A court ruled that Britain was detaining nine suspected foreign terrorists illegally because, under the Human Rights Act, internment should not apply only to foreigners and not...

I f Lonnie Donegan's old man is still around, he is almost certainly by now living in a private flat with Georgian-style windows and a mock-Tudor kitchen. He will be close to...

N ICHOLAS OWEN I remember seeing him only once, early on. He was some sort of youngish senior charge nurse, or whatever the modish description is now. (If matrons are coming...

Who cares what Alan Duncan does under his duvet? What the Tories need is political clout NORMAN TEBBIT he madness which consumed the conservative parliamentary party in 1990...

MATTHEW PARR IS H aving narrowly avoided a shock appointment to the Tory chairmanship last Wednesday, I woke up on Thursday to hear I was a front-runner to co-present...

Many grandparents are too busy having a good time to look after grandchildren. Soon they will be too busy working. Nicholas Coleridge on the latest crisis to hit the middle...

Retrials should be possible, Sir William Macpherson tells Boris Johnson, but not, as things stand, for the killers of Stephen Lawrence ON the way home from a party the other...

AT last it is sorted out. Step change, I mean; a term recently used optimistically by both Mr Gordon Brown and Mr John Prescott. I had looked in some dictionaries and found...

Barnaby Jones on the hysteria and superstition that caused two innocent adults to be named as paedophiles IN 1693, Salem in New England was still in the grip of a witch-hunt....

I ARRIVED at the prison last week to find a car — a battered BMW of the no-tax-and-insurance model — parked outside. In it sat two young male AfroSaxons of the gold-front-tooth...

DR Rowan Williams, the Archbeard of Canterbury elect, has been unfolding his thoughts on abortion. He has gratifyingly little that is new to say on a debate which is at least...

Shelagh Shepherd on the mounting evidence that New Labour is determined to get rid of parish councils WHY does New Labour hate country people? The Prime Minister's towards...

James Hughes-Onslow found that it was almost a pleasure to spend five days in a French hospital after breaking his ankle on holiday WHAT is the most worrying news that a...

Damian Thompson reveals that the present Archbishop of Canterbury tried to block the appointment of Dr Rowan Williams FOUR years ago Dr George Carey personally intervened to...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit WITH the abolition of dividend tax relief and the extra costs with which it has burdened profitable businesses, the...

PAUL JOHNSON L st week a fine bouquet of white roses was delivered. Before the messenger had run down the steps of my house, the blooms were filling the hall with their soft...

From Dr L.K Vaughan Sir: As an Australian female I am an unlikely defender of the English male, but I feel compelled to offer a corrective to Leah McLaren's attack (`The tragic...

From Mr John Moloney Sir: Neil Clark (`East is Eden'. 20 July) amply demonstrates that biased praise is every bit as annoying as prejudice. No more, please, about the romantic,...

From Mr Roy Rubenstein Sir: Toby Young (Arts, 27 July) does a disservice in his claim that Sir David Hare 'bends over backwards to be even-handed' to both sides of the Middle...

From Mr lain Smith Sir: Frank Johnson, with whose column I normally wholeheartedly agree, writes (27 July) in respect of the 1919 Versailles Treaty: 'The Germans of all classes...

From Mr R.W. Smith Sir: East is east, and west is west, and it is the wrong Lothian that your reviewer Ian Dunlop has chosen (Books, 27 July). When playing golf over any of the...

From Mr Andy Jennings Sir: Peter Oborne ('Minority pursuits', 20 July) made a reasoned assessment of the Conservatives' attempts to broaden their candidate base. However, there...

From Mr J. P. Veen - Ilan Sir: In 'Pius the hero' (20 July) John Laughland introduces 'the man who can prove his innocence'. But if Father Gumpel can, then why does he not do...

From Mr Leon Le Leu Sir: Theodore Dalrymple (Second opinion, 20 July) has surpassed himself in his description of Malcolm Muggeridge, who enunciated his opinions 'as if...

From Mr Raphael Rish Sir: If Matthew Leeming (`The lost tribe', 6 July) believes that blond, blue-eyed Afghans may have descended from Alexander the Great's soldiers, could he...

From Mr Andrew Hoogeweegen Sir: Would you remind Taki (High life, 6 July) that the Dutch were not sufficiently fleetfooted in 1940 to prevent the flattening of most of my home...

From Mr Anthony Howard Sir: I have been asked by the literary executors of the late Cardinal Basil Hume to write his official biography. I would be most grateful if anyone...

David Gilmour A CORNER OF A FOREIGN FIELD: THE INDIAN HISTORY OF A BRITISH SPORT by Ramachandra Guha Picador, £20. pp. 496, ISBN 0330491164 I n 1946 a senior official of the...

