T he Conservatives said that the election was about saving the pound; for Labour, Mr Tony Blair. the Prime Minister, said that he was confident that in a referendum some time...

I f, as seems possible, Tony Blair sits down with a blank piece of paper next weekend to decide who deserves to be rewarded for bringing about his second election victory, the...

BRUCE ANDERSON I f the opinion polls are remotely right, one conclusion is inescapable. British voters lack political judgment. For this government does not deserve...

A t about 4.45 on this Bank Holiday afternoon, our dog showed signs of being ill. He shivered and dribbled; his usually happy head sank to the ground, and after a bit he sat...

STEPHEN GLOVER R eaders may possibly have noticed an entertaining article by A.A. Gill in the most recent issue of the Sunday Times. Mr Gill went down to Henley, where Boris...

Boris Johnson reports from the hustings on the fight to free Britons from bondage and to give them back the chance to take control of their lives WE WERE canvassing in the car...

'EXPAND higher education! Everyone must have degrees!' goes the election call. The same was once said about Latin, and look what happened to Latin. When central control from...

Leo McKinstry says the fuss about match-fixing is absurd. Greed, arrogance and rule-bending are as old as the game itself A PREDICTABLE bout of hand-wringing and head-shaking...

As the Queen visits Oslo, Robert Hardman reveals that scandal is turning Norwegians against their royal family STAND by for another chorus of that tired refrain from the...

Mark Steyn on why Senator Jeffords finally defected — and why the Republicans need not woriy Burlington, Vermont `JIM's a rock star now!' raved one local politician of the...

Botswana is an African economic miracle, but, says James Delingpole, anti-globalists are unhappy about its partnership with De Beers Gaborone 'I'M going to describe your...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit TRYING to persuade the public to use less fuel by taxing it ever more heavily has not proved popular in recent years....

On his first visit to Israel, Alan Rusbridger was shocked and angered by the gulf between the powerful and the powerless IN the last, dying days of apartheid I visited South...

I SAW in the Telegraph that the Vatican, in a document called Litutgiam Authenticam, has sent out new rules on the use of language in church services. Bad liturgical language...

THE following are recent examples of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incite ment in the Arab world. [Insistently] for the second time, thanks to Hitler, of blessed memory, who on...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES G ordon Brown is the first Chancellor of the Exchequer to spend a billion pounds a day. Give him another term and he will leave that record behind him. By...

From Mr Brian Lee Sir: It is difficult to work out the reason for the article by Norman Tebbit about UKIP and the security services ('UKIP: is there a hidden agenda?', 26 May)....

From Mr Stanislas M. Yassukovich, CBE Sir: Peter Oborne roll-call of City cowardice', 26 May) seems to suggest that the City institutions which unceremoniously dumped Huntingdon...

From Lord Lawson of Blaby Sir: Conrad Black (Books, 19 May) writes: llitchens mustn't be confused with the facts.' This disease seems to run in the family, as evidenced by...

From Dr D. Chandler Sir: The High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch (Letters, 19 May) is rather too self-deprecating when he suggests he has 'neither the power nor the...

From Mr Sheridan Morley Sir: I seem unable to satisfy Alistair B. Cooke (Letters, 26 May). Briefly, then, the Palace's objection to knighting gays of any profession persisted...

From Lady Moody-Stuart Sir: I am a regular and appreciative reader of The Spectator; I really admire the brevity and spirit of most of your contributors, and I don't 'hand it...

From Dr John Cavalla Sir: Christopher Fildes (City and Suburban, 19 May) complains that the Terminal 5 inquiry at Heathrow is protracted. So it may be, but Mr Fildes should be...

From Mr Denis Hills Sir: Philip Glazebrook's dismissive review (Books, 5 May) of Philippa Scott's Turkish Delight — 'Turkey,' he sneers, 'wherever you look into it, is not a...

PAUL JOHNSON T he England football captain, David Beckham, has got himself into hot water with the tabloids by adopting a weird haircut. `So, Mr Beckham,' asks one newspaper,...

MATTHEW PARRIS A secret fear haunts the Tories. What if that Demon Eyes billboard campaign before the last election campaign actually worked? Let me explain. No doubt you...

Michael Holroyd GWEN JOHN: A LIFE by Sue Roe Chatto, £25, pp. 364, ISBN 0701166959 I t is 20 years since Susan Chitty published her pioneering biography of Gwen John, and the...

Michael Howard WAR DIARIES, 1939-1945: FIELD MARSHAL LORD ALANBROOKE edited by Alex Danchev and Daniel Tochnan Weidenfeld, £25, pp. 814, ISBN0297607316 O N NO ACCOUNT MUST THE...

Peregrine Worsthorne STABBED IN THE FRONT: POST-WAR GENERAL ELECTIONS THROUGH POLITICAL CARTOONS by Alan Mumford Centre for the Study of Cartoons and Caricature, University of...

