in Iraq that there was 'a struggle between good and evil' going on there. Before the bombings, Mr Michael Howard, the leader of the Conservative party, said it was withdrawing...

A spiring actors are, by tradition, advised by their mentors never to work with children or animals. Budding politicians, on the other hand, should be advised at all costs to...

in America and I couldn't be happier. The sun is shining and I have a large cheque in my pocket with which to conclude the purchase of a nice house in Norfolk. Things could not...

T he most significant purely domestic event in what has turned into a terrible week on the international stage was a speech by Jack McConnell to Labour's Scottish conference in...

1 t is to Lady Morgan, the Prime Minister's political secretary, that the role of co-ordinating New Labour's proposed system of 'kangaroo courts' (or 'show trials', depending on...

change his advice? Andrew Gilligan can confirm, for the first time, that five months before the invasion of Iraq the Attorney General's advice to the government was that regime...

But, says Bruce Anderson, there's no reason for Jews to fear a revival of anti-Semitism as a result of Mel Gibson's The Passion 0 ne woman has already died of a heart attack...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade What is the reward for a government which protects and subsidises a cherished national industry? Workers parading...

Rachel Johnson talks to Vernon Coleman, the one-man publishing sensation who has now turned his sights on the 'lying little warmonger' in Downing Street I f you're a Telegraph...

However one regards Mrs Gun after her betrayal of the Official Secrets Act — selfless heroine of Antigonean stature, or self-important, sanctimonious little twerp — her actions...

Deborah Ross talks to the head of Migration Watch, and finds herself becoming a little unladylike S o, off to meet Sir Andrew Green, retired Foreign Office mandarin, now...

In the 200 years since independence, Haiti has endured a vicious cycle of coups: Ian Thomson examines the background to the latest crisis S hortly after Christmas I went to...

THEODORE DALRYMPLE When I was 12 years old, I had an English teacher whom I admired to the point of hero-worship, one of whose aphorisms was that poetry was man's natural form...

According to that very annoying programme Woman's Hour (one minute being militantly gynaecological, the next giving recipes for butternut-squash soup), a mother complained to a...

Ferdinand Mount says that the new citizenship ceremony signals the death of multiculturalism, and should be welcomed by the Tories A s of last Thursday, multiculturalism was...

T o read Le Monde, which I do every day, anyone would think that the French intelligentsia were about to stage a levee en masse against the government. Some 16,000 of them are...

From John Jenkins Sir: Correlli Barnett rests his case against Blair and Bush and the Iraq war partly on the grounds that 'only the Security Council can authorise armed...

I have long been of the view that his quartet of books — the 'Pride and Fall' sequence — should be required study in secondary schools, so that pupils emerging as voters at the...

Sir: As it happened, last week's Spectator (carrying my warning that we should not fall for the Blairite attempt to persuade us to forget the Iraq war and 'move on') went to...

From David Woodhead Sir: If, as Noble Frankland argues in agreeing with the conclusions of Frederick Taylor's book Dresden (Books, 28 February), it was legitimate to destroy the...

my memory after the lapse of half a century is right — a fair and pertinent question, but wrong. Of course I did not suddenly recollect my work at the Yalta Conference only...

From Dan Lewis Sir: As a right-thinking Tory who went to the 86th-ranked university (out of 93) in the land, I agree with Walter Ellis and am sick of being told that my...

From Robin Jenks Sir: Robin Harris (Tess means more', 28 February) fails to mention some of the benefits of a flat-rate tax. As it would be readily understood, we would all be...

From Andrzej Wilski Sir: Bruce Anderson's article (`Make war on terror, not drugs', 21 February) is truly absurd, not to say stupid and dangerous. In the longer run it would be...

From Tim Grima Sir: Stephen Glover (Media studies, 28 February) seems to overlook what has happened with the cult of celebrity in the past decade. The Telegraph reader now...

I t was reported that Mr Jacob ReesMogg, the son of Lord and Lady Rees-Mogg, was told that he could not be Kensington and Chelsea's prospective Conservative candidate because he...

T here is one pressing and even crucial issue which successive governments have refused to address, perhaps through a failure of political will, or simply out of cowardice. And...

S o the Barclay brothers' bid for Conrad Black's controlling share in Hollinger International has been vetoed by an American judge. We are back to square one. A lot of time has...

T his is the time of year when the Treasury puts out scare stories. Beware of the Budget, they say. Just look at all the things we may be planning to tax. Land, for example, or...

Serbia is the ideal place for crowd-haters, says Julia Marozzi T he trouble with this country is that nobody gets shot,' said Srdjan, the tubby 39-year-old music promoter, as...

Matthew Reid In the ski resort of Kapaonik, the directors of the complex anxiously pointed out the attractions of the pine-clad panorama, the snow that falls well into May, the...

Nigel Buxton unkirk, February 2004. In the seafront restaurant L'Equipage I linger over the last of the Muscadet sur Lie that accompanied my moules a la mariniere and remember...

Joseph Connolly I hate holidays — summer holidays are what I mean: hate them, hate them. And every single year, round about now, everywhere you look it's the same old story —...

Hilary Spurling MOSAIC by Michael Holroyd Little, Brown, £17.99, pp. 304, ISBN 0316725056 M ichael Holroyd describes the first copy of his last book of memoirs plopping through...

Ian Thomson THE JESUITS by Jonathan Wright HarperCollins,120, pp. 334, ISBN 0002571803 1 n the 16th century Montaigne voiced the fear that missionary endeavour the white man's...

paperbacks Non-fiction: Hilaire Belloc by A. N. Wilson, Gibson Square Books, £9.99 Overlord by Max Hastings, Pan, £7.99 Even As We Speak: New Essays, 1993-2001 by Clive James,...

