`Room for one more inside, sir.' T he Conservatives lost the Newbury by- election to the Liberal Democrats through a huge swing, and did very badly in county council elections:...

Mr Major finds he already has another election to worry about SIMON HEFFER T he Tories have had some spectacular panics since Mr Major won the General Election. However, that...

People find it embarrassing that this man is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom CHARLES MOORE n Monday Mr Michael Heseltine told the Today programme that in the 1930s the...

ALAN RUSBRIDGER I f, like me, you are married to someone who positively relishes a dust-up in a restaurant, the one thing you dread encountering over a meal is a maggot. The...

John Simpson recalls his experiences in Tiananmen Square four years ago and urges the West not to put its trust in Deng Xiaoping IN THE VASTNESS of Tiananmen Square, as empty...

Mark Almond explains how the Saddam Hussein of the Balkans has become the apple of Lord Owen's eye Question: When is a war criminal not a war criminal? Answer: When he signs...

THEY ARE at it again, I'm afraid. What kind of change does the Conser- vative Government need? Why, a sea- change, of course. Quite what this means is to me unclear. The Oxford...

Western Europe has been taught a lesson in free trade by former Communist countries, argues Anne Applebaum AMERICAN politicians have long been aware of the difficulties...

persist. . THERE IS a method known to psychol- ogists as paradoxical intention, by means of which patients bring about a desired end by striving for its opposite. Thus,...

ONE AVOIDABLE CAUSE OF CRUELTY THE new Report of the National Soci- ety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a very remarkable and inter- esting document, to one of the...

Harriet Sergeant discovers that some Japanese pay a high price for their preservation of ancient values Tokyo `IT'S TIME you experienced traditional Japan,' said my Japanese...

Buddha's enlightenment was probably the last bit of good news to come out of Bihar, reports William Dalrymple Patna, Bihar NO ONE has ever called Patna, the capital of the...

Alasdair Palmer meets Chuck Colson, Nixon's hatchet man, who this week received an unusual honour at Buckingham Palace `CONVERTED murderers make wonder- ful disciples.' Chuck...

Palmerston's government tried to introduce compulsory tests in schools. It didn't work in 1862 either, argues Terence Kealey HERE are two quotes, separated by 126 years: I...

Michael Heath

A sudden outbreak of marriage PAUL JOHNSON R ecently, in our circle of friends and acquaintances, there has been a sudden outbreak of marriage. People coming up to 50, or...

Headhunters spot a sit. vac. coming up it's a job for a bruiser CHRISTOPHER FILDES N ow thrive the headhunters. They are after chief executives for Barclays, for the Stock...

Sir: Nigel Nicolson asks (Tong life, 17 April) what the European Parliament is doing about Bosnia. As he knows, because I discussed it with him some months ago, press reporting...

Sir: In his article 'Would Churchill have signed Maastricht?' (8 May) Max Beloff quotes Clarissa Avon's recollection of what she heard in Downing Street when her uncle and...

Sir: Sir Alfred Sherman offers several argu- ments (Letters, 8 May), which are weari- somely familiar to those of us who have to study Serbian propaganda. The first is that the...

and fully, but misrepresented me in your title, 'Speaking for Serbia'. I have no locus standi to speak for Serbia, but for common sense and a peaceful settle- ment, as the...

Sir: When I turned to the puzzle pages in the 1 May issue of The Spectator and saw Mass had presented a crossword titled `Mayday' (his 200th in the series), I could not help but...

Sir: The beleaguered landowners on whose behalf Mr A. Waugh writes to complain about the activities of assorted `ramblers and scramblers' (Another voice, 24 April) are in an...

Sir: Martin Vander Weyer's article `Snouts in the trough' (1 May) clearly identifies remuneration of directors and chairmen as an issue which should concern both share- holders...

Sir: Yes, every twit of a certain age knows that fried bread should be fried in bacon fat, not chicken fat (Letters, 1 May). However could C.P. Todd of Clayhill Farm tell every...

You needn't have Hart Mark Steyn RODGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN by Ethan Mordden Abrams, f30, pp. 224 T here's a story of a Sound of Music pro- duction meeting where someone...

J. Enoch Powell THE FABER BOOK OF CONSERVATISM edited by Kenneth Baker Faber, £17.50, pp. 291 A man should not be blamed for what he suffers his publisher to put upon a dust-...

