Minister, apologised conditionally for crimes that British soldiers might have committed in Iraq: 'We apologise deeply to anyone who has been mistreated by any of our soldiers.'...

t is an unfortunate facet of modern life that many parents feel they can not let their children play outside by themselves for fear of their meeting -a similar fate to that...

watch the damn thing at all these days if I can help it. But like many males of my age and temperament, I was engrossed late last year by a series called Grumpy Old Men, in...

A i, my life, till this month, I have felt more proud than I could say to be British. I felt there were special and irreducible things that we stood for and would, if necessary,...

in wars that they become a little careful when the talk turns to torture. This is not because they approve of it, but because they have experienced the extremity of the real...

As the slaughter in the Holy Land continues, Emma Williams reports on the miseries caused by Israel's security barrier, and wonders whether there is any way out of the cycle of...

John Bercow and Caroline Cox urge strong international action to bring justice to a land where murder, rape and torture are commonplace T he scars said it all. The 31 yearold...

A weekly survey of world restrictions on freedom and free trade The forthcoming referendum on the proposed EU constitution has led some to suggest that Britain gives up EU...

Thatcherite Conservatives attack Gordon Brown's public spending plans. They are wrong, says Janet Bush T tying to make mincemeat of Gordon Brown's economic policies has been...

A conference in Berlin studying the DNA of 90-year-olds has raised the prospect of our living for ever. What a dreadful thought. The idea of cheating death informs much ancient...

rest in peace Aidan Hartley says that the reopening of the Julie Ward case will help no one — although it may provide Kenya's corrupt government with a public relations boost 1...

The only way of saving serious money is to fire people, says Simon Heifer; but the supposedly Thatcherite Tories are too timid to advocate such a move F or the 500 or so at the...

It's time to lighten up about falling birthrates, says George Monbiot. The world will be a happier and better place with fewer people T here is a group in North America — I am...

Sir Nigel Crisp, Chief Executive of the NHS, has challenged the service to create a culture of decentralisation and diversity, and recently launched an action plan on leadership...

To pronounce when reading aloud an entirely different word from the one written on the page might seem a more than Mandarin complication, or perhaps be reminiscent of the...

Toby Harnden talks to an anti-war journalist who wants to see more Iraqis die — so that Bush will be thrown out in November Baghdad T here was something pitiful about the US...

As Conrad Black's financial crisis becomes daily more horrendous, William Oddie recalls the 'great and lovable man' who was his proprietor at the Catholic Herald T he affairs of...

Whenever I discuss the death penalty with anyone in favour of it, who is surprised to discover that I am against it, he or she asks me whether I do not know of cases in which...

L ast weekend the Observer media page published a photograph of the Daily Telegraph news conference. It looks to me a pretty standard affair. The camera shows the back of the...

I n How to Run a Bassoon Factory, his classic handbook of business life, Mark Spade defines the managing director as the one who knows where the factory is and even goes there...

From E. Bruce Shaxson Sir: Of course Toby Church is right (`More nanny, less tax', 8 May). How did we ever come to swallow the notion that the NHS consumer has an inalienable...

From Jonathan Mirsky Sir: Why do American soldiers and 'contractors', and perhaps British troops as well, torture prisoners, especially in the ways shown in the notorious...

From Charlie Methven Sir: In last week's Diary, Stuart Reid became the latest of several Spectator journalists to write, as yet unchallenged, in support of Lord Black. 'Black...

From Stephen Schwartz Sir: Rod Liddle. in his dismissal of the serious concerns shared by many Muslims, as well as by Christians and Jews, about extreme Islamist advocacy in...

From J.P.G. Weston Sir: Peter °borne nods (Politics, 8 May). The late Duke of Devonshire was Lady Dorothy Macmillan's nephew, so the prime minister was his uncle, not his...

From David A.J. Upton Sir: In her strong plug for Britain's most aggressive supermarket chain (`The Triumph of Tesco', 1 May), Deborah Ross has got it right in one respect: that...

From Ronald MacKenzie Sir: Stephen Glover is mistaken (Media. 8 May). The Black and Tans were members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and any of their actions, alleged or...

From Keith P. Mountford Sir: I feel that before rushing into critical print Michael Lind (Churchill for dummies', 24 April) should have first read what Winston S. Churchill said...

From Geoffrey Patch Sir: The truth of Petronella Wyatt's observations (Singular life, 8 May) is, sadly, manifest deep in the fibre of the American reality. Once these barbaric...

