MONEY m I - Inflation on the Continent NICHOLAS DAVENPORT -.?L 9 W . - -;mg AAL.'2" Between October 1964 and May 1971 the purchasing power of the £ had fallen by 281 per...

JULIETTE'S WEEKLY FROLIC Mill Reef's majestic sweep to victory in the Eclipse raised the question that if, in the words of his principal victim's trainer, "he is better than...

Seeker after truth Sir: The writer of the article 'Bookend' in your issue of July 3 suggests that I was in part responsible for the high standard of literary merit achieved by...

Goodbye staples Sir: Yes, long live George Gale, as Barnard Clarke remarks, but may he nevertheless procure another stapler. I have, in striking contrast to Mr Clarke, had...

Our reply Lord Melchett's reaction to last week's Common Market article by one of his own economic staff was characteristically arrogant. He even began his short but woolly...

The Katyn massacre Sir: An offensive article in the worst possible taste appeared in your pages on June 26. I am referring to 'Requiem for the Katyn massacre' by Hugh Reay. I...

Corrected Sir: Although I am a relative newcomer to The Spectator, I suspect that my feelings about the functional qualities of your journal may be shared by others. I may be...

What future? Sir: Your Calcutta Correspondent (June 26) has claimed that "Pakistari is not willing to have the refugees back." This is not true. President Yahya Khan has urged...

The EEC: a prescription for disaster for the British Steel Corporation A statement from Lord Melchett My attention has been drawn to an article published in The Spectator of...

Constantinople and the Byzantine EmDire David Jacobs (Cassell, £1.75) A bright and chatty account of the famous city that was founded by the Greeks as Byzantium, established...

Shorter notices Wren Margaret Whinney (Thames and Hudson £2.10 cloth, £1.25 paper) Dr Whinney's expert and cool account of the work of Sir Christopher Wren establishes the...

Unfinished Symphonies Rosemary Brown (Souvenir Press, £1.75) Mrs Brown of Balham has recently become renowned for her belief that famous composers of years past are using her...

Journal of a Voyage to Nowhere Charles Fenn (Chatto and Windus £2.00) The astonishing tale of a modem Robinson Crusoe: a writer aged sixty, aiming to sail from Ceylon to the...

Five Novelettes Charlotte Brontg (Folio Press £5.50) Prior to this edition, only one of these five novelettes had been published in its entirety - Mina Laury: Caroline Vernon...

Selected Short Stories Glyn Jones, (J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, £1.50). Four of these stories first appeared in 1937 and another eight in 1944. Three are apparently more recent....

Days of Life and Death and Escape to the Moon, William Saroyan (Michael Joseph £1.75). For those who like this sort of thing: "Chaplin made fun of Odets on his little yacht...

SOUTH AFRICA The worst university in the world 1. Ruan Maud disputes Whilst 1 agree with the general purport of John Vaizey's comments on his recent visit to South Africa...

2. John Vaizey replies In many ways things in South Africa seem so simple; yet it is a very complex question, morally, politically, economically and theologically. Nobody can...

THE LABOUR PARTY AND THE COMMON MARKET (2) The EEC: a prescription for disaster ERIC HEFFER MP The future of Harold Wilson as leader of the Labour party could well depend...

Death in America Sir: I am afraid Brian InfLlis (Julv 3) is on rather a poor wicke trying to prove that organic medicine has made no advances in the last few decades. I notice...

Champagne mixture Sir: It is an honour for the writer of a book about wine to have it reviewed by Pamela Vandyke Price, the queen - and, since the Wine and Food Writer of the...

Sir: I am disappointed that you should give such prominence to Brian Inglis's letter (July 3) in which he has once again displayed his remarkable talent for misinterpreting...

Isis worship Sir: Mr Witt invites Catholics to comment on the letter of Professor Wells on Isis worship in your issue of June 26. Professor Wells in that letter speaks of "a...

The new Europe Sir: The only factor that can now effectively conserve the whole of Europe from becoming dominated by the Soviet Union is the establishment of the proposed...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SIR: The Conservative party has recently carried out a purge of its Approved Candidates' List which has been ruthless, discourteous to those removed and...

Sir: As the prospective Conserva- tive parliamentary candidate for Macclesfield, I would refer you to 'Skinflint's City Diary' in your issue of June 19, under the paragraph...

Cunard's Trafalgar Sir Max Joseph's Grand Metropolitan Hotels have dropped out of the running for Cunards by bidding for the Truman Hanbury and Buxton group. This is a...

Goodman cometh My sympathies to Mr Ian Smith being visited by that lawyer in higher practice, busy political agent and conveyancer-atlarge Lord Goodman. Surely the visit wasn't...

Titian, Titian, all fall down The greedy love duet between the Directors of the National Gallery and Titian's ' Death of Actaeon' has begun again. They gloat over their...

