on holiday in Italy, called for ‘time for reflection’ after the French referendum’s rejection of the proposed European constitution. ‘What emerges so strongly from the French...

T his magazine has a good record of opposing the centralising treaties of the EU. Alone in the media, The Spectator came out in 1985 against the Single European Act, which...

awry with the nation’s young women? It used to be at this time of year — just as the sun started to shine and the first green blob of plum showed itself upon the twig — that...

Nothing — except the modernisers T here is a weirdness about the Conservative predicament. The Conservative party has won all the great intellectual and political battles of...

European ‘No’. Yes, the word ‘No’ is good. Yes, I feel the normal human pleasure at the discomfiture of the politicians. I have enjoyed seeing Peter Mandelson trying to worm...

Anthony Browne says the French model has failed. Britain must now show the way forward — and save the European Union by her example Brussels Y ou might feel safe reading your...

Frank Johnson on how (and why) they voted in his part of rural France Dept d’Hérault O ur TGV, slipping through La France Profonde from Lille to Montpelier three days before the...

Damian Thompson says that the new Pope wants to promote the Latin Mass — and radical purification B enedict XVI is the first pope in history to have gone about his daily life as...

Olivia Stewart-Liberty finds that the British Library is buzzing with sexual tension T he first time I went to the British Library, I was waiting to collect my reader’s card in...

I have been enjoying in a way a book my husband gave me for my birthday called Shop Horror (Fourth Estate, £10). This compilation by Guy Swillingham of colour photographs of the...

Ross Clark says that the government’s PFI deals allow private companies to prosper at the public’s expense I magine you are a left-leaning Guardian reader with a social...

Rod Liddle is amazed that the South African President should take offence at Gordon Brown’s efforts to help Africa D oes our Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, think...

Peter Brimelow says that immigration is out of control in the United States Washington, Connecticut I f you read the conservative press in the United States — which in effect...

From John Hunter Sir: You seem to believe that Conservatives have spent the last four years ‘standing up for local and national democracy, and against the tendency of the...

Prime Minister’s being able to bulldoze through his proposals for identity cards before the levers of power are prised from his frenzied grasp, I propose to refuse compliance...

From Neil Glanfield Sir: Martin Vander Weyer’s article (‘Stagnant Britain’, 28 May) on declining social mobility might have been even more powerful if he had known a little more...

to prove the rule, but rather the rule to prove the increasingly rare exception. Neil Glanfield Harlow, Essex End of a ‘panacea’ From Denis Mollison Sir: There is a good...

From Timothy O’Sullivan Sir: In later life Cardinal Hume regretted choosing the cloister over training for mortal combat in 1941 (Books, 28 May). He would tell anybody who cared...

of the late Cardinal Hume that he believed in people’s freedom to buy private education. The late Bishop of Liverpool David Sheppard was much more politically correct. More than...

From Wynn Wheldon Sir: I’m afraid I must take exception to Lloyd Evans’s defence of The Da Vinci Code (Arts, 28 May). While Dan Brown may well be smarter and better informed...

From David Meikle Sir: I often find myself in agreement with Charles Moore, but we diverge when it comes to his views on the Conservative party (The Spectator’s Notes, 28 May)....

From John Maloney Sir: Your editorial of 21 May says the Tories must fight street by street with the Boundaries Commission to eliminate Labour’s rotten boroughs. I’m sure they...

From Dr J.W. Millar Sir: I enjoyed Michael Prodger’s article on George Stubbs’s magnificent equestrian portrait of ‘Hambletonian Rubbing Down’ (Arts, 14 May). As a child I...

From Martin Kidd Sir: I was amused by Nigel Farndale’s piece (Diary, 28 May) concerning the disposal of his Christmas tree. Here in Berlin everything is recycled and nothing...

T here has to be a first time for everything, and now the French have taken my advice. ‘ Allez France ’, so I urged them last week, ‘ votez Non, votez souvent ’ — and they did....

F arewell, the merry, merry month of May. Most of it, in my case, was taken up in catching a cold, feeling it concrete-up my nose, torch and lacerate my throat, twist and file...

