from the south of Iraq around Basra to positions further north to cover for American troops required to attack Fallujah, where insurgents have been in control; the government...

All bets are on y ou can't please some people. The Daily Mail has spent the Blair years complaining about the nanny state. But when the government finally comes up with a...

creme PA Yvonne, I am chauffeured Sky-wards to be interrogated by Adam Boulton after Oliver Letwin and before Jackie Stewart. Cheerily greeting the demon driver, 'Good to see...

I was brought up near Warminster in Wiltshire, and love this quiet, unassuming country town. Its proximity to the Salisbury plain has ensured it the role of local garrison, a...

F or the past 15 months the Sunday Times has carried a string of exclusives about the inner workings of Whitehall. The deliberations of the honours committee were uncovered in...

Most Britons see George W. Bush as brash, ignorant and recklessly simplistic, says Max Hastings; but they should not believe that all will be well if John E Kerry replaces him...

Bob Geldof meant well when he launched Band Aid 20 years ago, says Daniel Wolf; whether he did well for the starving is another matter A pale, intense young man with a soft...

Boris Johnson on his penitential pilgrimage to Liverpool am writing this in a cold, damp three-star hotel in Liverpool, and I have to admit I don't want to go out. Not only is...

In the preface to Martin Chuzzlewit, Dickens replied to those who accused him of being a mere caricaturist. What is caricature to one man, he said, is pure and unvarnished truth...

lain Duncan Smith on the threat to life contained in the Mental Capacity Bill W hen a patient is denied food and water his death is a horrible process. Before he dies he will...

The government's recycling regulations are a waste of time and money, says Ross Clark. No wonder they are ignored 0 ver the past few weeks, the Cambridgeshire countryside where...

Rod Liddle says that supermarkets are cruel to the customer, cruel to the farmer and cruel to the farm animal F irst, the good news. Sainsbury's is in trouble and heading for...

The Tory MP for Henley, accused of belittling Liverpudlians by claiming that their outpouring of grief for Ken Bigley (brutally murdered by terrorists) was nothing but mawkish...

Anger management is all the rage these days. Brendan O'Neill says it's a sign of emotional correctness gone mad I magine if Arthur Seaton, the fictional factory hand created by...

Beryl Bainbridge defends her brave and beloved Liverpool, but wonders whether there has been too much wailing and gnashing of teeth this week I left Liverpool 4.0 years ago,...

The suburbs are perhaps not so despised as they were in my youth, now that every house costs £1 million. And I was delighted to learn that my friend and columnar neighbour...

A growing band of us do not believe the opinion polls. We cannot entirely explain our doubt. We argue backwards from our hunch — that the voters do not wish to give Tony Blair...

CHARLES MOORE N ow that our editor has found Liverpool on the map and made his pilgrimage of apology there. I wonder what it is about the place that means that people have to...

T he force of destiny works in peculiar ways, Verdi wrote a four-act opera about them, now being sponsored by Lady Sainsbury at Covent Garden, and in its great glass bubble down...

From Ian Wadkins Sir: I am a survivor of the Hillsborough disaster, so I imagine you can guess where this is going (Leading article, 16 October). Unlike 96 less fortunate...

apologising to the cultured residents of Neasden for years of disparaging remarks? Can we expect Essex men and women to rise up in protest against countless comments relating to...

at the recent unfounded criticisms of my fellow Liverpudlians. I have lived most of my adult life away from my native city but this does not mean that my pride in being a...

overrun by a culture of false grief, you should come over to Ulster. Nobody — but nobody — 'does' manufactured grief and victimhood better than Irish republican terrorists and...

apologise; he may grovel, he may cover his head with sackcloth and ashes. But nothing can change, or excuse, or even forgive the fact that everything he published about the...

should quote Captain Scott in your leading article about the phenomenon of public grief and the Dianafication' of the nation. The announcement of Scott's death in 1912 caused an...

From Tom Benyon Sir: The Times reports that Michael Howard has chosen to criticise your leading article, which makes adverse comment about Liverpudlians. May I respectfully...

From Ivan Fallon Sir: Stephen Glover, as one of the Independent's three original founders, helped set the title's tradition for fair, accurate and independent reporting. What a...

