THE SPEGFOR The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 SIR JAMES'S DILEMMA W vord reaches us in' this office that some of...

POLI TI CS Opportunism and black holes: the dumbing down of New Labour BRUCE ANDERSON Top people are unpopular at present. Deference has virtually disappeared over the past...

RICH, HUMOROUS AND BAROQUE A selection of the late Colin Welch's work, chosen by Craig Brown THE DEATH of Colin Welch last week brought an unusual number of tributes to him...

Goodbye SIX years as the Queen's press secretary was an instructive experience for Charles Anson. Now that he has handed the job over, he is free to admit that when he took it...

Pandora's horse GOSH, how exciting, a letter from the Prime Minister. It says so on the envelope. Nice of him to keep in touch - and how admirably careful, in this time of...

On with the motley THE Morgan bank has now looked this horse in the mouth, with the aid of its Emu Calculator. This ingenious device measures what the markets think of the...

CITY AND SUBURBAN Memo: we must find alternatives to work, so send a message on a beer-mat CHRISTOPHER FILDES IN/ty Daft Memo competition has elicit- ca a long-lost...

Swirling round Stirling I HAVE been counting on the Eligible Life to see me through, so I am missing the excitement on offer at the Scottish Amicable. From the crags of its...

| Sir: Correlli Barnett's review of 'the latest BBC series on 1914-18' is deplorable on two counts. (It needs to be pointed out that, on three occasions in his review, he...

Religious bigotry Sir: If you are the expert on ScientologY that you think you are (Leader, 18 January), how do you explain the fact that Scientology is one of the...

L E T TER S The whole story Sir: Correlli Barnett is absolutely right to write that discussion of the Great War of 1914 to 1918, or, to be accurate, to October 1922, has never...

Salt of the earth Sir: Your 'Media studies' correspondent (1 February) writes some kind things about me in order to say very unkind things about my editor, and friend, Max...

A great man Sir: I was most interested to read your leader about Colin Welch (1 February). I certainly agree with Andrew Alexander (Daily Mail, 29 January) that he was 'the...

Fatal mistake Sir: Stuart Campbell, writing on battlefields (Travel, 25 January), says that the Abbey of Monte Cassino was bombed to raise Mlorale. The story current at the...

The real Ali Sir: It seems a pity to spoil the continuing speculation about the identity of Alastair Forbes, and I'm sure it would be much more fun if he were an anagram...

Cockney grammar Sir: I must object in the strongest possible terms to Michael Henderson's article (Arts, I February) on the mindless, over-excited, Puerile nature of pop...

Won over Sir: After a long-standing subscription to The Spectator, I have recently considered abandoning my loyalty owing to the longWinded and over-personalised letters to the...

MEDIA STUDIES Our newspapers have become like supermarkets: we can't like everything on the shelves STEPHEN GLOVER I spent last weekend in the glorious surroundings of...

Far from the madding war Kate Grimond PART OF THE FURNITURE by Mary Wesley Bantam, £15.99, pp. 255 | How hard it is when reading a novel by Mary Wesley to suppress an ageist...

Words and music Paul Bentley THE SONGMAKERS' ALMANAC: TWENTY YEARS OF SONG RECITALS IN LONDON by Graham Johnson | Thames, £20, pp. 392 In 1991 a once-famous British diva gave...

An almost extinct species Olda Fitzgerald LIFE IN AN IRISH COUNTRY HOUSE by Mark Bence-Jones Constable, £20, pp. 251 This book consists of a series of thumbnail sketches of...

Doctor at sea Dot Wordsworth THE LANGUAGE WEB by Jean Aitchison I Cambridge, £25, £7.95, pp. 139 l WV hen the contents of this little book Were broadcast as the Reith...

Opera Palestrina (Covent Garden) Please go Michael Tanner H ans Pfitzner's Palestrina is one of those works which, if it's not a masterpiece, even a flawed one, is a bore...

Radio Betjeman recalled Michael Vestey As a journalist, one is privileged (or not, as the case may be) to meet the famous. In the course of a varied career I have interviewed...

Rugby What went wrong? Christian Hesketh The Five Nations ChampionshiP entered a dramatic phase last Saturday as four countries competed in the first round. After playing a...

SPECTATOR SPORT _ Foreign fun and games Simon Barnes ENGLISH footballing folk have always been fascinated with Abroad, that strange Place beyond the seas where foreigners...