L rd Sawyer, a former general secretary of the Labour party, said that Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, was out of touch with the electorate; 'When Mrs Thatcher was at her...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 020-7405 1706; Fax 020-7242 0603 BILL CLINTON IS RIGHT B ravo, Clinton. Well said. After eight e mbarrassing...

`Progress centres' could be a first step towards radical progress BRUCE ANDERSON 0 n Wednesday, the spinning was re- Spun. Tony Blair chose a mass rally of the Women's...

DOMINIC LAWSON A n extraordinary fact emerged in the Evening Standard's Homes and Property sec- tion last week. In its regular table of Aver- age Property Prices 'excluding...

Robert Matthews says the world's most famous scientist is far from being the world's greatest scientist FANCY a night out? How about going to see a play about a disabled man...

THE new 6th edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (£14 in paperback) boasts of including 'global influences' with words such as caffe latte, while preserving...

Just who do you think they are? Sion Simon on the Tories who have gone missing LET me be the first to say, it's been a good couple of months for the Conservative party. No...

Michael Heath

Mark Steyn says American conservatives must lighten up a little if they want to succeed New Hampshire TONY Blair's 'Third Way' club met in Berlin the other day. Except it's no...

Justin Marozzi resists attempts to co-opt him into fighting the Serbs' propaganda war Belgrade SLOBODAN Milosevic needs Sir Tim Bell. Or Maurice Saatchi. Or Peter Man- delson....

Cardinal Thomas Winning says the Church must speak out in the face of secular challenges to the moral order A FEW years ago, during a meeting with Pope John Paul II, I asked...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit A WHILE ago in this column I men- tioned the backbenchers who use their once-in-a-lifetime chance to table a pri- vate...

Football hooligans rush in where Sir Walter Scott genteelly trod PAUL JOHNSON D . I care if the Germans beat us in war? A great deal, obviously. If they beat us in diplomacy,...

How the Prince's spin doctor set the tabloids cheering for Camilla STEPHEN GLOVER P rince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles appear to have secured the approval they have long...

From Mr Randhir Singh Bains Sir: Your leader (3 June) rightly states that the government's anti-elitism campaign stems from its aversion to noting the differ- ence between an...

one redeeming feature: dons are squirming in a most amusing way. Mrs Thatcher was denied an honorary degree amid much self- righteous trumpeting of the need to stand up for the...

From Sir Michael Ogden, QC Sir: Your leader writer was correct when he spoke of the 'legendary' incompetence f the Crown Prosecution Service (20 May)' However, Edward Bowles, a...

From Mr George Cazenove Sir: Peter Oborne's article on General Sir Charles Guthrie ('An officer and a politi- cian', 27 May) made two errors. He wrote that there is an 'iron...

From Mr James T Lyon Sir: If Miss Edwardes (Diary, 27 May) and Mr Fabricant (Letters, 3 June) must be robbed in Europe, they should consider Germany. In 1954, four of us,...

From Cheli Duran Sir: My attention has been drawn to Antho- ny Howard's review of Arthur Herman's book, Joseph McCarthy (Books, 6 May). Anthony Howard is a reliable critic and...

It is rather sad that Lloyd Evans should s e ek to categorise the whole animal-protec - tion m ovement as being of the Left ( ` The an imal protection racket', 3 June). Marxism...

Revd John Fellows k e ir e As a middle-aged clergyman I do try to f or P u P with modern usage. Could I there- to: make a plea for some editorial consis- I c Y in the use of the...

From Mr John Hinde Sir: An inexpensive location close to sea, beach and mountains, where the climate is near ideal and the natives friendly and hon- est, is not quite as elusive...

From Mrs Barbara Jackson Sir: Why not widen the culling area of the alien Canada geese from Kensington Gar- dens nationwide (And another thing, 3 June)? We could also follow in...

reviews by Deborah Ross — I have faxed two articles to the States and around my UK friends recently. She is hilarious on the Mirabelle (Restaurants, 20 May). Gaynor Carlton...

were amused to see 'New Labour, New Class War' on the cover of your 3 June issue. At London Class War we laughed about that three years ago. Perhaps in future you could think of...

amusing review of the West Arms Hotel, Llangollen (6 May) was especially amusing to readers in the Antipodes. Anyone who has visited Sydney or Auckland will understand why we...

Charles Spencer- C hurchill. Mr Hambro may be an 'old friend' but the venom you spat at him (Let- ters, 3 June) indicates otherwise. His Dian/ (20 May) was one of the best...

Whatever the outcome of the class war, Mr Blair will be the victor FRANK JOHNSON A someone who has suggested in this column that Churchill might have done likewise in 1940, I...

and Psion. It was nice knowing you, howev- e r brie fl y . fl , -e ...Y. Like so many Barnsleys or Burn- ,, - .. .7 s . or Accrin ( 3) into the gton Stanleys, they rocketed 1 Le...

THE Grand International Boondoggle Handicap was a rough race in which the favourite was nobbled, prompting the sta- ble to insist that its second string should be declared the...

Apples for the teacher, zones for the minister it was all a bridge too far CHRISTOPHER FILDES A pples for the teacher and butter for t he politician. Businessmen are always...

SOME of the cream paint would then come off the stucco. Those signs of the top of the house market may have been telling the truth. Two months I listed nine of them, beginning...

THE money made in the east end of Lon- don is spent in the west end. Bonuses have disappeared behind stucco façades and into the pockets of builders and house agents, with fancy...

STUDENTS of the boondoggle culture have been been watching the Solomon Islands to see whether Glenys Kinnock got eaten. As a member of the European Par- liament she was there on...

