WILKES'S diary

Wilkes will be interested to see whether the beefing-up of the British and French forces in Bosnia improves their mutual respect. The various UN battalions from different countries are officially known as Brit-bat, Can-bat, etcetera, depending on the nation involved. But since an incident a year ago, in which Canadian troops were taken hostage by Bosnian Serbs and humiliated, the British troops have changed their designation to Can't-bat, while the French, who were ordered not to risk themselves in the latter days of the Mitterrand administration, but to return swiftly to barracks if attacked, are currently known as Flinch-bat. Unfair, no doubt, but very British.

Wilkes is nothing if not a man for fair play. And today he hastens to the defence of Lord Owen, whose headline-making announcement of his departure as the European Union's chief negotiator in Bosnia appeared to overshadow Wednesday's emergency Commons debate called by John Major. For he can reveal that the peace-seeker never meant to make the announcement on Wednesday at all. On 29 May, Lord Owen wrote to Jacques Chirac, who holds the EU Presidency, reminding him courteously of a letter he had written, back in January, to President Mitterrand, saying that he wanted to leave his post before the end of June. For reasons best known to themselves, the French government decided to announce Lord Owen's departure from Paris, minutes before he was due to make his maiden speech in the Lords - and without telling the British Foreign Office or Owen himself. Indeed, if it hadn't been for his intrepid assistant Maggie Smart rushing a note to him, he would have had the embarrassment of unwittingly delivering his speech under false pretences.

Which would be neither here nor there except that it establishes that his Lordship is still on the best of terms with J Major, whom he indeed praised for his courage in a BBC Radio interview yesterday. And that means he cannot be ruled out for a job in the Government's gift at some point in the future - the chairmanship of the BBC has been mentioned. But, for the time being, expect the Owen toes to be dipped further into the waters of international business. Wilkes hears the great man is rather enjoying his non-executive directorship of Coats Viyella.

One of the little treats of the Bosnian debate that tickled Wilkes was the way the Tory backbenches who oppose further involvement reacted to John Major. The Prime Minister, who had been visibly nervous beforehand, felt and sounded like a man fully in charge of his brief and self-confident about the policy. He turned in his best performance for ages. When his long-time foe Teresa Gorman, the Belle of Billericay, suggested giving in to the Bosnian Serb blackmail, he clearly thoroughly enjoyed swiping her down.

From then on, his Tory critics seemed a bit cowed. They waited until Tony Blair's speech before starting to pop up. It was evident they were cross-questioning him on the Government's policy. The real PM, meanwhile, was hugely bucked up by the reception he got and enjoyed the most relaxed and jovial meal in the Members' dining-room he has had for very many months. This far at least, the Brixton Boy is having a good crisis.

That doesn't mean he won't be challenged by a ragged army of the disloyal. The fury about the Nolan Committee's recommendations on the disclosure of MPs' pay and checks on former ministers' employment continues to swirl round the Tory party. Wilkes is assured over lunch that, because of Nolan, several eminent Tory MPs have determined not to stand again, while some rather useful ministers are looking for an excuse to leave the Government early.

Next Wednesday the pro-EU European Movement will launch what it says will be a lengthy "Britain in Europe" campaign. In an attempt to establish its cross-party credentials, the group has engaged five vice-chairmen to serve with Giles Radice MP, the Labour chairman: Edwina Currie and Emma Nicholson for the Tories, Charles Kennedy and Professor Alan Watson for the Lib Dems, and Peter Mandelson to make up the Labour complement. We have heard about these pro-European counter-attacks before, of course, and they tend to sink without trace, but with the tenacious Labour fixer Mr Mandelson on board, who knows. The planned Britain in Europe logo, at any rate, appears to be on the right track - the 12 European Union gold stars, though on a white rather than a blue background, with a Union Jack on a flagpole fluttering out. And the latest Harris Research Centre parliamentary panel poll of 167 representative MPs will come as a blow to Euro-sceptics. Asked whether Europe, the Commonwealth or the United States was the most important to Britain, 71 per cent of Tories said Europe, with only 6 and 19 per cent respectively plumping for the Commonweath and the US.

The slow rehabilitation appears to have begun of the hapless News of the World victim Richard Spring, who was forced to quit as PPS to the Northern Ireland secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew in April after revelations of his wholly irrelevant three-in-a-bed romp. Spring has reappeared on the Commons Northern Ireland select committee, replacing James Cran, Tory MP for Beverley. As it happens, Mr Cran had taken over Spring's job as bag carrier to Sir Patrick, making him, too, a rehabilitee from his earlier role as the "brains" behind the Maastricht rebellion.

Wilkes wonders whether overkill in another newspaper has dampened enthusiasm for the Spectator/Dillons Bookstores Literary Dinner on Monday fortnight, at which the pounds 75-a-head Savoy diners have the pleasure of hearing Baroness Thatcher speak? After two successive Sundays of revelations from her second volume of memoirs, The Path to Power, this week's issue of the magazine is still advertising "strictly limited" tickets for the bash.