For the first four rounds, everything seemed to be going smoothly for the top seed, Matthew Sadler. Not only did he win all his games, but the man expected to be his closest rival, Mark Hebden, was having some miserable results. In the fifth round, h...

Joshua Rozenberg's attack (letter, 4 August) on Polly Toynbee misses this point and is also misleading. Ms Toynbee arguedthat judges are now making up our constitution as they go along. Often to our benefit, perhaps, but it is no way to run a country...

The constitution that was created for the newly independent state provides written guaranteed rights for all minorities. The Croatian flag dates back to 1300, so it is ridiculous to identify it with a puppet state run by a small number of quislings a...

Hiroshima was in the zone occupied by the British and Commonwealth forces. Has any research been carried out as to the health of British personnel who served there? I was stationed at the RAF base at Iwakuni, which was 18 miles from Hiroshima, and ma...

But swimming pool fascists are excellent swimmers. They swim in perfectly straight lines and do not care who gets in their way. However much space you give them, they always take more. If they collide with you going up the pool, and you get out of th...

Whom can she have been talking to? It sounds suspiciously like the Charter 88 mob, who are well known to be among the great misleaders of our generation. If Ms Toynbee reads the Bill of Rights, she will see that it confers powers on the judges far be...

Western Europe should now offer a deal to the luckless peoples of former-Yugoslavia geared towards what they have in common. Croatia and Serbia could be promised close association with the European Union and substantial economic assistance, if the fo...

Like many writers of horror, he was gentle, kindly and very courteous. He gave many interviews about his work and always managed to raise a smile when the reporter quipped that she had been unable to have a shower for months after seeing the movie. F...

Yet the more immediate significance of Croatia's success is that it may bring a speedier settlement of the conflicts that have torn apart former Yugoslavia for the past four years. Suddenly, there is a grim clarity to the maps that show which nationa...

Yet this conclusion cannot be regarded as definitive. The US National Academy of Sciences report (1980) on the biological effects of radiation estimates that "irregularly inherited genetic changes" would persist for ten generations. The foremost auth...

1. If you are Chancellor of the Exchequer (or even shadow Chancellor), resign. Previous and present holders of these posts include Ken Clarke, John Smith, Gordon Brown, Roy Jenkins, Roy Hattersley and, of course, Nigel Lawson. It is nearly impossible...

North 4 Q 9 6 3 ! A K 7 6 4 2 # K Q 2 3 West East 4K 10 8 7 4 J 4 !10 8 ! Q J 9 5 #10 8 4 3 # J 9 5 2 2Q 7 5 2 J 10 9 South 4 A 5 2 ! 3 # A 7 6 2 A K 8 6 4 2 This was a perplexing hand from a recent teams' event. With exactly eight top tricks in Thre...

Last week Julia and I found that our political incorrectness extended to having since early childhood been steadfastly pro-Cavalier and anti- Roundhead - and not just on sartorial and joie de vivre grounds. We reject the 1066 And All That compromise ...

Sir: Melvyn Bragg implies that a book by David Gauntlett consists of "detailed research" on the (possible) effects of television ("You can't blame it on the box", 4 August). The work does not, however, contain any new information but consists of quit...

Sir: It is true that exposure rates of children are probably much lower nowadays, as suggested by Professor O'Carroll (letter, 3 August). However the next step in the argument about statistics on child safety is whether exposure rates have any bearin...

In this light it is hard not to see the Croatian victory as welcome. Last month, the Serbs looked unassailable, overwhelming the United Nations "safe areas" of Zepa and Srebrenica, slaughtering hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people put to flight by ...

"On your imaginary forces work." Indeed, imagine the new millennium, and a spanking new bridge across the Thames taking tourists and day-trippers from St Paul's cathedral to the trendy waterside cultural centre of Bankside, where they could wander ar...

Ms Clayton's story is disputed by carping "yachties", who believe she was assisted on at least one occasion, by a BBC film crew. The issue of whether she did or did not circumnavigate the world is now highly circumfused. The same condition is rife in...

Sir: As a party member in one of Labour's "Birmingham Four" suspended constituencies, may I congratulate Ken Livingstone for having highlighted the injusticeperpetrated by the party hierarchy against ordinary party members, not just in Birmingham, bu...

I'll tell you why people go on and on about the Sixties. It's because they've just written a book about the Sixties, and they want people to buy it. That's why I've brought the subject up today. I've just written a history of the Sixties. But it's no...

There were something over 2,000 American MIAs (missing in action) in Vietnam, as a result of the war. There were 300,000 MIAs on the North Vietnamese/Vietcong side. While the form of the Saturday ceremonial was doubtless chosen with extreme care and ...