Steel quote The Financial Times has printed the document the Community delegation at Brussels handed the British on May 4, 1971. Far from supporting the Financial Times's...

Pertinaxity A mysteriously well financed organization named the Labour Committee for Europe existing " to promote a united and democratic socialist Europe," are inserting a...

SKINFLINT'S CITY DIARY hi So here we go again with news that only now are contingency plans being considered for a £100 million public works programme to cut unemployment....

Will and Testament Really enough's enough and it is time that Sir John Eden started trying to shoot the right fox and get the Prime Minister's permit to kill off the Chairman...

Sir Gerald's little list Sir Gerald Nabarro has got a little list - as indeed have Mr Neil Marten, Mr Roger Moate and Mr John Silkin. These lovingly compiled documents classify...

Bookend People tend to think of publishers - when they think of them at all - with a mixture of awe and distrust. To some, they are Olympian arbiters whose decision on the...

at~~~~~~~~~~~. IC CITY LIFE A; tiIPS. r l- BENNY GREEN. The question of which is the cleverest animal at present resident in London is not an easy one to answer, and never...

4 :iUnOTING LIFE CLIVE GAMMON New Zealand has the finest trout fishing in the world. (There is no question about this: it is a universally conceded fact.) The country had a...

THE GOOD LIFE I '. ii '1 ?-I Pamela VANDYKE PRICE Those self-vaunted wine lovers who, as 'twere, turn their noses to one side when table wines of regions other than the...

Charity and dignity A curious political friendship is that between Miss Bernadette Devlin and the Rev. Ian Paisley. These two Irish members of Parliament, of opposite views,...

The argument from strength I was surprised to read in more than one newspaper the name of Mr Denis Healey among the list of senior Labour men determinded to vote for the Market...

I .L11i-n- -1 1J-Il il 1 1 W 1 _-uri Ad=. . . ,4 0 =,== 4 = - I - - - J - THE SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK Ma s / -I I Io TI VI .. IlT1lEl I I J? I I A couple of Cabinet ministers...

; PERSONAL COLUMN Lo, the poor Indian... GEOFFREY WAGNER I have been living in Navajo land. It is an extraordinary part of the world currently under menace of extinction via...

Clement Harris Sir: The appeal in your columns for the revival of Clement Harris's music is defective in some important respects. It does not, for example, state where and how...

The WIs Sir: When will journalists learn that there is no such thing as a nationwide Women's Institute with branches around the country? An Institute is " an association of the...

Sir: In his review Auberon Waugh states that Lord Longford, as his godfather and holding "responsibility for my religious education," had sent him, aged fifteen, a book of...

In the Waughs Sir: Auberon Waugh is the onlv critic to have done anything like justice to MF, but like two other critics I have read, he makes the mistake of saying that Miles...

The Joseph Rowntree Trust and Fremilo Sir: At a somewhat late date, I saw a copy of The Spectator of May 8, which carried a letter by Roger Wilson and one by J. L. Insley, on...

FLAWED TESTAMENT The White Paper 'The United Kingdom and the European Communities' which concludes that " Her Majesty's Government are convinced that the right decision for us...

THE LABOUR PARTY AND THE COMMON MARKET (1) The Market-without tears JOHN GILBERT MP Privilege protects itself - that is why we have gamekeepers and that is why we have Common...

Michael Bentley on the Guardian Guardian: Biography of a Newspaver David Ayerst (Collins £4.50) This year marks the third jubilee of a national newspaper which has acquired...

Auberon Waugh on new novels Fly Away Home Gillian Tindall (Hodder & Stoughton £1.90) An Advent Calendar Shena Mackay (Cape Once again, two lady novelists compete for our...

John Kenyon on Pride's purge Pride's Purge:' Politics in the Puritan Revolution David Underdown (OUP £4.75) Some books are much more important than their title, or even...

A SERIOUS CASE OF DISMISSAL In the normal course of events the dismissal of a public relations man would cause little if any comment. But the dismissal of Mr Will Camp as...

Christopher Sykes on a victim of communism Volunteers for the Gallows Bela Szasz (Chatto and Windus £2.50) When disillusion with Russian Communism set in throughout the West...

David Watkin on architectural ideology Style and Society: Architectural Ideology in Britain 1835-1914 Robert Macleod RIBA Publications £3.75) Since the nineteenth century,...

VIEW FROM THE GALLERY SALLY VINCENT | vN iA11111J am' - IF f-10C OF "' It might be fun to find out how 614 members of the House of Commons were disporting themselves on the...

t COUNTRY X 6xLIFE ~~~~EhI.III'~~~~~-T) PETER QUINCE Our village pub is changing landlords again. We tend to go through a process of discovering neglected virtues in a...

JOHN ROWAN WILSON Don't blame the doctors MEDICINE The present fuss about abortions is of course nothing to do with medicine: it is to do with bad legislation and a confusion...