THE SPEGIAFOR The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 0171-405 1706; Fax 0171-242 0603 WALLPAPER TELEVISION It is conventional to regard British...

POLI TI CS The real reasons why Mr Williams has turned on the lot of them BRUCE ANDERSON It has been a typical week in the recent history of the Conservative party. It began...

THE CARDINAL CASTS GOD'S VOTE In the Philippines, the Catholic Church plays an unorthodox role in life and politics, as Justin Marozzi reports Manila WHAT would Ferdinand...

Come on, my beauty HE COULD certainly say to the board that if racing set out to do more for itself, others would do more for it. Ministers might at last tackle the law that...

CITY AND SUBURBAN It's the big race to run British racing, and the Captain's under starter's orders CHRISTOPHER FILDES A turn-up for the book in the race for the top job in...

A bigger splash WITH A SPLASH on the bow and a fight on the bridge, the great hull moves down the slipway. I name this ship Euro. God help her and all who sail in her. The...

Let dogs delight BLESSED with a second reading this week, Labour's Late Payment Bill will do for bad debts what the Conservatives did for bad dogs. In theory, it will help...

AND ANOTHER THING A coming star in the English musical sky PAUL JOHNSON I am enjoying a learned book by Daniel Heartz of the University of California, entitled Haydn, Mozart...

LE TTERS I -~ Out of Africa Sir: In his column (As I was saying, 11 'Xprii), Peregrine Worsthorne describes himself as a crusty old reactionary, yet his article reveals all...

Welsh wails Sir: Michael Morgan asks why Cardiff has only one restaurant, Le Monde, which is worthy of review (Letters, 2 May). This, I suggest, is because the Welsh run such...

A page turns Sir: James Whitaker ('The Windsors v. the Spencers', 2 May) is right to object to any implied public criticism of our monarchy on the part of Earl Spencer, brought...

Sir: Veronica Bellers (Letters, 18 April) congratulates the British for leaving Kenya vibrant, prosperous and safe, and this may be fair enough by certain standards. They also...

Awe shucks Sir: I hope that Jaspistos will not think ill of me for pointing out that his friend (Competition, 18 April) is partly mistaken. John Wayne played not Herod, but the...

AS I WAS SAYING Mary Bell's case proves that the godless still believe in the Devil PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE If Gitta Sereny had unearthed important new material about the...

Boring for Germany Michael Tanner HE WHO DOES NOT HOWL WITH THE WOLF by Gottfried Wagner Sanctuary, £16.99, pp. 335 The best title for this book would have been Mein Kampf,...

Hitting above and below the belt Rupert Christiansen ARTIST UNKNOWN: AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OF THE ARTS COUNCIL by Richard Witts Little, Brown, £22.50, pp.593 1 iddling':...

Clerihew Corner If he'd been an English Victorian, Horace Would have had to make do with Gladys or Doris Rather than Chloe and Camilla - And in what a different sort of villa!...

Slapstick and pathos Jonathan Cecil THE CHAPLIN ENCYCLOPAEDIA by Glenn Mitchell Batsford, £15.99, pp. 288 M Iy favourite anecdote about cultural Sn0bhishness comes from...

A bit of jiggery-popery David Barrett THE SHE-POPE: A QUEST FOR THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MYSTERY OF POPE JOAN by Peter Stanford Heinenmnn, f£6.99, pp. 340 Awoman pope? A woman...

The very heart of high politics Hugh Brogan TAKING CHARGE: THE JOHNSON WHITE HOUSE TAPES, 1963-1964 by Michael R. Beschloss Simon & Schuster, £20, pp. 591 No one seriously...

Theatre 2 Show Boat (Prince Edward) A Question of Mercy (Bush) Steaming along Sheridan Morley M usicals don't come a lot better than Show Boat, and indeed they wouldn't come...

Cinema Shall We Dance? (PG, selected cinemas) Subtle steps Mark Steyn The kind of people who make films are not, on the whole, the kind of people who are sympathetic to...

Television Beware the sharks James Delingpole B y the time you read this, I shall be in South Africa doing something so truly horrible that I feel quite sick just thinking...

Motoring Royal patronage Alan Judd For over half of this century, the royal family patronised Daimler as the provider of official cars before changing, in the early Fifties,...

High life Off sex almost Taki s New York ildenafil citrate is the active ingredient Mat was first developed as a drug to alleviate angina. By a happy coincidence, Patients...

Country life Hamster tales: part two Leanda de Lisle The tale of the disappearing hamster is becoming more bizarre by the day. Last week, Trigger, my middle son's huge,...

SPECTATOR SPORT The Gaffer's gaffe Simon Barnes ALEC Stewart had just been appointed captain of Surrey in place of Ian Greig. The team went to discuss the transfer of power...