Your life in their hands M r Geoffrey Robinson, the Paymaster General, insisted there was nothing wrong about his being a discretionary beneficiary of a £12.75 million trust...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 0171-242 0603 NOT SO BAD FOR THE TORIES P roportional representation is a...

Is public opinion ready for offshore socialism? BRUCE ANDERSON he Tories think that it is all so unfair. If it had been revealed that one of their ministers had a concealed...

M y first error was to be noticed danc- ing joyfully outside the Festival Hall on the morning of Labour's glorious victory, like some Christian fundamentalist who had just met...

The play's the thing. Or possibly, the thing's the play FRANK JOHNSON T he late Denis Brogan, as interpreter of the United States to generations of Britons, was always being...

Suddenly, it's quite normal for Britons to have it means for our souls as well as our bodies IF THE American dream has a face, it ought to be that of Mrs Jocelyn Wilden- stein....

The Tory leader's good reputation in the Commons won't save him if the nation thinks he's hopeless, says Peter Oborne DOES William Hague ever look back on the night last summer...

Gerald Kaufman explains his ambivalent feelings about the House which is the subject of his Committee's damning report GROUCHO Marx once said that he did not want to belong to...

Heidi Kingstone on the liquid that will cause the new Middle East crises, and it's not oil WATER in the Middle East has always been endowed with mythical properties: Jesus...

Shiva Naipaul was one of the most gifted and accomplished writers of our time. After his death in 1985 at the age of 40, The Spectator established an annual prize in his memory....

John Redwood, who has just won an award for his questions about Lord Simon's finances, now turns to Geoffrey Robinson's THE LABOUR manifesto already seems a period piece, a...

WHO decides these things? I mean things like the announcements on trains that 'the next station stop' will be Northampton. I suppose the rea- soning is that there might be a...

Magnus Linklater notes the anniversary of a British grandee's attempt to make peace in 1917 EIGHTY years ago this week, a brave and ultimately failed attempt was made to bring...

Sion Simon reveals that a fomenter of the anti- Harman revolt is none other than the deputy chief whip MUCH is being made of the frenzied excitability of Labour backbenchers....

Paul Martin recalls Nelson Mandela's first meeting with Winnie - and his own WHEN he first met her, Winnie was a beautiful young woman, and the seduction took place amid...

Is there any form of human life quite so low as a journalist? PAUL JOHNSON T he behaviour of some newspapers is now so degrading that I wonder how much longer I can belong to...

TIMED to the minute, the ten-franc kir returns! Christmas shopping in the Rue de Rivoli, quick trips to Rheims to stock up with champagne, a few days on the piste at Val d'Isere...

MAX TAX is an idea taking root in Ameri- ca, where the tax return is a dreaded annu- al ritual. Citizens settle down to fill in the form and write the cheque to match it, hav-...

NATWEST Markets has vanished in a clearance sale and the new owners talk of bringing back the fine old name of Wood Mackenzie. I would expect this to inspire Robin Angus, the...

THIS week's complication comes in the guise of an incentive to save. Ministers have learned with well-projected horror that some people scarcely save at all. To encour- age...

No time for tea — it's a hard life being a taxman but it's harder for the taxpayer CHRISTOPHER FILDES N ever a quiet moment, working for the Inland Revenue. First we send all...

THESE are testing times for Lord Moyne, the author and banker. The Swedish police keep turning up to ask him questions about Trustor, a misleadingly named investment company —...

Please send Christmas Pudding(s) £9.95 each Please send Hamper(s) @ £54.50 each I enclose my crossed cheque/postal order (with my address on the back) made payable to: SPECTATOR...

Sir: Proof positive that the metropolitan chattering class knows (and cares) more about South Africa than it does about Scot- land was provided by Alice Miles last week when she...

Sir: I must congratulate you on the unher- alded irony of your decision to name Gor- don Brown as Parliamentarian of the Year. It can only be a gesture of sarcasm to give this...

Sir: If Daniel Pipes's attempt to rewrite his- tory proves anything (Not so holy city', 22 November), it is that Jewish claims on Jerusalem do not extend beyond the last 30...

the case against Neil Hamilton, Stephen Glover writes (Media studies, 29 Novem- ber) that the reason why Neil Hamilton pulled out of his libel action against the Guardian is not...

Sir: I read Andrew Gowers's letter (22 November) with interest. Yes, of course, I have graced the columns of the Financial Times no fewer than three times since the end of...

