Postcard from Brighton A t the Labour Party conference in Brighton, Mr Gordon Brown, the shadow Chancellor, said he would like to reduce Value Added Tax on domestic fuel to 5...

For a second or two, one's crust of cynicism was almost penetrated by a 42-year-old ex-guitarist BORIS JOHNSON Y ou may think it pathetic even to suc- cumb for an instant to...

DAVID ENGLISH L Brighton ord Northcliffe's old office, while not as big as Mussolini's, had a pretty fair acreage. After his death, it was turned into a boardroom and later a...

Thank Heaven, we can no longer bank on the Germans CHARLES MOORE Y ou probably know versions of that slightly depressing joke that Hell is a place where the British are the...

Theodore Dalrymple argues that the main problem with the welfare state is not that it costs too much money. It's that it has destroyed our national morale LAST YEAR, a Filipino...

Kevin Myers on the tarnishing of what the Pope considers the jewel in the crown of European Catholicism Dublin THE AVERAGE Catholic bishop in Ire- land these days raises his...

Michael Heath

Tom Porteous gives an insider's stog of the UN operation in Liberia. It is a disgusting charade Kakata, Liberia I WENT to Kakata with some metal detec- tors. After all, it was...

You might think that Russia defeated the Chechen rebels. But, Steve Crawshaw discovers, it is not quite as simple as that Grozny ACCORDING TO the authorised version that...

Charlotte Roe explains why she is desperate to see her son for the first time. He is 22. I HAVE not forgotten the day when John Redwood, in furtherance of his campaign for the...

THE PLOT so far: I took a Trollope (Can You Forgive Her?) on holiday and found it full of printing errors. But I also found the explanatory notes at the end peculiarly annoying....

O.J. Simpson is a free man. William Cash meets his young children, who may now be returned to their father Los Angeles At the end of his trial, Orenthal James Simpson...

John Simpson tastes the very best duck money can buy — twice SOMETHING BAD can happen to a restaurant which is elevated to Michelin rosette stardom. Like some friendly, anx-...

Mr Francis Ede ELLIOTT, of 27/29 Lower Fore street, Saltash, Cornwall, who died on June 2nd last, left estate valued at £227,454 gross, £221,070 net. He left his property 27/29...

When the troops finally enter the No 10 bunker, they may find almost nobody there PAUL JOHNSON T he great Conservative Government, so invincible-seeming in the 1980s, is now...

How Kenneth Clarke can solve his problems and please everyone except the French CHRISTOPHER FILDES K nneth Clarke has sensibly set off for Washington by way of Jamaica....

Sir: One might excuse Charles Moore's recent passionate attack on the immorality of abortion for foetal abnormality as the zealous enthusiasm of someone recently converted to...

Sir: It's not only DTI Inspectors who can compel witnesses to answer questions prop- er or improper, make up their own rules, 'forget' to advise people of their legal rights,...

Sir: I enjoyed Paul Johnson's Swiftian Pro- posal (And another thing, 30 September) that moneyed Chinese immigrants should be encouraged to finance the export of the black...

Sir: I write with reference to your editorial of 30 September, 'Careless policy costs lives'. There is no evidence that care in the community has led to an increase in the...

Sir: I assume it was Anne Applebaum's taste for the ironic which led her to claim in Pull of eastern menace', 23 September, that it was a 'moral drive' which 'settled the...

Sir: Much has been written about a national minimum wage, the sum being mentioned £3.65 per hour. I am trying to hire a cleaner for my home, a modest two-bedroomed house with...

Sir: In your article, 'Beware of Greeks bearing degrees', 2 September, you quote statements attributed to me. I now realise that my words will cause offence, not only to some...

Sir: I think you might agree that we would enjoy Keats's sonnet rather less if it began 'Muck have I travelled in the realms of gold'. I am not Keats, but I want to be properly...

Her Majesty's fiscal policy is reduced to the tactics of a Damon Runyon gangster SIMON JENKINS T he Evening Standard headline was stark: 'I Feel No Guilt Says Fat Cat'. The...

Lace curtains or a blind? John Mortimer JOHN BETJEMAN LEI I ERS, VOLUME II edited and introduced by Candida Lycett Green Methuen, ,f20, pp. 616 A mong the imaginative...

Like the dry rattle of seeds in hollow poppy heads, or a brisk frantic insect which finds itself trapped by the smooth bubble chamber within a pebble of amber so, inside this...

Liliana Brisby THE BRONSKI HOUSE: A RETURN TO THE BORDERLANDS by Philip Marsden HarperCollins, £16.95, pp. 244 T his haunting book defies neat categori- sation. Its...

Caroline Moore JACKSON'S DILEMMA by Iris Murdoch Chatto, £15.99. pp. 249 T his is pure Iris Murdoch; this is the real McCoy. Its relative brevity only inten- sifies the...

John Simpson IN HARM'S WAY: REFLECTIONS OF A WAR ZONE THUG by Martin Bell Hamish Hamilton, £15.99, pp. 274 E st, the disclaimers. Martin Bell is a friend and a colleague of...

Peter Levi INTERPLAY by D. J. Enright OUP, £16.99, pp. 237 f all the kinds of book the one that entices you least is surely the commonplace book: the book you read, or possibly...

Like thick scaly fingers Stacked across each other They glitter in moonlight By the edge of the sea, Their mouths have closed On war sadness, A heap of helplessness In silver...

