Amazing scenes at Brighton: blue whale washed up. A the Labour party conference in Brighton, Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minis- ter, promised 'compassion with a hard edge'. Mr...

Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 NO SURRENDER T errorism, like tourism, has come into its own in the 20th century. So it is a nice point that the principal check on...

Mr Blair talked about hard choices. He will have to make one BRUCE ANDERSON But the arrogance is overlain by eupho- ria, which was, if anything, heightened by Peter...

DEREK DRAPER Brighton he cult of personality that is engulfing this town has now gone too far. The ultra- loyal Labour Students organisation has just issued a new recruitment...

THE ENGLISH IMPATIENT On the eve of their 'defeat conference', Edward Heathcoat Amor) , says the Tories are in the psychiatrist's chair Some even want a new nation about which...

I HAVE made another amazing discov- ery — that Alan Clark invented the Teletubbies. But before getting on to that, let me mention another moment of astonish- ment that I...

BE COOLER, GAYER, AND LESS WHITE Simon Brocklebank-Fowler (aged 36), who is on the Tory candidates' list, says how the party can win back the young — or die THE MATRONLY...

THEY'RE BROKE And their Euroscepticism may be one of the shortage of cash ALTHOUGH they are out of office the Conservatives are still breaking promises. When Chris Patten...

GETTING MAJOR Matthew Parris on the former prime minister's televised Tory interviewees TO EXPRESS wordless consternation, Tintin's dog Snowy is depicted radiating beads of...

THE LOVE OF POWER Or the power of love? Whatever it was, Petronella Wyatt found New Labour had a lot of it Brighton DELEGATES here were faced with what Mr Blair would call...

THE PETER TO COME Sion Simon on what will happen to Mr Mandelson now that he has known defeat Brighton LABOUR activists' rejection of Peter Mandelson's candidature for the...

Michael Heath

Mark Steyn at an international meeting of history's defeated winners Washington, DC I'VE NEVER much cared for the phrase 'Lady Thatcher': to my mind, she should have either...

IN 1961, Sir Ernst Gombrich delivered a lecture at the London School of Eco- nomics entitled 'The Tradition of Gener- al Knowledge'. In this lecture, he said: ... a society...

As the 100th anniversary of his birth the Left's icon was not all that Left IN THE Labour party pantheon Nye Bevan still stands the tallest. Even New Labour, for all its...

The benevolent ghost of Aneurin Bevan at Tony Blair's love-feast PAUL JOHNSON S ocialist old fogeys are using the approaching centenary of Aneurin Bevan's birth to present him...

BETTER luck this time? Joining the ERM was Margaret Thatcher's last, unwilling throw. She had quarrelled about it with her foreign secretary and her chancellor, she had shifted...

WHEN we joined the ERM I took the lib- erty of quoting Churchill, who as chancellor put us back on the gold standard — not, as it proved, his best decision. 'Nations on the gold...

TO the IMF, Mr Brown claimed that his government had started a debate about monetary union. This will please the Con- federation of British Industry, which is always calling for...

FINANCIAL diplomacy is keeping Gordon Brown busy. He reached Brighton this week by way of Mondorf-les-Bains, Mauri- tius, Madagascar, Johannesburg, Bangkok and Hong Kong, where...

The ground shifts, now it's wait and see and, barring accidents, join CHRISTOPHER FILDES TONY BLAIR can make the faithful believe most things. No change, he told his party...

Sir: Stephen Glover has now twice used the pages of The Spectator ('Whose backing Brittain'), 30 August and 'An odd couple indeed', 27 September) to abuse my work as a...

Sir: It is always amusing to observe how the media whinge and whine when someone makes a decision of which they disapprove. That the decision may even be right is irrel- evant....

Sir: In the Old Testament triumphalism of his 'Israel goes orthodox' (13 September), Sion Simon says, 'We are the masters now. Zionism is the New Labour shibboleth.' But, like...

