M r John Major, the Prime Minister, told the Scott Inquiry into the supply of arms to Iraq that he didn't know anything, as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Chan- cellor of the...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 UNCIVIL SERVANTS T he Scott Inquiry into the illegal supply of arms to...

Meanwhile, there's a country out there just waiting to be governed SIMON HEFFER A ccording to two national newspapers, the Prime Minister, at a private dinner last week,...

ANDREW DEVONSHIRE January is the month when I re-arrange the books in the guest bedrooms here at Chatsworth. They all have a core consisting of The Oxford Book of English Verse,...

Lessons to be learned from the Russian Liberal Democrats AUBERON WAUGH O f all the panicky insults thrown at the first democratic leader to emerge in Russia since the dawn of...

of last week's feel-good' summit between Russia and America Moscow THE MAN they call 'the Saxophone Presi- dent' Russians has come and gone like so many foreigners before him,...

Simon Winchester reports from a forgotten war zone where tempers are fraying again Panmunjom, South Korea IT CAN HARDLY be a barrel of laughs living right on the border...

Fergal Keane argues that lazy and selective reporting conceals the truth about white South Africans Eastern Transvaal ATTIE'S fat, sweating body barely squeezed into the khaki...

I BECAME entangled in the under- world of confidence tricksters recently and it is all The Spectator's fault. I had caught sight of the word phoney on the front cover (1...

The Bishop of London delivered an interesting lecture in Sion College, on Tuesday evening, on "Faith." He com- menced it by saying that about fifty years ago he had a...

THE OTHER day I met a young teacher who felt (very strongly) that poverty is entirely the fault of the rich. If the rich didn't grab all the money, she said, there would be...

William Cash on the cultural miasma that makes America what it is Manassas, Virginia TO DATE, the Washington Post has run 58 stories about the Bobbitt penis mutila- tion, `sex...

How to save yourself 51 trips to the library ... or over £35 on The Spectator If you're forced to share The Spectator with fellow students, then you'll know how difficult it...

Alastair Campbell meets David Evans, the man from the moral majority and backbench scourge of Back to Basics DAVID EVANS was driving home late at night, fed up and friendless,...

Who will lift the albatross from around the Tory neck? PAUL JOHNSON L ast autumn I urged the Tory bigwigs, if there are such people these days, to dump John Major before...

THE PREVIOUS Chancellor — whose name, now that I reach for it, escapes my grasp once more — is making a speciality of emerging markets. He is to be chairman of Taiwan Investment...

The taxpaying peasants revolt — let that be a warning to Treasury ministers CHRISTOPHER FILDES I draw Treasury ministers' attention to the case of Shu Liu and the inspector of...

OUR WELFARE services already employ twice as many people as our banks, and the banks mean to keep it that way. Amid cries of pain and shock, they are hacking back their numbers...

A MEDIUM-SIZED earthquake in Los Angeles is the least of Lloyd's of London's worries. Charge it to the advertising bud- get, along with the cost of Michael Jack- son's youth...

ONE FORM of employment growing expo- nentially is non-executive directing. The Bank, which set up a non-execs' employ- ment agency pro bono publico, has actually managed to sell...

IT IS the political question of the hour. I faced it at a club which had asked me to talk about the Government and the econo- my. To get things right on purpose, I said, is...

Sir: Your policy of refusing to allow con- tributors to append footnotes to readers' letters accusing them of errors, therefore disposing of the matter briefly, forces me to...

Sir: Now that John Ross has given further clarification of whether it is the ass, arse or anus (Letters, 1 January), can we now safe- ly say we have got to the bottom of the...

Sir: Simon Courtauld states (`Something nasty in the tea-leaves', 8 January) that gyp- sies 'may not always respect the laws of the land'. Where motoring law is concerned they,...

Sir: I vouch for the following dialogue, for I was the Reader. Reader: 'Can you please tell me why in this Lowestoft public library the Guardian is not with all the other...

Sir: Alan Mattingly, director of the Ramblers' Association, wrote (Letters, 8 January), `We asked for the laws on public access. . . to be amended so that . . . people can...

Sir: Tony Blair, in his interview with Alas- dair Palmer ('No sex, no drugs, just rock 'n' roll', 8 January), identifies the conditions which make it more likely that a child...

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Rob Roy and The Thing Raymond Carr A. J. P. TAYLOR: A BIOGRAPHY by Adam Sisman Sinclair - Stevenson, f18.99, pp. 468 A. J. P. TAYLOR, THE TRAITOR WITHIN THE GATES by Robert...

Julie Burchill DISCLOSURE by Michael Crichton Century, X14.99, pp. 397 N ovelisation — of a film, or of a popu- lar television serial — has always been a moderately quick way...

