Whitehall, by Mr Derek Scott, a former economics adviser to Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister. It detailed arguments between Mr Blair and Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the...

r here was one thing surprisingly absent from last Monday's hanclover of Iraq's sovereignty by Paul Bremer, leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority, to Iyad Allawi,...

that the only solution is a bicycle. But there's a dark side to cycling in the city. Since I bought my first bike a year or so ago I have been astonished by the outbursts of...

A s any investment banker will tell you, share prices in ailing companies rarely go down in a straight line. The process of decline is typically punctuated by periods of...

branches of trees in leaf — particularly ash and willow — are more likely to break. Last week half of our village, including our house, lost electricity for 27 hours when one of...

they used to be Charles Clover says that there's only one way to beat the celebrity chefs who are wiping out every endangered fish in the sea: take a trip to McDonald's I n a...

America has succeeded in Iraq, says Mark Steyn, but the war on terror can still be lost at home New Hampshire L et freedom reign!' scribbled President Bush in the corner of...

Andrew Gilligan says that the new defence cuts will unman the British armed forces, and put soldiers' lives at risk T ony Blair's relationship with the Labour Left has always...

It's not good enough for the Tories to pinch Labour policies, says Simon Heifer. They must appeal to the people on the economy, education, drugs, immigration and Europe A shadow...

An American has done some 'research' to demonstrate what he claims no one has yet acknowledged: that hoi polloi know better than the experts. Ancient Greeks knew that some 2,400...

As a reader of this column you probably dislike people on the wireless saying 'well', especially Mr Robin Cook. But according to a learned paper by Jan Svartvik, it occurs every...

If you want to know why voters are cynical, don't blame the press, says Rod Liddle — blame the mainstream parties for pushing almost identical policies T he late novelist...

Tom Winsor, the Rail Regulator, tells Boris Johnson why he has hopes for a privatised future — in spite of unwarranted political intervention 0 ne of the reasons why some of us...

From John Hatt Sir: In his otherwise excellent article about Israel, Max Hastings makes a surprising comment, claiming that the entire Arab world must be classed as a 'failed...

From Andrew Mitchell Sir: Daniel Hannan, writing about the European Constitution (`The way ahead for Europe', 26 June), states that he cannot remember anyone saying that EC law...

been a large number of Conservatives opposed to Britain's memberships of the EEC/EC/EU. Thirty-two years' experience of loss of sovereignty and EU intrusion into every aspect of...

From Edward Collier Sir: Peter Oborne (Politics, 26 June) reckons that 'the Bill [banning hunting] raises massive human rights issues concerning compensation'. As my son might...

example of the pro-hunting minority deflecting attention from the central issue by exaggerating peripheral matters. He claims that tens of thousands of people depend on hunting...

From Cdr John Lewis RN Sir: In Life and Letters (26 June), Dr A.D. Harvey is quoted as referring to 'the possibility of prosecuting Noel Coward for a transatlantic tax dodge...

From Geoffrey Davies Sir: Charles Moore is right (The Spectator's Notes, 26 June). There are increasing numbers of young people (and their families) damaged by drugs. It's...

From Michael Henderson Sir: If Rod Liddle (English hooligans are pussycats', 26 June) genuinely believes that English football fans are no worse than those in other European...

From CA Latimer Sir: It seems unlikely that Chatsworth could have been Jane Austen's inspiration for Pemberley (Life and Letters. 26 June). It would have been impossible for Mr...

From Peter Maddox Sir: While it has been good to see the return of Frank Keating (Sport, 26 June), one cannot let him get away with a false attribution. It was not the...

From Mary Bruton Sir: Now that Iraq is safely sovereign, perhaps it is permissible to share this joke (from Texas) with your readers: two families moved from Pakistan to...

From Clarke Hayes Sir: It is true that the Russians were late in entering the war against the Japanese (Letters, 26 June) but the situation in the Pacific was not as simple as...

I t came upon me powerfully, momentarily and quite unexpectedly. Perhaps a couple of vodkas at a bar by the railway station in St Petersburg were to blame. But all at once I...

T here are lots of people who believe that Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, has messed up. Some journalists on his newspaper think that he has. So do many on the...

to illuminate the study of history H istory is by far the most important academic discipline. It encompasses all others, for every human institution or activity has a history,...

I wonder what happened to all those plausible people who told us that we should be making our money work harder. Some of them must have been lynched, and some, I dare say, are...

Philip Hensher BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS by Louis de Bernieres Secker, L17.99, pp. 640, ISBN 0436205491 L ouis de Bern ieres' new novel, his first substantial work since Captain...

Olivia Glazebrook THE COMA by Alex Garland Faber, £9.99, pp. 160, ISBN 0571223079 R eading Alex Garland's third novel is a frustrating experience. He is a writer capable of...

