A striking miner was killed when a railway embankment at Normanton fell on him while he was digging for coal. After peace talks had broken down, the Coal Board concluded that it...

Power to Miss Cherry `By what means,' said the prince, 'are, the Europeans thus powerful? or why, since they can so easily visit Asia and Africa for trade and conquest, cannot...

M r Scargill suffered a number of dis- couragements this week. So he may not have noticed the publication by the Conservative Party, a mere eight months after the dispute began,...

M any people in this country feel that the world is a more dangerous place after four years of the Reagan administra- tion. This feeling has been fuelled by the Wilder rhetoric...

A. N. Wilson writes: Once, when Julian Jebb was staying in our house, I approached the kitchen door and was amazed to overhear what sounded like a Cornish pirate discussing...

T he unsurprising news that Mr Reagan . has been re-elected President of the United States is, on the whole, good news. It is not nowadays possible, if it ever was, for Britain...

UK Eire Surface marl Air mail 6 months: £17.25 1.17.25 £20.50 £26.50 One year: E34.50 £34.50 E41.00 £53.00 Name Address ............................................... US...

Poor Reggie Auberon Waugh Drink no longer water but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine other infirmities. I Tim. A 23 For we brought nothing into this world...

W hen I last wrote this diary the final item was about Young Fogeys. It was intended as nothing more than a gentle tease of some friends and acquaintances on or around the...

See page 15 for details of how to enter

Reagan's morning breaks Christopher Hitchens Washington R on ald Reagan has contrived to be President of the United States for four years and still to run as if he were the...

Dhiren Bhagat T he future of India is today, as it always has been, anybody's guess. So one can sympathise with the teams of subcontinen- tal specialists who have been called...

Mr Cleveland has, we believe, been elected President of the United States. The contest has been so close, and the millions of voters are spread over such vast spaces, that there...

Richard West T he television coverage of Mrs Gandhi's assassination revealed Britain's alarm- ing ignorance of the Indian sub-continent. Neither the BBC's Breakfast Time nor...

Timothy Garton Ash Zoliborz I t was in Zoliborz as if the communist regime did not exist, as if martial law had never been. 'The National Commis- sion of Solidarity, with Lech...

Miriam Gross I n September of last year, 1 wrote a letter to Svetlana Peters asking her whether she would be interested in writing an article for the Observer about a book, All...

John Ralston Saul Paris T he last true witness of existentialism, Simone de Beauvoir, has struck a new blow in Paris for women's liberation. She summoned the world press to the...

Patrick Bishop Dublin S ecurity was very tight at the Sinn Fein conference. Hefty, sullen stewards per- formed regular spot searches and identity checks. Before the doors...

Andrew Brown A 11 journalists, as is well known, walk -h-with their brutish knuckles in the gutter — even towards the pub. The investigative of the species can be disting-...

Roy Kerridge I T well remember the first time I ever met member of the Reverend Moon's Unification Church. It was on a rainy day in the city of Cork in 1973. I was hurrying...

BBC top dogs barking Paul Johnson T he BBC has evidently been badly rattled by the latest proposal that the Corporation should take advertising to avoid yet another massive...

Mr Walker's apostasy Jock Bruce-Gardyne M rDavid Walker is one of the bright stars in the Bank of England's firma- ment. Since he joined the Bank from the Treasury he has...

Charging for gilts. T he field for the City's newest classic, the Great Gilt-Edged Handicap, threatens to swamp the course. Anxiously the stewards confer with the starter. What...

T he one fixed point in our wayward rules on monopolies and mergers is the Lonrho clause. Under varying Govern- inents, it has invariably been enforced, and, at some stage,...

Door old Johnson Matthey — what an 1. ignominious fate, to end up as a sort of financial Belgrano! To be sunk was bad enough, but the inquest that has followed . . . . Which way...

B ooks about the City suffer the dis- advantage attributed to the Oxford school of philosophy — the questions stay the same, but the answers change. By far the best accounts for...

Sir: It is boring to read Colin Welch launch into an attack on the Sixties (Centrepiece, 20 October), because it has been done before. It is odd that he should consider it a...

on the subject of 'endives'? In the big Vil- morin Andrieu Catalogue of Vegetable seeds and Plants (no longer available, circa 1955) they are described as Endives ou Chicoree de...

Chomsky on Cambodia Sir: On seeing Richard West's reference in the Spectator (Books, 29 September), to 'the odious Noam Chomsky', I read on to learn what sins merited this...

Sir: Under 'Cooling it' in the 27 October issue, Taki wrote: 'I've made a pledge not to turn the heat on in my flat until Arthur Scargill defects to Libya.' Can someone...

Sir: I am one quarter Finn and I don't mind a bit if Jeffrey Bernard thinks Sibelius was a Swede (Letters, 27 October). My grand - father, together with many of his country -...

