'S leaze has been the dominant factor throughout,' declared the opposition, 'and sleaze has been the end issue. Nothing better encapsulates what people think of this government....

ANDREW ROBERTS Well, I've learnt my lesson. After my last Speccie diary was satirised by the Guardian, Emily Maitlis, Michael White, Taki, a newspaper called the Asian Age, and...

ANNE MCELVOY eepparty feuds never really die: they just lie buried under the flimsy covering of the good times. For Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, such times have been brief...

CHARLES MOORE We all know about spin in theory, but we are slow to notice it in practice. The approved version of the release of Gillian Gibbons, the 'teddy bear' teacher in the...

By Tamzin Lightwater SUNDAY Weekend duty totally ruined by silly Sayeeda's trip to Sudan. Spent all dayyesterday fielding calls for pre-trip interviews, but she couldn't do any...

As the government sinks into a mire of sleaze and incompetence, Fraser Nelson says that Labour MPs and ministers are braced for electoral disaster and already plotting...

Guess what? Gordon has done something right For all Brown's woes, he is spot on about anti-competitive sharp practice in business, says Irwin Stelzer. Now he needs to import...

As the first EU—Africa summit for seven years opens, Christopher Thompson talks to those who still suffer under Mugabe's tyrannical rule and see no reason for optimism Harare...

Rod Liddle is unimpressed by Gillian Gibbons and her view of Islam — but pleasantly surprised by the unequivocal reaction of British Muslim groups to her treatment So the...

Walter Russell Mead, the chronicler of US power, talks to James Forsyth about the geopolitics of the Middle East and says that Bush has 'carried the sins of his people' The...

Robert Hardman, presenter of the acclaimed BBC series on the monarchy, hails Elizabeth II for her ability to adapt and for her dwindling interest in 'VIPs' 1 n a fortnight the...

Sir: David Howell is certainly correct (Letters, 1 December) in pointing to the massive shift of wealth to Asia and oil producers, a devel- opment to which I have repeatedly...

Sir: Individuals may disagree with the policies pursued by Tony Blair in office but all the Roman Catholic Church asks is that he acted on the basis of an informed conscience...

Sir: Miranda Sawyer should not have included The Sound of Music in her list of 'films turned into live shows' (Diary, 24 November). It was, of course, the other way round: a...

Sir: Lloyd Evans is incorrect in stating that Olivier played Othello twice (Arts, 1 December). In the 1938 production at the Old Vic, Olivier played Iago and Ralph Richardson...

Sir: Paul Johnson need not be so terrified by what he finds written in Matthew xxvii 46 (And another thing, 1 December). Jesus' reported last words on the cross are quoted from...

Sir: What a funny and insightful piece by Andrey Slivka on the effects of mass consumption on Ukraine (Money culture is ruining Kiev', 1 December) Perhaps now he could be...

MATTUFW D, plc Should 'gay-hate' be a crime? Stonewall, the gay lobbying group of which I remain a solid supporter, has just sent me a briefing paper urging members to support...

PAUL JOHNSON The other day I came across a clever book on the movie actor John Wayne. I forget the name of the author but it may have been Simon Louvish, who writes better than...

Matthew Lynn says London's last 19th-century merchant bank, Close Brothers, is under threat of takeover by one of the modern breed of aggressive City traders, Andy Stewart...

Allister Heath Those of us born in the late 1970s have a great advantage when it comes to understanding today's oil market: we cannot remember Opec embargoes, nor the...

Richard Orange meets Rajeev Samant, an entrepreneur whose products please the palates of new-rich India 1 t's not often your host has passed up dinner with Mick Jagger and the...

When I was a bridesmaid, at the age of eight, I was given two silver charms. One was of a ballet dancer, en pointe, in a full skirt, like a little Degas. The other was a tiny...

Amelia Torode chooses the techy devices most likely to appeal to 'lady geeks' Say the words 'gadgets for women' to most men and rather quickly schoolboy humour takes over. But...

Dig deep for the wine-lover in your life, says Jonathan Ray Iknow what I want for Christmas and it ain't socks or handkerchiefs, thanks very much. I want a cellar. A grownup,...

Bill Cashmore picks the winners among mail-order food companies Ilove the nectar and ambrosia of luxury Christmas hampers but recipients aren't as grateful as they ought to be;...

Philip Ziegler BALFOUR: THE LAST GRANDEE by R. J. Q. Adams John Murray, £30, pp. 479, ISBN 97807193541247 © £24 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Sargent's portrait of Balfour,...

Elfreda Pownall Let's start in the garden. This year cookery writers are as happy digging and planting as slicing and braising. Sarah Raven is a great gardener and, on the...

