the Lord Provost's only crime is to be old Labour THE Labour party is determined to clean up its reputation in local government; we know this...

Mark Steyn says it takes a Gulf crisis to sort friends from 'European partners' New Hampshire LAST November, when Bill Clinton met the Mexican President Ernest Zedillo in the...

Michael Heath

William Cash on why a friend's behaviour visa vis Miss Hurley has not resulted in ostracism Los Angeles IN EVELYN Waugh's brutal novella The Loved One, first published 50...

`PERHAPS', said the leading article (31 January), 'some of the focus group attendees who told the Prime Minister that reform was necessary will be invited back.' This sowed...

Stephen Schwartz tells the inside story of the man who has won Hollywood's Miss Stone San Francisco WHO is Phil Bronstein, the San Francisco news executive who has managed to...

Once they shouted 'Groundnuts!' Soon they will be shouting 'Dome!' PAUL JOHNSON H ere is a moral story with contempo- rary echoes. John Strachey (1901-63) was one of the...

Gresham's Law in the High Court of Justice it's the great judicial inflation CHRISTOPHER FILDES T here is so much judicial inflation these days that it was a pity to...

I AM not sure that I want the National Westminster Bank to be more like Boots the Chemist. The hosts of Midian are prowling round NatWest, and Lord Blyth, who runs Boots, is...

HERE COMES a splendid addition to the Square Theme Park, formerly known as the City of London. Barclays had a hideous grey tower block on the corner of Fen- church Street,...

THIS WEEK'S contribution to my Bad Investment Guide comes from Jojo Maki, chief portfolio manager at Nikko, which used to be one of Japan's big four brokers. (Yamaichi went...

AN OUTBREAK of domes and bouncy castles on Horse Guards Parade portends the arrival of Asem. Asem? This is the boondoggle that burst on my sight like a nova when John Major went...

GOVERNORS of central banks are a threatened species. There are only 172 of them in the world, but last year 29 of them lost or quit their jobs. In the previous year 35 of them...

Sir: May I echo Lord Portsmouth's appeal for some public enquiry into the labyrinthine 'repatriations controversy' (Letters, 24 January)? Not of course that we are likely to get...

Sir: As a Canadian reader, I have two regrets about your otherwise excellent mag- azine. One is that so little appears in The Spectator about my own country. I am con- scious,...

Sir: I am reluctant to engage in a chain of correspondence of von Schlieffen propor- tions, but A.N. Binder's letter (7 February) about Englishmen as antipodean father- figures...

. Sir: A few days before winning the 1979 election, Mrs Thatcher's Northern Ireland spokesman, Airey Neave, was murdered by the INLA and with him died the integra- tionist...

Sir: Neil Collins Making for the call', 14 February) has been extremely fortunate in his recent experiences with the Katherine Allen Marriage Bureau. His dates all appear to...

Sir: Apropos your remarks (Leader, 14 February) that 'Kinks in Mr Clinton's pri- vate life . diminish the self-esteem of ordinary Americans,' so do the deceit and adultery of...

101 Corve Street, Ludlow, Shropshire

Sir: How Colin Browne (Letters, 14 Febru- ary) can have the nerve to talk of 'leaner' teams beats me, for it is common knowl- edge that since John Birt took over at the BBC...

Sir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 14 February) is not the only one whose father was against his talent for artistic creation to develop into a profession not considered safe...

Sir: In order to clear up the confusion over wheel and helm orders in the Titanic film, Mr Norm Cleland (Letters, 7 February) should know that in the early days ships were...

Sir: May I plead for a moratorium, even a brief one, on letters from ranting, racist, macho-but-terribly-easily-hurt, bloody-mind- ed, bloody boring, adjectival ockers? John...

Sir: Mark Steyn has become as boring as Taki; their reactions to any news about Clinton is so adolescent and puritanical that one wonders, Is this penis envy? Only Peregrine...

RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK ❑ £93.00 01 £47.00 Europe (airmail) C/ £104.00 0 £52.00 USA Airspeed Ll US$151 0 US$76 U £115.00 0 £58.00 Rest of '1 Airmail World Airspeed .....

The Times: was it murder? Yes, by Rupert Murdoch STEPHEN GLOVER Only last week the Guardian ran a leader criticising Mr Murdoch for his price-cutting policies. Now it emerges...

An icon bereft of worshippers Raymond Carr B ack in Paris after a visit to the Soviet Union, Jean-Paul Sartre, whom D. M. Thomas dismisses as an 'idiot savant', wrote, `There...

Paul Johnson OVER HERE by Raymond Seitz Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 372 F ormer ambassador Raymond Seitz prides himself on his knowledge of British ways, and his book is a display of...

Robert Oakeshott AFRICA: BIOGRAPHY OF A CONTINENT by John Reader Hamish Hamilton, £30, pp. 840 Several strands of evidence — fossil, genetic and linguistic — point...

Michael Hulse HEROES LIKE US by Thomas Brussig, translated from the German by John Brownjohn Harvill, £9.99, pp. 250 E very nation likes to look at itself in the mirror....

