compensation after meeting none of its 15 targets in the first quarter of the financial year, delivering only 88.3 per cent of first-class letters on time between April and...

o the parents of Victoria Climbie. the eight-year-old girl who died in 2000 after being battered by her great-aunt and great-aunt's boyfriend in a seedy Haringey council flat,...

Nv henever I feel psychotically depressed about this country — which, as I contemplate another nine years of Labour rule, is more and more often — I find myself being thankful...

PETER OBORNE -/ – t was beyond a shadow of doubt an outstanding silly season, the best by far in recent years, with an excellent crop of stories. Leaving aside the daily...

t is terribly disheartening for those of us who want the Conservatives to be ready to govern again to see them stuck in a cul-de-sac of their own choosing about the Iraq war....

Boris Johnson, at the Republican convention, says that Bush's conservative credentials are not always convincing but his optimism is unfailingly inspiring New York C ome off...

Rod Liddle says that Mark 'Thatcher's latest difficulties reveal an extraordinary, even hilarious, degree of corruption and humbug in the West T his is a great story. It manages...

New Zealanders were amused to read that Mr David Blurikett required them to show fluency in English if they apply for British citizenship. New Zealand has produced some fine...

Stephen Haseler on what the EU must do if it is to remain secure when the American troops have gone home A merica's decision to pull troops out of Europe and the Far East...

Britain is sick and tired, says Theodore Dalrymple: there is no religion, no culture and no patriotism — and not even leisure can lighten our burden 1 n 1850, the famous French...

Martin Vander Weyer says that Labour is introducing regional government by stealth 1 f John Prescott needed an easy-toread précis of the Electoral Commission's findings on...

A new law will make it easier for 'birth mothers' to trace their adopted children. But Mary Kenny wonders whether that is fair either to the children or to their 'adoptive...

land of death Radek Sikorski sees the transformation one warlord has brought to a part of Afghanistan devastated by the Soviets in 1987 1 had long wanted to return to...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade With the Athens games out of way, the Boycott Beijing campaign is now in full swing, arguing that China's lousy...

STEPHEN GLOVER T he excesses of Lord Black, former proprietor of the Telegraph Group, which owns this magazine, are mind-boggling. Of course they have not yet been proven in a...

From Bruce Sharson Sir: It is intolerable that a country so proud of its commitment to open democratic government has had to wait some 30 years after entering the bosom of the...

Blair and WMD. Much as I dislike Labour and all their works, I do believe that Blair did what he did in Iraq because he thought it was right, whatever their weaponry might turn...

From Michael Minas Sir: I agree entirely (for a change) with everything Taki says about the Athens Olympics (High life, 28 August). Unlike him I had to watch the Games on...

From Lady Powell Sir: A very brief response to Mrs Taliani's letter (28 August) about my water supply problem in Italy. Mrs Taliani gives her address as Vienna, so it's hard to...

From Annie Machon Sir: As the partner of David Shayler, the former MI5 officer and whistle-blower, I read with interest Peter Obome's article (Politics, 21 August). I...

From John Osman Sir: I read with great interest the well-measured review by my former BBC colleague, Michael Vestey, of the Radio Four programme The Last Viceroy (Arts, 28...

From Harry Mount Sir: Due to my incomprehensible scrawlings on a proof, it wrongly emerged in my review of Alan Watkins's Brief Lives (Books, 28 August) that William Rees-Mogg...

From Tony Petry Sir: Hugh Massingberd may think that 'Bright Young Things' is a 'journalistic solecism' (Letters, 21 August), but the phrase antedates Vile Bodies. In The Age...

From Austin Spreadbury Sir: Nick Reeves is right to be pleased that renewables could meet 21 per cent of Europe's energy needs (Letters, 28 August). But if we can't burn fossil...

PAUL tiNSON ow are things down on your farm, Giles?' Not too bad, Arthur. Of course, we don't do cattle, sheep or arable since we were declared an Environmentally Sensitive...

FRANK JOHNSON 0 ne of the amusements which any Republican convention offers is the spectacle of a party, in the coveted prime time of the television evening, pretending to be...

superior street Antonia Fraser THE BOOKSHOP AT 10 CURZON STREET LETTERS BETWEEN NANCY MITFORD AND HEYWOOD HILL, 1952-1973 edited by John Saumarez Smith Frances Lincoln,...

Digby Durrant CASE HISTORIES by Kate Atkinson Doubleday, 07.99, pp. 304, ISBN 0385607997 t 115.99 (plus 12.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 F amilies and what time does to them are Kate...

Anne Chisholm THE RARE AND THE BEAUTIFUL by Cressida Connolly Fourth Estate, £16.99, pp. 281, ISBN 1841156337 £14.99 (plus 12.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n this enthusiastic study...

