The big fight P lans to give offices in the Palace of Westminster to the Sinn Fein MPs Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness were delayed by the unwillingness of the Irish...

For President, George W. if he can control the religious right BRUCE ANDERSON ew Hampshire is a good place to have a car crash. Traffic cops, car-hire firms, the other driver:...

PETRONELLA WYATT W hat is it that you're selling?' asked the man from the trade magazine. 'Choco- late,' I answered. 'What kind?"Urn, erotic chocolate.' Chaotic chocolate?' No,'...

Finding something of Jesus in Addis Ababa MATTHEW PARRIS M ost of us who do not believe in a Divinity would call ourselves moral rela- tivists. We doubt whether there is any...

You can't keep a bad man down: Mark Steyn predicts another triumph for the Comeback Kid — in the shape of a victory for his second banana in the presidential elections New...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft on the frivolous Catholicism and flawed prose of Graham Greene AE 1ER a writer dies, his work notoriously tends to slump on the literary Footsie or...

Robbie Millen on the contenders for the leadership of Britain's whingeing farmers SELLAR and Yeatman commended the peasant, or rather pheasant, revolts of What Tyler and Straw...

A charmingly honest letter comes from Mr Clive Boddington of Haslemere about due to and owing to. 'I remember as a young man,' he writes, 'being taken to task, on grammatical...

Rachel Johnson uncovers a British plot to schmooze the news from Europe Brussels IT wasn't so very long ago when a story from Brussels meant a certain sort of thing: curly...

Andrew Roberts unveils the crowd- pleasing attractions of the 'forces of conservatism' NOW is the time for critics of the Dome to put up or shut up. The Prime Minister has...

Sion Simon defends workplace counselling. It's no worse than other forms of corporate quackeiy Q. HOW many workplace psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? A....

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit NO government is likely to risk a back- lash — not to mention a catastrophic col- lapse of excise revenue — by banning...

Michael Heath

Philip Delves Broughton discovers that even the General's enemies are prepared to forgive him Santiago THEY are looking for bodies again in Pis- agua this weekend. This...

Do we need a legal philosophy? If so, what should it be? PAUL JOHNSON W hat should the law be about? Even lawyers seldom ask this question, and it ought to be asked from time...

From Mr Anthony Mitford Sir: Peregrine Worsthorne is wrong in say- ing that Diana Mitford was the most spirit- ed of all the five fabulous sisters (As I was saying, 8 January)....

From Mr Arnold Wesker Sir: Philip Hensher reviewing Michael Darlow's biography of Terence Rattigan (Books, 8 January) quotes from it a pas- sage suggesting I was rude to...

no longer identifies me with Lady Macbeth. I cannot hear myself muttering to Sir Oswald, 'Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers.' But I should be interested to know whom he...

From Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Armitage (Rtd) Sir: The otherwise splendid article by Bruce Anderson (Politics, 15 January) is simply too late, at least as far as homosexuals...

pointing out, no Cabinet politicians have seen service in the armed forces — but nor have many journalists, and it shows. Much dewy-eyed sentimentality has been allowed to pass...

From Mr Mark B. Lemmon Sir: In his article (Arts, 8 January) on Julio Medem's film, Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Mark Steyn omitted to mention an obvious reason for the...

From Mr Simon ICelner Sir: My old friend Stephen Glover's thoughtful piece about the Independent (22 January) contained a number of assertions that I cannot leave unchallenged....

From Mr Marko Gasic Sir: Walking into my local newsagent's, I noticed a commotion in a corner. Some- thing was cooking inside The Spectator. What an altercation! Poor old John...

Whitehall's mills grind slowly, so Geoffrey will just have to wait for them CHRISTOPHER FILDES G eoffrey Robinson says that he wel- comes the Department of Trade and Indus-...

Chasing the tiger Robert Hardman on the elusive trail of the greatest cat of them all FORGET lions, elephants, crocodiles or even rhino. Any fool with a khaki hat and a camera...

Last island of enlightenment Ed Docx 'IT is not widely known — except, perhaps, by our friend Roy Jenkins — that Green- land is the most civilised country in the world.' Thus...

Nevis on a Sunday Alice Thomson WHEN I heard that Tony Blair was contem- plating a short break in Nevis with Cherie after Christmas, I was appalled. This tiny former...

More than just dodos Petronella Wyatt I TEND not to like tropical islands. I speak from the standpoint of someone who, until last week, had been to . . . absolutely none,...

Take me to the kasbah Tessa Codrington ERROL FLYNN, Barbara Hutton, Win- ston Churchill and serried louche intellec- tuals first fell for Morocco over half a century ago. Now...

I should never have gone Barbara Toner THERE are holidays you shouldn't have had. I should never• have gone to Cuba. Before I went to Cuba I was a kindly, left- leaning...

No sex, please. . . R.J. Barlow ONE would think that for someone who wanted a Thai massage, a Buddhist temple in Bangkok might provide the genuine, non-tpuristy article. And...

My leap of faith Simon Reid SOME of you may have been too busy or distracted to clock this, but in Queens- town, New Zealand, official home of Extreme Sports, the Big 2000 was...

A hard act to follow Philip Hensher GOETHE: THE POET AND THE AGE, VOLUME II, REVOLUTION AND RENUNCIATION, 1790-1803 by Nicholas Boyle OUP, 130, pp. 949 V on hier und heute...

