David Kelly, the Ministry of Defence expert on Iraqi weapons, by disclosing part of a letter by the scientist to his superior, in which he said that, judging from the report by...

The new ice age B y the time The Spectator goes to press, the record for the highest-ever authenticated measurement of air temperature in the British Isles may or may not have...

kind of universe. If the sun shines for more than two days, the network goes down. You can't argue with science. In the last heatwave I travelled back to London from Brighton in...

1 eforc the 1979 election, many senior Tories believed that 0 Thatcherism was dangerous nonsense. If Margaret Thatcher did become Prime Minister, they assumed that she would...

the Today programme's Andrew Gilligan. A fortnight ago, readers will remember, this column reprinted without so much as the courtesy of a check-call the allegation that Mr...

NT arious explanations have been offered for the decision by the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, to leave for his summer holiday before the funeral this week of Dr David Kelly....

Gay bishops, dwindling congregations: the Anglican crisis continues, and some are calling for disestablishment. But, says Peter Hitchens, the link between Church and State is...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade The council estates of King's Lynn, Harriet Sergeant recently revealed, are groaning with Chinese migrant...

I was looking for an obscure work by Richarde Weste (fl. 1609-16) when I came across a real treat. The DNB told me Weste's book was edited by Frederick Furnivall in the Early...

As the care crisis worsens, Jeremy Clarke recalls the strange final years of a spinster who lived in a residential home run by his parents M iss Busby's room — room five — had a...

Simon Heifer believes that Mr Blair's touchy-feely society is undermining cricket by reconciling it to mediocrity S ince it is always helpful to blame the government for most...

The MP John Redwood has hired a London PR firm to raise his profile. The firm is keen for him to feature in lifestyle articles, when he will talk about his great love of...

Aldan Hartley on how a friend of his shot dead a robber and wounded another in Kenya last year, without having to go through Tony Martin's agony Nairobi O ne evening in the...

The BBC is staffed by people bristling with academic qualifications, says Tom Fort, but they don't know English I n more tranquil times, before the Gilligan storm broke over his...

Is the taxpayer about to stump up another £16 million for the Duchess of Northumberland's pet project, Alnwick Garden? Mary Keen investigates T o him that hath shall be given,...

It is often said that one shouldn't judge by appearances, but it is rather difficult to see by what else one mi g ht j ud g e, at least in the first instance. Besides,...

Theodore Dalrymple says that young Jamaicans have been corrupted by victimhood and the musico-industrial complex lyv henever I have a patient who belongs to the first...

im uch as I like and admire our courageous Prime Minister, I can't approve of his taste in holidays. Chiantishire was bad enough, but to borrow or hire a pop singer's villa in...

From Michael Scott Rohan Sir: Much as I agree with Ross Clark's general point (Just when you thought it was safe... ', 2 August), he is wholly wrong to use easyJet to castigate...

From Martin Sewell Sir: I was reading Anthony Browne's excellent article (Some truths about immigration', 2 August) last Saturday morning while listening to Radio Four. The...

August). As a 72-year-old Englishman, I was one of millions who found that Bob Hope's humour 'kept us smiling in the grim years of the war' — and after. And for Johnson to take...

From Carola Zentner Sir: Re Leo McKinstry's article on rip-off Britain (Boycott Britain', 26 July), perhaps the Queen could set a good example by abolishing the £1 handling...

From Shirley Doltis Sir: The description of Shirley Porter as an 'arch-crook' (The Spectator's notes, 26 July) was grotesque. Without going into the details of the Westminster...

From Eric Dehn Sir: David Gardner (Plain Hinglish', 2 August) maintained that Indians are 'impeccably logical' in their mastery of our phraseology. I am not quite sure whether...

From Sir Christopher Bland Sir: Chuck it, Johnson! The 'particularly brilliant Spectator interview' which he referred to in his diary piece on 2 August was almost entirely...

lose one loyal media friend may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Not long ago the government could depend on the instinctive support of the...

As ugust is a sticky month. So often in markets, this is when the trouble starts. The Swiss banks' chief dealers cool themelves by the Italian lakes, the City's better element...

Candia Mc William ELECTRIC SHEPHERD: A LIKENESS OF JAMES HOGG by Karl Miller Faber, £25, pp. 401 ISBN 0571218164 Arresting. this. Even more arresting is a later cry from the...