Christopher Howse In England by Don McCullin (Cape, £35) is, as might be expected, more gritty than pretty. Yet it is approachably humane compared with his famous war...

Kevin Brownlow SILENT COMEDY by Paul Merton Random House, £25, pp. 322, ISBN 9781905211708 £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 1 n 1989, when David Gill and I celebrated the...

Allan Mallinson NAPOLEON'S WARS by Charles Esdaile Allen Lane, £30, pp. 621, ISBN X9780713997156 © £24 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 What marks out the Napoleonic wars from...

Christian House THE JOURNAL OF DORA DAMAGE by Belinda Starling Bloomsbury, £12.99, pp. 452, ISBN9780747585220 £1039 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 With its quartos, rectos...

Daniel Swift SPITFIRE: PORTRAIT OF A LEGEND by Leo McKinstry John Murray, £20, pp. 435, ISBN9780719568749 £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 The pilots called it 'the Spit',...

Archie Bland Rarely has Nietzsche been taken so literally as in Ron Currie's God Is Dead (Picador, £12.99), wherein the deity adopts the form of a Sudanese refugee woman called...

L ‘ isten, Bill,' wrote P. G. Wodehouse (in a letter published in Pe/forming Flea), something really must be done about Kip's "Mrs Bathurst". I read it years ago and didn't...

Ariane Bankes takes the Trans-Siberian railway and encounters some surprising music and art Serendipity is the best aspect of travel — the chance encounter, the unexpected...

Andrew Lambirth Theatres of Life: Drawings from the Rothschild Collection The Wallace Collection, Manchester Square, London Wl, until 27 January 2008 Pop Art Portraits National...

Laura Gascoigne Bauhaus 1919-1933 Middlesbrough Institute of Modem Art, until 17 February With all the 'boundary-blurring' going on in contemporary art, the old distinction...

Deborah Ross The Killing of John Lennon 15, West End and key cities Mark David Chapman killed John Lennon on 8 December 1980 as he returned to his New York home after a...

Lloyd Evans Happy Christmas New End The Seagull; King Lear New London Ablast of seasonal cheer at the New End Theatre. Paul Birtill's bitter and hilarious family satire, Happy...

Giannandrea Poesio Jewels The Royal Ballet George Balanchine's Jewels is an ideal acquisition for the Royal Ballet, for the evening-long work provides the artists with a...

Charles Spencer Iwent out on the razzle with a bunch of reformed drunks last weekend. God, it was fun. The aim was a serious walk, eleven and a half miles, kicking off from...

Michael Tanner The Rake's Progress Royal College of Music The Turn of the Screw English National Opera The Royal College of Music's Britten Theatre is the ideal size for...

Kate Chisholm The onset of Advent in the last days of November is supposed to be the herald of great joy at the jollities to come, but for most of us who have left childhood...

Simon Hoggart No doubt one reason why British people like Kath & Kim (often on BBC2, now on Living, Thursday) is that it takes the mick out of Australian suburban life. That...

Robin Oakley After Denman, the deluge. The downpour which followed the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury reduced my notes to soggy pulp, but no matter. Twill remember almost every...

Taki New York OK. Next to last column before the end of the year one, and of course it has to be about the crisis that has enveloped Pug's, the world's most exclusive of clubs....

Jeremy Clarke G Where are you going?' said the nurse. 'Guyana,' I said. She looked blankly at me. 'South America,' I said, passing on information I'd only recently learned...

Alex James people ask me sometimes if I still do any music and I always tell them that music is a garden and, once you've been there, you never stop going back. It's true. Then...

Steve King goes for a walk through the Los Angeles hills Los Angeles, they say, has four seasons: fire, flood, earthquake and drought. More than 500,000 acres of southern...

1 nverness in winter. Sugar-coated riverbanks, glittering with leaves. Inverness — home to the Loch Ness Monster and Cawdor, land of Macbeth. I was staying with friends for a...

DEBORAH ROSS The new champagne bar at St Pancras Station — sorry, St Pancras International — is said to be the longest in Europe, which is fine, although I pity the poor...

TOBY YOUNG When the letter anived last April I thought it was a joke. 'Dear Sir,' it began. 'On behalf of the publishers A & C Black I am very pleased to invite you to compile...

Some years ago The Spectator was sued for libel. It was a silly case, but it went to court and, early on, the counsel for the defence explained that The Spectator had no...

Dear Maly Q. Although I consider my dog Claude to have been born without a brain, he miraculously remembers that Wednesday is the day for his extra-long walkies and sits by the...

FRANK KEATING Another big fight on Saturday in Vegas: Britain's welterweight Ricky Hatton vs the accomplished American Floyd Mayweather. Victory for the four-square brickhouse...