DIARY 1994 £12 Plain £13 Initialled T he Spectator 1994 Diary, bound in soft burgundy leather, is still available. With a new layout and a whole week to view, Monday to...

Barry Unsworth THE FORTUNES OF CASANOVA AND OTHER STORIES by Rafael Sabatini OUP, £15.95, pp. 283 I first read Rafael Sabatini's historical novels at the age of 14. My father...

Nigel Spivey CIGARETTES ARE SUBLIME by Richard Klein Duke University Press, £19.95, pp. 210 H ypocrisy, and in particular American political hypocrisy, is rightfully exposed by...

Piers Paul Read ODD MAN OUT by Ronald Biggs Bloomsbury, f14.99, pp. 279 O f the 14 books I have written over the past 27 years, the only one I now regret is The Train Robbers,...

frozen ruts Were made by unshod men, Hood's threadbare remnant. Watch them, then, Stumble across the scrub, as from the heights Others are watching: in those piled redoubts...

It was one thing to wrap the astrakhan about your person, strutting out as if all verse that had ever been depended on a coat of such expensive cut that no one meeting you would...

G. Cabrera Infante MORNINGS IN THE DARK edited by David Parkinson Carcanet, f29.95, pp. 738 T here are critics who are famous, others are merely notorious. Kenneth Tynan man-...

The Spectator index for January to June 1993 is now available. Name Address Postcode . Please return to: "Spectator Index", 56 Doughty Street, London WC I N 2LL r This six...

Hugh Trevor-Roper E dward Gibbon died in London on 16 January, 1794, unexpectedly, after a minor operation, aged 56. His remains, physical and literary, were taken over by his...

Architecture Poetry amid graceless prose David Watkin refutes criticisms of Quinlan Terry's Downing College Library I have been taken to task by Piloti in Pri- vate Eye for...

Small screen supermen Robin Holloway A mid the yawning chasm of candy on television over the country's annual close- down, one programme stood out for its evocation of a lost...

The Unknown Modigliani: Drawings from Alexei Solokov: Paintings 1929-1993 (Rebecca Hossack gallery, till 12 February) Lessons of history Giles Auty A nid the great welter of...

Wooden spoons and spatulas Alistair McAlpine On 22 February the contents of the late Elizabeth David's kitchen are to be sold by Phillips. If this sale goes well there can be...

Manhattan Murder Mystery (PG., Selected Cinemas) Hope and security Mark Steyn A with last year's Husbands and Wives, the temptation with the new Woody Allen movie is to...

January Sale (Vaudeville) The Cavalcaders (The Royal Court) Breaking the Bank (Lyric, Hammersmith) Nineties Review Sheridan Morley R evue is what closed in the London theatre...

A promise of resignation Martyn Harris T he series Middlemarch (BBC2, Wednesday, 9 p.m.) got off to a fine start with an opening crowd shot of the market place as Dr Lydgate...

Safe and still in one piece Taki Gstaad T his 'Back to Basics' brouhaha has not exactly made an impression here in Gstaad. The snow has finally come down with a vengeance, and...

The sixth essential Nigel Nicolson A few weeks ago I listed in this column the five essentials for a happy old age, and risked the claim that I enjoyed them all. They were:...

of this Thames- side eating-place brought to mind the semi- nal case of Donoghue v. Stevenson which, as every law student knows, not only estab- lished important principles of...

, PI RE MALT , • SeOTC II WIIISKN Nude mice etc. Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1813 you were Invited to submit an extract from a book with one of the following titles (all...

46 CHESS P)Di t tlaRA SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA The chosen 12 Raymond Keene A DOZEN GRANDMASTERS have travelled to the Dutch town of Wijk aan Zee on the North...

You are invited to incorporate the follow- ing 12 words or phrases, in any order, into a plausible piece of prose (maximum 150 words): non-stop, nipper, Nirvana, nitty- gritty,...

J CROSSWORD GRAHAM'S — ) PORT GRAHAMS PORT A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 31 January,...

JA.W S r& 111) ji., I E 'M I L A L O a it i II L A., N j;)„. LISELI V EiAIO l l" 'T 9 RIN M 23 0 ig i A ' L I Or6 ISIOIL 3.k U U C 0 ...0 M I I UPI A B E 'A E A...

Captains courageous Frank Keating MICHAEL ATHERTON, morning-faced, bushy-tailed and optimistic, leads out his new England team for its first match in the West Indies this...

Dear Mary.. . Q. These days I occasionally attend a din- ner or luncheon where the placement involves my sitting next to a member of my own sex. Is one meant to flirt in these...