M r Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, presented his first Budget, which among other things implemented Labour's scheme of a 'windfall tax' on recently privatised...

1706; Telex 27124; Fax 0171-242 0603 KNOWLEDGE OF CHINA I f they are anything like us, most newspa- per readers and television viewers must by now be tired of people claiming...

Mr Brown has damaged the economy by keeping his election pledges BRUCE ANDERSON B y the time Gordon Brown rises to deliver his first budget, The Spectator will have gone to...

DAVID TANG Hong Kong No, a good day for lachrymals who are British or care about British rule. At Hong Kong's own and last Royal Tournament, in which Britain finally lost, rain...

present, and uncertain future of his party HAVE YOU found the ideas put about in the recent contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party exciting? You will have noticed...

A NEW Church of England report has pointed out that some Christians fear that the so-called Toronto Blessing might be the work of the devil. I can't say, for I avoid such...

Michael Sheridan's revealing view of what the ex-Governor did, and what he could do next Hong Kong WHAT is it, I wonder, about the mixture of loud wealth, excessive alcohol...

Francis Pike on how to contain the new superpower which Hong Kong has just joined `EARLY in the next century the United States will cease to be the world's largest economy, and...

Clare Short defends Diana, Princess of Wales, against her accusers over landmines WHEN I visited Cambodia some months ago I went to Red Cross centres where children were...

It was because of class, says Simon Blow I AM puzzled by the surprise over Jonathan Aitken's dishonesty. When under pressure the privileged classes are just as capable of...

Paul Johnson argues that the Aitken case raises the spectre of unbridled press power THE REPELLENT manner in which the Guardian editor, Alan Rusbridger, exulted on television...

I OBSERVE that Clare Short is a boon- doggle fancier. She is paying up — well, we are — for Unido. U Who? The United Nations Industrial Development Organisa- tion is one of the...

WHAT constitutes bad behaviour in the City? Arguing with the government, of course. That goes double for a shiny new Labour government with steam up. So the Legal & General...

HOW topical. Zenith Publishers have sent me the autobiography of Gordon Brown. I never knew that he was in the excavator business. From modest beginnings, he built up Brown...

NO DOUBT we shall be told that the deci- sion has been taken and that is too late to turn back. We must have been told that by now about the Eurofighter. This project has been...

Here's how to budget for a free economy on the last prom of the knights CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t was a good budget, I thought. I liked the cut of one-third in the duty on wine,...

THAT'S the trouble with grand projects. You take your eye off the ball for a moment and zip goes £170 million. Last month I was urging Chris Smith to call off his plan for...

Sir: Taki writes that 'there has never been — nor will there ever be — a single positive contribution by a Puerto Rican' to the United States (High life, 14 June). Someone who...

Johnson should be adapted for the benefit of Paul Johnson and Taki: `Clear your mind of cant' and 'The man's a liar and there's an end on't'. Simon Heneage The Old Rectory,...

that all philandering involves an element of deceit and that seri- al infidelities in turn must make deceit and lying a way of life in all other endeavours. If this were true,...

Sir: Alice von Schlieffen is a doughty fight- er, but her latest sortie (Letters, 28 June), asserting that the Schlieffen Plan cannot be considered a 'gambler's throw' because...

Sir: Can we please now have Paul John- son's defence of Mike Tyson (And another thing, 28 June)? I note that he has had a bad press from the boxing writers, a notori- ous bunch...

years, particularly the column of Mr Paul Johnson because I find it stimulating and unpredictable. I have also purchased two of his books and taken the opportunity to follow his...

Sir: Nicholas Farrell quotes Alan Rus- bridger of the Guardian ('Who? Where? When? Above all, why?', 28 June) as indi- cating that George Carman QC had said that 'it would have...

in 1444 and noble sta- tus in Poland in 1555. Three brothers were granted the rank of count in the kingdom of Prussia in 1812. Alfred (1833-1913) was a grandson of the youngest...

Sir: Michael Coveney's new-found and self- appointed role as a defender of the honour of London drama critics (Letters, 28 June) will cause considerable hilarity among those of...

Sir: Charles Osborne is entitled to his views (Arts, 28 June), but does no favours to him- self or The Spectator by quoting hearsay about Mrs Duffield, chairman of the Royal...

Why digital television will be a bit like W.H. Smith STEPHEN GLOVER Last week the reality came one step clos- er when the Independent Television Com- mission awarded a licence...

When friendship can also be deception PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE A ccording to my friend Paul Johnson, with whom I've been thick for 40 years having first crossed pens about Suez —...

Goodness after God Raymond Carr EXISTENTIALISTS AND MYSTICS by Iris Murdoch Chatto, £20, pp. 546 D ame Iris Murdoch is a lay saint, a gifted novelist who is also an...

cheque payable to: Spectator Bookshop, PO Box 1992, Epping, Essex, CM16 6JL or Telephone: 0541 557288 Facsimile: 0541 55 72 25 E - Mail: telegraph@bms.ftech.co.uk Orders over...

Julian Mitchell WILDE'S LAST STAND by Philip Hoare Duckworth, £16.95, pp. 250 A t the end of May 1918, with the Ludendorff offensive bringing the German army daily closer to...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY SUBSCRIPTION RATES 1 Year 6 months UK £93 £47 Europe £104 £52 USA (2nd class) $151 $76 USA (1st class) $175 $88 Rest of World (2nd) £107 £54 Rest of World...

