First, let us not submit to the selfindulgence of moral panic: there has never been a time when British children have been less afflicted by poverty, disease and malnutrition....

TIM RICE 1 t's finally dawned on me that my relationship with the Conservative party has irrevocably changed. Dave and his young, dynamic, thrusting team are simply not...

FRASER NELSON The 2018 World Cup is, by every measure, a long way off. Fifa intends to take three years to decide on which continent the tournament should be hosted, and only...

CHARLES MOORE Ivas it really an 'own goal' for 10 Downing Street to invite people to petition it on subjects of interest to them, and then find more than a million people saying...

By Tamzin Lightwater MONDAY Am fed up. It simply cannot be the case that everyone smoked cannabis at school. They're clearly all just saying it to suck up to Dave. Head office...

John Gray, Britain's foremost political philosopher, says that Ruth Kelly's new campaign against Islamic extremism is doomed because it exaggerates the scope for cohesion in our...

James Delingpole's envy is revived by the picture of David Cameron in the navy-blue waistcoat of Oxford's most exclusive and decadent dining club Twenty years ago when I was in...

Someone wrote about 'reeking vengeance' in a letter to me recently, and the author wasn't talking about smell. Then in a newspaper it was 'reaping vengeance'. It's a sure sign...

Alasdair Palmer meets John Yoo, the academic lawyer who infamously argued that the President should be left to set the limits on methods used to question suspects Cuantanamo Bay...

Michael Cove says that the Lib Dems have retreated to their comfort zone. Sir Menzies Campbell's cringe-making attempts to adopt a demotic style are matched by boring politics...

Rod Liddle says that the TV nutritionist, no longer a 'Doctor', personifies our misplaced trust in health experts and our spectacular ignorance of science generally Acouple of...

Cooked turkey is perfectly safe to eat, but no one is buying it because of a scare which has nothing to do with cooked meat Parents refuse to give their children the M MR...

The Spectator's two-part analysis of Labour's failure in education has caused fury at the apex of government. Here Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, claims that we were...

From Peter Dunnill Sir: Ross Clark's article on what will happen if bird flu becomes a pandemic (Will you have a place in the bio-bunker?', 10 February) is correct in its...

From Richard Laming Sir: Tony Blair misunderstands the notion of 'soft power' when he uses it to refer to the non-military aspects of government foreign policy (Leading article,...

From Erica de Graaff-Hunter Sir: Kate Chisholm's article 'The Spirit of India' (Arts, 10 February) was very refreshing. I was thrilled to find someone who had been as pleased as...

From Patrick Brooks Sir: First, let me wish The Spectator — and all who sail in her — health and happiness in its new home. Long ago an ancient mariner told me about the...

From Dr Sumaya Alyusuf Sir: I find Rod Liddle's article (Not all faith schools are the same', 10 February) deeply offensive in every way. This school has never taught any child...

From Stephen Patten Sir: I do wish Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth had looked a bit further afield when researching their article on city academies and the involvement of the...

MATTHEW PARRIS From a wedding or a christening nothing new is learnt, but funerals are different. A funeral or memorial service almost always teaches us things we never...

PAUL JOHNSON 1 f I wanted to pick an artist whose work and mind seem peculiarly apt for the present day, my choice would fall on Hieronymus Bosch (c. 14501516), the...

Matthew Lynn profiles Peter Sutherland, the pugnacious chairman of BP who stands accused of forcing the early departure of the oil giant's chief executive, Lord Browne f the...

Richard Northedge By vanquishing Nasdaq, the London Stock Exchange has yet again fought off falling into foreign ownership. But what does it matter who owns the exchange when so...

Edie Lush endures a Win Investing' seminar which fails in its promise to reveal the secrets of stock-market success hat percentage of ten trillion pounds do you need to be...

MARTIN VANDER WEYER peter HaM says two thirds of City bonuses should be redirected to charity, or employers who dish them out should face tax penalties. David Cameron is trying...

Rupert Christiansen SOMEWHERE: THE LIFE OF JEROME ROBBINS by Amanda Vail! Weidenfeld, £25, pp. 675, ISBN 9780297847977 Amanda Vaill opens her absorbing biography of the...

Jonathan Mirsky A CONCISE CHINESE-ENGLISH DICTIONARY FOR LOVERS: A NOVEL by Xiaolu Guo Chatto, £12.99, pp. 353, ISBN 9780701181147 © £1039 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Slight....

Charlotte Hobson RED PRINCESS: A REVOLUTIONARY LIFE by Sofka Zinovieff Granta, £16.99, pp. 346, ISBN 9781862079199 © £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 perhaps the only...

Christopher Bland SCRAP THE BBC! by Richard D. North Social Affairs Unit, £15.95, pp. 219, ISBN 9781904863205 The BBC is an infuriating organisation: powerful, introspective,...

Robert Stewart SAVAGE KINGDOM by Benjamin Woolley Haiper Press, £25, pp. 467, ISBN 9780007131693 © £20 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 The British empire in North America was not...

What colour is the wind today, that Boreas shimmers from the north? White and blue and shivery grey, ice and gentians on his breath to fan the ashes in my hearth. Does Notus...

Caroline Moorehead THE YACOUBIAN BUILDING by Alaa Al Aswany, translated by Humphrey Davies Fourth Estate, £14.99, pp. 255, ISBN 9780060878139 £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429...

