failures that led to the government claiming, in a dossier published in 2002, that Saddam Hiissein possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and could deploy...

T _ he most blissfully satirical moment during Lord Butler's press conference was his remark that Iraq contained 'a lot of sand'. His point was that the fabled weapons of mass...

Butler's report into the use of Iraq war intelligence. The public has made up its mind that the government misled us all deliberately — and issues of sloppy working practices at...

y ou can tell when high summer comes to Westminster. Smartly dressed groups. lost and ill at ease — the women in hats and best frocks — wander through Westminster Hall in search...

stall with a demanding quiz on it. About 50 old photographs of politicians are pinned to a board, and you have to identify them from a list provided. Some are definitely...

Andrew Gilligan finds that Lord Butler has purportedly exonerated the Prime Minister, while supporting many key charges against him, the government and the intelligence services...

Mark Steyn says the President's chances of victory improve every time John Kerry appears on television New Hampshire T here was an interesting headline in the International...

The summer flowers are blowing, and I was reminded yesterday of a slightly outlandish-sounding line in the summery poem Pearl which speaks of the plants `gilofre, gngure &...

Bruce Anderson says that the current discussion about when to terminate a foetus owes nothing to morality p ictures are more powerful than principles. A few weeks ago,...

Fifty years after the debut of Elvis Presley, Michael Henderson says that rock'n'roll remains an essentially juvenile genre U n less you have been living in a cave for the past...

Last year nearly 400 people died waiting for a transplant, says Candida Moss. 'Presumed consent' could have saved their lives I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in...

It is too late for Gordon Brown to wave the Union flag, says Simon Heifer. Labour has wrecked the institution of the United Kingdom L ast week the Chancellor of the Exchequer,...

T om and I borrowed our friend's Mini to drive to Canary Wharf. We had been lent it to collect for him a consignment of lighting fittings ordered from John Lewis, which he had...

From Mary Marsh Sir: There is too much strident waffle in your leading article 'Boycott the NSPCC' (10 July) to answer every charge you make against the NSPCC. Let's stick to...

(which also criticised the RSPCA) I felt thankful that at long last a journal with an international reputation has publicly attacked both these institutions. Both have lost...

From the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire Sir: It seems that our government is getting very odd; you could say queer. A Civil Part nership Bill is on the go. Clause 49(1)(c)...

From Dr Michael Pravica Sir: Thank you for publishing `Let Slobbo speak for himself (10 July). The wanton, illegal and vicious destruction of Yugoslavia and the lies promulgated...

From Christopher Haw free Sir: Although Charles Moore (The Spectator's Notes, 3 July) is correct in saying that Mr Wilkins's exasperated cry of 'Doh!' in Anthony Buckeridge's...

From David Mason Sir: The problem of unpleasant and aggressive bicyclists, as highlighted by Mary Wakefield (Diary, 3 July) and Jules Lubbock (Letters, ID July), is an ever...

R ecently I reread Anthony Powell's roman fieuve A Dance to the Music of Time and, as a pendant, the new biography of him, written by Michael Barber, It is an excellent piece of...

A „ too late in the day, Gordon Brown is preparing to cull a few elephants. Humanely, of course. Some will be retrained or resettled, further away from his water-hole. Others...

E ver since he became editor of The Spectator, which must be about five years ago, Boris Johnson has been urging me to write a column about the Financial Times. It is a subject...

Sam Leith DEVASTATING EDEN: THE SEARCH FOR UTOPIA IN AMERICA by Brian Thompson HatperCollins, £20, pp. 246, ISBN 0007137389 T he story of Devastating Eden, told in a sentence,...

Eric Weinberger LITTLE CHILDREN by Tom Perrotta St Martin's Press, $24.95, pp. 368, ISBN 0312315716 om Perrotta's fourth novel, Little Children, is a hook one should read for...

Said K. Aburish DESPERATELY SEEKING PARADISE by Ziauddin Sardar Granta, £16.99, pp. 354, ISBN 1862076502 A ny reader who wants to understand the mess in the Middle East or...

John Oaksey MAKING THE RUNNING: A RACING MEMOIR by Ian Balding Headline, £18.99, pp. 278, ISBN 0755312783 H aving just, laboriously, finished a book of my own (with a subtitle...

