Linda Bellos Black Filmmaker Publications ALAN Watkins (22 March) states that no Labour chancel- lor ever became prime minister. He has forgotten James Callaghan. He was Chancellor from 1964-67 and Prime Minister from 1976-79. Julian B Roland London ...

In the aftermath the newspapers didn't shrink from the responsibility. Lord Rothermere announced that his papers would no longer be buying pictures from the paparazzi, and every columnist from Lynda Lee-Potter to Lord Rees-Mogg expressed the media's ...

MUCH wailing and gnashing of teeth in the Conservative camp over Labour's decision to ditch Blackpool as a party conference venue. The Tories took full opportunity to put a few into the Government's open goal, but privately they are appalled. An oppo...

It is often difficult for a leading politician to adjust to normal life when first he leaves office. For many months, even years, Margaret Thatcher would spend her days simply wandering around the soft furnishings department of Harrods, stroking this...

Having lamented the defection to the English National Opera of Nicholas Payne, who had run Covent Garden's opera company, Berkeley explained why the Opera House would now change style, moving away from business-style administrators to people with art...

Brian Roberts Metropolitan Police Service

We fell into friendly conversation and talked, in a factual rather than a boastful manner - anyway I hope so - about the number of books we had written. He came out top. But I could not bring myself to ask him about a puzzling matter involving himsel...

This is not true. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (HKSARG) enjoys a high degree of autonomy to maintain law and order under the mini-constitution governing the territory. There is no question of the Central People's Government ...

But how did the Independent on Sunday's campaign to decriminalise cannabis come to make history? Three factors are responsible for propelling the campaign so far. Firstly the support of readers who recognised the flaws in the outdated and confused ar...

Without Radio One's commitment to break new music (that doesn't mean they can never play anything familiar, Pierre) there would be no Cornershop, Space, Verve, Run DMC, Nevins, All Seeing I etc for unadventurous commercial stations to plagiarise and ...

The value of human life has been eroded over the decades through the growth of euthanasia, abortion, and television and computer-game violence, which all promote the killing of people who happen to be an inconvenience. Until we as a society, and poli...

That is why we are marching today, and, hopefully, at last, Tony Blair and Jack Straw will listen and understand this is one campaign that is not going to go away. THIS week, The Independent invited the main party leaders to sign up to the Prime Mini...

What Ashley Weinberg and his colleagues at Manchester University do not ask - and this is an indictment of modern academic research, because it is a far more interesting question - is: do you have to be mad to rule the world? Now, before mental healt...

Quentin Tarantino says that he feels black inside, and wishes that the colour of his skin matched that of his soul. I heard that Steven Spielberg, who has adopted black children feels a kinship with the brethren that is closer than friendship. And, I...

I hope that, when the matter is put to a scientific test, the excellent Mr Tilt will not be one of the strong-necked whites used as controls. Professor C R LEEDHAM-GREEN Woodford Green, Essex

Yes, so did I. This weekend the British Psychological Society holds its annual conference in Brighton, and among the genuine insights it throws up there are always a large amount of studies (of which the three listed above are examples) which contain...

Heat will certainly kill a living plant but will it really destroy the kanamycin resistance genes inserted into every cell of these fruit? DNA is tough stuff and is very resistant to heat degradation - life wouldn't have been around so long if the su...

Despite the fact that dozens of studies have shown no quantifiable link between screen violence and real-life crime, David Usborne (report, 27 March) still assumes that videos have a comparable influence to that of the boys' fathers, who have spent y...