Eric Weinberger THE CASTLE IN THE FOREST by Norman Mailer Little, Brown, f17.99, pp. 496, ISBN 0394536495 £1439 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Rumours and published reviews to...

Cressida Connolly IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE by Miranda Seymour Simon & Schuster, £14.99, pp. 270, ISBN 9780743268677 Memoirs about bad or dotty fathers — from J. R. Ackerley's (and...

William Waldegrave THE SONG BEFORE IT'S SUNG by Justin Cartwright Bloomsbury, £16.99, pp. 275, ISBN 9780747583417 © £13.59 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 There is something odd...

They dibble the turf with fork and trowel eagerly, eagerly going to it, each whiskery bulb unclutched and buried as we their assistants kneel beside them. Ours is the...

Ben Wilson THE GREAT MAN: SIR ROBERT WALPOLE: SCOUNDREL, GENIUS AND BRITAIN'S FIRST PRIME MINISTER by Edward Pearce Cape, £25, pp. 485, ISBN 9780224071819 © £20 (plus £2.45 p&p)...

The word 'romance' has come down in the world, and the romantic novel is one in which the love-interest predominates. A romance used to be more spirited, a tale of adventure in...

No expense has been spared at Mima. But is a new gallery necessary, asks Laura Gascoigne The most exciting thing to do in Middlesbrough on a Sunday afternoon, Ronnie Scott used...

Tom Rosenthal Lowry in Liverpool Tate Liveipool, until 9 April T t was a dark and stormy night when I I got to Liverpool and, on my way to the Tate at Albert Dock the next...

Andrew Lambirth Hogarth Tate Britain, until 29 April William Hogarth (1697-1764) was a rambunctious figure, controversial and quarrelsome by nature, but the first British artist...

Deborah Ross Hot Fuzz 15, Nationwide Iwish I could like this film more than I did, but I didn't, mostly because I don't think it adds up to anything more than a vastly bloated...

Michael Tanner Agrippina Coliseum Agrippina is widely agreed among Handelians to be his first major opera. Constituted, to a large extent, of arias from pre-existing works, it...

Lloyd Evans The Dumb Waiter Trafalgar Studios Ripper, the Musical Actors' Church The Man of Mode Olivier T feel I have heard quite enough of 1 Harold Pinter.' Thus spoke a...

Kate Chisholm By the time you read this, the new Radio Three schedule will be up and running — more jazz, more words, fewer 'live' broadcasts (as opposed to live recordings) and...

Simon Hoggart Apparently Agatha Christie used to write nearly the whole of each book, then before starting the final chapter would decide which character was least likely to be...

Robin Oakley There was at least one game girl on the race train back from Newbury on Saturday. 'You didn't smell very good on the sofa this morning,' the carriage heard her tell...

Ursula Buchan It might surprise you to know (or there again, perhaps not) that more vegetable than flower seed is sold by seed merchants these days. It is certainly an...

Taki Gstaad There's more happy dust to be found indoors around here than powder on the slopes. Last week I drove to the Diableret glacier and skied my legs off trying to catch...

Drinking Partner Jeremy Clarke Las Alpujan-as Asuccession of loud explosions reverberated across the ravine. I went and stood at the door of the shepherd's hut and looked out. A...

Open and shut case Roy Hattersley When we moved into our house there was only one window in the dining room. It was built to keep out cold, not let in light. So its northern...

Birth of Bridge Brian Senior The ancestry of bridge can be traced at least as far back as early 16th-century England, when prototypes of Whist were being played. By the middle...

DEBORAH ROSS my partner is a total tea fascist and whenever I make a pot it is never, ever right. It's: 'Did you use fresh water?' Then it's: 'You used re-boiled, didn't you?'...

SIMON HOGGART 1 'm pleased to say it has become an annual tradition: our February offer of the new vintage of Chateau Musar with Lay & Wheeler. It has been a tremendous success...

The Daylesford dream is coming to London — savour it, says Victoria Mather Last night I dreamt I was at Daylesford again. It seemed to me as I drove up the winding drive,...

Sarah Standing on the wheel appeal of luxury luggage Long-haul is a term that should really be used to describe any journey taken with luggage that doesn't have wheels. Getting...

James Delingpole deals with envy in the mountainous wealth of Chamonix The great consolation for those of us who don't have enough money is the thought that those who do don't...

Stuart Reid is blown away by the Yorkshire Dales Hang the expense, I thought. Let's take a holiday in England. After all, I speak the language and understand many of the...

Jim Anderson T f Flopsy the cat had not bolted to hide in 1 the airing cupboard, I would not have believed my daughter when she insisted a ghost had just floated across the room...

Mary Wakefield n a warm evening last summer, at about 11 p.m., I sat down on a stone step in Edinburgh's Grassmarket and gave my gloom, which had been gathering all day, the...

Rory Knight Bruce The A377 from Exeter to Barnstaple is perhaps 26 miles long, much of it bordering 'The Gentleman River' of the Taw and railway which will still stop at the...

Dear Maly Q. Last week I had dinner with some old friends in London. My husband was unable to join us since he was working late but came to pick me up at the end of the evening....

FRANK KEATING There was generally bonny acclamation as the French rugby team ran out to play Ireland at Dublin's Croke Park stadium last Sunday. I forecast a significantly...