John Weston M AO : T HE U NKNOWN S TORY by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday Cape, £25, pp. 814 ISBN 0224071262 ✆ £23 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n 1976, the year of Mao’s...

Nicolas Barker T HE L IFE AND T IMES OF A LLEN L ANE by Jeremy Lewis Penguin/Viking, £25, pp. 484, ISBN 0670914851 P ENGUIN B Y D ESIGN by Phil Baines Penguin/Allen Lane,...

Rupert Christiansen W HAT G OOD A RE THE A RTS ? by John Carey Faber, £12.99, pp. 298, ISBN 0571226027 ✆ £11.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 P rofessor John Carey is at his...

Alan Watkins E NOUGH I S E NOUGH by Mark Lawson Picador, £16.99, pp. 371, ISBN 0330438034 ✆ £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 S ex, as Philip Larkin famously told us, began...

Roy Strong T HE T UDOR H OUSE AND GARDEN by Paula Henderson Yale University Press, £38, pp. 288 ISBN 0300106874 ✆ £38 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 T HE G ARDENS AT H AMPTON...

Lucy Hughes-Hallett HEROES+VILLAINS photographs by David Steen Genesis, £150 (regular edition), £250 (deluxe leather edition, signed by Roger Moore) ISBN 00104351939...

Henrietta Bredin on the prevalence and pitfalls of opera surtitles T hey’re here to stay. There is no longer any point in discussing whether or not opera performances in...

Andrew Lambirth Joshua Reynolds: The Creation of Celebrity Tate Britain, until 18 September T he first question: why isn’t this Reynolds show at the Royal Academy, of which Sir...

Peter Phillips I n thinking about Tallis in this his anniversary year, I have come to realise that performances of even his most famous works are so rare that we are still at...

Charles Spencer C onsulting my records, as Dr Watson used to say, I find that it was in June 2003 that I first wrote here about the iPod. My former colleague Caspar, now...

Mark Steyn Sin City 18, selected cinemas W hat’s black and white and red all over? Sin City . Shot in noir-hommage monochrome, it breaks into colour only for its frequent...

Michael Tanner La Cenerentola Glyndebourne La Clemenza di Tito St John’s Smith Square G lyndebourne began in what is now the traditional manner: high winds and driving rain....

kaleidoscopes Giannandrea Poesio Rambert Dance Company Sadler’s Wells Theatre A t first, the idea of a dance work based on Albert Einstein’s theories, including the...

Toby Young Theatre of Blood Lyttelton Hedda Gabler Duke of York’s Some Girls Gielgud W ell, it wasn’t quite the theatrical event of the year I was expecting. Theatre of Blood...

Patrick Carnegy Believe What You Will Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon A t Stratford’s Other Place, the RSC is putting on an excellent new play by David Grieg in which a...

Michael Vestey T he propaganda myths surrounding Mao Tse-tung have been exposed this week with the publication of a biography, Mao: The Unknown Story, by Jung Chang, the author...

James Delingpole T o be honest, I haven’t been watching an awful lot of TV lately. It gets in the way of bedtime reading and an early night. You think you’re safe watching a...

Taki New York R obert Wood Johnson IV is the billionaire owner of the New York Jets, an American football team which plays in New Jersey, as its crosstown rivals, the New York...

Jeremy Clarke I was running on the treadmill in the gym in the new custom-built trainers I’d bought in Oxford Street. I’d popped my foot on a sensor, the assistant had pressed...

I f you’ve never been there, get yourself to Waddesdon Manor, the vast French château in one of the loveliest parts of Buckinghamshire built by Ferdinand Rothschild as his...

Scotland and allIreland combined as one) makes it so resonant, so keenly anticipated. They kick off today against a Bay of Plenty XV in Rotorua, whiffily sulphurous...

couple but despite having often sat next to each other at dinner, and even been out to dinner alone together at least three times, nothing has happened. I can tell that they...

and comes to visit me in our small hamlet, landing in the field opposite our house. Am I right in thinking this is something of a feather in my cap? P.R.E., Pewsey, Wilts A. It...

would like to repay the great hospitality I have received from neighbours in the six months since I moved to Cornwall from London, but cash flow crises have left me stumped....