From Dennis O'Keeffe Sir: At the Salisbury' Review we welcome the warm vindication of Ray Honeyford in your pages (How Islam has killed multiculturalism', 1 May). Why, though,...

From Andrew Nash Sir: Edward Collier (Letters, 8 May) asks how the country would be better off with the 6-10 million extra inhabitants which we have in fact aborted since 1967....

From Max McKeough Sir: Should Matthew Parris visit Australia again, I suggest he extract the digit and open his eyes before committing himself to print. It is possible that he...

From Ian Bernadt Sir: Andrew Kenny (Majority misrule', 17 April) paints a bleak outlook for South Africa. Thankfully the ANC treasurer Trevor Manuel's responsible fiscal and...

From James Young Sir: To Charles Moore's list of overused words (The Spectator's Notes, 1 May) may I add those terrible twins of PCspeak 'unacceptable' and 'inappropriate'? And...

A ll students of what Balmc called La Comedic Humaine are enjoying the spectacle of London, Toronto and Manhattan on the subject of Conrad and Barbara Black. Those cities seem...

Nv e English have rarely shone in the visual arts (the period 1770-1830 is an exception) but we have a strong claim to be considered the home of the watercolour. Our climate,...

The utter uselessness of art is part of its beauty, says Martin Gayford A couple of weeks ago I attended a reception in the Banqueting House on Whitehall to mark the opening of...

John Laughland T he sudden rush to the head, the sense of breaking a taboo, the delicious feeling of joyful surrender to temptation . . . you never forget your first time....

Jonathan Ray or some reason — such as sheer bloody-mindedness — a few days after his 75th birthday my father announced that he could keep up the charade no longer and was...

James Leith T he intended heading for this piece was to have been 'Spa Wars', since the demand for luxury pampering in countryhouse-hotel surroundings seems insatiable. Three...

Vanessa Tyrell-Kenyon e didn't have 'pets' when I was little. We had dogs — gundogs. Working dogs that lived in outdoor kennels and ate great slabs of rotting meat straight...

Robert Gore-Langton F or 30 years my father ran an antiques shop in a small Hampshire town. By the time he got out in the 1980s, the trade, he reckoned, had been hijacked by a...

Dominic Prince B y now, the gluttons among us should be wolfing down gulls' eggs. Merchants in Leadenhall Market in the City have for years done a roaring trade in this...

Philip Hensher ISHERWOOD by Peter Parker Picador, £25, pp. 914, ISBN 0330486993 J t's not often that one can recommend a biography of a writer as long as this, particularly...

Colin Wilson THE PLACE OF ENCHANTMENT: BRITISH OCCULTISM AND THE CULTURE OF THE MODERN by Alex Owen University of Chicago Press, £21, pp. 355, ISBN 0226642011 w .B. Yeats...

Michael Carlson MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS by Godfrey Hodgson Princeton, $29.95, pp. 379. ISBN 0691.117888 i n1976 Godfrey Hodgson published In Our Time, a portrait of America in...

Bevis Hillier HIDEOUS ABSINTHE: A HISTORY OF THE DEVIL IN A BOTTLE by Jad Adams 1. B. Taun's, ,E18.95, pp. 294, ISBN 1860649203 A gushy woman told Whistler that she thought he...

Sebastian Smee A BIT ON THE SIDE by William Trevor Viking, £16.99, pp. 256, ISBN 0670915076 C an a writer be guilty of an excess of sympathy for his characters? Sympathy, we...

The pictures look at the people Like animals in the zoo, The landscapes growl and thump the bars, The gouache goes twitawhoo. The still-life slides along the wall In search of...

Jonathan Bate THE WORLD OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE by David Riggs Faber, £25, pp. 397, ISBN 0571221599 I t is almost impossible to write a good biography of Shakespeare. His plays...

Andro Linklater TOMMY: THE BRITISH SOLDIER ON THE WESTERN FRONT, 1914-1918 by Richard Holmes HarperCollins, £20, pp, 717 ISBN 000 7137516 O n11 April 1918, my father, aged...

Harriet Waugh SECRET SMILE by Nicci French Michael Joseph, £16.99, pp. 320, ISBN 0718145194 0 f Nicci French's six novels three deal with the subjugation of women by an...