Sir: I had noticed the increasing tendency of your diarists to plug their books and tele- vision programmes. I had not realised until today (Diary, 29 November) that this has...

Sir: Confronted by a text — in this case, a parliamentary question — Bruce Anderson (Letters, 29 November) claims to discern the author's intention. When the author me — denies...

Sir: The article on British dance, 'Dominat- ed by the second- rate' (Arts, 29 Novem- ber), raises a number of issues that merit a response. It suggests that the number of...

Sir: Mark Steyn informs us (America and its priapic presidents,' 29 November) that Nigel Hamilton, after writing 'a cracking account' of J.F. Kennedy's early years, abandoned...

You too could be pictured and named in connection with heinous crimes — while innocent STEPHEN GLOVER 0 n Friday, 21 November police `swooped' at 15 places in Britain in...

A figure of major minorness Bevis Hillier DON'T TELL SYBIL: AN INTIMATE MEMOIR OF E. L. T. MESENS by George Melly Heinemann, £17.99, pp. 226 A few years back, when he was...

12 Months 6 Months UK CI £93.00 CI £47.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £104.00 ❑ £52.00 USA Airspeed U US$151 0 US$76 Rest ofl Airmail 0 £115.00 U £58.00 World fAirspeed CI £107.00 U...

All the books reviewed here are available from THE SPECTATOR BOOKSHOP Telephone: 0541 557288 Facsimile: 0541 557225 We accept payment by credit card AccEss/VisA/AmEx/Swrrcx or...

Juliet Townsend C hristmas is the only time when many children will be given the chance to own a hardback book, to raise the tone of the shelf of wilting paperbacks. Some of...

John Biffen MARGARET THATCHER: THE COLLECTED SPEECHES edited by Robin Harris HarperCollins, £29.99, pp. 668 T he election holocaust is still leading to further discord over the...

Charles Allen RAJ: THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF BRITISH INDIA by Lawrence James Little, Brown, £25, pp. 722 L awrence James's Rise and Fall of the British Empire won universal...

Harriet Waugh M odern living and modern publishing often seem to force crime writers to produce thin, badly thought out novels, unworthy of their best work. Tony Hiller- man is...

Results of the `Win a cellar of wine' competition sponsored by Oddbins. WINNER Mr R. Rothwell, Tiverton, Devon Second Prize Mrs M. Gearing-Bell, Leicester Mr A. Jones,...

A m I alone (question expecting the answer 'No') in experiencing a decided sinking of the heart whenever I come across the words 'Book of the Film' or `Now a Major Motion...

Mary Keen N ineties gardeners prefer Nature to Art: prairie-style planting from America and German ways with perennials are what inspire young designers today. Anything that...

Correlli Barnett NAPOLEON by Frank McLynn Cape, £25, pp. 668 A s when reviewing BBC television's politically correct tele-tract 1914-1918 I have to declare an interest, for my...

Peter J. M. Wayne THE THIEVES' OPERA: THE REMARKABLE LIVES AND DEATHS OF JONATHAN WILD, THIEF-TAKER, AND JACK SHEPPARD, HOUSE-BREAKER by Lucy Moore Viking £20, pp. 304 A most...

Hardy Amies MY DEAREST MINE I I E by Ruth Norrington Peter Owen, £22.50, pp. 239 D earest Minette, the youngest daughter of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, was born in Exeter in...

Alan Campbell WAR AND THE MEDIA by Miles Hudson and John Stainer Sutton Publishing, £19.99, pp. 338 O ut of my way, you drunken swabs!' shouted Lord Kitchener at a group of...

David Pryce-Jones THE NECESSITY OF ANTI-SEMITISM by Frederic Raphael Carcanet, £18.95, pp. 382 h is collection of Frederic Raphael's occasional pieces and lectures is highbrow...

James Simmons THE ZIG ZAG KID by David Grossman Bloomsbury, £14.99, pp. 309 D avid Grossman is an Israeli writer whose past work has been much admired in translation in Europe....

Robert Cranborne THE HOUSE OF LORDS by John Wells Hodder, £20, pp. 298 A ll successful institutions, regiments, palaces, Houses of Parliament, combine pomp and informality....

Maurice Cowling THE GHOST OF TORYISM PAST; THE SPIRIT OF CONSERVATISM FUTURE by Michael Portillo Centre for Policy Studies, f6, pp. 21 I n his speech at the Conservative party...

Stifling millenarian jitters Stephen Bayley defends the Millennium project against downbeat triumphalist sneering T he Garrick Club bar is not, perhaps, where you would first...