From Richard Heller Sir: I can confirm Peter Oborne's depressing account of Tony Blair's relationship with George W. Bush and the willingness of the Labour party to tolerate it...

From S. E. G. Hopkin Sir: The Revd John Fellows (Letters, 16 October) claims that the original version of the Nicene Creed read 'We believe' and that the modern Anglican version...

From Beth White Sir: Digby Anderson's review of Alister McGrath's examination of atheism (Books, 9 October) was superb. While I agree that what is prevalent in this postmodern...

From Mark Fiennes Sir: You have reproduced my photograph as an illustration of the work of the architect Raymond Erith following Alan Powers's excellent review of the current...

From Jomy Hurwitz Sir: I write in support of Ross Clark (Labour is turning Britons into paupers', 16 October), I am a South African economic migrant and I happily pay my dues:...

From Nicholas Bushill Sir: In her introduction to your Carbon Trust supplement of 9 October, Margaret Beckett stated that the cost to the country of flood damage was currently...

From Barbara Harper-Nelson Sir: In his review of General Sir Peter de la Billiere's book Supreme Courage (Books. 25 September), M.R.D. Foot states that Albert Ball, VC, was a...

From Dr John Laugh/and Sir: Dr Jeremy Stocker writes that no Western weaponry can reach St Petersburg in a few minutes (Letters, 16 October). He is wrong. Nato has been...

From Edmund Standing Sir: 'Just wait until Jacques Lacan dies', warns Rod Liddle Derrida really dead?', 16 October), apparently unaware of the fact that Lacan died on 9...

A ttending, the other night, the Covent Garden opera's magnificent performance of Gounod's Faust, with libretto by Michel Carre, drawn ultimately from Goethe, I asked myself,...

Sarah Perry ii — n the Jollibee burger bar, Kuya Virgo held out his hands. Cradled in each palm was a duck's egg, still warm from its boiling water. He looked at us...

Bevis Hillier OBSESSIONS by Stephen Calloway and Katherine Sorrell, photography by Deidi von Schaewen Mitchell Beazley, £30, pp. 192, ISBN 1840007214 (4) £26 (plus £2.25 p&p)...

Teresa Waugh EAFFAIRE by Diane Johnson Penguin! Michael Joseph, £12.99, pp. 462, ISBN 0718147448 e £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A n avalanche in a French ski resort...

Andrew Barrow THE VANISHED LANDSCAPE: A 1930s CHILDHOOD IN THE POTTERIES by Paul Johnson Weidenfeld, £16.99, pp. 200, IS8N0297847724 rt £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I...

Zenga Longmore DEAREST VIRGINIA edited by Gayle Hunnicutt Kyle Cathie, £14.99, pp. 224, ISBN 1856265560 (I': £12.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 W hat are the essential...

Charlotte Moore THE VILLAGE by Marghanita Laski Persephone, £10, pp. 302, ISBN 1903155428 T his is one of those lovely Persephone reprints with a pearly grey cover and...

Raymond Carr HERBERT BUTTERFIELD by C. T. McIntire Yale, £30, pp. 499, ISBN 0300098073 re) £28 (plus 12.25 p&p) 0870 ROO 4848 p rofessor McIntire disowns any claim to have...

Peregrine Worsthorne ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OF THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 1855-2005 by Christopher Howse Eburv,L20, pp. 256, ISBN 0091894638 () £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800...

Jonathan Sumption FIGHTING FOR CHRISTENDOM: HOLY WAR AND THE CRUSADES by Christopher Tyerman OUP, £1299, pp. 216. ISBN 0192803255 © £11.99 (plus .£2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T he...

Zoe Williams PLANET SIMPSON: How A CARTOON MASTERPIECE DOCUMENTED AN ERA AND DEFINED A GENERATION by Chris Turner Ebuty Press, f12.99, pp. 471, ISBN 0091897564 (61.11.99 (plus...

Andrew Lambirth WILLIAM SCOTT by Norbert Lynton lhames & Hudson, £40, pp. 504, 1SBN0500976376 ".C) £35 (plus 12.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T here is no comfortable way to read or...