Ross Clark REFLECTIONS ON SUCCESS by Martyn Lewis Lennard Publishing, £20, pp. 960 M artyn Lewis is best known as the newscaster who complained that the news he was being asked...

said Nicolson Pere to fils, don't be a fickle son. Give your mother her due. And what title could be neater Than Apologia Pro Nostra Vita?' James Michie

William Scammell MY ACES, MY FAULTS by Nick Bolletieri Robson, £17.95, pp. 346 G hostwriters and sportspersons have a weakness for excruciating puns. Virginia Wade's...

Andro Linklater THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ADAM WORTH, THE REAL MORIARTY by Ben Macintyre HarperCollins, £18, pp. 320 T he life of Adam Worth, a 19th-century...

Evelyn Joll T he main obstacle that confronts biog- raphers of Turner is Turner himself. As his friend the artist George Jones wrote: 'He never appeared displeased but when he...

Tom Hiney O ne book certainly stands out among this summer's debut novels. The God of Small Things is a magically written effort by Arundhati Roy and deserves all the hype that...

Cressida Connolly THE COUNTRY LIFE by Rachel Cusk Picador, £15.99, pp. 342 W hat is Rachel Cusk up to? The Country Life — her third novel — is either a disastrous mismarriage...

A line was omitted in error from David Pryce-Jones's review of A Brutal Friend- ship by Said K. Aburish last week. The passage in question should have read: `The Al-Sauds and...

In a state of ill health Giannandrea Poesio believes that the New York City Ballet is still suffering an identity crisis A though the language of dance is uni- versal, dance...

Felicity Owen on the National Galleries of Scotland's plans for the future L ife at the National Galleries of Scot- land under the exuberant Timothy Clifford has seldom been...

Drawing on Diversity (RIBA Heinz Gallery, till 20 July) Women at work Alan Powers A fter her experience with Sir John Vanbrugh, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough wrote that she...

Gotterchimmerung (Norwegian National Opera, Norwich) A world elsewhere Michael Tanner T he conclusion of the Ring cycle in Norwich, given by the Norwegian National Opera,...

Waiting for Godot (Old Vic) Twilight of the Golds (Arts) The Maids (Donmar Warehouse) Lessons from Beckett Sheridan Morley P lays don't change; audiences do. The les- son of...

Cheer up, please Marcus Berkmann N ever trust a notoriously gloomy pop star who says he is feeling 'optimistic'. He probably just means that he's relieved to find that he's...

Rumble in the Bronx (15, selected cinemas) One Fine Day (PG, selected cinemas) Genially scrutable Chan Mark Steyn N ot all Her Majesty's subjects in Hong Kong have chosen to...

Identity crisis Michael Vestey A i image from the Seventies has remained with me. It is Peter O'Toole in a dressing-gown at his home, under siege from the media after an...

Losing the plot Simon Hoggart T he middle-class, middle-brow drama series used to be one of the great staples of the BBC. They were thrillers which never quite thrilled, but...

Broken by a Bentley Alan Judd T his was penned (sic) before the budget on the assumption that motoring corre- spondents probably won't be banned out- right, though we might be...

Hot line to a goddess Taki T he reason for the gloomy weather and the wettest ever June is Zeus. I know so because, long ago, the full-armoured lady that sprang from his head...

Looking good Robin Oakley S ullen skies and a persistent downpour over Epsom made Saturday one of those days you should have spent doing those things you always meant to do,...

I want to be alone Jeffrey Bernard I think I owe readers some sort of expla- nation as to the paragraph last week which attempted to explain the absence of a col- umn. It was...

Dressed to kill Leanda de Lisle D o you remember the way people used to joke about American tourists? The sto- ries about them standing in the middle of Oxford, wearing...

Clues and hints Andrew Robson THE occupation that is widely held to require the most similar attributes to an expert bridge player is an Options and Futures financial trader....

stars to just six restaurants in Paris. This year's edition has only five so honoured, and from 1977 Taillevent alone remains, four of the others having been demoted to two-star...

IN-THE-STRAND t., 7 e m CHESS I iler SIMPSON'S 1N-THE-STRAND The king in check Raymond Keene KASPAROV'S situation is under increas- ing threat after his loss to Deep Blue...

I I ISLE OF J SISCL11141.11C0101111115111 URA JURA 14,4lt MAU XORM SMINCI COMPETITION Sex 'n' food Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1989 you were invited to reverse the...

poem about a dream, entitled 'Making Cocoa for Kings- ley Amis', which doesn't tell us what hap- pened in the dream. You are invited to provide in verse (maximum 16 lines) your...

CROSSWORD w& GRAHAM'S A first prize of f30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1991 Port for the first correct solution opened on 21 July, with two runners-up prizes...

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Boxing is vile Simon Barnes I HAVE a bad reputation. Years ago, after I had covered a fight in Atlantic City, the rumour went around the press corps that I had hidden for the...

Dear Mary.. . Q. As the private secretary to a senior international statesman in Brussels, I am invited to a number of cocktail parties at the elegant residences of diplomatic...