Sir: Matthew Parris's musing (Another voice, 20 September) that Chile's President Allende's hopes would have wrecked more lives than General Pinochet ever did, ignores several...

Sir: I was somewhat saddened to read Cristina Odone's unbalanced observations of Holy Trinity Brompton CA contagious case of HTB', 20 September). During my first year as Bishop,...

Sir: Julia Hobsbawm's letter (13 Septem- ber) with various justifications of public relations seems to have overlooked a more precise description, source unknown, made of this...

Sir: I live in 'the other Edinburgh' (Andrew Neil, 23 August) and the leader of the council, Keith Geddes, who replied so indignantly (Letters, 20 September), is my local...

Sir: Stephen Glover is entitled to his view of the new Independent, of course, even if his untimely criticism was little more than a poorly disguised plug in favour of some...

The FT's Mr Stephens wrote it, but the City only noticed when the FT's young Mr Peston did too STEPHEN GLOVER T he stock market soars by £30 billion in a day, equivalent to...

Ripe but not rotten Philip Hensher KEATS by Andrew Motion Faber, £25, pp. 636 D uring his lifetime and since his death, Keats has always been regarded as rather vulgar. His...

Fiction: English Weather by Neil Ferguson, Indigo, £6.99 With Friends Like These by Nicholas Coleridge, Orion, £5.99 Le Testament Francais by Andrei Makine, Sceptre, £6.99 The...

Andrew Brown I n ten years' writing about religion, I made it a rule not to read Don Cupitt. I would meet his followers from time to time: pleasant, mild-mannered men, usual-...

Kevin Myers REBELS AND INFORMERS by Oliver Knox John Murray, £20, pp. 304 E ven more than the Easter Rising of 1916, the United Irishmen and the rebel- lion of 1798 fire the...

'Shakespeare,' declared Bernard Shaw, 'As a technician was immature, raw; Which is why, at 80, I've rewritten Cymbeline, Act Five. Now that will survive.' James Michie

Kate Kavanagh JOHN COWPER POWYS by Herbert Williams Seren, £14.95, pp. 172 T his old man is sly and wised He knows the truth, he tells no lies . . . Stevie Smith's 'Homage to...

James Simmons ECLIPSE OF THE SUN by Phil Whitaker Phoenbc House, £16.99, pp. 264 T his little masterpiece was written by a doctor, who practises part-time in Oxford, as part of...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY- RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK 0 £93.00 U £47.00 Europe (airmail) U £104.00 U £52.00 USA Airspeed CI US$151 01 US$76 Rest of 1 , Airmail U £115.00 U £58.00...

Maurice Cowling BLAIR'S 100 DAYS by Derek Draper Faber, £7.99, pp. 223 h is book is supposed to be, and perhaps is, a diary kept by Mr Derek Draper, at the suggestion of the...

Jan Morris EVENING RAGAS: A PHOTOGRAPHER IN INDIA by Derry Moore, with an introduction by Philip Glazebrook John Murray, £20, pp. 128 I t is no criticism of Deny Moore's...

Dean Godson A re the Provisionals serious about peace? And is the IRA becoming an appendage of Sinn Fein, rather than the other way round? Such questions loom large as...

A choice of over 100,000 books — including those reviewed in this issue Telephone: 0541 557288 Facsimile: 0541 557225 E-mail: telegraph @bms.ftech.co.uk We accept payment by...

Rupert Christiansen They were born, they learned to sing, they sang, they made money and bought diamonds, they got royalties to write in their autograph albums and they died....

Francis King BARNEY'S VERSION by Mordecai Richter Chatto, £16.99, pp. 424 T he Canadian, Jewish narrator of this fictional memoir, Barney Carnofsky, writing when he is...

Barbara Trapido SOUTH FROM THE LIMPOPO ' by Dervla Murphy John Murray, £18.99, pp. 432 D ervla Murphy's record of her journey by push-bike through South Africa is no ordinary...

John Erickson THE KENNEDY TAPES edited by Ernest R. May and Philip D. Zelikow Harvard University Press, £23.50, pp. 728 T hirty-five years after the near cataclysmic event, one...