Alan Wall THIN-ICE SKATER by David Storey Cape. ,fI6.99, pp. 268, ISBN 0224064495 T he anchoring memories of this novel go back to the second world war. That is where crucial...

Jane Rye A ROPE OF SAND by Elsie Burch Donald Doubleday', £12.99, pp. 270, ISBN 03856070 C I do , feel the strongest urge to talk ,' confides the narrator when a chance...

Clemency Burton-Hill LOVE ME by Garrison Keillor Faber, £10.99, pp. 272, ISBN 0571217222 L arty Wyler is a man in conflict. He knows what makes him happy — the St Matthew...

Allan Mallinson AT WELLINGTON'S RIGHT HAND: THE LE'l l'ERS OF LIEUTENANTCOLONEL SIR ALEXANDER GORDON, 1808-1815 edited by Rory Muir Army Records Society! Sutton Publishing,...

Salley Vickers MY FATHER'S WAR by Adriaan Van Dis Heinemann, £12.99, pp. 324. ISBN 00434010472 B ooks about wartime experiences are thick enough on the ground to make one...

Mark Archer THE BUBBLE OF AMERICAN SUPREMACY: CORRECTING THE MISUSE OF AMERICAN POWER by George Soros Weidenfeld, £12.99, pp. 207, ISBN 0297849069 jr udging from his...

Philip French REVOLUTION!: THE EXPLOSION OF WORLD CINEMA IN THE SIXTIES by Peter Cowie Faber, £20, pp. 286, ISBN 0571209033 I n its brief, action-filled history of 109 years...

John McEwen ALBERT MOORE by Robyn Asleson Phaidon, £19.95, pp. 240, 0714838462 T wo things about this book — the first on the artist for over a century — are immediately...

Raymond Carr RICHARD FORD, 1796-1858 by Ian Robertson Michael Russell, £28, pp. 381, ISBN 0859552853 R ichard Ford is now a forgotten figure and we must be grateful to Ian...

Graham Stewart CONQUERORS OF TIME by Trevor Fishlock John Murray, £25, pp. 444, ISBN 0719555175 I n 1795, John Evans, the son of a Methodist preacher, set out from St Louis...

Stephen Pettitt says that rock musicians who compose classical music are out of their depth A couple of weeks ago a press release arrived in my electronic in-tray. It was from...

Andrew Lambirth Karl Weschke Beneath a Black Sky: Paintings and Drawings 1953-2004 Tate St Ives, until 9 May K arl Weschke has been living in an isolatrth..ed house on the tip...

Laura Gascoigne Shipbuilding: Stanley Spencer and Patricia McKinnon-Day Imperial War Museum North, until 7 June T he cavernous aluminium-clad concrete shell of Daniel...

Mark Steyn I t was a night of triumph for British film. Well, OK, it wasn't. `UK Overlooked By Oscar Voters' was the BBC headline. 'Whatever Happened To The Brit Pack?'...

Peter Phillips I t has been uncommon weather in Venice these last two weeks. The water has been high, which can happen at this time of the year, but not usually in conjunction...

Michael Tanner Simon Boccanegra Royal Opera House S imon Boceanegra is an opera which rises ever higher in critical esteem, and the Royal Opera's production from 1991 has...

Lloyd Evans The Sons of Charlie Paora Royal Court Age, Sex, Location Riverside When Harry Met Sally Theatre Royal, Haymarket ome mysteries have answers, some not. At the press...

Patrick Camegy Othello Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon !This is going to be a pretty testing year 1 for the RSC's new artistic director, Michael Boyd. He's just released...

Ursula Buchan T he future for the potato seems brighter this month than last, since the opening of the film Sex Lives of the Potato Men. This is an account, apparently (for I...

Giannandrea Poesio Swan Lake Northern Ballet Theatre, Grand Theatre, Leeds T he dramatic weakness and the basic metaphorical narrative of Swan Lake have resulted in countless...

Michael Vestey kJ pponents of the United States, for whatever reason, like to describe that country as an empire, suggesting that it controls and dominates large parts of the...

James Delingpole Q ne of my many favourite bits in Alain de Botton's characteristically brilliant and thought-provoking documentary on Status Anxiety (Channel 4, Saturday) was...

Taki Gstaad T wenty-five years or so ago Jeffrey 1. Bernard wrote in these here pages that 'By and large I've met a better class of person in the gutter than I have in the...

Jeremy Clarke O ur house is a no-smoking house. There are no signs up proclaiming it as such, however. Visitors who feel like a fag take note of the fresh-cut flowers, the lack...

Petronella Wyatt S o Coca-Cola's latest designer drink, on sale for 95p a bottle, comes out of the tap. Dasani, the company's new bottled water, is being promoted as a 'pure'...

0 nly television, with its immense resources of eager young creativity, manpower, money and technology, could take the economic phenomenon of a sustained property boom and...

MICHAEL HENDERSON W hat can be done about the BBC's coverage of live sport? It has lost another bauble, the Boat Race, to ITV, and while that is not in itself a grievous loss,...

longer than 30 seconds after I have been introduced to them. It is worse at a party where I recognise people's faces and suspect I know them well, but cannot remember who they...

he was holding forth. I had just read your advice on how to deal with that (21 February) and intervened to say that the poor man needed a rest from Question Time interrogations....

What do I serve at their birthday parties now that all the old favourites — sausages, cakes, hamburgers, chicken nuggets and fizzy drinks — have been demonised? I know for a...