Frank Egerton UNDER THE SKIN by Michel Faber Canongate, £10, pp. 304 T here were several contradictory things going on in Michel Faber's prize-winning short-story collection,...

Norman Stone SADDAM HUSSEIN: THE POLITICS OF REVENGE by Said K. Aburish Bloomsbury, £20, pp. 406 T he most disastrous decision of the sec- ond half of the 20th century seems,...

Anthony O'Hear AGAINST THE IDOLS OF THE AGE by David Stove, edited by Roger Kimball EDS, £29.95, pp. 347, tel 02072400856 or once the title is justified. Usually those who...

Zenga Longmore WHITE TEETH by Zadie Smith Hamish Hamilton, £12.99, pp. 480 Z adie Smith is a very impressive woman. She is divinely pretty, 24 years old, has a double first in...

Rupert Christiansen THERE ARE KERMODIANS: A LIBER AMICORUM FOR FRANK KERMODE Evefryman, £12.99, pp. 218 h is attractive little book is a collection of personal tributes to a...

question Allan Massie AFTER BRITAIN by Tom Nairn Granta, £15.99, pp. 324 W ay back in 1977 Tom Nairn pub- lished a book entitled The Break-up of Britain. Britain is still with...

Samuel Brittan DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM by Amartya Sen OUP, 117.99, pp. 360 A nartya Sen is an Indian economist who has achieved the double distinction of becoming Master of...

Anne Chisholm GREENE ON CAPRI: A MEMOIR by Shirley Hazzard Virago, £12.99, pp. 160 G raham Greene has so far contrived to elude the best, and worst, efforts of his biographers....

M. R. D. Foot ALLEN DULLES by James Srodes Regnery, $34.95, pp. 624 T his full and fascinating biography deals with one of the century's formative figures, less in the public...

Olivia Glazebrook THE BIG HOUSE by Helena McEwen Bloomsbury, £12.99, pp. 186 C onsidering that the experience of some sort of childhood is common to every writer on the planet,...

Christopher Montgomery FRANCIS POLLEN by Alan Powers published by Robert Dugdale, 26 Norham Gardens, Oxford 0X2 6SF, .£20 (including p+p in UK), pp. 123, cheques payable to...

Cause for celebration Michael Tanner on a bracing weekend celebrating the work of Kurt Weill erlin to Broadway: The Music of Kurt Weill made a marvellously bracing weekend at...

Felicity Owen looks at whether the Lottery millions are going to the right places C ivilisation if not Christendom has made great strides in England since the first millennium...

Message to the Mayon Don't Sterilise Our City! (Museum of London, till 20 February) London: discuss Alan Powers M useums don't usually express politi- cal opinions, still...

The Art of Invention: Leonardo and Renaissance Engineers (Science Museum, till 24 April) Those magnificent men Martin Gayford L ast Saturday, we thought we'd go to see the...

Well-kept secret Robin Holloway F rom Eye-failure and the abject Thames wall-of-fire to the cop-out of Sir John Tavener's new-age oratorio, the change of epoch underwhelmed....

Mysterious star Mark Steyn remembers the actress Hedy Lemarr, who died last week T he day after she died, the newspapers were pretty much in agreement: Hedy Lamarr couldn't...

Boyle's legacy Michael Vestey F eedback, the listeners' complaints pro- gramme on Radio Four (Friday), has shown some spirit since it was revamped and extended to 30 minutes....

Should he go? James Delingpole I n this week's Frazier (Channel 4, Friday) Niles landed a job as critic for a posh mag- azine. `Aha,' I thought, when I read this in the Radio...

Royal rides Robin Oakley I n Britain racing genuinely has been the sport of kings. Queens, too, have been pretty keen. Nanny Marion Crawford's first encounter with the present...

Fighting talk Taki 'm here attending a karate camp with all my old students, most of whom are now called `sensei', or teacher, a term I've always forbidden my juniors to...

Changing places Toby Young New York 've been spending the past week franti- cally - trying to put my affairs in order before I move back to London. The whole business is...

Bring back the coffee house Leanda de Lisle Y esterday I threw away two dustbin bags full of old papers and glued four years' worth of holiday snaps into a photo- graph album....

The full monty Andrew Robson IT IS rarely easy to bid for all 13 tricks — a grand slam. And my advice to most play- ers is not to bother. This was the same advice given to me...

Under- Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2120 you were invited to list New Year resolutions which you have already broken, explaining, with ingenuity and transparent sophistry, why...

Rcibeg www.ardbes.com CHESS Wijk aan Zee Raymond Keene IT is extraordinary the extent to which Holland supports chess. Many of the greatest games in the history of chess...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's award-winning, Late- Bottled Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 14 February, with two runners-up prizes of £20...

PERUVIAN cuisine is without doubt the most underrated in the world. Auguste Escoffier ranked it third behind only French and Chinese. It is difficult to match for taste,...

Cricket has lost its Pope Simon Barnes I SEEM to have spent an awful lot of my Journalistic life writing in direct contradic- tion to the great tradition established and...

Dear Mary. . . Q. Until recently I was a freelance classical musician, but now I am fortunate to have found full-time permanent employment in an opera orchestra. On descending...