Jonathan Cecil BESIDE MYSELF by Antony Sher Hutchinson, £17.99, pp. 358, ISBN 0091794285 hat do you want to say as an actor?' demanded Alan Dossor of Antony Sher in the early...

Anita Brookner BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS by Anne Tyler Chatto, £15.99, pp. 273, ISBN 070117286X A nne Tyler's protagonists are dutiful, wistful people who, after a lifetime...

Penelope Hughes-Hallett BECOMING VICTORIA by Lynne Valone Yale, £18.95, pp. 256, ISBN 0300089503 L ynne Vallone writes that Queen Victoria's childhood and adolescence have been...

David Hare ROLAND PENROSE: THE FRIENDLY SURREALIST by Anthony Penrose Prestel, £25, pp. 192, ISBN 3 791324926 E veryone believes their parents must have something interesting...

Digby Anderson JOHN DONNE: MAN OF FLESH AND SPIRIT by David Edwards Continuum, £20, pp. 368. ISBN 08264511551 I t is an obvious fact that believing, practising Christians are...

footsteps of TB Justin Marozzi TRAVELS WITH A TANGERINE by Tim Mackintosh-Smith John Murray, L - 19, pp. 361, ISBN0719558492 I n 1325 Ibn Battutah fastened his sandals, picked...

Hugh Massingberd TO I I HUNG HALL: FAMILY LIFE AT TOTTERING-BY-GENTLY by Annie Tempest Orion, £25, pp. 120, ISBN 0752841076 L aid up recently after a strenuous tour of...

Alan Sked JEAN, LADY HAMILTON, 18611941: A SOLDIER'S WIFE by Celia Lee Celia Lee, £25, pp. 359, ISBN 0953929205 (Tel: 0208 318 4940) L ast year John Lee published an excellent...

Louise Flind on the Wigmore Hall as it celebrates its centenary T he Wigmore Hall is 100 years old. This is no mean feat considering its babyhood, adolescence, rocky twenties...

Giorgio Morandi (Tate Modern, till 12 August) Order and harmony Martin Gaylord A rtists, as Scott Fitzgerald might have remarked to Hemingway, are different from the rest of...

Cote d'Azur: Art, Modernity and the Myth of the French Riviera (Axa Gallery, New York, till 14 July) High spirits Roger Kimball E ven now, I believe, the phrase 'the south of...

The dark side Stuart Nicholson I f there is such a thing as wholesome violence, I think I portray it,' says in-vogue crime writer and raconteur James Ellroy. He's talking...

Give us a new hall Peter Phillips T wo cheers, I think, for the 50th anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall. Not three, because it is outdated in design and acoustics, and...

Kiss Me Like You Mean It (Soho Theatre) The Winter's Tale (National) King Lear (Shakespeare's Globe) Love, death and tragedy Sheridan Morley I t may well still be a little...

Fidelio; A Midsummer Night's Dream (Glyndebourne) Dogged and low-key Michael Tanner G lyndebourne got off to an uneasy start with Fidelio, with most of one's high...

Pearl Harbor (12, selected cinemas) Who cares? Mark Steyn T hose Krauts and Japs have all the luck. They may have lost the war, but they're getting a shorter print of Pearl...

Champagne and charm Michael Vestey I Ve fallen in love with the controller of Radio Four. It's a bloody nuisance, frankly. Since starting this column, I've tried to avoid...

Illusions and reality Simon Hogaart ankind cannot bear very much reality TV,' as T.S. Eliot nearly wrote. And it's getting worse. When will contestants, instead of being sent...

Sensitive monarch Simon Courtauld I n this column last summer, I mentioned my quasi-commercial growing of tomatoes, some 20 years ago, in a greenhouse in Berkshire. In part of...

Ugly scenes Robin Oakley T here isn't all that much of Neal Wilkins, Victor Chandler's lean and elegant racecourse representative with the second world war pilot's moustache,...

Roman holiday Taki T Rome hroughout history, visitors to the Eter hroughout history, visitors to the Eter nal City have always found more or less what they deserved to find....

Anglo-Saxon bulwark Jeremy Clarke O n the three-hour coach journey to the lost Mayan city of Chichen-Itza I sat next to a lawyer from Miami called Bill. Chance had thrown us...

Animal crackers Petronella Wyatt W hen I was a child we used to spend Christmas and summer holidays at my uncle's house in Cornwall. It was one of those granite houses that...

EL VINO's is one of the most famous wine bars in the world, though fans of John Mortimer's Rumpole stories know it as Pommery's. For years its Fleet Street branch was home to...

Lynette Dobbin ANYONE who has attended a French property fair in the UK can be in no doubt that the oft-vaunted theory that the Brits hate the French is nothing but a filthy...

Simon Barnes THESE late appearances of the sun portend no good. It is impossible to live through these balmy days of late spring without being overcome by a gut-wrenching need...

Dear Mary. . . Q. My children are going through a stage of being interested in hip-hop and rap music. The intrusion into the house of musical obscenities set to a thumping beat...