All bills are prompt; pay's of uncertain date. The taps draw acid from every vat. Chat-show pundits drone, on this and that, Yet tranquilliser capsules agitate. Weird...

Hugo Williams AND WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER? by Blake Morrison Granta, £14.99, pp. 219 F athers have had a good run for their money in this age of biography and...

bowers Peter Levi WHISTLING IN THE DARK IN PURSUIT OF THE NIGHTINGALE by Richard Mabey Sinclair-Stevenson, £9.99, pp. 120 T he loss of Geoffrey Grigson has dis- covered our...

David Montrose AMONG THE DEAD by Michael Tolkin Faber, £14.99, pp. 229 T he night before everything changed, Frank Gale wrote a letter to his wife.' So, portentously, begins...

William Scammell THE WEATHER IN ICELAND by David Profumo Picador, i14.99, pp. 320 R ichard Slide, the last Duke of Lon- don, sits in Switzerland in the late Nineties Con the...

Julie Burchill MICK JAGGER: PRIMITIVE COOL by Christopher Sandford Gollancz, £16.99, pp. 319 W henever I am sent a new book on the lively arts, the first thing I do is look for...

Bryan Appleyard THE TRANSPARENCY OF EVIL by Jean Baudrillard, translated by James Benedict, Verso, £34.95, £11.95, pp. 174 J ean Baudrillard is the kind of French thinker who...

Conservation Puritanism and politics Anthony Symondson on why St Ethelburga's could and should be rebuilt B efore the Great Fire in 1666, London had 109 mediaeval churches....

From Roppongi to Rouen Martin Vander Weyer tracked down the history of the picture he bought in a Tokyo junkshop T here is something sad about displaced works of art and...

Nicholas Granger-Taylor (Waterman Fine Art, till 22 May) Bryan Ingham (Francis Graham-Dixon Gallery, till 6 June) Do I see lemons? Giles Auty T he odd nature of the...

Many mansions Alexandra Artley visits a new museum of religious life and art in Glasgow Af ter the Bengali mystic Sri Rama- krishna claimed to have had visions of both Jesus...

For love or money Tanya Harrod on the strains felt by the second generation of Arts and Crafts workers M ost of us work to live, rather than live to work; but the men and women...

Youth and authenticity Peter Phillips T he 99th season of Promenade Con- certs, as this year's is to be, has the aspect of an organisation clearing the decks for the Big One....

It's down to the punters now Alistair McAlpine M ay is usually the month when the desks of dealers are piled high with sale- room catalogues, but not this year — nor for that...

Groundhog Day (PG', selected cinemas) The Story of Qiu Ju (`12', selected cinemas) Second time around Vanessa Letts roundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, is...

Oktoberfest (Lyric Hammersmith Studio) Search and Destroy (Theatre Upstairs) Total Eclipse (Greenwich) Munich memories Sheridan Morley A co-operative (and I would imagine...

A bit orf Martyn Harris M __ my Wesley is famous for revealing that old ladies once had sex lives, and has become rich by writing about it. A Wesley heroine is a pretty,...

The man who has everything Tali Not that I have anything against the two beauties. Waugh once wrote that he knew me when I was waiting on tables in a Cyp- riot restaurant — an...

Some talk of Alexander Nigel Nicolson I n the autumn of 1989 it was gloomily foretold that we were in for six years of commemorating the 50th anniversaries of every major...

From the land of pure delight Auberon Waugh M ay is the month I traditionally intro- duce the new vintage from Chateau Musar, miraculous product of the Bekaa valley, in...

Travels with my aunt Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1778 you were invited to describe, in the person of a well-known P. G. Wodehouse character, part of a tricky journey taken...

Raymond Keene SETTING UP the Kasparov-Short cham- pionship match outside Fide has been rather like becoming involved in those legitimist movements which aim to restore the...

A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 1 June, with two runners-up prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers,...

In need of a large Scotch Frank Keating FOR CERTAIN, Cup Final weekend will be invested with one particular image, on the pitch or off it, which will log it indelibly for the...

Dear Mary. . Q. I train racehorses and recently have been confronted by a delicate problem. One of my owner's daughters has always taken a keen interest in her father's horses,...