Tor you Tories the war is over.' B ritain stumbled towards electing another Labour government. Huge numbers voted postally; in Stevenage 25.000 postal ballots were obtained out...

I f ever there was a foregone conclusion, this was surely it. Even the bookies gave in and started paying out on a Labour victory before polling day. It is a melancholy thought...

BRUCE ANDERSON T ony Blair will have enjoyed the final hours of the campaign, and so he should have. He would be wise to take every such opportunity that presents itself, for...

H ow wonderful to go to a London NHS hospital for an appointment, to be greeted cheerfully, to be seen with no waiting and then afterwards to be thanked for coming. This...

Europe will dominate the next parliament, says Michael Gove, but the 'No' campaign must not be hijacked by the Conservatives. If it is, Labour will win the referendum THERE...

Neil Clark, a socialist, says that if the Labour party really cared about the poor, it would reintroduce capital punishment NO ONE expects Tony Blair to seek to reinstate...

A weekly survey of the things our rulers want to prohibit CUTTING red tape is a frequent election cry, and an admirable one. It is just a shame that it is so often accompanied...

The new TGV link to the Med is jolly impressive, says Jo Johnson, but France cannot really afford such glory Paris THE new TGV will run from sea to shining sea, linking the...

Following the palace massacre, Nepal is in the grip of conspiracy theory and chaos. Julian Manyon reports Kathmandu IF it turns out that the Eton-educated Crown Prince Dipendra...

The one education cut the government needs to make, says Andrew Gimson, is to the number of pupils THERE is said to be a desperate shortage of teachers, yet nobody pointed...

NOT long ago I heard — or rather felt the vibrations of — the first ghettoblaster of summer. I have experienced earth tremors in Central America, but the terror they inspire is...

`YO-HO, heave ho,' said my husband from the inert depths of his armchair. I did not react in alarm to this apparently deranged exclamation, for I had grown used to him shouting...

LADY THATCHER has been arguing that a Labour landslide would lead to an 'elective dictatorship', a term she seemed to imply originated with Lord Hailsham some 25 years ago. If...

Thomas Fleming says that conservatives who condemn EM Forster's 'betrayal' essay are wrong — and unimaginative EM. FORSTER has been routinely ridiculed by conservatives...

The most important item in a nation's faith is belief in heroism PAUL JOHNSON 0 ur greatest lack today is heroes, of the old-fashioned kind. I have been looking carefully at...

New Labour may punish its enemies in the press STEPHEN GLOVER S o the day is over, the fight is done. As I write this I have no idea as to the size of New Labour's overall...

From Lord Weidenfeld Sir: In his comparison between Israel and South Africa, or of the contrasting living standards in Arab Gaza and Jewish Jerusalem, Mr Rusbridger (`Separate...

From Mr Brian Basham Sir: Robert Hardman's claim (`Republican rumblings'. 2 June) that 'support for the Crown has held firm at around the 70 per cent mark' is untrue. Following...

From Mr Rayne Kruger Sir: Mary Wakefield's piece on Mormonism ('What makes them Mormons?', 26 May) lit up many memories for me, since in my boyhood 1 was a member of the Mormon...

From Professor Antony Flew Sir: Clearly Norman Tebbit wrote his article ('UKIP: is there a hidden agenda?', 26 May) before the appearance of full-page advertisements for UKIP...

From Professor Peter Geach, FBA Sir: Like most people, your correspondent Dr H. Robert Johnston (Letters, 26 May) probably does not know which view of Galileo's was condemned as...

From Mr Stanley Best Sir: Unlike Lady Moody-Stuart (Letters, 2 June) I do not believe that all crime can be explained away by poverty. The knowledge that the chance of detection...

From Emeritus Professor Cyril Ehrlich Sir: My recent essay 'The First Hundred Years' on the history of Wigmore Hall (which appeared in Wigmore Hall 1901-2001: A Celebration)...

FRANK JOHNSON T he late election campaign, if it leaves no other lasting influence, has been responsible for several new minor genres of English literature. There is the...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t has been a long week, but we are guaranteed a happy ending, of a sort. We can look forward to freedom on Sunday. All this year we have been working for...

Philip Hensher PARIS BETWEEN EMPIRES, 1814-1852 by Philip Mansel John Murray, ,f25, pp. 559, ISBN 07195562279 F rancis Poulenc was in the habit, it is said, of closing his song...

Katie Grant TRANSLATED ACCOUNTS by James Kelman Seeker, £15.99, pp. 322, ISBN 0436274647 h is is an extremely difficult book from a writer notorious for producing difficult...

