Nothing is certain in politics but it seems at the moment very likely indeed that the General Election will be held in October. We certainly hope that it will be and that it...

Choosing the dole George Gale For the past two or three weeks I have been only briefly in London and have spent my time in Suffolk, doing a bit of sailing, observing the...

The nineteenth edition of Erskine May, the authority on parliamentary practice, contains on page 98 a ruling under the heading 'Effect of the Privilege on A dmissibility of...

The French solution Auberon Waugh For a beleaguered Englishman, wrestling with the fact that the pound is only worth 8.3 francs and a glass of orangeade in a bar therefore...

Peter Nichols The n ew p ope The n ew p ope is the perfect man for the job. He is just what the Catholic Church needs, and the world too. But only since Sunday. I r emember...

Desmond Stewart Cairo The tenth anniversary of August 1968 reminded the West of how single-mindedly the Soviet Union, first in Hungary, then in Czechoslovakia, preserves what...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington The American balloon puffed itself up with hot air and went to Europe; the President Put on his smile and went fishing. When those three New...

Sam White • Paris Come August, and a dismal chain of anniversaries set in for the French, lightened. only by that of the Liberation of Paris. Lightened did I say? That is...