London can take it! Blitz II. Tony Blair laughs off near miss by one of Livingstone's bombers. A fter a delay of several hours caused by a new 'high-tech' balloting system, Ken...

1706; Fax 020-7242 0603 OUT OF AFRICA T he dispatch of British paratroops to Sierra Leone for the purpose of evacuating British and other nationals was sensible and prudent....

This time, the credit must go to Mr Mandelson BRUCE ANDERSON I n Ulster, this is a time for detail and real- ism. Crucial decisions are imminent, and it is impossible to...

JUSTIN MAROZZI A a student of the Free Nelson Man- dela generation, I have always wanted to visit Robben Island, the prison off the coast of Cape Town where the great man was...

Boris Johnson hears the owner of Harrods speak frankly about his friend Colonel Gaddafi and his enemies Prince Philip, Tony Blair and the entire homosexual establishment IT...

Frank Field says that the PM is neglecting decent, old-fashioned Labour supporters ON any count last week's election results are a major setback for the government, but only...

OUR residence on earth being so com- paratively short, I try to improve each shining hour. It was for this reason that I picked up and leafed through a magazine called Know Your...

Toby Young was best man at a Washington wedding — and nobody laughed when he got up to speak IT was an experience I'll take to my grave. On Saturday, 29 April I was the best...

Kevin Maguire on the latest Tony Blair courtier to find himself caught up in a public spat BOY George was singing his heart out at the Labour conference disco as Piers Mor-...

SOME readers have written asking if a phrase I used recently, 'an historical curiosity', was not itself a curiosity. I don't think I'd go that far. Dr Robert Burchfield, who...

Mark Steyn says that George W is a far cannier candidate than the weird Al Gore New Hampshire ELIAN fever has passed, and the presiden- tial candidates are tentatively...

BATES 12 months 6 months (52 issues) (26 issues) UK I:1 £97 ❑ £49 Europe El £109 El £55 USA El usS161 0 US$82 Australia El Aus$225 0 Aus$113 Rest of World El £119 ❑ £60 Please...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit ONE of the charming aspects of our parliamentary procedure is that con- cerning private members' bills, whereby obscure...

Simon Courtauld on the huddled masses of Mexico who are daily risking their lives to enter the United States IN Britain they are called bogus asylum- seekers and come mostly...

On the 60th anniversary of Hitler's Blitzkrieg, Alistair Home says the Anglo-Americans have no right to sneer at the Maginot Line SIXTY years ago this week the 'Phoney War'...

The ideal painter to make one forget the horrors of modern art PAUL JOHNSON I celebrated the opening of Tate Modern, art's new Chamber of Horrors, by buying a vast tome about...

A startling fact that the Observer failed to share with its readers STEPHEN GLOVER I hope readers will remember the strange and fascinating case of Victoria Brittain, the...

at Flem- ings for three years. They very decently kept me on despite that fact that it was very obvious to everyone that I was utterly use- less at merchant banking. Although he...

From C.A. Latimer Sir: We should all be glad that Anne Applebaum ('Why I am proud to be a sub- ject of The Queen', 6 May) has achieved her aim, but she is quite wrong if she...

From Mr Nicky Samengo-Turner Sir: Simon Nixon's excellent piece (`What news from Ekaterinburg?', 6 May) on Robert Fleming reminded me of an obser- vation made by one of my...

Applebaum — who wants to be 'in'; or Anthony Hopkins — who seems happy to be 'out'? Hayes Williams London W4

From Mr Brian Hicks Sir: The accuracy of Shakespeare's descrip- tions of Italian topography, culture and customs (Books, 29 April) has been known at least since 1918 with the...

on the lack of official emotion following her taking on our nationality, with the percep- tive suggestion that only a fundamentally stable country would offer such indiffer-...

From Mr Tom Benyon Sir: Philip Hensher (Books, 8 April) gives a savage thumbs-down to both Jonathan Aitken and to his book, Pride and Perjury. While one can perhaps forgive his...

From Mr Michael Harrington Sir: In his fine and interesting review of a new book about Joe McCarthy (Books, 6 May), Anthony Howard implies that J. Edgar Hoover was a homosexual....

in pointing out that the Australian media and intelligentsia are probably the most politically correct in the English-speaking world. Truth and reason are simply ignored and...

From Mr Bob Ellis Sir: Michael Duffy (The world's next white pariah', 15 April) saying that 'only' ten per cent of Aboriginal children were forcibly separated from their parents...

From Mr Claus von Billow Sir: Jasper Gerard (Absolutely potty', 22 April) has drawn attention to the hitherto insoluble gender inequality which enables men to urinate while...

obsession with the supposed aggression demonstrated by their men urinating in a standing position is illustrated by the habit of the Arab male to pee squatting, especially in...

a person of particularly liberal opinions and I am cer- tainly no follower of the cult of political correctness, but I must confess to the habit of micturating in a seated...

Kingsley Amis has persuaded me to spill the beans on the closet liberals FRANK JOHNSON T he late Kingsley Amis's letters, pub- lished this week, reveal him to some people as...

The euro in your pocket has not been devalued, but don't bet your savings on it CHRISTOPHER FILDES S o that's all right then. The euro in your pocket has not been devalued....

GORDON Brown is almost the first Labour Chancellor not to have learned this lesson the hard way. In a span of six decades, Philip Snowden, Hugh Dalton, Stafford Cripps, Hugh...

