A bomb set off by the Irish Republican Army in Manchester injured 200 and caused many millions of pOunds' worth of damage. Senator George Mitchell, the des- ignated chairman of...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 0171-242 0603 BALANCE ON RUSSIA W e in the West should not be too hard on...

An Italian Euro-summit is like a bus ride with the Marx brothers at the wheel BRUCE ANDERSON E uropean summits usually end in agree- ment; momentum and mechanics alike drive...

G enerations of students have been mis- led by Ivor Jennings's confident statement, repeated several times in his Cabinet Gov- ernment (3rd edn 1959), that the dissolution of...

It's not the old one, says Peregrine Worsthorne, it's the Protestant North: it'll fight, and it'll be right THE IRISH problem does not arise out of a clash between Irish and...

Church of England bishops, when appointed, repeat an oath against foreign rule. Surely, says Hugh Montefiore, that now includes Brussels THE NONJURORS in the 17th century, as...

I HAVE just completed a short tour of Germany, where I discovered that the Germans are just as hypochondriacal as the British. They have at least one seri- ous (i.e. fatuous)...

Ed Crooks shows that the belief that victory on the football pitch leads to good times is a myth ECONOMICS is not, of course, a science at all — dismal or otherwise. There is...

Michael Heath

THE LABOUR Party in Parliament is suffering from a convulsion. The Party meeting on Wednesday was the scene of shots that may echo round the world. It is over the Map Room in...

HERE'S a good story, sent to me by Mr Richard Rose, who has been bur- rowing away among Quarter Sessions documents in Pembrokeshire from the early 19th century. Some, he says,...

Sounds of righteous anger from the bowels of the No. 10 bunker PAUL JOHNSON I detect a certain poverty of expression on the part of Major 'aides' — a tendency to repeat...

Which of the twin bores is under water? Yes, it's Lightatendoftunnel CHRISTOPHER FILDES I nsider trading is the sign of an efficient market, so I have been encouraged to see...

I LIKE Eddie George's story about the Japanese banker who, on meeting a delega- tion from British Invisibles, said: `Ah — it is so nice to see you.' I suspect, though, that it...

I SUPPOSE the best news out of Russia is that someone has been stealing government bonds. It should hearten the International Monetary Fund, which now has fortunes at stake...

NICK LEESON had a locked drawer in his desk and a numbered account for parking losses. The copper market's Mr Five Per Cent, Yasuo Hamanaka, had a locker and two sets of books,...

FLORENCE begins to get hot and sticky at this time of year, and that is just the climate. This weekend's European summit meeting must send it right off the dial. All that hot...

THE BEST verdict on this comes from Valerie Thompson, a true star of the mar- kets, who first twinkled at Salomon Broth- ers as a telex operator. In her book, Manag- ing the...

In Toynbee's defence Sir: On 13 June, we sent a letter to the Times after it reprinted from the Daily Mail an article attacking Polly Toynbee. We were informed by the letters...

Sir: I read your article, 'Profiting from Labour' (15 June), with some interest, but could find no reference which seemed to justify the cover picture advertising it, which...

Sir: Rael Jean Isaac writes (`The real mean- ing of Netanyahu', 8 June) that the reli- gious parties 'made a stunning showing' in the Israeli election and concludes that this...

recent address to the Prison Reform Trust is largely based on Dr Carey's failure to use the term 'retribu- tion'. Yet the Archbishop's speech repeat- edly accepted the need for...

Sir: In his critique of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Prison Reform Lecture, Matthew Parris (Another voice, 15 June) agrees with Dr Carey that 'we imprison too easily and too...

12 Months 6 Months UK 0 £88.00 0 £45.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £99.00 0 £51.00 USA Airspeed 0 US$141 0 US$71 Rest of Airmail Airmail 0 £115.00 0 £58.00 World Airspeed 0 £99.00 0...

Sir: As an old Leftie who can remember when Paul Johnson was editor of the New Statesman (now a babbling ruin of a paper), I find little enough in his present pro- nouncements...

lot of readers wish to settle is Dot Wordsworth's age. She has clearly got a lot of words inside her mind and may therefore be rather old. On the other hand, she has a youngish...

the most unattractive developments of your sister publications, the Daily and Sunday Telegraphs, is the ubiquitous picture of the journalist at the head of the article. Please...

Sir: I share Mr Farara's sensitivity to the English language (Letters, 1 June) but I believe that he may be mistaken in regard- ing 'honing in' as incorrect. Page 1325 of the...

most of Mr Evans's speculations (Letters, 15 June) must indeed be close, with the exception of the two or three that some of us already happen to know, and, of course, poor Mary...

Sir: 'None of [Haig's] subordinate comman- ders questioned either his objective or his methods, which is perhaps to be expected', writes Michael Howard in his review of...

Sir: A.R. Evans's letter urging you to print photographs of your regular contributors (15 June) and your invitation to comment will, no doubt, generate a considerable response....

each actor's appearance differs from the mental picture of the character which the novelist enabled one to form. Likewise, I fear that pictures of your con- tributors would not...

Once, we looked to the Times to deal with this problem. Now it's part of it STEPHEN GLOVER I was determined not to write about Polly Toynbee. The mere mention of her name had...

What are you having? Not much fun PETRONELLA WYATT T he other day I received an invitation from a group that called itself Arise. My first thought was that this was some sort...