ENTERTAINING DR MURDOCK MARY WAKEFIELD The Shiva Naipaul Memorial Prize is award- ed annually to the entrant best able, like the late Shiva Naipaul, to describe a visit to a...

Goodnight, Vienna, it's over Norman Lebrecht GUSTAV MAHLER - VIENNA: TRIUMPH AND DISILLUSION by Henry-Louis de La Grange OUP, £35, pp. 1024 T he 1,000-page third volume of...

Raymond Carr LIBERATORS by Robert Harvey John Murray, .E25, pp. 561 I t is a bold man who would attempt to chronicle Latin America's 20 years of con- fused struggle for...

RAM 12 months 6 months (52 issues) (26 issues) UK 0 /97 0 449 Europe 0 £109 0 /55 USA 0 US$161 0 US$82 Australia 0 Aus$225 0 Aus$113 Rest of World 0 £119 0 160 Please enter...

and a great deal more David Hughes PIANO ROLES: THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF LIFE WITH THE PIANO by James Parakilas and others Yale, £26, pp. 461 E xcept by those who hope to be...

Philip MacCann PROMISCUITY: AN EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF SPERM COMPETITION AND SEXUAL CONFLICT by Tim Birkhead Faber, £9.99, pp. 261 A ristotle knew his chickens. In partic-...

Jane Ridley THE BIOGRAPHER'S TALE by A. S. Byatt Chatto, £15.99, pp. 265 T his is a story about a biographer who is writing the biography of a biographer. It starts in a...

Richard 011ard INSIDE STALIN'S RUSSIA: THE DIARIES OF READER BULLARD, 1930-1934 edited by Julian and Margaret Bullard Day Books, £19.50, pp. 310 I t is early to start picking...

Steve King E veryone loves Elizabeth I. Poets, play- wrights and historians have been singing her praises for more than 400 years. The romantic view of Elizabeth's achievements...

Katie Grant HORSE HEAVEN by Jane Smiley Faber, £1 7 99, pp. 561 11 the ingredients for disaster are here: too many characters, not enough plot, too many pages, too much...

Jonathan Keates LIBERACE: AN AMERICAN BOY by Darden Asbury Pyron University of Chicago Press, f19.50, pp. 494 T he life of Liberace was one of those which give the impression...

David Pryce-Jones The following is the address given at Peter Levi's memorial service at St Maly the Virgin, Oxford on 16 May O ccupying the best part of one of my shelves are...

Petipa's masterwork restored Giannandrea Poesio welcomes the 'new' Kirov production of The Sleeping Beauty T he presence of a Russian ballet com- pany has become a regular...

Martin Gayford visits the recently opened extension to Dulwich Picture Gallery P oland's loss was South London's gain. Much of the collection of Old Masters now at Dulwich...

Today's challenge Stuart Nicholson T hese days, jazz, pop and classical seem much happier dwelling on the past than contemplating the present. Recently, the editor of...

Antipodean triumph Sheridan Morley on Broadway's Tony Awards and a London opening H ad the director Michael Blakemore not been kind enough to teach me how to read and do...

Proms pleasures Peter Phillips T he publicity for the 106th season of Promenade concerts focuses on youth and novelty. In fact it speaks of very little else; from which one...

U-571 (12, selected cinemas) Enigma variations Mark Steyn inaccuracies, let me complain about the musical inaccuracies (eat your heart out, John Keegan). U-571 is about the...

In Gielgud's veins Michael Vestey T he Archive Hour: Gielgud — The Act- ing Blood on Radio Four (Saturday) was a marvellous tribute to Sir John Gielgud who died at the end of...

Whiffs of the past Simon Hoggart H istory will prove me right,' said Anthony Eden on being told that Nasser had died. No it won't. History can't prove anything. It's in a...

Leave well alone Robin Oakley S ometimes I fear the sun-dried tomato syndrome is taking over the whole of life. Why cannot a chef give you a Caesar Salad any more without...

Automotive urges Alan Judd I magine what it would be like if you were one of very few people to be subject to the sexual urge, and that the rest of mankind couldn't understand...

Field of disaster Taki I magine running into Ava Gardner and Betty Grable during their heyday and hav- ing the two most divine and sexiest women ever invite you into their bed...

Earthly paradise Jeremy Clarke A fter Benalmadena we went up into Las Alpujarras, a mountainous district south of Granada, where we spent a week walking. Las Alpujarras are...

Fowl business Leanda de Lisle T he chicken breeder in Nuneaton has been robbed again. The last time we visited he'd just caught a vixen that had been stealing his birds. She...

Leave me alone Petronella Wyatt L ast week saw the publication of the first national survey on stalking. For the benefit of male readers, we are referring, for a change, to...

Trickery Andrew Robson I AM very sad that this is my last column. But I am delighted that Susanna Gross is to be my successor. Susanna is currently having much success in the...

WHAT a dullard I am. How small-minded I have been, all this while, to have filled my restaurant columns with eateries and food. For years I've been plodding off to dinner, and...

Rdbeq CHESS The Ultimate lslav Malt. www.ardbeg.com David Spanier Raymond Keene THIS week's article is a tribute to David Spanier who died last month. David was an...

After you, Ogden Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2139 you were invited to supply a poem in the style of Ogden Nash on the subject of golf, the opera or Englishness. Three...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's award-winning, Late- Bottled Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 26 June, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or,...

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The sports headline 'Wallabies Maul Lions' could equally well apply to some extraordi- nary incident in a zoo. You are invited to take a headline from a recent newspaper (please...

Three weeks of unity Simon Barnes WHAT are the great shared events of the last ten years? I mean, the where-were-you- when-you-heard/watched events, the great public...

Dear Mary.. . Q. An elderly person I know well has the habit of talking with her mouth full of food. I know we all do it from time to time, but this person talks at length like...