Irrespective of the general strategic merits or demerits of Britain's new Middle Eastern policy — and we accept that far more than the matter of Arab oil supplies influenced the...

"My Government's objective throughout," said the Queen in her speech opening the new session of Parliament, "will be to promote the interests of the individual, whether as...

Sir: "For the diehard and unconvincible third group of anti-vivisectionists,". writes John Linklater (November 3), " the way will remain hard indeed. To remain in perfect good...

Sir; I have read with interest John Linklater's 'Poor Vivisected Doggy' (November 3) and in spite of his unfortunately patronising tone in choosing the title for his article and...

(November 3) does not, in my view, make any really 'useful contribution to the reasonable discussion of the problem of the use of animals for experimental purposes. Surely any...

Sir: There was once a West African tribe which by long tradition employed, when a chief died, the oldest unmarried woman (habitually, because of her low status, used to dispose...

Sir: I am writing, as her literay executor, a life of the late Vera Brittain, with the encouragement and.full support of Sir George Catlin, who was her husband, shall be...

Sir: Mrs M. Simm's concern for women (Letters, November 3) is admirable until one realises that approximately o ne-half of the 156,000 babies killed every year as the intended...

In reply to Mr Hines (November 3): t s he excellent Dictionary of American 1 "11 by Wentworth and Flexner, 1960 tion, says that the term is peculiar : 0 the US and that "before...

Sir: Patrick Cosgrave has ignored two obvious facts (October. 27): Liberal support is not spread evenly across the map, and the present electoral system favours any party which...

Sir: Perhaps I could reply through your letters column to the criticism of my article on North Sea oil (October 13) by the spokesman of the Royal Bank of Scotland (Letters,...

Whither the moderates now? Patrick Cosgrave Writing before this week's by-elections, and with the whole political world on the edge of its seat with nerves strung up in...

Beverley Nichols is the first of a number of guest 'Spectators,' distinguished writers and public figures who will each be invited to contribute the Notebook for a short...

The four horsemen Victor Montagu Britain's international trading figures are very bad. The most recent figures show that our trade with the rest of the world this year....

From Suez to the Cape David W. Wragg One of the more heartening factors of the Arab-Israeli conflict has been the realisation that a war in the Middle East is no longer a...

Promise them nothing Wilfred Sendai' Discussing Napoleon's Marshals, the Duke of Wellington once said: "They plan their cam paigns as if they were making a brand new set of...

The President is near to God, Above the mortal throng; And that is why I find it odd When humans claim I'm wrong, My name is Honest Dick Divine; Woe to those against my line!...

If an overseas shipmate of the Skipper had dropped into the Commons last week to hear him welcome the publication of the Kilbrandon Commission on the Constitution he might well...

Outside Society An outing with Vince Andrew Bradford Some years ago I worked as a medical orderly in a home for the handicapped in Liverpool. The residents were all long-stay...

Rejection slips Bernard Dixon As with announcements of breakthroughs in cancer research, scientists' claims to have overcome the rejection of transplanted organs should be...

Cross purposes Martin Sullivan' We do not know by whose arrangement it was that Christ was crucified between two thieves, but if there was malice in it, there Wks also a...

Autumn reflections Peter Quince I rather enjoy walking along our hilltop as the November daylight fades, and from there watching the windows light up in the valley. There is...

Bonnes bouches Pamela Vandyke Price Most people have to go out and do energetic things to achieve their pleasures. The gastronome merely has to keep each sense alert. For...

"The man who thinks he understands the fair sex in either their actions, or thoughts, is a raving lunatic, a diabolical liar, or worst of all, very vain." So says poor Mr Mills...

Richard Luckett on whatever happened to the Man in the Moon One of the few genuinely astonishing things about science fiction is the way in which it has universally come to be...

Peter Ackroyd Elizabeth Alone William Trevor (Bodley Head £2.50). Richard's Things Frederic Raphael (Cape £2.25). I have never had a hysterectomy, and I never hope to have...

Blair Worden The Vision of Politics on the Eve of the Reformation. S. H. Hexter and (Allen Lane E3.50) Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince, Thomas More's Utopia and Claude de...

Nick Emley From Dartmoor to Cambridge: The Autobiography of a Prison Graduate Douglas , Curtis (Hodder and Stoughton £2,40) This book is almost a virtuoso performance, the...

Jan Morris Philby of Arabia Elizabeth Monroe (Faber £4.50) The son of a colonial philanderer, the father of a communist spy, H. St John Philby spent his life restlessly...

Beverley Nichols Cowardy Custard Edited by John Hadfield (Heinemann £.75) When this latest tribute to the Master. was announced, my heart sank. Surely the laurels had already...

Paperbacks For those of you who, like Platypus, are tired of the cult of the contemporary, a reissue — after a moratorium of ten years — of the seventh volume of the Pelican...

'Azure main' and all that Benny Green Any man who announces his intention of compiling "a big, ornate, frank but affectionate book about Victoria's empire," is bound to be...

Bookend The purpose and point of review pages is a matter that has occupied the finest minds since the birth of the printed word. Whether. like John Osborne, you believe that...

Kenneth Hurren on magic, goulash and applesauce The opening number of the new American show, Pippin, at Her Majesty's has most of the cast bouncing about the stage proclaiming,...

Nun better Rodney Milnes Penderecki's The Devils of Loudun has been given eight new productions since its premiere four years ago, which is some indication of success. Whether...

I suspect that Tristram Powell's ' Omnibus' show about the Hollywood witch-hunt of ' Reds,' screened by BBC 1 last Sunday, has been ' in the can ' for some time. The programme...

Poor Pamela Christopher Hudso The certificates handed out by the censor have of late been so erratic and unpredictable that one must assume he has been acceding rather tamely...

Net work Clive Gammon I once knew three men called the Murphy brothers — no one seemed to differentiate amongst them Christian name-wise — who operated a lobster boat out of a...

Company (and directors') reform Nicholas Davenport For the City the most pregnant sentence in the Queen's speech was " The creation of a prosperous, fair and orderly society...

The story was related a year or two ago that three clerics once dined together: a Protestant clergyman, a Catholic priest, and a Rabbi. "Tell me, Mr Smith," asked Father...

Nephew Wilde I am in a self-congratulatory mood. Is this justified? Well my broker Wotherspool certainly seems to think that honours are due judging by the number of times he...