T he Conservative party manifesto promised tax relief for couples one of whom stayed at home looking after a dependant. Earlier, Lady Thatcher, the for- mer prime minister, had...

The candidates insist that the polls are wrong. Perhaps we're not a nation of Mandies BRUCE ANDERSON Mr Major was promising a whole range of incremental improvements on...

NICHOLAS COLERIDGE T housands of words have been devoted to describing the recent Paris fashion col- lections, but nobody mentioned how much nudity there was. At John Galliano's...

They really believe it — these death cultists. Not San Diego's — I mean the Tory party's MATTHEW PARRIS T hose unafraid to die for their faith are always, in their way,...

Alan Cochrane reports on who really brought down the Scottish Tory chairman. And it wasn't either Labour or the tabloids But Sir Michael Hirst was not brought down by the...

Sarah Whitebloom tells how Beckenham Tories stood by their man, and how sleaze is turning people off the election, not just off the Tories BECKENHAM'S Conservatives do not...

Michael Heath

A GROUP of professional women (if you see what I mean) has begun a cam- paign against the use of the style Ms. Good luck to them; it is a silly word. But they haven't got a...

Simon Blow finds the upper classes adopting dangerously bourgeois habits The dream inspired by my great-grand- mother never became reality. Experience of country houses in...

Niall Ferguson says history shows that the Tories are not losing in spite of the stronger economy, but because of it IT'S not the economy, stupid. Someone, it seems, should...

Alistair Home evokes a troubled, beauti ful country with which he has an especially personal connection Mandalay IT WOULD be hard to think of a country which has been more...

Why Tony Blair should give the Guardian a wide berth PAUL JOHNSON T he issue in the 1979 election, which began nearly two decades of Tory rule, was whether the unions were to...

Markets hunt the Snark, Greenspan rings the bell: `What I tell you three times is true' CHRISTOPHER FILDES A an Greenspan is on honeymoon, so all of his exuberance is strictly...

Sir: If Stephen Glover really thinks that the Guardian's coverage of evidence given to Sir Gordon Downey 'contained little that was new' (Media studies, 29 March) he really...

Sir: I write to congratulate Frederick Forsyth on his brilliant article, 'Impatient with The English Patient' (29 March). I agree with every word. Persuaded by all the hype that...

Sir: The image of the fearless Mr Al Fayed, so squeaky clean that he has never had a parking ticket, the champion who will carry on revealing the truth even if such a course...

Sir: Bruce Anderson is right (`The one thing wrong with Essex Man', 29 March): Margaret Thatcher's popularity is a remarkable myth, a triumph of illusion over reality: from 1979...

authenticity of its mil- itary procedures and hardware, I too found the Oscar-laden film The English Patient absurdly overpraised. The best thing about it is the gorgeous...

Sir: You have published a letter (22 March) which concludes `Eatwell' followed by an address. What fun! May I please use your letters column to convey my own message? Nigel...

writes off the BEF as a con- temptibly little army. There are two ele- ments to fighting power, however: the phys- ical and the moral. The fact is that the BEF fought harder and...

Sir: I was very surprised to see someone called Petronella Wyatt lamenting the steep rise in homosexuality among Italians (Another voice, 29 March). Apparently, far from being...

Sir: Alice von Schlieffen (Letters, 29 March) might consider whether her great- grandfather's plan could possibly have suc- ceeded in pushing 90 per cent of 'all avail- able...

Sir: It seems probable that your Alastair Forbes is the same as the one referred to in the correspondence of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper. A footnote in Mr Wu and Mrs Stitch...

`We're going to expose,' said the Labour spin doctor to the man from the last loyal Tory paper STEPHEN GLOVER T he Labour party has squared the right- wing press — almost....

Why Eurosceptics should be at least as worried about Westminster's sleaze as New Labour's voters PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE Initially, of course, Thatcherite Conser- vatism was...

A bit of a joke Philip Hensher MARCEL DUCHAMP by Calvin Tomkins Chatto, £25, pp. 550 A s Calvin Tomkins' superb biography makes clear, the artist Marcel Duchamp was obviously...

Michael Hulse FIRES ONG by Joseph Hone Sinclair-Stevenson, £17.99, pp. 694 O ne of Graham Greene's great services to literature was to insist on the distinction between a novel...

Kim Levine SEX AND THE CITY by Candace Bushnell Abacus, £6.99, pp. 228 J ust who exactly is the real Candace Bushnell? A media parody or a Dorothy Parker for our times? One of...