MY advice to its central banker is to give up his Harold Wilson imitation and take his cue from Eliot (`Calamity) Janeway. The sage was once asked to prognosticate at a grand...

THEY have tried lecturing the markets. Harold Wilson tried that too. He blamed the dealers for listening to ale-house gossip, an affront resented by my City friends who drank in...

I HAVE a splendid new policy for him, or, if he is too choosy, for the new shadow chan- cellor, Michael Portillo. I urge him to revive the sterling area. Britain is now the...

Dear blokes . cheers, Kingers Richard Bradford THE LETTERS OF KINGSLEY AMIS edited by Zachary Leader HatperCollins, £24.99, pp. 1208 is frequently affirmed that his nov- els...

David Crane THE COGWHEEL BRAIN by Doron Swade Little Brown, £14.99, pp.342 T he reputation of Charles Babbage probably stands higher now than it has ever done. For a few...

D. J. Taylor KING OF THE CITY by Michael Moorcock Scribner's, £16.99, pp. 421 a) Ian `Lemmy' Kilminster b) Michael Dempsey c) Wilco Johnson The answers are: a) the...

Ian Gilmour MARGARET THATCHER, VOLUME I: THE GROCER'S DAUGHTER by John Campbell Cape, £25, pp. 511 W ith New Labour seemingly determ- ined to be Thatcherite in word and deed...

Alan Sked WHAT IF? MILITARY HISTORIANS IMAGINE WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN edited by Robert Cowley Macmillan, f20, pp. 395 I n 1889 Buffalo Bill's famous Wild West Show put on a...

Norman Lebrecht ZEMLINSKY by Antony Beaumont Faber, £30, pp. 524 R bably the cruellest tribute ever offered by one composer to another was Arnold Schoenberg's 50th-birthday...

William Feaver BRUNELLESCHI'S DOME by Ross King Chatto, £15.99, pp. 184 I t remains one of the great Renaissance experiences. Jamming your head back, focussing your gaze way...

Signature: Send me copy(ies) of What If? Military Historians Imnagine What Might Have Been @ i17.00 Send me copy(ies) of The Abolition of Britain U.00 TOTAL: £ Delivery is...

Martin Gayford on how Tate Modern is setting the agenda for the new millennium A bout eight years ago, when the mighty Tate Modern project was just get- ting going, I met a...

Alan Powers on the story behind the transformation of Bankside Power Station I t is now well known that Herzog & de Meuron were outsiders in the architectural Competition for...

Macbeth (Scottish Opera) Ernani (English National Opera) Verdi double Michael Tanner S cottish Opera's production of Macbeth, unveiled at last year's Edinburgh Festival and...

The King and I (Palladium) The Seagull (Barbican) The first lady sings Sheridan Morley A t last we have the I back in The King and I; when this classic Rodgers-Hammer- stein...

The real thing? Mark Steyn T o mark what would have been the Sex Pistols' 50 years in showbusiness, director Julien Temple has returned to the scene of his first triumph....

Nice little earner Michael Vestey O ne of the things I like about Law in Action on Radio Four is that it's a kind of Jodrell Bank of lawyers, giving us advance warning of when...

The Diaghilev Legacy (Royal Ballet) Triumphant return Giannandrea Poesio T here is little doubt that the works pre- miered by the legendary Ballets Russes during the 20 years...

Why Vronsky? Simon Hoggart T here was one terrifically erotic moment in the first episode of Anna Karen- ina (Channel 4). Kitty is playing on the piano, where she is joined by...

Big beauty Alan Judd M y cousin's company car is a four- litre Jaguar Sovereign. He needs something Comfortable because his business mileage is 30 ,000-50,000 miles a year....

It's only a horse race . . . Robin Oakley T rainers rainers need time to get to know their gallops. All credit then to John Gosden for scoring a Classic success with Hamdan al...

Stars and bars Taki Toby's Caroline I hardly know. At his goodbye party she challenged me to a box- ing match, but I refused. How on earth can a woman be as naive to think she...

Death in the afternoon Jeremy Clarke T he sound of rain drumming on the roof of your caravan, day after day, night after night, even if you are on holiday, can get you down...

Down on the picket line Leanda de Lisle F armers For Action want you for your body!' the message read. It came from the Countryside Alliance's Grass Roots organi- sation and,...

Home from home Petronella Wyatt T hat wasn't it from Morocco. Ever been to Tangier? There's a hotel there called the El Minzah. In Tangier's heyday every itinerant...

Poor game Andrew Robson TWO PLAYERS in different partnerships were discussing their evening's duplicate. `How did you do on Board 13?', said one to the other. `Fine — knocked...

Raymond Keene WHILE Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik are gearing up for their world title challenge in London later this year, two rival claimants to the crown, Anatoly...

The cynic's reply Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2135 you were asked to supply, in the same metre, a pre- sent-day cynic's reply to Marlowe's Passionate Shepherd's invitation,...

Dr Johnson praising Whiggery, a devout hymn by Swinburne, Chesterton arguing in favour of pessimism. . . . You are invited to supply an imaginary passage from a famous author,...

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

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Badminton's killing fields Simon Barnes NEWSPAPERS often send big-name writ- ers to Badminton horse trials, but never to write about the actual sport. For years the standard...

Dear Mary.. . Q. I have recently lost a lot of weight and, to my horror, notice that despite the fact that I am pre-menopausal I now have the condition 'crêpe neck'. How can I...