liaison committee if he would apologise for going to war with Iraq for the wrong reasons, said: 'It has got rid of Saddam Hussein and he was a tyrant. I do not believe there was...

Boycott the NSPCC T _ oo much theory and not enough practice. Those were the words used this week by a lifelong shire Tory to describe what has become of the National Society...

to for nearly 50 years, is cheap and gemntlich — as Queen Victoria, who presides, would have said — and is where Laura and I stay on our visits to London. `Bed-tea', as it is...

J ust before the 1966 World Cup the England manager Sir Alf Ramsey remarked that his talented midfielder Martin Peters was 'ten years ahead of his time'. Peters himself was...

Michael Crick and Martin Rosenbaum reveal the lengths to which some people will go to record their names in Britain's foremost work of biographical reference 0 ne of Britain's...

I had just looked up a phenomenon that a sharp-eared reader had heard on the wireless — the remarkable 'double is' — in Robert Burchfield's New Fowler's, when the telephone rang...

the lawyers Brendan O'Neill says that America's first gift to Iraq has been the compensation culture and a flood of personal injury claims W hatever you think about democracy...

Theodore Dalrymple says that the high proportion of Muslim prisoners in France reflects a deeply divided society C omparison is one of the ways by which we learn about the...

John Laughland says that the case against Milosevic has all but collapsed for lack of evidence F or a few hours on Monday, the world's human rights establishment was seized by...

As George Bush continues to battle with the problems of Iraq, he could do worse than read Virgil's Aeneid (19 BO, in which Virgil applauds Rome's worldwide dominion, but does...

dropping slow No baton round has been fired since September 2002, says Thomas Harding, and Northern Ireland is enjoying its quietest period since 1968 n holiday in Ireland...

1 nfestations of vermin, disease-bearing winged creatures and even malevolent spirits from the nether world are, in these civilised and technologically advanced times, summarily...

ii – t was a quintessentially English occasion. About 16,000 people attended an open-air symphony and opera concert at Leeds Castle in Kent. They came equipped with all kinds of...

From Julius Wroblewski Sir: Charles Clover's piece on the world's declining fish stocks (Tins ain't what they used to be', 3 July), good as it was, missed its chance to...

From Joseph Askew Sir: I am at a total loss to explain Mark Steyn's recent article on Iraq (Now it's up to the Iraqis', 3 July). In what possible sense is Iraq better off now...

From Jules Lubbock Sir: Mary Wakefield (Diary, 3 July) raises the question of whether pedestrians are ever injured by cyclists. Here are two examples. A friend was hit by a...

From Steven Walker Sir: I read with interest your article by Stephen Glover (Media studies. 26 June). I was particularly interested in your comment that the Scotsman has been no...

From Frederick Forsyth Sir: Bitter controversy continues to rage over whether Swiss referee Urs Meier was right or wrong to disallow Sol Campbell's headed goal for England in...

From John Wells Sir: Jessica Pownall misses the point (Letters, 3 July). First, foxes are not ripped apart alive. The leading hound kills it with one bite, as a terrier kills a...

From Roy Rubenstein Sir: 'History is by far the most important academic discipline,' claims Paul Johnson (And another thing, 3 July). Not so. History is but action-replay to...

p rospect magazine has cleverly won itself sonic publicity with a list in its July issue of 'the top 100 British public intellectuals'. It being alphabetical, Tariq Ali's name,...

G entle readers of this column may not see the News of the World or the Sun very often, so they may be unaware that both Murdoch papers have gone bonkers in the grip of...

the chairman gets a soft landing S it Peter Davis is an affable fellow with a mansion in the Cotswolds and a yacht on or off the Cote d'Azur, and now he will be able to spend...

Bevis Hillier FACE TO FACE: BRITISH SELF-PORTRAITS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY edited by Philip Vann Sansom & Co, 81 Pembroke Road, Clifton, Bristol BS 83 EA, Tel: 0117 973 7207,...