Peter Porter GEORGE CRABBE: AN ENGLISH LIFE, 1754-1832 by Neill Powell Pimlico, .i12.50, pp. 373, ISBN 0712684990 A mid the enmities of contemporary letters, it's salutary to...

In Goya's paintings even the cats Are Spaniards And at an exhibit How many of the visitors, If you take another look, Are Goya faces Framed by glasses and head-phones,...

Theo Richmond THE MYSTERY OF OLGA CHEKHOVA by Antony Beevor Viking £16.99, pp. 300, ISBN 0670915203 \v as Hitler's favourite actress a Russian spy? asks the publisher's 'shout...

Jonathan Sumption WHAT IS HISTORY? AND OTHER ESSAYS by Michael Oakeshott Imprint Academic, PO Box 200, Exeter EX 5 5 YX, £30, p i a 454, ISBN 0907845835 T o become a famous...

Robert Salisbury IN DEFENCE OF ARISTOCRACY by Peregrine Worsthorne HarperCollins, £15, pp. 232, ISBN 0071833 151 S ir Peregrine is a romantic. He has drawn his sword from its...

happened to the Fenland Arms? Where's that minxy little mink I was talking to at the bar? My mouth feels as if a small bald human being has crawled in and used it first as his...

Simon Heifer on the enduring appeal of two of the Boulting Brothers' postwar films W e are so used to thinking of the 1950s as a period of decline for the British cinema —...

Harry Mount L ook at the two photos above and be honest about your reactions. At the top is the picture James Delingpole uses on the back of his novel, Thinly Disguised...

John McEwen Ana Maria Pacheco Brighton Museum and Art Gallery rr wo exhibitions in one by Ana Maria 1 Pacheco is the main event at this year's Brighton Festival, which finishes...

Andrew Lambirth Helen Chadwick: A Retrospective Tina Modotti and Edward Weston: The Mexico Years Barbican Art Gallery, until 1 August T he Barbican Art Gallery has reopened...

Giannandrea Poesio Celebrating Diaghilev Royal Opera House TI1 e ballets originally staged between 909 and 1929 under the now legendary Ballets Russes label are a blessing for...

Rachel Halliburton Henry IV Donmar Les Parents terribles Termyn Street unning around like a demented .I‘mediaeval emperor may not seem an obvious way to win over the love of...

Patrick Cameg The Gentleman from Olmedo The Watermill; Newbury The Merchant of Venice Theatre Royal, Bury' St Edmunds r o weeks ago I reported on the exhilaating start to the...

Charles Spencer T ast month I described being down in 1—rthe dumps and discovering that music notably failed to soothe the savage breast. I couldn't face listening to anything...

Michael Tanner Black and Blue Battersea Arts Centre The Valkyrie Coliseum T he Battersea Arts Centre always has a programme worth considering, and its current Opera Festival,...

Mark Amory Shattered Glass 124, selected cinemas M ainstream American films, it is acknowledged, are manipulative. They are designed to make money and their way of doing this...

James Delingpole p robably the thing I enjoy most about writing for the Speccie are the pen and email friendships I've made with war veterans. There's the bomber pilot who once...

Michael Vestey I have often wondered why the Arab world was such a failure in economic and political terms, vaguely attributing this to its inability or refusal to embrace...

Simon Courtauld I n marine lore, giant squid are the monsters of the deep. I remember being told that when one squid had coiled a tentacle round a fishing boat off the Azores...

Alan Judd T he five-speed gearbox was unusually slick and precise, with a short throw and pleasing definition. Nothing like the protracted mechanical negotiations I am used to,...

Taki New York T hank God for Anna Wintour. For any of you living deep in the shires and unaware of her name, Anna is always referred to by the British tabloids as the Queen of...

Jeremy Clarke nSunday, fielding in the gully, I passed some of the time between balls calculating how many pints of bitter I could allow myself when it was our turn to bat and...

FRANK KEATING W hat's pink and green and read all over? It is season's end as well in the nooks and crannies of the whole attendant subculture, and the reverberating presses of...

apart from his own, appear to be either Yummy Mummies or Superdads as well as multimillionaires. Since most of these mothers don't work, they are all very competitive with each...

May) to get back at the affluent Notting Hill banker with the perpetual builders. It would require the co-operation of the builders themselves, but this should be possible with...

M.P., London W6 A. Scononera will be peaking in fashionability L' this time next year and is ready to plant now. Usually the roots are harvested as a winter crop; however, if...