Ten years after New Labour came to power, it is remarkable that the unions can still hold us all to ransom. This issue of The Spectator has gone to press a day earlier than...

IAIN DALE Thank the Lord this will be the last time conference-goers have to endure the hellhole that calls itself Blackpool. The last time I stayed in a Blackpool hotel at a...

FRASER NELSON For a party still facing defeat at the next general election, the Conservatives left Blackpool feeling remarkably upbeat. 'It's the spirit of Gallipoli,' said a...

CHARLES MOORE Blackpool Such is the strange rhythm of politics that this turns out to be the most successful Conservative conference for many years. George Osborne, who only a...

By Tamzin Lightwater SUNDAY Am shattered from lugging huge bag of policies around. Felt like asking Mr Gove what exactly he'd put in his blasted School Reforms, but just about...

Where the monks have led by inspiration, the younger army officers — who know the present horrors are unsustainable — will follow. Fergal Keane reports from a nation that is...

On 6 September, Israel struck a nuclear facility in Syria, an event shrouded in secrecy. Douglas Davis and James Forsyth talk to high-level sources to get closer to what...

Michael Howard reports on the sad aftermath of the storm that swept the Solomon Islands in April and the need to keep aid out of the hands of its government — and of the EU At...

Robert Harris talks to Mary Wakefield about his new novel, a partial roman a clef about the Blair era, and his sense of personal betrayal over Iraq and the treatment of...

THEODORE DALRYMPLE When we were students, a professor of public health once told us that the death rate declined whenever or wherever doctors went on strike. This was an even...

In advance of the next Intelligence2 debate, sponsored by The Spectator on 9 October, Douglas Murray says that the West has become afraid of its own ethical achievement Before...

Amelia Torode marks the wedding of the woman who was her dating 'wing-woman' with some memories of blind dates from Hell in Manhattan The HBO drama Sac and the City arrived on...

Rod Liddle admits that his horror at the vengeful return of the disease is that of a sentimentalist. But there are serious ecological implications, too, if this foul outbreak...

Sir: There's no truth in Fraser Nelson's sug- gestion that Governor Schwarzenegger changed his schedule in response to polls or any other political considerations (This will be...

Sir: Nigel Lawson is wrong to claim that the Reform Treaty will abolish the need for parliamentary approval of changes to the EU treaties (Sorry, minister', 29 September). The...

Sir: Taki writes with his usual humour and light touch (High life, 22 September). On the subject of Rommel, however, he is wrong to state that no British general 'could match...

Sir: It seems a little unfair that Judi Bevan's critical summing up of Anita Roddick was based on the fact that she wasn't perfect (Moral superiority in cheap plastic bottles',...

Sir: Bravo to Simon Hoggart for exposing the staged-looking Turkish restaurant scene in Michael PalM's latest BBC travelogue (Arts, 29 September). It was an embarrassment to the...

HUGO RIFKIND Aere we sure that party confernces are good things? Are we convinced that they do the job? Certainly, they are great fun. hat, I would never dispute. The booze. The...

PAUL JOHNSON This is the time of year when I am irritated by the pop-pop of shotguns near my house in Over Stowey. Not that West Somerset is a great county for shooting. It is a...

Matthew Lynn enjoys a power-breakfast with France's new finance minister, Christine Lagarde — but wonders whether she can drive the reforms the French economy needs 1 t wasn't...

James Harland what's the biggest threat to the stability of the global economy today? Derivatives? Hedge funds? The credit crunch? Actually it could be Pearson, the company that...

Elliot Wilson says there isn't enough arable land in the world to make plant-based fuels a viable alternative to oil C B iofuels?' Ricardo Leiman gives an imperious snort, his...

MARTIN VANDER WEYER Iv hen I bumped into Barclays chief executive John Varley at Wimbledon one mid-week afternoon in July, I thought he looked remarkably relaxed for a man...

Anne Applebaum THE WHISPERERS: PRIVATE LIFE IN STALIN'S RUSSIA by Orlando Figes Allen Lane, £25, pp. 784, ISBN 9780713997026 © £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 1 t's a...

Bevis Hillier BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE: THE RISE AND FALL OF A GENERATION, 1918-1940 by D. J. Taylor Chatto, £20, pp. 307, ISBN 9870701177546 £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655...

Alexander McCall Smith SCOTLAND, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY: 2,000 YEARS OF SCOTTISH HISTORY BY THOSE WHO SAW IT HAPPEN edited by Rosemary Goring Penguin/Viking, £25, pp. 483, ISBN...

Justin Cartwright GRAHAM GREENE: A LIFE IN LETTERS edited by Richard Greene Little, Brown, £20, pp. 446, ISBN 9780316727938 © £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 1 t is a...

Selina Hastings HORSES & HUSBANDS: THE MEMOIRS OF ETTI PLESCH edited by Hugo Vickers Dovecote Press, £17.95, pp. 205, ISBN 9781904349549 1 n her introduction to this...

Penelope Lively FOOLISH MORTALS by Jennifer Johnston Headline Review, £14.99, pp. 250, ISBN 9780755330522 © £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Jennifer Johnston is adept at...