Alberto Manguel MAGIC SEEDS by V.S. Naipaul Picador, £16.99, pp. 304, ISBN 0330485202 £14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 m r Herbert Spencer was an angry man. When he was...

Lee Langley THE ZIGZAG WAY by Anita Desai Chatto, £12.99, pp, 192, ISBN 0701177438 . r.; 111.99 (plus 12.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 I n his History of the Conquest of Mexico,...

Alexander McCall Smith SCRIBBLING THE CAT: TRAVELS WITH AN AFRICAN SOLDIER by Alexandra Fuller Picador, £16.99, pp. 269, ISBN 033043327X £14.99 (plus 12.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848...

Jane Gardam GOD HAS NOT CHANGED by Alice Thomas Ellis Burns & Oates, £9.99, pp. 180, ISBN 0860123596 H ere are 90 furious little spats about our extraordinary and inadequate...

Elfreda Pownall THE PEOPLE'S CHEF: ALEXIS SOYER, A LIFE IN SEVEN COURSES by Ruth Brandon Wiley, £16.99, pp. 320, ISBN 0470869917 E14.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 A lexis...

In the green forest of Petropolis The Great Lady of the Madrugada Walked with me the boundaries of her fazenda. Toucans watched the paths that joined the valleys. Her...

Anthony Daniels THE RECONSTRUCTION OF WARRIORS: ARCHIBALD MCINDOE, THE ROYAL AIR FORCE AND THE GUINEA PIG CLUB by E.R. Mayhew Greenhill Books, £18.99, pp. 256, ISBN 1853676101...

Olivia Glazebrook THE CLOSED CIRCLE by Jonathan Coe Viking, £17.99, pp. 448, ISBN 0670892548 r, £15.99 (plus £2.25 p&p) 0870 800 4848 F inishing The Rouen' Club and finding...

Robert Cooper A ttempting to solve a P.D. James mystery is rather like trying to find the winner of a fiendishly problematical horse race. In The Murder Room (Chivers Audio...

T hepublication this autumn of Fathers and Sons — Alexander Waugh's hugely entertaining book about his family — revives in fresh detail the story of one of the great literary...

Martin Gaylord asks why people get so worked up about auction prices W hy do auction prices upset people? Or, to put it another way, how much is too much to pay for a picture?...

Andrew Lambirth Walter Richard Sickert: The Human Canvas Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria, until 30 October W alter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), known as Walter up to...

John McEwen Musica Etonensis, Music and Musicians from Eton 1440-2004 Brewhouse Gallo); Eton College, until 3 October y ou do not have to be an Etonian to gain pride and much...

Michael Tanner B y the end of the first week, the Edinburgh Festival needed an operatic triumph fairly badly. The Weber trilogy was nobly conceived and worthily performed, but...

Ursula Buchan I t has been rotten weather for gardening here, so far. Rain in late April, too hot weather in early June, then cold nights, drizzle and cloud, followed by...

Peter Phillips O ne of the subtler pleasures of summer festivalling is to experience the undertow of dislike, amounting to hatred sometimes, of presenters towards their...

Toby Young Twelfth Night Albeiy Faliraki — The Greek Tragedy Lyric Studio The Woman in Black Fortune W hat will happen to British culture when the United Kingdom disintegrates...

Mark Steyn Hellboy 12A, selected cinemas T he time: 1944. The place: a small island somewhere near Scotland. In a desperate effort to win the war. the Nazis and their special...

Michael Vestey y ou might think that there was little more to say about the life of P.G. Wodehouse; he has, after all, been extensively written about over the years, his...

James Delingpole W hen I first read that Ronan Bennett had co-written a screenplay depicting the run-up to 9/11 from the terrorist perspective, my reaction was just what you'd...

Taki Gstaad A thens is a city that thrives on rumours, and the latest is that the tae kwon do medals had been assigned to the various winners before the competition began. It...

Jeremy Clarke T had been on a health kick for three 1 weeks, eating pumpkin seeds and other healthful foods, doing yoga, and going to bed early every night with an improving...

Petronella Wyatt W here have all the waists gone? According to the National Sizing Survey (sounds titillating, doesn't it?), the first study of female body measurements since...

aspistos In Competition No. 2356 you were asked to provide material for a Spectator Diary written by a secondrate person/journalist. Apart from an inability to avoid clichés,...

FRANK KEATING A notable week for brand-new nonagenarians. The last firework had scarcely fizzled to earth at the Olympics . closing ceremony on Sunday when, nicely, it was...

Q. Last week I arrived to stay with some English friends near St Remy and was shown to a most delightful and certainly 'best' spare bedroom — with glorious views over the...