M r Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, the political face of the Irish Republican Army, was named minister for education in the new Northern Ireland executive headed by Mr David...

ROBERT HARRIS I attended my first — and last — millen- nium party on Monday night: the launch, in our local village hall, of 'Kintbury: A Century Remembered 1900-1999' (excel-...

A Presbyterian celebration as a tricoteuse goes into government BRUCE ANDERSON Belfast Momentous events often inspire momentous moods, but that has not hap- pened in Ulster....

Mr Blair's pants may be on fire, but he understands human nature BORIS JOHNSON i. Right. I've had enough of this. I just won't put up with it any more. I find it quite...

Motorists can hardly move for roadworks, but is all that digging and bulldozing necessary? No, says Leo McKinstry, who shows how government incompetence is responsible for the...

FLIP, flap, flop, ding, dang, dong, snitch, snatch, snotch. So sorry, I have been mesmerised by Professor Steven Pinker's funny book on irregular verbs. Yet I have been even...

The former German chancellor's reputation is being assailed by allegations of financial skulduggery, says Andrew Gimson Berlin HELMUT KOHL's fortunes have taken an abrupt turn...

Sion Simon on how he lost seven stone while working as The Spectator's restaurant critic THERE has been a lot of fat in the news lately. The yoof, it would seem, is chubbier...

IN my youth I learnt about experiments to prove that chimpanzees were problem- solving animals, If Man's nearest relatives were stuck in a cage with nothing to do, they would...

Sue Cameron is sceptical about new plans to introduce civil servants to their 'feminine side' COMING soon: a new breed of super-sen- sitive, self-aware civil servant, brimming...

Stanley Johnson joins the environmentalist demonstrations against the World Trade Organisation Seattle THE reason I spent several hours on Mon- day dressed up as a turtle,...

certain aspects of Petronella Wyatt's interview with Sir Christopher Bland ('Bland blows a fuse', 13 November). We accept that Sir Christopher did not shout at Miss Wyatt or...

The trials of sharing your flat with a supermodel, as endured by Toby Young New York I DON'T know how to put this so that it won't sound like bragging, so I'm just going to...

Noel Malcolm, in a riposte to John Laughland, says there is irrefutable evidence of massacres in Kosovo READERS of The Spectator may have been surprised by John Laughland's two...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft examines the peace process and finds the nay-sayers to have been more often right than wrong YOU have to hand it to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness,...

Michael Heath

Let's not go for the most unpopular boy in the school PAUL JOHNSON T he phenomenon of the Most Unpopu- lar Boy in the school has always fascinated me. Why do they get the...

We have ways of making you tax, say the. Germans, so please don't mention the euro CHRISTOPHER FILDES D on't mention the euro. It's as bad as the war, and more recent. Gordon...

Peter Stothard is elevated above humanity by the rest of the press STEPHEN GLOVER M y admiration for my old friend Peter Stothard, editor of the Times, has soared to new...

From Mr Tim Phillips, Vice-Chairman, The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Sir: Taki's personal attack on John Curry, chairman of the All England Club, is ill- informed and...

Making enemies with Major From Mr Stewart Steven Sir: Mr Stephen Glover has used his col- umn on several occasions to lament, with what he regards as nicely edged satirical...

From Sir Albert Robinson Sir: Andrew Kenny's article on apartheid ('How apartheid saved Africa', 27 Novem- ber) verges on an act of revisionism that cannot remain unchallenged...

From Mr Keith Chambers Sir: Well said, Ross Clark ('What's wrong with mock-Tudor?', 27 November). A lot of modern mass-produced housing does have a dreary sameness about it. He...

From Lord Belhaven and Stenton Sir: As an hereditary peer who took part in the recent elections in the House of Lords, may I say, in contradiction to Lord Cran- borne (Letters,...

significance in the fact that in your letters page Viscount Cran- borne (architect of the survivors' plan) is referred to as such, while Lord Moyne (one of the banished...

referred to Baroness Jay's triumphal gloat- ing over the destruction of the House of Lords as 'pouting and posturing, putting her pretty little feet on the mounded bellies of...

From The Rt Hon. the Lord Tebbit Sir: Bruce Anderson (Politics, 27 Novem- ber) rightly sets out some of the numerous examples of Mr Blair's untruths and false- hoods in his...

From Dr Geoffrey Farrington Sir: In the course of his rightly respectful review of Robert Conquest's Reflections on a Ravaged Century (Books, 6 November) John Vincent suggested...

From Mr Allan Massie Sir: Roger Lewis (Books, 27 November) tells us that Anthony Burgess 'is now almost forgotten'. By whom? Allan Massie Thirladean House, Selkirk, Scotland

From Mr Jonathan Kreeger Sir: Much as I hate to play the spoilsport, I am afraid that Michael Gove is mistaken (Politics, 20 November). The song on which he based his article...

So do 20 per cent of the people think King Hague ordered the slaying of the first-born? FRANK JOHNSON The widespread ignorance among the under-thirties raises doubts about the...

Living off the dead Bevis Hillier THE DAILY TELEGRAPH FIFTH BOOK OF OBITUARIES: TWENTIETH-CENTURY LIVES edited by Hugh Massingberd Macmillan, 176.99, pp. 505 A successful...

John Vincent STAFFORD CRIPPS: A POLITICAL LIFE by Simon Burgess Goliana, f25, pp. 374 M y childhood recollection of Cripps is of the man who was in his office before the...

Paul Ferris A LIFE OF JUNG by Ronald Hayman Bloomsbury, f25, pp. 522 F igures whose 'groundbreaking ideas' have influenced our century hold a fatal attraction for authors and...

