n Tuesday, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, claimed that, in the case of Philip Lawrence's murderer, Learco Chindamo, 'we were misled by the system'. That is true: it is...

JOHN TORODE Arad, Israel 1 6 'm not Jewish, but I love Israel, and I try to holiday there every year.' An uncontentious remark, surely, but it produces Batemanesque horror...

By Tamzin Lightwater MONDAY Great to be back from hols to find the green shoots of Compassionate Conservatism sprouting again, thanks to Mr Redwood's brilliant report. Well, we...

William Shawcross denounces those who say we must stand firm in Afghanistan but flee the country we liberated from Saddam Hussein. The US 'surge' is beginning to work, and...

Carol Sarler is convinced that division is inescapable when faith is involved: there is no point trying to get inside the head of militant Muslims with a view to gentle...

Smile and shoeshine get you only so far in any business, says Irwin Stelzer. But Labour is still vulnerable if the Tory leader produces solid conservative policies David Cameron...

THEODORE DALRYMPLE The historian Sir Lewis Namier once said that in a drop of dew could be seen all the colours of the rainbow, presumably as a reply to those who accused him of...

Anna Blundy says that the phrase 'dumb blonde' reflects a deep strain of condescension towards a minority for whom nobody feels the slightest sympathy when they complain 1 t is...

Julian, or possibly Sandy, in Beyond Our Ken (1958-64) or Round the Home (1965-68), would say: 'Oh, Mr 'orne, how bona to vada your jolly old eek.' I was reminded of them when...

Samantha Weinberg takes her family on a day-trip to the Heathrow protest and revels in the strength of 'peerreviewed science' — as well as the nearby Indian restaurant 1 t is 11...

John O'Sullivan In 1974 the Daily Telegraph was teetering on the edge of unaccustomed conflict. Maurice Green's long and successful reign as editor was ending at the very moment...

Rod Liddle is pleasantly surprised by a Tory proposal that would give fathers a very long period off work each time they sired a child: 'blue-skies thinking' at its best Iam...

Sir: Jeremy Clarke's interpretation of J.S. Mill (Can working men's clubs survive the smoking ban?', 18 August) is, I fear, pretty ropey. His first point, that a non-smoker...

Sir: The foot-and-mouth outbreak in Surrey may or may not have been Shambo's revenge, but it certainly had nothing whatever to do with 'farmers purchasing illegal meat supplies...

Sir: Irwin Stelzer's view of the impact of the EU Reform treaty on UK foreign policy (Now we know: Brown is a European, not an Atlanticist', 11 August) is long on hypothesis but...

Sir: Robert Stewart remarks in the course of his review of Baseball Haiku (Books, 18 August) that there 'is no major cricket novel'. But what about Mike by P.G. Wodehouse?...

Sir: Joan Collins (Diary, 18 August) makes an interesting point about the abnormal height (and hair growth) of 'Russian' women aged about 20. I wonder if they are Russian? I met...

HUGO RIFKIND you will have smirked. Shame on you, but you will. Yet reluctantly, and out of respect for the recently deceased, I intend to tread lightly over the story of the...

PAUL JOHNSON Recently a friend from abroad, anxious to enrich himself from our past, asked me about the cathedrals. Which must he visit, which should he visit if he had time?...

Matthew Lynn says the business of exporting weaponry to despotic regimes is of little value to the British economy but is still capable of causing national embarrassment The...

ROBERT COTTRELL IN NEW YORK Ivriting in the midst of turmoil, one is always at risk of being overtaken by events, but I have found myself vaguely approving of the recent market...

For a man who once promised the press, way back in 1962, that 'you won't have Nixon to kick around any more', Richard Nixon has turned out to have a remarkably long political...

Jeremy Treglown THE SEVERAL LIVES OF JOSEPH CONRAD by John Stape Heinemann, £20, pp. 378, ISBN 9780434013272 £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Why did he do it? In his late...

Roy Kerridge ON BRICK LANE by Rachel Lichtenstein Hamish Hamilton, £20, pp. 352, ISBN 9780241142868 £16 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Brick Lane, a long and ancient street in...

Simon Baker SECRETS OF THE SEA by Nicholas Shakespeare Harvill Secker, £12.99, pp. 402, ISBN 9781846550683 © £1039 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Nicholas Shakespeare's new...

Matthew Dennison HOTEL DE DREAM by Edmund White Bloomsbury, £14.99, pp. 226, ISBN 9780747590590 © £11.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 Seven years before his untimely death...

Juliet Townsend THE GREAT BIG GLORIOUS BOOK FOR GIRLS by Rosemary Davidson and Sarah Vine Viking, £18.99, pp. 304, ISBN 9780670917105 £14.99 (plus £2.45 p&p) 0870 429 6655 ne of...

I'm very old and breathless, tired and lame, and soon I'll be no more to anyone than the slowly fading trochee of my name and shadow of my presence: I'll be gone. Already I...

Lloyd Evans wanders the highways and byways and is entertained by beggars and buskers At Edinburgh this year I caught a show I usually miss. The festival attracts a shifting...

Andrew Lambirth Kenneth Martin and Mary Martin: Constructed Works Daniel Silver: Heads Camden Arts Centre, until 16 September If you feel strong enough to postpone for a while...

Michael Tanner rr he Edinburgh International Festival got off to a shaky start this year. As usual, there was a large-scale orchestral and vocal work in the Usher Hall, but...

Lloyd Evans TV or not TV, that is the question pondered by Edinburgh every year. An unseen faultline divides the audiences from the performers. Audiences want to get away from...

Patrick Camegy Richard II; Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon hakespeare, as we all know, served up English history as entertainment and instruction...

Giannandrea Poesio Bolshoi Ballet London Coliseum Afew years ago, the director of a London-based ballet company publicly challenged the way ballet is taught in Britain. More...

Robin Holloway perhaps unwisely, the museum at 1 Gloucester prominently displays a large aerial photograph of the city, revealing in one what the shocked pedestrian discovers...

Kate Chisholm rr he weirdest moment onA Royal Recover), (Radio Four, Tuesday) was not hearing the astonished reaction of the Palace to the dramatic flip in public opinion in the...

Matthew d'Ancona Forty years after his first drug bust in 1967, Keith Richards is still testing the limits of the law. But, as one would expect of a 63-year-old, the substances...

Ursula Buchan Depending on whether you are a housewife, Lothario or a gardener, 'bedding' can mean a number of different things. As a horticultural term, it dates from the early...

Taki Gstaad lie de Rothschild, who died a couple of I weeks ago while on a shooting trip in Austria aged 90, once told me the story of a young Arab kebab seller who always...

Jeremy Clarke The theatre was a converted Anglican church. Was there perhaps a lingering, antagonistic Christian spirit at work here tonight? Or was there perhaps a rival medium...

. . . but lose your mind, says Rachel Johnson The email whooshes into the inbox. I click it open, thinking, ooh, goodie, let's have a look . . . 'Save the Date' it orders. My...

Simon Courtauld indulges his love of fish on Africa's Atlantic coast -7 he most memorable thing about Orson Welles's film Othello — he gave one of his hammier performances as...

Dear Maly Q. I am going to stay with some grown-ups in a house next to the beach in Suffolk. I will be the only boy of eight who is staying. The other children are too old to...

FRANK KEATING Just about the most warming, sunbeaming day of this monsoon summer was spent in a cuddly western nook of the Malvern Hills at blissful Colwall, watching a languid...