Francis Wyndham GERMS: A MEMOIR OF CHILDHOOD by Richard Wollheim The Waywiser Press, 9 Woodstock Road, London N4 3 ET (Tel: 0208 374 5526), £13.99, pp. 264, ISBN 1904130135...

John Parfitt THE COMMAND OF THE OCEAN: A NAVAL HISTORY OF BRITAIN, 1649-1815 by N. A. M. Rodger Allen Lane, £30, pp. 907, ISBN 0713994118 £26 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848...

John McEwen MEMOIRS by Anne Ridler Cheques payable to Neil Scott, The Perpetua Press, Orchard Close, Top Lane, Wootton, Woodstock, Oxon 0X20 1DD, Tel: 01993 813236, £18 (...

Jane Gardam TIME BITES by Doris Lessing Fourth Estate, 120, pp, 376, ISBN 0007179855 £18 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T here is no introduction to this collection of essays,...

Caroline Moorehead GHOSTING by Jennie Erdal Canongate, £14.99, pp. 273, LON 1841955620 £12.99 (plus 12.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 F or almost 20 years, Jennie Erdal, translator...

Harriet Waugh C all the Dying (Hodder, £14.99, pp. 436, ISBN 0340825693) is the seventh novel in Andrew Taylor's Lydmouth series. He started it in 1994 and by setting it in the...

Patrick Camegy on Michael Boyd's vision for his Stratford company A s the swinging Sixties collapsed into the spanking Seventies, Kenneth Tynan began a diary. It records the...

Andrew Lambirth Ancient Art to Post-Impressionism Royal Academy, until 10 December Sponsored by Carlsberg and Danske Bank Scottish accents are perhaps excessively to the fore —...

Frank Johnson D uring the summer, to mark its 60th 1./anniversary, I wrote in The Spectator about the July Plot: the failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. The event took place...

Alan Powers S o the Gherkin has it, by a unanimous vote of the jury. The Stirling Prize, awarded by the RIBA and the Architects' Journal, has produced some unpredictable...

Giannandrea Poesio Fondation Jean-Pierre Perreault Sadler's Wells Theatre Eloot stamping is a common feature of many forms of dance. This is not surprising because it...

Lloyd Evans Burled Child Lyttelton The Weather/Bear Hug Royal Court Upstairs Gaffer! Southwark Pla_vhouse I f you want an evening that's as boring as real life, see Buried...

Michael Tanner Duke Bluebeard's Castle Sadler's Wells Falstaff Coliseum W hile it's clear, from the ending-times of most of their performances, that neither of London's major...

Mark Steyn Coffee & Cigarettes 15, selected cinemas T like coffee, I like tea, [like the java jive, 1 but the Jarmusch jive is another matter entirely. Jim Jarmusch has been...

Michael Vestey N ot being religious, it never ceases to amaze me when I hear intelligent, well-educated people swallowing religious beliefs whole or allowing their lives to be...

Simon Ho gg art A dam Curtis's The Power of Nightmares (BBC2, Wednesdays) was an extraordinary piece of film-making, bringing back to our minds a jumble of past memories and...

Robin Oakley A sked once what had been the happiest day of her life, Brigitte Bardot allegedly replied, 'It was a night.' Which presumably conferred champion status on her...

for Luc ks Taki New York I suppose with the total eradication of crime back in dear old Blighty, Scotland Yard is correct in making a fresh attempt to solve the Lord Lucan...

Jeremy Clarke M y boy's mother's boyfriend has been labouring for a team of builders doing up an old rectory for a retired magazine publisher. He must have a few bob, this...

Aldan Hartley A fter work the farm labourers like to head for the football pitch. They go barefoot, or in their Bata takkies, and they play rough. The first ball I gave them...

Petronella Wyatt A re we finally seeing the last gasp of the so-called It Girl? Is this the moment that we have all been waiting for? The end of the oversexed, overpaid and...

FRANK KEATING F arewell and all hail. It would be amiss tor The Spectator not to add its amens to the panegyrics for Keith Miller. In England, the archetypal Australian hero's...

want their upbringing to be as happy as possible and part of this, I understand, involves toys and dolls. However, my wife and I are forever being given our friends' plastic...

in the way of fresh green vegetables and satisfaction from cultivating an allotment. In the last three or four years, however, two adjacent plots have been taken up by...