THE SPECTATOR TACTLESS IN GAZA No one could fairly accuse Mr David Mellor of a lack of opportunism. But the particular opportunity he seized in the Gaza strip last week was...

WHO LIVES THE Today programme reports that it is becoming quite common for Asian women in Britain to have their foetuses aborted when they discover that the babies will be...

A NO THER VOI CE _ _ Further reflections on the Nanny Hurd Terror AUBERON WAUGH S omething rather strange has happened in the last few months in England - I cannot, of...

MISSING IN NURISTAN Radek Sikorski fears that Afghan guerrilla discord has cost a cameraman's life THERE is still a tiny ray of hope that Andy Skrzypkowiak might be alive in...

Virtue rewarded THANK you for a splendid and varied supply of cardinal virtues. I asked what we should look for in a business, beyond the three staples of honesty, competence...

Deep waters, Lawson THE perfect illustration of Gilmore's Law came this week from Mrs Teresa Gorman, MP, who has (if I may so express myself) taken over Harvey Proctor's old...

Toffee for Philip I AM delighted to see that the management buy-in is back. That is the charm and point of the £2 billion bid for Dee Corporation, the Gateway supermarket...

Science research Sir: The bizarre article by Terence Kealey ('How academics waste money', 14 November) requires some response, lest your readers believe it. In trying to show...

Free press Sir: For many years I have devoted part of each Saturday to perusing your esteemed journal at Holborn Library in Theobalds Road. Imagine, therefore, my horror upon...

Sir: Paul Johnson has missed the point in his piece, 'Journalists' Own Secrets'. If a journalist cannot protect the source of his stories, those stories will cease. No stories,...

L E T T E R S Journalists and secrets | Sir: In his piece 'Journalists' own secrets' (19/26 December) Paul Johnson takes three strands of argument relating to confidentiality...

Grace abounding Sir: I am surprised that Digby Anderson ('Grace and flavour', 19/26 December) did I not include the much-loved Scots Covenanters' grace: Some hae meat an' canna...

B O OKS Who won the prizes in France Anita Brookner The literary season in France takes place in November, with banquets for the publishers and publicity for the writers. The...

Remembrance of places past Marie-Alice de Beaumarchais THE END OF A DREAM: A MEMOIR by Gael Elton Mayo Deutsch, £8.95 Y et another book about France! By now the British must...

The coming political crisis David Howell RED OR GREEN FOR FARMERS (AND THE REST OF US) by Richard Body Broad Leys Publishing, £3.95 Hlas the moment of supreme rural crisis...

Renaissance man at his height Gregory Martin PETER PAUL RUBENS: MAN AND ARTIST by Christopher White Yale, £40 in our hyperbolical culture, it is difficult to convey proper...

A scholar of wide range Hugh Lloyd-Jones THE RISE OF THE GREEKS by Michael Grant Weidenfeld, £ 7.95 INM ichael Grant is a unique figure among the classical scholars of our...

AR TS Music Bring back real carols Peter Phillips Perhaps this is not a good moment to recall to mind the nature of Christmas carol services. For many revellers, such...

Art Critical state Giles Auty Another year starts and whatever good critical resolutions one has made must wait a further week to be put into effect. In London's West End,...

Yugoslav cinema Charm of the bourgeoisie Richard West During the 1960s, the Yugoslavs made a few films comparable in their art and honesty with the best from Poland,...

High life The party's over Taki New York H .owever contradictory it may sound, | the older I get the more I amuse myself at my own parties. Especially during the holidays....

Television The Duke and Mike show Wendy Cope 'The minstrel sings of sorrow.' 'The minstrel sings of humility.' 'The minstrel tells his joy of nature and the muses.' It seems...

Low life New haunts Jeffrey Bernard I am on the move again and I shall very much miss the flat I have been borrowing since last October. Connaught Street behind Marble Arch...

Home life Know thyself Alice Thomas Ellis I have always felt that the wise person as she floats through life on her broomstick should utilise the business, brushing end to...