This blessed plot Philip Hensher IS HEATHCLIFF A MURDERER? by John Sutherland OUP, £3.99, pp.258 P ersonally,' John Sutherland writes, 'I have always thought "How many...

Barbara Trapido MAKING WAVES by Mario Vargas Llosa, edited and translated by John King Faber, £20, pp. 338 DEATH IN THE ANDES by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Edith...

Craig Brown THE DUCHESS OF WINDSOR by Michael Bloch Weidenfeld, £18.99, pp. 239 W as the Duchess of Windsor a man? This was the question posed on the front page of the Daily...

Tobias Jones EDEN RENEWED: THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIFE OF JOHN MILTON by Peter Levi Macmillan, £20, pp. 332 M ilton was everything: a radical and polemicist, a devoutly...

Adam Mars-Jones RESIDENT ALIEN: THE NEW YORK DIARIES by Quentin Crisp HarperCollins, £16.99, pp. 225 N o one familiar with Quentin Crisp's life and work (the two being by...

Philip Mansel NAPOLEON AND POZZO DI BORGO IN CORSICA AND AFTER, 1764-1821: NOT QUITE A VENDETTA by John M . P. McErlean Edwin Mellen Press, Lampeter, Dyfed, Wales, SA48 7DY,...

Anita Brookner Penelope Fitzgerald was last week awarded the 1996 Heywood Hill Literary Prize for 'a lifetime's contribution to the enjoyment of books'. T here are wet and dry...

Robert Cooper I f history in the classroom had been a fraction as engrossing as the BBC Radio Four series This Sceptred Isle (BBC Radio Collection, £9.99) many hours of...

I f it should ever be my bizarre destiny to return in another life as a woman, then I should like to be called Euphrosyne Doxi- adis. This is the enchantingly mellifluous name...

Not before 1830 John Simon likes only the music of the last 196 years P eople, told that I don't care for operas written before 1830, ask me condescend- ingly whether I like...

Don Carlos (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden) Loyalty not fidelity Rupert Christiansen I first saw Luc Bondy's enthralling produc- tion of Verdi's Don Carlos in Paris on 1...

Celtic roots Giannandrea Poesio A much as I love folk-dances from all over the world, I have always had some reservations regarding what is commonly and erroneously considered...

Talking Heads (Minerva) Song at Sunset (Hampstead) Coriolanus (Mermaid) Coriolanus Sheridan Morley S teven Berkoff, the bully-boy outsider of the British classical theatre...

Beauty and the beast Mark Steyn S peaking personally, I'm not often in the mood for penetrative sex with other men, and, if anything, I fancy life on a Sarf London estate even...

Reason, 'accuse Harry Eyres M y Scottish grandmother, a rather severe woman whose siblings included a pacifist, a woman Labour MP and a moral rearmament fanatic, and who loved...

Keeping up with Croydon Gavin Stamp T he last of Glasgow's majestic double- decker trams ran from Dalmuir West to Auchenshuggle in 1962 and the historian, Charles Oakley,...

Ruthless moderation Michael Vestey I dly contemplating who might be an inter- esting companion at an imaginary dinner party I thought of the former foreign secre- tary Douglas...

Such a perfect day Robin Oakley H ad it not been for the Prime Minister the garden might have been dug last week- end, the bills might have been sorted and the more pressing...

A time of gifts Taki 0 nce upon a time, before professional open tennis, the Queen's Club London Championships, as they were then called, were a quiet affair. They took place...

A farewell to arms Jeffrey Bernard I have had a lot of female visitors to this flat recently and I suppose I would feel intensely flattered in normal circum- stances, but...

When men are men Leanda de Lisle A dramatic hat will embarrass your nine year old son and infuriate your husband by blocking his view. He is far keener on see- ing the fruit...

Trump control Andrew Robson PLAYING A trump contract with only seven trumps can be a delicate affair, but provided you retain trump control, they can make surprisingly many...

T his is the cheapest offer we have had for some time — or are ever likely to have again unless something miraculous hap- pens to the pound — with wine from four countries and...

d/o Nethergate Wines Ltd. 11/13 High Street, Clare, Suffolk C010 8NY Tel: (01787) 277244 Fax: (01787) 277123 White Rolleston Vale Thy White (nv) Price No. Value SE...

footsteps of my predecessor, Nigella Lawson, he thought I should set out my credo for restaurant criticism. First and foremost, I believe that going to a restau- rant should be...

URA IN COMPETITION NO. 1936 you were invited to compose a public notice which appears to be in prose but is actually in verse, the more cleverly concealed the bet- ter. Below...

IN-THE-STRAND st SIMPSON'S IN-THE-STRAND The triumph of age Raymond Keene WHEN I was a young player, conventional wisdom dictated that, in a world title match, youthful...

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 8 July, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...

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I return to the attack. You are invited to incorporate the following words, in any order, into a plausible piece of prose (max- imum 150 words: alibi, benchmark, cloacal,...

An impossible man Simon Barnes LAST WEEK, Linford Christie got left at the start. The race was a semi-final in the AAA championships. Defeat, desolation, disaster. The race...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I recently attended the 60th birthday party of a distinguished and popular friend. At the peak of the proceedings silence was called for in the marquee while...