Robert Salisbury THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE by Piers Brendon Cape, £25, pp. 800, ISBN 9780224062220 £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 piers Brendon does not...

Byron Rogers CONAN DOYLE by Andrew Lycett Weidenfeld, £20, pp. 527, ISBN 9780297848523 £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 This could have been a wonderful book. Take a scene...

Nicholas Haslam THE CORAL BROWNE STORY: THEATRICAL LIFE AND TIMES OF A LUSTROUS AUSTRALIAN by Barbara Angell Angell Productions Ply Ltd, $Au 45, pp. 240 ISBN 9780646473222,...

Michael Howard NEMESIS: THE BATTLE FOR JAPAN, 1944-45 by Max Hastings HaiperCollins, £25, pp. 670, ISBN 9780007219827 /n this his latest book Max Hastings aims not so much to...

It glinted on your finger all my life, Clicked on your whisky glass or the steering wheel. You used to twist it off to wash your face In restaurant Gents before we had a meal....

Michael Hese!tine BEECHCOMBINGS: THE NARRATIVES OF TREES by Richard Mabey Chatto, £20, pp. 289, ISBN 9781856197335 1 share with Richard Mabey a love of trees. Beechcombings...

Sebastian Smee Some writers have the ability to poison one's daily existence. James Salter, I have discovered, is one of them. To read him is to be painfully reminded of how...

The following extracts are from The Blind Eye: A Book of Late Advice by Don Paterson (Faber, £12.99.) please don't be misled by the apparent self1 certainty of these utterances;...

Gary Dexter A JOURNEY INTO GOD (1988) by Delia Smith A Journey into God is one of four books by Delia Smith on the subject of Christian spirituality, the others being A Journey...

Jane Feaver talks to Michael Morpurgo about the staging of his first world war novel Following the National Theatre's hugely successful productions of His Dark Materials and...

Andrew Lambirth Moore at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, until 30 March 2008 Michael Kidner: no goals in a quicksand Flowers East, 82 Kingsland Road, E2, until 13 October It's...

Laura Gascoigne In 1838 the Duke of Sussex was presenting the awards for drawing at the Society of Art, when the silver medallist failed to appear. His Grace complained that he...

Michael Tanner Carmen English National Opera The opera season at ENO began with a new production of Carmen. It was an occasion so dispiriting that I've been toying with the idea...

Water falling, rippling, bubbling, breaking on rocks or trapping layers of light in its depths is the focus of Christian Wharton's exhibition at Cattura Fine Art, Harlequin...

Peter Phillips Wherever I go, I hear that music in schools is not what it used to be. By this it is not meant that the music which used to be taught is now taught according to...

Marcus Berkmann One of the rudest things you can ever say about a pop record is that it's overproduced. We have all said it at some point in our lives, often before the age of...

Deborah Ross And When Did You Last See Your Father?, Nationwide, 12A Although And When Did You Last See Your Father? is probably not a great work of cinema, and may not even be...

Lloyd Evans Macbeth Gielgud Rhinoceros Royal Court Life After Scandal Hampstead If you can, get to Macbeth. Patrick Stewart and Kate Fleetwood have set a benchmark that will...

Kate Chisholm you couldn't move across the BBC's airwaves this week without stumbling on an anniversary programme celebrating 40 years since the launch of Radios One, Two, Three...

James Delingpole o the big question this week is: is the Today programme a viper's nest of evil pinkoes, all of whom should be put in sacks and dropped into a deep well? And...

I ripped my feet to bits walking the pilgrim trail to Guadalupe as far as Hidalgo. At Casa Verde I ordered a bottle of beer and the special: greasy tortillas, fried cactus,...

Jeremy Clarke s of this week my boy (17) is no longer legally entitled to buy cigarettes. His half-brother (16) the same. It must be galling for a teenager finally to reach an...

Aidan Hartley Malindi Iwatched a nest of baby turtles hatch on the beach in front of my mother's house recently. What a hellish start to a life, I thought. You burrow up through...

Richard Sennett In New York, I head for Citarella on Broadway only to be confronted by a noisy demo at the entrance. (Among New York foodies, Citarella is to Whole Foods what in...

Cartoonists have a growing following, says Jenny Wilhide Can you imagine The Spectator without cartoons? It would surely lose its heart and soul. Imagine the New Yorker without...

Rachel Johnson cruises the south of France in style So here I am, driving two and a half metric tonnes of machine, a purring, gleaming advertisement for the centuries-old skills...

Bill Cashmore tries to be in two places on the same day Last year, I made a mess of my first wedding anniversary by foolishly taking my wife's plea of 'Let's not make a big...

TOBY YOUNG Ams a lover of good drama, my favourite week of the year falls in the late sumer when I make my annual pilgrimage to Scotland. The fabulous scenery, the weird and...

I was having lunch with friends last week in a fairly swanky gastropub, and the menu promised a ballontine of quail. The waiter told me that ballontine meant that the quail had...

Dear Maly Q. An elderly relative has developed the disgusting habit of licking her knife after using it for, say, jam, and then using it again to help herself to butter. It's...

FRANK KEATING This corner has already broken its fundamental annual rule not to get worked up about football till the clocks are altered at the end of this month — there is...