David Profumo ARMADILLO by William Boyd Hamish Hamilton, £16.99, pp. 310 F or his seventh novel — a comic thriller as entertaining as anything he has written — William Boyd has...

William Joll PATRICK PROCKTOR by John McEwen Scolar Press, £25, pp. 96 N o one familiar with the painters who have lived and exhibited in London in the last 40 years could fail...

Tony Gould BAD TIMES IN BUENOS AIRES by Miranda France Weidenfeld, £18.99, pp. 209 M iranda France was awarded The Spectator's Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize for travel writing...

Frank Kermode LAUGHTER AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS by Michael Screech Penguin, £30, pp. 328 M ichael Screech, a world authority on Rabelais, Erasmus, Montaigne — in fact on the...

Allan Mallinson THE IRISH GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR (THE SECOND BATTALION) by Rudyard Kipling, edited by George Webb Spellmount, £24.95, pp. 223 T wo outstanding regimental...

koft e Over Here by Raymond Seitz The subjects of Raymond Seitz's scrutiny are delightful- ly divergent, his comments are insight. ful and his compar- isons with America...

Anne Somerset PARTICULAR FRIENDS: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF PEPYS AND EVELYN edited by Guy de la Bedoyere Boydell & Brewer, £25, pp. 352 T he correspondence between John Evelyn and...

David Pryce-Jones THE FOUNDING MYTHS OF ISRAEL by Zeev Sternhell, translated by David Maisel Princeton University Press, £25, pp. 419 T h h e state of Israel is about to...

Mind the gap Peter Phillips investigates the waning influence of the central European musical tradition T he public no longer as reliably flocks to hear the music of composers...

Pierre Bonnard (Tate Gallery, till 17 May) In Bonnard's world Martin Gayford I n conversation a great living painter remarked to me that in the first years of this century...

To Observe and Imagine: British Drawings and Watercolours 16(10-1900 (The Pierpont Morgan Library, till 3 May) Pot-pourri of drawings Roger Kimball T he Pierpont Morgan...

Flight (National Theatre) Cause Célèbre (Lyric Hammersmith) Macbeth (Orange Tree, Richmond) Pageant of retreat Sheridan Morley O ne of the requirements, indeed desig-...

Spanish thrills Giannandrea Poesio I n 1837, the French balletomane, jour- nalist, dance writer, poet and novelist Theophile Gautier praised Spanish dancing for being a true...

Spinners of dreams Ursula Buchan I f you want to know why there has been such an explosion in interest in gardening in the last decade or more, look no further than the...

The Postman (15, selected cinemas) What a bummer Mark Steyn I was going to say that, instead of doing post-apocalyptic wasteland epics like Waterworld and The Postman, Kevin...

Billy Budd (Welsh National Opera) Three men in a boat Michael Tanner I n a performance and production as magnificent as this new one in Cardiff, unveiled on St Valentine's...

Travels with Auntie Michael Vestey A re we impressed when we switch on the radio and hear: 'The World This Week- end. This is James Cox in Washington . . .'? I can't say I am...

Conversion problems Simon Hoggart T he partition walls of television are being knocked through faster all the time. We used to have sitcoms; now the fashion is for situation...

He's got the bottle Robin Oakley S harpical's victory in the Newbury Tote Gold Trophy was yet another testament to the skills of Nicky Henderson, who beamed afterwards, 'He's...

Hot and bothered Taki Despite the terrific sunshine — I do not remember such beautiful weather in the 40 years of coming here — the drums of war are beating even in this...

Codes of conduct Leanda de Lisle I didn't know that the RSPCA had an animal rights agenda until I read that the Charity Commissioners had suggested they drop it. Their...

Makable? Andrew Robson NORTH-SOUTH crawled into 44. Could declarer make it on •A lead and best defence thereafter? Dealer North North-South vulnerable 4 A 9 6 V A 2 • J 107 6...

THERE IS now more drivel talked about olive oil than about wine — and this col- umn was about to add to it. For some rea- son I conceived the idea of collecting dif- ferent...

Odd man out Raymond Keene A MIGHTY tournament is due to start in Linares, Spain in the coming week. From 22 February to 9 March, seven of the world's top players will joust in...

Dome pome Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2021 you were invited to write a poem in praise or mock- ery of the Millennium Dome. Though a few hurrahs were raised, the consensus...

GRAHAM'S CROSSWORD A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Six Grapes Port for the first correct solution opened on 9 March, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for...

`A heavy, loutish-looking youth', expelled from Eton, sent down from Oxford and inclined to petty theft, the Hon. Freddie Threepwood was Lord Etnsworth's least favourite son....

`F 2 A U 'R E 4 T li E 6 A 7 T I I. N I O Y I SHOP811 F jc t hEEDYAIOTREI ERE A9 D S ISA CEIUP tyCL ICII ' ill K ; ST A E A E FAEA rIR SE V N G R I ANilt riA 'I....

Ruud awakening Simon Barnes WHEN Ruud Gullit became manager of Chelsea 18 months or so back, I wrote that he was the first black man to become the manager of a Premiership...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I suspect I am like most Spectator read- ers in that I pronounce the place where I keep my car or have it repaired as the garage, with a soft 'g' in the second...