David Hughes MONKEY BUSINESS: THE LIVES AND LEGENDS OF THE MARX BROTHERS by Simon Louvish Faber, f12.99, pp. 471 I grew up with the Marx Brothers. They were the crazy uncles I...

Sion Simon LABOUR OF LOVE by Janet Jones Politico's, £14.99, pp. 275 T his book improves as it progresses, but it begins catastrophically. It is poorly writ- ten, poorly...

Nicholas Fearn THE NEW NEW THING by Michael Lewis Hodder & Stoughton, £17.99, pp. 288 THE PLOT TO GET BILL GATES by Gary Rivlin Quartet, £12.50, pp. 342 W hen Michael Lewis...

James Gardner NAME DROPPING by John Kenneth Galbraith Aurum, £14.99, pp. 194 C omposers of epitaphs, Dr Johnson reminds us, are not under oath. Nor for that matter are the...

Thomas Blaikie REIGNING CATS AND DOGS: A HISTORY OF PETS AT COURT SINCE THE RENAISSANCE by Katharine MacDonogh Fourth Estate, £15, pp. 304 T he present British monarchy is...

Graham Lord SARRATT AND THE DRAPER OF WATFORD by John le Card and others Orders to Village Books, Little Sarratt Hall, Sanwa, WD3 BS, 0.75 (include £1.20 for postage and...

Vicki Woods SCATTERED SHOTS by Max Hastings Macmillan, £20, pp. 256 I swore I'd get through the whole of 1999 without having to type the noxious M-word about that...

Rules are there to be broken Alan Stanbrook on the changing role of the film-maker Jean-Luc Godard I n his prime, Jean-Luc Godard was the most influential voice in cinema....

Soul searching Alan Powers N ow the days are short and the leaves have fallen, there is a melancholy pleasure in mists that bring the horizons closer and slow down time. It is...

Turner Prize (Tate Gallery, till 6 February) What a fuss Martin Gayford I t has been the best of Turner Prizes, and the worst of Turner Prizes. The best, obvi- ously, because...

Renoir to Rothko: The Eye of Duncan Phillips (The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, till 23 January) Emotional release Roger Kimball t is worthwhile,' Duncan Phillips...

Our Father (Almeida) Peggy For You (Hampstead) Anna Weiss (Whitehall) Edna's three sisters Sheridan Morley Y ou don't have to be Irish, but it cer- tainly helps. Edna O'Brien...

Billy Budd (Barbican) The Beggar's Opera (Wilton's Music Hall) Guilt of attraction Michael Tanner L ast week's once-off concert perfor- mance of Billy Budd at the Barbican...

God's Plenty (Sadler's Wells) Epic return Giannandrea Poesio I t was in the first half of the 18th century that some dance practitioners started to react against the dramatic...

Happy, Texas (12, selected cinemas) Alice et Martin (15, selected cinemas) All's well that ends well Kim Fletcher E nglish actors used to get parts in Hol- lywood films by...

Best of 1999 Marcus Berkmann T he chirrup of cash till ... the clatter of credit card on counter ... the brutal snip of scissors as credit limits are finally breached ... yes,...

Archer obsession Michael Vestey W hat would Lord Archer be like in prison? Should it ever come to that, and I sincerely hope it doesn't, it's an intriguing thought. I suspect...

Hanging about Simon Hoggart A t the risk of sounding like a Spectator writer, a risk one always takes when appearing in these pages, I do wish televi- sion scripts were a...

Extortion tactics Gavin Stamp T he lot of the non motorist is often not a happy one. Despite the protestations of governments and local authorities, so much in modern life is...

Get a life Robin Oakley H ennessy Day at Newbury was enough to make up for 20 of those days in life that fall buttered-side down. Glorious sunshine, lively betting markets and...

Unreliable evidence Taki I met Woodrow Wyatt only once, in the ladies room at Orly airport. Rocco Forte had flown a planeful of swells to Paris for the Arc, and, after a...

Bad manners Leanda de Lisle T he modern mouse is a special breed. In the future they may come to be known as Mandelson Mouse, sharing, as they do, the same tastes as the...

Lady Macbeth syndrome Petronella Wyatt A new Centre for Policies Studies pamphlet has attacked the Tory party for its sexism and failure to chose women can- didates. One of...

Carnage Andrew Robson WHEN AN expert speaks of a bridge hand, he refers to it as, say, a 5-3-1-4 12 count or a 2-6-2-3 14 count. The first four numbers refer to the suit...

Seriously high-class Auberon Waugh FOR the last offer of the year we tradition- ally look at the more expensive end of the market, and on this occasion I have even included a...

Michelin, Notting Hill might seem to have reached restaurant saturation point. Everything that isn't a shop is now a restaurant, and every shop that shuts down reopens as a...

ci* MALT' COMPETITION Hotel Galactica Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2113 you were invited to supply extracts from the diary of a future tourist visiting a hotel in space 300...

The Ultimate Islay Malt. ndb eI b www.ardbeg.com CHESS Magnificent Anderssens Raymond Keene A CONTINUING debate centres on the relative talents of the old masters and the...

A first prize of 130 and a bottle of Graham's award-winning Late- Bottled Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 20 December, with two runners-up prizes of £20...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I am soon to be giving a fairly formal dinner party in London with black tie, elab- orate table settings and so on. I know these events can be fairly stuffy...

No place for losers Simon Barnes ANOTHER Test match which England entered full of positive thoughts, eminently focused, bristling with the appropriate mind- set. Nasser...