Non-fiction: The Letters of Kingsley Atnis edited by Zachary Leader, HarperCollins, £14.99. The London Rich by Peter Thor°Id, Penguin, £12.99 Reflections on Blue Water by Alan...

Byron Rogers BEAUTIFUL EXILE by Carl Rollyson Aurum, £18.99, pp. 304, ISBN 1854107240 I met Martha Gellhorn once. It was at a dinner party in London, where everyone had been...

Naomi Shepherd HOUSE OF WINDOWS by Adina Hoffman Arcadia, £11.99, pp. 217, 158N 1900850621 A dina Hoffman's corner of Jerusalem is one unknown to tourists and to most Israelis...

Jonathan Keates WITH THE JOCKS by Peter White Sutton, £19.99, pp. 488, ISBN 0750927216 h e second world war is the ultimate reminder that warfare equals rather more than a...

John Michell ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS by John Neal The Secret Academy, .£25, pp. 274, ISBN 0953900002 SEAHENGE by Francis Pryor HaTerCollins, £19.99, pp. 337, ISBN 0007101910 J...

Joy Melville PHOBIAS: FIGHTING THE FEAR by Helen Saul HatperCollins, £7.99, pp. 366, ISBN 0006384315 H ans Christian Andersen was so phobic about fire he always carried a rope...

Steve King SOLLY ZUCICERMAN by John Peyton John Murray, £22.50, pp. 252, ISBN 071956283X L ord Peyton is probably right in thinking that Solly Zuckerman will be remembered for...

Raymond Carr HELMUTH VON MOLTICE AND THE ORIGINS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR by Annika Mombauer Cambridge University Press, £35, pp. 344, ISBN 0521791014 A nyone interested in the...

Ariane Bankes applauds the excitement and eclecticism of the Aldeburgh Festival isitors to Aldeburgh beach one Sunday afternoon last June would have walked straight into the...

Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972 (Tate Modern, till 10 August) Martin Gayford I returned from a restful spell in the hills of Tuscany to discover that in my absence the...

Alan Powers M odern architecture displays a s range courtship dance with the idea of craftsmanship. The presumption that modern architecture desired an irrevocable shift from...

Mark Steyn remembers Anthony Quinn, who died last Sunday A nthony Quinn was easy to mock — rough, raw, primal, lusty, throaty, stubbly, the life-force who forces a little too...

Marcus Berkmann C rafty blighters, the French. Not content with supplying most of the world's greatest pastry chefs, Impressionist artists and bad-tempered bank officials in...

Closer to Heaven (Arts) The Shape of Things (Almeida) Almost Like Being in Love (National) Sheridan Morley T he new (and first) Pet Shop Boys' musical Closer to Heaven has...

Don Giovanni (Coliseum) Die Entftihrung aus dem Serail (Royal Opera House) Michael Tanner T he generosity and poise of Mozart's view of humanity, as figured in his four,...

Giannandrea Poesio S ummer is back and the London dance season with it. This year, however, the programme is dauntingly rich and varied. Disoriented by the vast range of...

Michael Vestey I spent last week sitting in a boat on the Tay vainly trying to catch salmon. The fish were there all right because they kept running past us through the black...

James Delmgpole M y thesis this week is on how television suddenly got good again. I doubt it stands up. It probably has more to do with the fact that I haven't seen any telly...

Robin Oakley I don't know what would happen to the inhabitants of Newmarket if they did not have racing to sustain them. Faced with an early start on Channel Four's The Morning...

Taki T he good news is — no, not the election — but that my daughter and the mother of my children have safely arrived in Peking on their way to northwest Mongolia, where they...

Toby Young M y fellow Spectator columnist Stephen Glover once wrote a piece in the Evening Standard in which he accused me of being a shameless self-publicist. Naturally, the...

Leanda de Lisle I t's a very, very important week: school exams on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Monica from Friends getting married on Thursday, sports day on Saturday. But...

Petronella Wyatt E veryone says this has been a dull election. Zzz go the nattering classes. There's no bore like a poll bore. Of course it is modish to say the election is a...

0 h, lordy lordy. It's my son's birthday this week, which means, yes . . . gulp . . . a party. Hang on a minute, I'm just going to put on my Grumpy Old Person's Hat. Right....

Simon Barnes WHATEVER happened to the Derby? It was once one of the biggest days of the sporting year. It worked for a good couple of centuries. It was a festival day, a day of...

Q. Having recently moved into a new house, my husband and I were initially pleased to be approached by a lady in the village who told us that she had cleaned for the previous...