Allan Massie THE HUNT FOR ROB ROY by David Stevenson John DonaldIBerlinn, West Newington House, 10 Newington Road, Edinburgh EH 9 I QS, £16.99, pp. 339, ISBN 0859765903 ob Roy...

Sebastian Smee THE FIT by Philip Hensber Fourth Estate, £15.99, pp. 326, ISBN 0007174810 T he first half of Philip Hensher's new novel does a lot of chugging and clunking into...

Geoffrey Howe TO KILL A PRIEST by Kevin Ruane Gibson Square Books, £16.99, pp. 386, ISBN 1903933544 N ineteen eighty-five was the year in which I became closely engaged in the...

Nicholas Harman MR WONDERFUL TAKES A CRUISE by John Nott Ebuty Press, 19.99, pp. 218, ISBN 009189834X W ere I Lady Nott — a position for which I am ineligible — I would be a...

David Hughes BRIEF LIVES by W. F. Deedes Macmillan, £12.99, pp. 212, ISBN 1405040858 W elcome a volume that in all ways lives up to its title, even at a pinch a comparison with...

James Delingpole LOOSE CANON: A PORTRAIT OF BRIAN BRINDLEY by Damian Thompson Continuum, 06.99, pp. 163, ISBN 0826474187 1\4 y second most vivid memory of Brian Brindley — the...

with Martin Amis, bloodied but apparently unbowed after the critical pasting that his last novel, Yellow Dog. received. 'I can,' he says, 'bloody well take it.' Students of his...

Andrew Lambirth on an exhibition of work by the Belgian artist Luc Tuymans 1 f you were to wander round the Luc Tuymans exhibition at Tate Modern (until 26 September) without...

Rachel Halliburton Iphigenia at Aulis Lyttelton E uripides is frequently hailed as the ancient Greek with the most modern credentials. He was a feminist before bras were...

Marcus Berkmann I f popmusic is in permanent decline — and I have a feeling that that's one of its main functions — then so, inevitably, are music magazines. It's only residual...

Ursula Buchan T do not have much objection to televi.1 sion garden-makeover programmes, strangely enough. It is certainly odd for anyone to think that it is possible, let alone...

Michael Tanner The Miserly Knight; Gianni Schicchi Glyndeboume Half a Sixpence Guildhall Dialogues des Carmelites Royal College of Music G lyndebourne has chosen to mount a...

Mark Steyn Fahrenheit 9/11 15, selected cinemas y ou won't be surprised to hear that I disagree with Michael Moore's thesis in Fahrenheit 9/11 (Bush is to blame for...

Michael Vestey T have never really understood why any1. one should have disliked Alistair Cooke's broadcasting, and yet he did have his detractors for reasons I could never...

James Delingpole Q ne of the many things that peeves 1 4-1 about this justice-free universe is that the penalties for being wrong aren't severe enough. The intellectuals who...

Taki W hen in 490 BC 10,000 Athenians fighting with ruthless efficiency strangled the life out of 100,000 Persians in the battle of Marathon, no English newspaper was against...

Jeremy Clarke T o London, to a party, carrying an umbrella of considerable sentimental value. It was a 21st birthday present to a lady who lived with us until she died last...

PetroneIla Wyatt I find myself thinking what is seemingly the unthinkable. I am a smoker. I have smoked, like many women my age, since I was a teenager. I have puffed my way...

FRANK KEATING T his midsummer, alas, two scribbler friends wrote The End' on their final pieces. Well, admired acquaintances really, I suppose, because I worked only a few...

of one of our daughter's schoolfriends asked if they could rent it for two weeks. We said, well, we don't rent it; what we will do is lend it to you and ask you to give a cheque...

to see my friend enthroned as Bishop of Blackburn. Why, you may ask, was there a group of four people, me included, seated, as compared with the 994 standing throughout the...

have moved in nearby and want to be friends? The wife has already uttered the dreaded phrase 'Get your diary out.' It seems arrogant and unfriendly to say 'Our list is full',...