Michael Carlson SLEEPERS by Lorenzo Carcaterra Century, .115.99, pp. 336 I n the movie Angels with Dirty Faces, two boys caught stealing try outrunning the cops in a railway...

Keith Waterhouse YOU COULDN'T MAKE IT UP by Richard Littlejohn Heinemann, 0.99, pp. 204 U nder a Dangerous Columnists Act, Richard Littlejohn would have been put down years...

are flesh Peter J. M. Wayne SUPERGRASSES AND INFORMERS: AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF UNDERCOVER POLICE WORK by James Morton Little, Brown, £16.99, pp. 347 I got this great big long...

Jake Michie ROSE MADDER by Stephen King Hodder, £16. 99, pp. 402 or some the name of Stephen Icing calls to mind three things: his ubiquitous photograph, groaning shelves at W....

Roger Lewis THE PRINCE, THE SHOWGIRL AND ME: THE COLIN CLARK DIARIES by Conn Clark HarperCollins, £16.99, pp. 219 C olin, like Zeppo or Gummo, the for- gotten Marx Bros, is the...

Gabriele Annan THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD by Eduardo Mendoza The Harvill Press, £9.99, pp. 111 E duardo Mendoza's 111-page novella is about sacred and profane love. Or,...

Francis King EXTINCTION by Thomas Bernhard, translated by David McLintock Quartet, £16, pp. 335 Af ter I had reviewed Thomas Bern- hard's Wittgenstein's Nephew in these pages...

Annabel Goldsmith THE AACHEN MEMORANDUM by Andrew Roberts Weidenfeld, £15.99, pp. 280 I t takes courage for a historian of Andrew Roberts' proven ability suddenly to branch out...

Eric Christiansen AN INTELLIGENT PERSON'S GUIDE TO HISTORY by John Vincent Duckworth, £11.95, pp. 122 H istory is about arranging bits of paper,' says Professor Vincent, at the...

I do not mean the age between the casting and the bite; rather, beside or out of time: no 'Early', 'Then', or 'Late'. All but one old man, who calls 'You must be the boy I...

Tony Gould DON'T CALL IT NIGHT by Amos Oz Chatto, £14.99, pp. 200 A t the end of Amos Oz's new novel there is a cast-list two pages long, which comes as a bit of a surprise,...

Exhibitions Cezanne (Grand Palais, Paris till 7 January, Tate Gallery from 8 February till 28 April Philadelphia Museum of Art from 25 May till 18 August) Cry of Cezannah!...

Re-writing Shakespeare Rupert Christiansen pays homage to the RSC's wise man T he theatre is full of unsung heroes, but none more deserving of honour than John Barton. Now in...

Call a spade a Brotzman Ursula Buchan U ntil recently, I have always gardened on a light, free-draining, sandy soil. I used to complain about it ceaselessly because it always...

A Little Night Music (Olivier) The Visit (Chichester) Macbeth (Greenwich) Three Tall Women (Wyndhams) Just stands and stars Sheridan Morley hipped cream with knives' was what...

Bernard Meadows: Retrospective (Gimpel) John Hoyland: Bali Paintings (Theo Waddington) Margot Perryman (Clarendon Gallery) Pursuit of pleasure John Spurling G impel's is a...

Pocahontas ('U', selected cinemas) The Net ('15', selected cinemas) Baddies stay baddies Mark Steyn h e Net is about the usual sinister organisation bent on world...

Illuminated delights Gavin Stamp 0 nce upon a time, in the early days of railways, it was possible to travel by train north from Philip Hardwick's great Doric Arch at Euston...

Murder in the home Ian Hislop T oday's main news is of course the O.J. Simpson verdict.' That was the view of ITN at 5.40 p.m. and they ran an extended bulletin at 6 p.m. in...

Brief lives Taki Gstaad W atching Michael Schumacher win- ning an impressive victory at Nurburgring last Sunday brought back memories. Juan Manuel Fangio pulled off the...

Surprised by bells Jeffrey Bernard h e electricians have left my flat at last and, without telling me, they fitted a smoke alarm into the ceiling in the hall. It went off to...

Who wants books? Carole Morin h e moaning mizmies who are fretting about the demise of the Net Book Agree- ment are worrying about the literary novel, rather than the...

Two memories Nigel Nicolson I t was quite something to watch Car- rington and the first episodes of Pride and Prejudice in a single week, and to judge which was the truer to...

BRIDGE Northern lights Andrew Robson THE INAUGURAL World under 25 Pairs Championship this August was contested by 152 pairs from 20 nations. Geir Helgemo of Norway underlined...

it — something exciting about the opening of a Terence Conran restau- rant. It isn't hype: within the bounds of rea- sonable behaviour, I feel I am not really susceptible to...

Dragon's lair Raymond Keene I LEFT the world championship match last week with honours even at the midway stage, Anand having scored a fine win in game nine and Kasparov...

A first prize of £25 and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1989 Port for the first correct solution opened on 23 October, with two runners-up prizes of £15 (or, for UK...

1FS,LE OF c. Ni% , u RA 101,111■1114k1 COMPETITION Chester- Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1901 you were invited to submit a ballade with the refrain, 'What's happening to...

The dawning of post-fartism Simon Barnes NELSON MANDELA wore a Springbok shirt for the final of the rugby union world cup in South Africa a few months ago. On Saturday, the...

• • Dear Mary. Q. A South African doctor whom I do not know is convinced that a member of my fam- ily harboured in exile King Louis XVII of France, son of Louis XVI and Marie...