Noble Frankland HITLER'S MEDITERRANEAN GAMBLE by Douglas Porch Weidenfeld & Nicolson, .E25, pp. 794, ISBN 0297846329 T his is an excellent book with a silly title, The gamble...

Douglas Johnson VOLTAIRE IN EXILE by Ian Davidson Atlantic Books, £19.99, pp. 368, ISBN 1843540878 I an Davidson begins his book by telling us that Voltaire is a famous writer...

Victor Sebestyen JUDGEMENT DAY: THE TRIAL OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC by Chris Stephen Atlantic Books, £14.99, pp. 258, ISBN 1843541548 T lis book could not have been more ill-timed....

Robert Stewart STOPPING NAPOLEON: WAR AND INTRIGUE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN by Tom Pocock John Murray, £20, pp. 262, ISBN 0719562902 THE AGE OF NAPOLEON by Alistair Home Weidenfeld...

Sarah Bradford GRACE AND POWER: THE PRIVATE WORLD OF THE KENNEDY WHITE HOUSE by Sally Bedell Smith Random House, £25, pp. 496, ISBN 1845130030 W ithin just a week of the...

At a loose end in the evening? Tiffany Jenkins suggests a cultural outing could be just the answer N ow that the nights are longer and lighter, evenings out are a more...

Andrew Lambirth Art & The 60s: This Was Tomorrow Tate Britain, until 26 September N ot another examination of that troublesome decade? Yes, I'm afraid so. Just when you...

Michael Tanner Peter Grimes; Ariadne auf Naxos Royal Opera rpter Grimes is usually felt to be the / most uncontroversially successful of Britten's operas, but the more often I...

Charles Spencer I t will have escaped the attention of few readers of 'Olden but golden' that this month marks the 50th anniversary of the birth of rock and roll. Even the...

Mark Steyn Spider-Man 2 PG, selected cinemas Cpider-Man 2 is the spinning, squirting, swinging antidote to the stunted paranoia of Fahrenheit 9111 . Its theme, of course, comes...

Lloyd Evans Saturday Night Fever Apollo, Victoria Measure for Measure Globe D it of a crisis in the West End at the L./moment. Too many movie updates, too many greatest-hits...

Patrick Camegy King Lear Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon A good Lear is a pretty terrifying experience, and so it was at Stratford the other night. After a...

Simon Hoggart N7ears ago, staying in a posh Los 1 Angeles hotel, I ate in the restaurant, where they had a speciality. They brought you a miniature stove with a ceramic hob,...

Michael Vestey T he other day I was trying to think of a single benefit that has come from our membership of the European Union. There had to be one, surely? After a while I...

Robin Oakley Grrhe one thing I'm not doing,' I told a friend at Ascot on Saturday, 'is backing Frankie Dettori's mounts. You never get a fair price on anything he rides at...

Taki Gstaad s everyone who has ever read history knows, Poland is the country most trodden on by bad guys, set as she is at the heart of Europe between two, er, shall we say...

Jeremy Clarke Ceret S ix bulls of Hernandez Pla, a Madrid strain reputedly descended from the legendary Santa Colomba breed. The bullring is tiny — more like a cock pit than a...

Petronella Wyatt S ince Hungary joined the EU this spring, Since aeroplanes between London and Budapest have been choc-a-bloc with passengers. This is a great annoyance for...

summer drinking from the enterprising merchant Hedley Wright, All are discounted, some rather generously. They come from five countries, and I think they illustrate the amazing...

“AfklIK KEATING R oyal Troon may not be the most majestic, beauteous or even most wind-racked and demanding of Scotland's resplendent links courses on golfs Open rota. But it...

16 (my brother) who has not been out with a girl before? He fancies one at his school but although I have told him he is cool he does not have the nerve to ask her out. He is...

is mean; indeed, rather the opposite. The first course was lamb and to my surprise a waitress went round our table pouring out red wine for the men only. I called out to her,...

I knew so many people that it was impossible to speak more than a sentence to any one of them without one of us being interrupted by someone else passing by and pausing to say...

reminded me of a story ! heard last year. A prominent female New Yorker (president of art museum boards, etc.) and her boyfriend arrived for lunch at the country home of their...