“Keeping all the parties heading in the same direction is quite a task.” The MoD is of two minds, he says. “It sees the potential advantages – there is quite a lot of cost that could be taken out through the merger – but obviously it would lose competition. Industry wants to go down [...]

The British Celts on the Severn boil their bowls after foreigners have eaten from them, the Saxons break theirs on the death of a kinsman so that the vessel will “die” with the owner; the Irish invite foreigners to suck their nipples as a sign of acceptance, the Picts hide underground by day when [...]

As well as the classics, there’s calamari and scallop with rosemary dressing, saffron and summer pea risotto, and praline-crusted duck with orange masala sauce.Email Terry Durack about where you’ve eaten lately at t.durack independent.co.uk. The cooking is simple and fresh, with the occasion al modern twist. Try roast duck with cured bacon, chestnuts and [...]

It also results in a numbing succession of erotic duets: Valmont and Madame de Merteuil, Madame de Merteuil and the Comte de Gercourt, and so on and so on.The miracle, though, is that despite the tangle of intrigues and identities, Cooper still manages to tell the story clearly most of the time. Cooper has [...]

Their director, Deborah Arnott, said: “It is deplorable that Formula One teams, under pressure from their tobacco sponsors, are threatening to undermine the new law when its intention is perfectly clear – that is, an end to the glamorisation of smoking via sport.”It is also regrettable that the European Commission have not given member [...]