The intrinsic power of art Cosmo Landesman argues that artists should not be surprised by violent reactions to their work T he art is in your face and it's shock- ing' is how...

Theatre of Masks (Barbican Art Gallery, till 14 December) A bit of a mess Martin Gayford A n exhibition, ideally, should be the strongest possible display of an artist's...

Books do furnish a room T he back cover of the catalogue for Colin St John Wilson's exhibition at the Heinz Gallery (21 Portman Square, Lon- don Wl, until 25 October) shows the...

King Lear (Old Vic) Blue Heart (Duke of York's) Enter the Guardsman (Donmar Warehouse) Shakespeare as I Knew Her (Theatre Antibea) Save Hall! Sheridan Morley T his seems...

Plat& (Royal Opera, Barbican) Absurd behaviour Michael Tanner R emaining in the mid-18th century for their second production at the Barbican, the Royal Opera has mounted...

Surprised by Sylvie Giannandrea Poesio I deally, critics should never prejudge a performance. In real life, however, expecta- tions, predictions and assumptions are inevitable...

Antique antics Marcus Berkmann F irst Oasis, now Bob Dylan, Portishead, the Rolling Stones. Disparate acts indeed, but with one important thing in common: they want your...

Volcano (12, selected cinemas) Head Above Water (15, selected cinemas) Love in the lava Mark Steyn A week before Volcano opened in the United States, its leading lady Anne...

Flattery and flummery Michael Vestey W hen I saw there was to be a series of five programmes on Radio Four about Studs Terkel, the American writer and broadcaster, I thought...

Marriage lines James Delingpole I t's all over. After a month's deluded bliss I have suddenly realised that my wife and I are incompatible. It happened while we were watching...

A CELLAR OF N WINE from oPdd bh , - 1 7 3: THE PRIZES WILL INCLUDE: Vinci Porta Merlot 1996, Chile Chilean Merlot is hot property these days. This concentrated,...

Backing Brighton Robin Oakley F rankie Dettori may have taken the glory at Ascot on Sunday with his three- timer. But the People Who Matter were watching a rather different...

In love again Taki I had a large Japanese pagoda erected in the garden which served as a dojo, the word for gym in the Land of the Rising Sun. After a long night's drinking...

I'll go and stuff marrows Leanda de Lisle The rabbits are dying too — in dozens. This has nothing to do with our attempts to dent their numbers with gas, air rifles, dogs and...

Unstoppable? Andrew Robson THIS week's auction started slowly but gathered momentum as all four players strained to compete. The final contract was a fascinating struggle —...

VEGETARIANS are twice as likely to be liars as carnivores. Taylor Nelson AGB, a marketing company, reported recently that while 7 per cent of Britons describe them- selves as...

Blue funk Raymond Keene DEEP BLUE, IBM's monster computer, programmed to examine 200 million chess positions per second, has retired from chess. In May the machine defeated...

COMPETITION j SINGLE 4 ALT SCOICII %HAI URA Food in context Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 2002 you were invited to adopt the persona of a food critic and describe a visit...

A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1991 Port for the first correct solution opened on 20 October, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for UK...

In Idylls of the King comes the line, 'Then slowly answered Arthur from the barge . . . . ' Reading tar' for 'barge' and Arthur not necessarily being the King, you are invited...

Oa E 'A S C MONK CI El lialannE MEC EMU I 61 13 111EIRMAIEVOIMEI "B I3 I L Ira L E ACE EWE TIES EMU i3 u U 1:111 hill N INI E T LI CE RE TEIMMEIECI r gm la E Ei i...

Dreaded yips Simon Barnes THERE is a theory that courage is a wast- ing asset. Perhaps one starts off in life with a supply of nerve, but simply uses it up,' Peter Alliss, the...

Q. I am desperately keen to attend the Party which I know Nicholas Coleridge and some friends are giving in the very near future, but I have not received an invita- tion. I have...