Andrew Lambirth THE SCULPTURE OF MICHAEL SANDLE by John McEwen The Henry Moore Foundation, in association with Lund Humphries, £60, pp. 144, ISBN 0853318174 P ublic art in...

Andrew Barrow PUT ME ON MY BIKE: IN SEARCH OF TOM SIMPSON by William Fotheringham Yellow Jersey Press, £15.99, pp. 242, ISBN 0224061860 BREAKING THE CHAIN: DRUGS AND CYCLING,...

Hugh Laws on-Tancred A QUESTION OF TRUST by Onora O'Neill CUP, 125 (19.95, paperback), pp. 108, ISBN 0521823048 (0521529964 paperback) AUTONOMY AND TRUST IN BIOETHICS by Onora...

Charlotte Hobson THE ROMANOVS AND MR GIBBES by Frances Welch Short Books, £9.99, pp, 125, ISBN 190409516X T he fate of the last Russian imperial family never seems to lose its...

P. J. Kavanagh OLD THUNDER: A LIFE OF HILAIRE BELLOC by Joseph Pearce HarperCollins, £20, pp. 318, ISBN 0002740958 I n 1946 Hesketh Pearson doubted the claim of Belloc (b....

Michael Hulse THE HOTHOUSE by Wolfgang Koeppen, translated from the German by Michael Hofmann Granta, 114.99, pp. 221, ISBN 1862075093 I n the early Fifties. Wolfgang Koeppen...

Anita Brookner WAKE UP by Tim Pears Bloomsbury, .i16.99, pp. 227. ISBN 0747559570 J ohn Sharpe, potato magnate, drives round and round the ring road. ignoring the exit which...

A Somerset Railway Relic Revived A station here? No, who would think that village folk would traipse the lanes, or tramp the hedgerow-bordered fields to catch infrequent...

Allan Mallinson ALAMEIN by Jon Latimer Murray, £25, pp. 400, ISBN 0719562031 T his year is the 60th anniversary of the battle of Alamein. The name may not quite have the...

Martin Vander Weyer BANKING ON DEATH by Robin Blackburn Verso, £20, pp. 550, ISBN 1859847951 INSPIRATION AND REALITY by Robert Oakeshott Michael Russell, .£20, pp. 410, ISBN...

Tom Sutcliffe finds much to enjoy at the festivals in Bad Ischl and Munich T here is something slightly Budleigh Salterton about Bad Ischl, a deeply provincial town at the...

Martin Gayford believes that the present state of the British Museum is a national disgrace J ust under 250 years ago, in 1753, the British Museum was founded. In the words of...

Masters of Colour: Derain to Kandinsky (Royal Academy. till 17 November) Fizzing with energy Andrew Lambirth R arely does one see an exhibition which so lifts the spirits as...

Austin Powers in Goldmember (12, selected cinemas) Dwindling powers Mark Steyn R ound about the time Al Gore was insisting that his favourite book was Stendhal's Le Rouge et...

Losing it Marcus Berkmann I fs sad to relate, but all pop stars lose it in the end. They may not know what they have lost, and in some cases it may merely have been mislaid,...

Abigail's Party (Hampstead) Witness (The Gate) Class rules Toby Young A bigail's Party, Mike Leigh's hilarious comedy about social embarrassment, received its premiere at...

Carmen (Glyndebourne) Galuppi (Cambridge University Opera Society) Virtues of simplicity Michael Tanner G lyndebourne's new production of Carmen is a brilliant success, and...

Power for good Michael Vestey T here's more than a whiff of antiAmericanism in the air at the moment. You've only got to have a Republican president and out it all comes. The...

Ordinary stars Simon Hoggart I n the past, as Daniel Boorstin pointed out, a celebrity was a 'person who is wellknown for his well-knowness'. Now people appear on television...

Something special Robin Oakley Af ter all the media excitement about Britain's explosive new generation of sprinters, Dwain Chambers and Mark Lewis-Francis, many millions...

Be prepared Taki S St Tropez ean (Puff Daddy) Combs, or P. Diddy, as he now calls himself, is described by the press as a rap impresario. He is the black thug who a couple of...

Missing link Jeremy Clarke I try to avoid alcohol during the day. But they drink wine at all hours in the house next door and persuade me to join them on the slenderest of...

A man of contradictions Petronella Wyatt W hat do you say about a friend who has gone? What do you smy about someone whose life has been inextricably linked with yours since...

Deborah Ross WE're due to go on holiday next week hut. of course, we've yet to book anything. I'd like to say it's because we've been so busy working on Truly Crap Housekeeping...

Michael Henderson THE Lord's Test is not merely an important date in the cricket season. It is part of the fabric of the English summer, and last week's match, when England...

Q. During May I attended an exceptionally good party given in Venice. Among the `aristo-kraut' dishes we consumed was a starter involving a kind of sea-bass carpaccio. I wonder...