Anthony Daniels WHITEFELLA JUMP UP: THE SHORTEST WAY TO NATIONHOOD by Germaine Greer Profile, £7.99, pp. 232, ISBN 1861977395 jr ust as vulgarity can sometimes transcend itself...

Alan Watkins ALASTAIR CAMPBELL by Peter Oborne and Simon Walters Aumm, i8.99, pp. 378, ISBN 1845130014 0 ne of the chief characteristics of New Labour, Blairism or the Project...

Norman Stone NASSER: THE LAST ARAB by Said K. Aburish Duckworth, £20, pp. 342, ISBN 031228683X S aid Aburish, a Palestinian with excellent English who worked for years in...

Diana Hendry CANARINO by Katherine Bucknell Fourth Estate, £12, pp. 340, ISBN 0007178654 I was bemused by this novel — a first from Katherine Bucknell, better known as an...

Robert Salisbury ACCIDENTS OF FORTUNE by Andrew Devonshire Michael Russell, £13.95, pp. 127 ISBN 0859552861 W e live in a demotic age. How is it therefore that by the beginning...

Hugh Massingberd ANTHONY POWELL: A LIFE by Michael Barber Duckworth Overlook, £20, pp. 338. ISBN 0715630490 T o celebrate the centenary of Anthony Powell's birth next year an...

Anthony Howard MY LIFE by Bill Clinton Hutchinson, £25, pp. 1024, ISBN 0091795273 S peaking and writing represent two very different disciplines. The most spellbinding orator I...

Juliet Townsend F ew of the pleasures of adolescence endure through life, but one which has done so, in my experience, is the reading of the Regency novels of Georgette Heyer....

Barry Millington writes an open letter to the new controller of BBC2 Dear Roly Keating A llow me to join the chorus of congratulations as you get your feet under your new desk...

Andrew Lambirth Russian Landscape in the Age of Tolstoy National Gallery, until 12 September, supported by BP 1119 ussia is vast', booms the introductory IN. wall panel in the...

Sebastian Smee Edouard Manet: Impressions of the Sea Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, until 26 September M odern art knew no more enigmatic or contradictory figure than the man...

Peter Phillips Elor those who have never heard of it, the annual Fez World Sacred Music Festival has established a cult following. In the ten years of its existence it has...

Mark Steyn Shrek U, selected cinemas C oncluding my Shrek rave in this space three years ago, I wrote, 'I saw it with a four-year-old who can't wait for Shrek 2. Bring it...

Lloyd Evans Guantanamo New Ambassadors Judith Bloom Southwark Playhouse The Pub Landlord Cambridge Theatre T ourists, not terrorists. That's the likeliest assessment of the...

Michael Tanner Four Little Greats Opera North, Sadler's Wells Q pera North concluded its season by bringing its 'Eight Little Greats' to Sadler's Wells, and I went to the...

Simon Hoggart D uring one of the rain delays at Wimbledon this year they repeated a women's final from decades ago, Martina Navratilova versus Chris Evert, with commentary by...

Michael Vestey I was surprised to see that BBC reports should be based on 'accurate note-taking', a recommendation of the Neil report, set up after the Hutton inquiry to...

Robin Oakley W en James and Pamela Mason were ringing up the precocious Portland, she was allowed pretty much what she liked, to encourage her to develop her own personality....

Taki A s I write, the Greek football team is about to face the Czechs, by far the most talented team in Euro 2004. Win or lose, the heroic Hellenes have done the rest of us...

Jeremy Clarke T here is a Japanese concept known as ma. A loose translation of ma might be 'the space between things'. In Kyoto, at the temple of Ryoan-ji, is a famous Zen...

Petronella Wyatt rinhe French have always enjoyed deliver ing snubs to les rosbifs. But now they have gone a step trop far. All red-blooded Englishmen, and loyal Englishwomen,...

Susanna Gross UNTIL recently. I was never quite sure what is meant by a Grosvenor Coup. I've often heard players exclaim to an opponent after going down in a contract, 'You...

1 have bored on for ages about the excellence of South African wines. The end of apartheid made it easier for the country's winemakers to adapt to the latest techniques and to...

match. I don't mind too much. I just don't have the constitution for these things, I watched _ England v. Croatia but got so nervous that every time the ball came near our goal...

FRANK KEATING 1 t is a precise half century since I was aware of Wimbledon. On the first Friday of July 1954 we were given a half day off games to cram into the common room to...

have four children and two grandchildren and parents still alive. My husband, of whom I am still fond, has been engaged in a long, weekday affair with a friend of mine, which is...

in July and my fiance has absolutely insisted that an acquaintance of his family, who not only gatecrashed his brother's wedding but also removed my fiancé's place card so that...

correspondent's accidental discovery of a means of picking up a few bob by hanging around outside Harrods and being mistaken for a flunkey. We had dipped into the Royal Festival...