Sir:, I'm very worried about Digby Ander- son. It's late October, and us chaps bold enough to face the extra-large north are thinking of venison with rowanberry sauce, or stewed...

Monsieur: I love the letter (3 November) about chicory, endive and Dutch witloof wit (white), rlooft (it runs). In the Fifties I visited the departement of Yorkshire to study...

Sir: I applaud Charles Moore's call for the return of civilised order to the mining villages (Politics, 27 October), but I would suggest a more useful white-collar equiva- lent...

To have and have not Colin Welch L ike others who enrich debate and advance the truth by bold speculation, my dear old copain Peregrine Worsthorne Is liable to err, and is not...

The sage of Ealing Ferdinand Mount The Crisis for Western Political Economy and Other Essays Peter Jay (Deutsch £14.95) Start Again, Britain Charles Villiers (Quartet 11.95)...

Eric Christiansen The Birth of Purgatory Jacques Le Goff Translated by A. Goldhammer (Scolar Press £20 until 31 Dec) T he historian's purgatory is not difficult to imagine. It...

Auberon Waugh T his review is being written on the evening of Tuesday, 30 October 1984. In today's Times there are three attempts at pictorial humour. On page one, Calman g iv...

Francis King Wilt on High Tom Sharpe (Secker & Warburg £8.95) I n retrospect, it may be seen as prophetic that Tom Sharpe's fifth novel should have been called Wilt. After the...

Brian Masters Prima Donna Rupert Christiansen (Bodley Head £15) rr he title of this book is apt yet in an odd way misleading, for it suggests a collec - tion of funny stories...

Gavin Stamp The Latest Country Houses John Martin Robinson (Bodley Head £15) O n 25 October, 1963, Evelyn Waugh stayed in Ann Fleming's new house in Wiltshire. . The full...

Jeffrey Meyers The Truth of War: Owen, Blunden and Rosenberg Desmond Graham (Carcanet £12.95) D uring the Great War, the genteel verse that justified carnage in the name of...

Reacting Noel Malcolm w hen something as sudden as an assas- sination happens, radio shows a defi- nite edge over its competitors. The repor- ter speaking at the other end of...

By-ways Rodney Milnes The Kiss, Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame, Le astuzie femminili (Wexford Festival) ffihe more successful a Wexford Festival/ the more frustrating it can be —...

Hand-made Andrew Gimson ti!ancy , , Awakenin g : the centenary exhibi- tion of the Art Workers Guild 1884-1984 (Brighton Museum till 25 November) I rather wish Gavin Stamp...

Out of tune Christopher Edwards Rough Crossing (National: Lyttelton) The Hired Man (Astoria) rr here is a place for the savage review, but this production does not really...

Plants by. the yard Ursula Buchan I t is not unknown for people moving into a larger house to buy books by the yard to fill the empty bookshelves. After all, the effect is...

Popular imagery Peter Ackroyd Dreamscape ('15', selected cinemas) Tightrope (1 8', selected cinemas) T ile same people are always found in the audience for a 'horror' film:...

Unplugged Alexander Chancellor T made the mistake the other week of idescribing LWT's Weekend World and Channel 4's Face the Press as two of the best current affairs...

Election eve Taki T write this as I am about to attend an 'American election victory party at . . . Aspinall's. A London gambling club may be a strange place to celebrate a...

Professionals P.J. Kavanagh D uring the Cheltenham Festival of Literature there are nowadays events of one kind or another from noon to midnight, and large crowds have begun...

Drawn out Raymond Keene Thirteen consecutive draws in the world 1 championship at Moscow! The record of eight draws between games 13 and 2 0 from Capablanca-Alekhine 1927 has...

The unclued lights are episcopal signatures listed in Brewer. Winner: M. Jones, St Leonards, E. Sussex. N T U A R • 1 E fl • S e A H O T o L OUCE AAR E WA T E SI OR RR YE...

J .asPistos reports: Competitors were asked tor an 'acrostic poem (the key phrase being P , 01 : ROGER CHAMPERS) on the subject of the Spectator. It was a most enjoyable...

No. 1346: Rural rubbish Set by Jaspistos: `Feather-footed through he plashy fen passes the questing vole. . in Scoop, began the desperate William 130 0t trying to write a...

Prize: (or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 edition, value £11.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first correct solution opened on 26 November. Entries...

T he hare is a mysterious creature possess- ing swift-footedness, curiosity, fearful- ness and Aphrodisian lasciviousness, qual- ities which are conspicuous in any self-...

FRED UHLMAN: 'The Making of an English- man'. Caroline Compton, 48 Downshire Hill, London NW3. ORTEGA Y GASSET: 'Obras Completas' and individual works Spanish or English. D....

Treasure Hunt Set by Caroline Moore The first prize is a pair of 18th century hand-coloured aquatints by Thomas and William Daniell illustrating views of India. (see picture...