Sebastian Smee THE CLERKFNWELL TALES by Peter Ackroyd Chatto, £15.99, pp, 213 ISBN 1856197069 W hat makes Peter Ackroyd's new novel a failure as fiction is also, strange to...

Christopher Howse THE FACTORY OF LIGHT: LIFE IN AN ANDALUSIAN VILLAGE by Michael Jacobs John Murray, £17.99, pp. 274, ISBN 0719561639 A strange Englishman has settled in the...

Ian Thomson AN UNDERWORLD AT WAR by Donald Thomas John Murray, £20, pp. 429, ISBN 0719557321 Jr oe Walker, the street-smart spiv of Dad's Amy, could be relied on to come up...

Anita Brookner GOOD FAITH by Jane Smiley Faber, £12.99, pp. 417, ISBN 0577278437 A nother great American novel, but perhaps not great enough to arouse concern for the more...

P. J. Kavanagh IT TAKES ALL SORTS by Milton Shulman House of Stratus, £8.99, pp. 289, ISBN 0755111427 T here seems a fashion for commonplace books, compilations, even for...

Graham Stewart MUD, BLOOD AND POPPYCOCK by Gordon Corrigan Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £18.99, pp. 431. ISBN 0304359556 F or many, perhaps most people, .futility' seems to be the...

Tony Gould HUNTING THE 1918 FLU: ONE SCIENTIST'S SEARCH FOR A KILLER VIRUS by Kirsty Duncan University of Toronto Press, £22, pp. 297, ISBN 0802087485 K irsty Duncan is a...

Martin Gayford on why we are drawn to places of financial and industrial failure -w e spent part of the last two weeks — as has become a family custom — mooching round Siena....

Andrew Lambirth Paradise National Gallery until 28 September M en, women, and children on a beach, band music, sea grass, and sandwich hampers remind me more forcibly than...

Michael Tanner Die Fiedermaus Glyndebourne _L./ Flederrnaus is one of those works that, against expectations, nearly always fails in the opera house. The music is irresistible...

Ursula Buchan T feel like the bloke in the anorak in The 1 Fast Show who walks along streets saying things like, 'Aren't old people absolutely brilliant?' I want to walk the...

Lloyd Evans Edward II Globe Calamity Jane Shaftesbray Vincent in Brixton Playhouse M arlowe's Edward II is a fascinating play. Its themes and dramatic patterns are so close to...

Mark Steyn Pirates Of The Caribbean 12, selected cinemas A c p cording to co-writer Terry Rossio, irates Of The Caribbean was created as 'a very classic. Jane Austen-style,...

Stuart Nicholson J azz can be, and often was, a music of protest. Sometimes it was covert, such as the elegantly raised eyebrow of Duke Ellington at pre-war apartheid America,...

Peter Phillips I 've often wondered what people mean when they say they hate a piece of music. The first thought is that it must be a very ordinary example of its kind, so...

Giannandrea Poesio Kirov Ballet Royal Opera House I n 1900, while classical theatre dance was rapidly declining in Western Europe, Russian ballet was at its peak. Legendary...

Michael Vestey preoccupied with other things I've not I been able to fish on the Tay for the past two years, but a five-part series on Radio Four, The Philosopher, The Fish And...

Robin Oakley I t wasn't the panamas and the pretty girls in pastels who put the gloss on Goodwood this year. It wasn't even the strolling steel band which the crusty old...

Ta k Gstaad A fter the heat of the French Riviera ..and of the birthplace of selective democracy, the Alps are a welcome relief — up to a point. I am here on a family holiday,...

Jeremy Clarke Elirst thing Monday morning I was in 1 court. No car tax. When I eventually found the magistrate's court, it was like the Marie Celeste. No defendants hanging...

department stores used to sell even quite famous wines under their own label. For example, the Army & Navy stores used to bottle the celebrated Château Pavie from St Emilion,...

E ngland lost a Test match at Lord's last week, but they found a player. Well, not 'found' perhaps; discovered. Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff made his Test debut five summers ago as...

guests expensive chocolates along with their coffee or tisane? If the answer is yes, then I am afraid that I personally cannot afford to shell out a further termer on top of...

a freelance masseuse/acupuncturist woman of many parts to come on holiday with us for a week to do cooking, driving, plus a few massages. (I have lost my licence and have a bad...

our garden in Tuscany. Can you offer any guidance on poolside loungers? My husband claims that upholstered ones are common. S.G., Siena A. The expression poolside lounger' is...