Lucy Hughes-Hallett IN A LAND OF PLENTY by Tim Pears Doubleday, £16.99, pp. 542 T im Pears's novel ends in a welter of violent action — a face shot to pieces; brains blown out;...

Nigel Clive THE LAST INCH: A MIDDLE EAST ODYSSEY by Claud Morris Kegan Paul International, £25, pp. 238 F rom an early age, Claud Morris was into journalism and running a...

Jonathan Keates THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF GEORGE GISSING, VOLUME IX, 1902-1903 edited by Paul F. Mattheisen, Arthur C. Young and Pierre Coustillas Ohio, £66.50, pp. 550 F or...

Brian Willan THE SEED IS MINE: THE LIFE OF KAS MAINE, A SOUTH AFRICAN SHARECROPPER, 1894-1985 by Charles van Onselen James Currey Publishers, £14.95, pp. 660 K as Maine is an...

Mary Keen A CORNER OF ENGLAND by James Ravilious Devon Books, Halsgmve House, Tiverton Business Park, Tiverton, Devon, EX16 6SS, £19.95, pp. 160 J ames Ravilious' photographs...

Harriet Waugh I n The Echo by Minette Walters (Macmillan, £16.99) Michael Deacon, an alcoholic, heart-on-sleeve journalist investigating the lot of tramps, becomes interested...

Andro Linklater A HISTORY OF THE BREAST by Marilyn Yalom HarperCollins, £15.99, pp. 331 T he female breast, that most public of private parts, lies on a cusp of DD propor-...

`My picture was my stage' Martin Gayford on the painter, satirist and moralist, William Hogarth Wil liam Hogarth's work was a fresh start, a new beginning, the place — as an...

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (12, selected cinemas) Dazzled by detail Mark Steyn T he only real objection I have to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is the...

Give them a break John Parry I s there any minister in this government or in the next who has noticed the magnifi- cent collection of nine Oscars won by The English Patient...

King Lear (National Theatre) Hurlyburly (Old Vic) Mannered, mad and majestic Sheridan Morley I n a lifetime of theatre-going I must have seen upward of 50 King Lears, some...

Figure it out Marcus Berkmann T he British, it seems, are buying more music. In 1994, according to the new edi- tion of Cultural Trends in the 1990s, we spent £1,015.7 million...

Cooked on air Michael Vestey I thought Jon Sopel had just seen a ghost or a naked woman striding across Radio Four's PM studio; either that or someone had his head in an...

Ghoulish questions James Delingpole A few years ago, my girlfriend's house was invaded by giant killer rats. We could hear them scuttling between the partition walls at night....

Loyalty stakes Robin Oakley S ometimes it's no fun at all training racehorses. Everyone else was enjoying themselves at Plumpton on Easter Satur- day. Fruitcake, coffee and...

Scandal and sleaze Taki I Washington DC i s cherry blossom time in the nation's capital, as beautiful a city as there is in America, although it's too bad about some of the...

Hold on to your money Jeffrey Bernard E ver since that ridiculous but charming romp of a film, National Velvet, starring Elizabeth Taylor, I have sometimes won- dered what in...

Grey matters Leanda de Lisle W ould you write for the Sun? Would you?' a woman once screamed at me across a dinner-table. I knew that, as far as she was concerned, to say yes...

Spring in the air Andrew Robson SOME bridge hands require methodical grafting. In others, a creative leap of the mind is needed. This week's hand falls into the latter...

which continues until the Saturday after Pentecost, the saints aren't getting much of a look-in, though I see they have moved the Annunciation to 7 April this year, which will...

URA ISLE OF j URA SIVA' likl I SCLIICK INISKI COMPETITION Ali Forbes week Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1976 you were invited to supply a piece of high-life remi- niscence...

IN-THE-STRAND SIMPSON'S IN-THE-STRAND First knight Raymond Keene GAWAIN JONES may be Britain's next Nigel Short. The nine-year-old, who is Britain's reigning under-10...

1305: Pieces of eight by Doc A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1991 Port for the first correct solution opened on 21 April, with two runners-up...

Out with the daffodils Simon Barnes THE DAFFODIL-yellow colour is the same as always, and so are the two top-hat- ted cricketers, the gloveless and padless wicket-keeper in...

Dear Mary. . . Q. My wife and I will be having a holiday abroad in May, when we shall be joined by our daughter and son-in-law Mike. Mike is a very macho young man, if ever...