Rupert Christiansen on how `opera's golden couple' are attracting a wave of hostility L ast October, the tenor Roberto Alagna and his wife soprano, Angela Ghe- orghiu, were the...

Martin Gayford has a problem: he doesn't care who won the Turner Prize N obody could like all forms of art, Oscar Wilde once observed, except an auc- tioneer. It is an apercu...

Ocean (Merce Cunningham Dance Company) Waves of approval thannandrea Poem E minent dance writers have often stressed the fallacy of those reviews which try to 'explain' Merce...

It's A Wonderful Life! (U, selected cinemas) The Myth of Fingerprints (15, selected cinemas) Keep the Aspidistra Flying (12, selected cinemas) Lawn Dogs (15, selected cinemas)...

The Chairs (Duke of York's) Cyrano de Bergerac (Lyric) Creaky Ionesco Sheridan Morley A n immensely impressive autumn- into-winter French season comes to a close with Peter...

Roberto Zucco (The Other Place, Stratford) Twelfth Night (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford) Gallic gore James Treadwell T he season of French drama at Strat- ford began...

Chance encounters Peter Phillips part of the 60th-birthday celebra- tions for the British artist Tom Phillips, Prestel has published a collection of short essays by him under...

Ii Barbiere di Siviglia (Royal Opera, Shaftesbury Theatre) Eugene Onegin (ENO) Renewed affection Michael Tanner T he first opera I saw was II Barbiere di Siviglia, and I was...

Spice overkill Marcus Berkmann W ell, so much for Girl Power. There's no spectacle quite like a pop backlash at full pelt, racing across the salt flats as though driven by...

Bite-sized information Michael Vestey I s there a Manchester sound? someone asked in a programme I was listening to last week. Yes, someone else said, and it's distinctive by...

Hatchet job Simon Hoggart A gainst Nature (Channel 4, Sunday) was tendentious, selective and unfair. It used a raft of underhand television tricks to sup- port those whom the...

Map culture Gavin Stamp P edestrians and motorists see things dif- ferently — and not just about who ought to have right of way. Those who walk around cities tend to have a...

Back in business Robin Oakley As a campaigner for starting stalls, for curbs on excessive use of the whip and for the care of racehorses whose competitive days are done, he...

Favourite fops Taki even turns patriotic. 110. Last week it ran a programme on the War of Independence. As I am in the mid- dle of reading Paul Johnson's unputdown- able A...

Dressing dangerously Leanda de Lisle W hat to wear for lunch with the boss? I thought The Spectator's editor might be disappointed if his Country life columnist looked too...

No chance Andrew Robson `The Only Chance' was the title of a bridge book by Eric Jannersten. In it were a col- lection of truly dreadful contracts which, owing to a miraculous...

Seeing out the old year Auberon Waugh A somewhat eclectic last offer of the year, with three wines from France, two from Australia, two from South Africa and a truly heroic...

c/o Lay & Wheeler Limited Gosbecks Park, Colchester, Essex CO2 9JT Tel: (01206) 764446 Fax: (01206) 560002 Price No. Value Mate I. 1997 Chenin Blanc, Rosenberg 12 boa £54.00 2....

French epicerie in Marylebone High Street. Villandry's prices were not low, but the goods were of high quality: French cheese came in excellent condition, and you could buy foie...

New attack Raymond Keene THE KING'S Indian Defence was pio- neered by British masters such as Yates and Sir George Thomas in the 1920s, How- ever, it only became truly popular...

0 41,1 , 4§10) ISLE OF i „,„„-„,., ) ,' H A L, COMPETITION Victorian values Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2011 you were asked to write a poem in style, sentiment and...

E E R I NGLDIJRS ON N O NEI-JOCK ABLE O R N ETUF 0 E1216 ArA AGOULEIEDGE RS EN1R TBSFOLD I T A M 0 2 latI E M 2 TAISIE 'A TA7IIXIINER pl A 131 IBM NGAN'E. ET.I j d, CIO R a...

You are invited to supply a horrible or hor- rid story with a Christmas setting (maxi- mum 150 words). Entries to 'Competition No. 2014' by 19 December (I give you an extra day...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1991 Port for the first correct solution opened on 22 December, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for UK...

Learning to love Big Ron Simon Barnes ONE of the rum things about life — per- haps most especially the sporting life — is that perfect ghastliness, if it is pursued for long...

Q. I have recently bought a house in Wales. My nearest neighbour is a builder and has carried out a few repairs. He is also keen to do some more major building work that am...