SGTHE The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC] N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 WHAT HERBERT DID TO PETER -A so far unnoticed cause of Mr Mandelson's...

P O L I TI C S Had Mr Blair been braver, he could have been in on this week's euro euphoria BRUCE ANDERSON The combined political will of 11 nations - or at least of their...

ANOTHER VOICE The lovable creatures to be found on the London Tube (not humans) MATTHEW PARRIS London mice are smarter than Derbyshire mice. The observation will be unwelcome...

HAROLD WAS A TOPER TOO Peter Paterson revises what the latest Cabinet records say about a previous Labour government's Mr Brown THE Times once memorably declared of two...

Efficient markets IT IS ABSURD, so Mr Whelan tells us, that we should be looking at him when we could be looking at the euro. After all, its makers have just abolished Europe's...

CITY AND SUBURBAN Brown's water-gardener gets his cards, and the Treasury gets back to normal CHRISTOPHER FILDES T here goes Gordon Brown's head water-gardener. Selectively...

No time to grumble NOW I DARE say it will be the machine's turn. Having quarrelled with one permanent secretary, Mr Brown cannot afford to quarrel with another. Sir Andrew...

Shake and strain SOMETHING else the Treasury forgot to tell me is that Income Tax is a cocktail. Six parts dry gin, four orange juice, one dry vermouth, one sweet vermouth, so...

Vox pop Sir: Peter Jones (Ancient & modern, 2 January) has got it right, in theory, about choosing a poet laureate by popular vote. In 1999, however, we are likely to find...

Left in the past Sir: Michael Gove ('The doctor of Bray', 19/26 December) chastises Madsen Pirie for failing consistently to support the Conservatives. Is this the same Michael...

Nine good reasons Sir: Richard Lamb (Letters, 2 January) is perhaps the last person in the country who still believes the word of any Soviet spokesman. Seventy years of Soviet...

Little Enoch Sir: Bruce Anderson (Books, 19/26 December) refers to Enoch Powell's 'littleness'. Years ago I had personal experience of this. Occasionally I used to attend...

L E T T E R S Waterloo sunset Sir: Hamish Taylor (Letters, 2 January) says that I am being hard on Eurostar. Yet I have received letters from aggrieved passengers aboard the...

AS I WAS SAYING My trouble with a thug from whom I urge his lordship to dissociate himself PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE O ne of the disadvantages of living in London, or in any of...

Bidding the soldiers shoot Allan Mallinson BRITAIN'S ARMY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY by Field Marshal Lord Carver Macmillan, £30, pp. 560 Lord Carver was born in 1915, the...

A sure foot in both camps Robert Twigger THE AGE OF KALI: INDIAN TRAVELS AND ENCOUNTERS by William Dalrymple HarperCollins, £19.99, pp. 385 \\illiam Dalrymple's meteoric...

Final judgment on the greats Philip French YOU AIN'T HEARD NOTHIN' YET by Andrew Sarris OUP, £25, pp. 573 In the 82 years that have passed since Vachel Lindsay wrote The Art...

The great disappearing act Charles Osborne AGATHA CHRISTIE AND THE ELEVEN MISSING DAYS by Jared Cade Peter Owen, £18-95, pp. 258 T7 e I I missing days occurred in December...

A better judge of food than men Kate Hubbard ELIZABETH DAVID by Lisa Chaney Macmillan, £20, pp. 484 At an auction of Elizabeth David's household goods, following her death...

Dance Cinderella, La Fille Mal Gard~e (Festival Hall) Starry nights Giannandrea Poesio According to some dance writers, there are ballets whose unique choreography stands...

Radio Delicious tosh Michael Vestey W hat is it about the New Year that brings on the chien noir? Apprehension at what lies ahead, I suppose. Listening to the radio doesn't...

Low-life free zone Taki Gstaad T o say I'm partied out would be as gross an understatement as calling Bill Clinton a congenital liar. Never in the 41 years I've been coming...

SPECTATOR WINE CLUB Nice young things Auberon Waugh ONE of the biggest lies foisted on the British public since the war is that we have a strong pound. Anybody who has been...

SPECTATOR SPORT Theme and variations Simon Barnes SEND 'EM HOME! This was for years the stock journalistic response to any poor performance by a touring England cricket team....