Despite its many peculiarities of detail, Lord Widgery's judgement in the case of the Crossman Diaries represents a major advance for the principle of freedom of speech, and his...

Sir: It is nice to know (Letters, October 4) that the years have not dimmed the fantasy in Lord George-Brown's world. I am flattered that the idea of a piece by me should prove...

Sir: In his suggestion of a long-term OPEC bond loan to finance manufacturing investment, Stuart Holland (October 4) is at least twelve months out of date. I argued for...

Sir: I am writing to express my disgust at the attitude of the British Government and other Western politicians towards the execution in. Spain of the five terrorists who showed...

Sir: Mr Cotton (Letters, September 27) should really try to answer my criticisms of Brigadier Calvert's call to arms before he sets off for Portugal to lay down his life for the...

Sir: Discussing (September 20) the wine war currently being waged between France and Italy, Spectator suggests that the UK is itself concerned because it's all about "unfair...

Sir: Following the letter on metrication (September 6) by Mr James Dandy who complains that the British are being herded into metrication like sheep without even being allowed...

Sir: In his, at times, amusing survey of contemporary higher education, Dr . Rhodes Boyson once more calls for the replacement of student grants by loans. Whilst this is...

Sir: At least Barbara Reid does not Pretend concern over the health of millions of strangers; but, with the magnanimity of a firing squad granting a man a last cigarette she...

Sir: Mr Chapman Chisholm (September 27) has got it all wrong. It is not the RCs who have gained control of the British Labour Party, but international socialists w:.o have...

Sir: "For the 'right-wing' policies," says Mr Michael Harrington, "would mean more rather than less unemployment". There is nothing produced by human and natural resources of...

'Sir: The railway reminiscences of Denis Wood (Spectator, Sept 13) have. prompted memories of a wonderful Easter weekend passed in our great western peninsula by members of the...

Changes at the top Patrick Cosgrave Parties, like systems of government, are slow to change. And when a major change in their character or organisation is noticed, it suddenly...

Unlike the Labour Party the Tories are not normally riven by doctrinal controversy. But in the last couple of years the party has nonetheless been enjoying the heady — and...

On coalitions, union power and the control of money George Gale It is the identification of parties with interests which provides them with their authority and resilience. The...

Empty kitty and thin prospects George Hutchinson As chairman of the Conservative Party Organisation (after a longish absence from politics in the placid pastures of commerce)...

Understanding-and indecision David W. Wragg In recent years, even the Conservative Party has acquired the reputation of not being Particularly interested in defence. There are...

Time for a Maggie and Ted show William Waldegrave Can there ever have been a time when a Conservative Opposition looked so well fitted for its role? When have we looked less...

Taking pleasures sadly Stanley Reynolds Blackpool, like some spectacularly nippled Alp or Everest itself, is there and so, one supposes, that is reason enough for some to go...

A saint in need Rawle Knox The Vatican next Monday will canonise . Ireland's first new saint for over seven centuries, amid signs that in death he could stir more argument...

If you're feeling rather poor, And you want to find a cure, Take a hostage! Ask a million pounds or more Just to keep wolves from the door For a hostage! If you can't achieve...

Last throw of the dice Douglas French Visas expand in inverse proportion to the size of the country to which they give access. If Professor Parkinson did not observe this then...

Power struggle around Kenyatta Patrick Marnham Recent events have provided an unusually clear view of the internal politics of Kenya. Twelve years after independence Kenya is...

Those imaginative folk who were angered by my refusal — I call it inability — to believe in the Loch Ness Monster, will not be surprised to learn that I've had similar...

Our Defects and Follies are too often unknown to us; nay, they are so far from being known to us that they pass for Demonstrations of our Worth. This makes us easy in the Midst...

I have to return to the antics of the irrepressible Hu g h Jenkins, MP. He is now assiduously seekin g an alibi for his imminent departure from responsibility for the arts by...

Geor g e Orwell, in Down and Out in Parts and London, says there was a time when some waiters paid mana g ement for their jobs: the tips still left them ahead. Today some swear...

OF BOOKS Peregrine Worsthorne on Hadsham, and his public soul For readers who have come to expect spicy revelations from the memoirs or autobiographies of elder statesmen,...

John Graham Breach of Faith, The . Fall of Richard Nixon Theodore H. White (Jonathan Cape £4.95) My brain hurts. This may well be because I have just read a whole book, which...

M.I. Finley Roll, Jordan, Roll, The World the Slaves Made Eugene D. Genovese (Andre Deutsch £7.50) I have not often found it so difficult to come to terms with a book. My...

John Brewer Whigs and Hunters. The Origins of the Black Act E. P. Thompson (Allen Lane £6.50) E. P. Thompson has turned to crime; or, more accurately, to authority, the law...

Robert Skidelsky My Darling Pussy: The Letters of Lloyd George and Frances Stevenson 1913-1941 Edited by A. J. P. Taylor (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £5.25) Lloyd George did not...

An American dream Ian McEwan Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow (Secker and Warburg £4.90) "Being right," thought Sammler in Bellow's previous novel, "was largely a matter of...

English tragedies Peter Ackroyd Distractions Stanley Middleton (Hutchinson £3.75) Sweet William Beryl Bainbridge (Duckworth £2.95) The prose of Stanley Middleton is so...

Playing the game Benny Green In ambling through the water-meadows of English social history, I have just encountered a few Piquant conundrums which I offer to those...

Education The threat to school standards Rhodes Boyson, MP There are numerous experiments which illustrate that rats can be made neurotic by continued change and the...

Biblical insights Martin Sullivan There are as many ways of reading the Bible as there are books in it, but, a few years ago, I came across a method which has the advantage of...

Theatre Oh, what a lovely war Kenneth Hurren Dad's Army by Jimmy Perry and David Croft (Shaftesbury) Happy as a Sandbag by Ken Lee (Ambassadors) The Vortex by Noel Coward'...

Buckley in midstream Joh &Ewen The top floor of the Museum of Modern Art at Oxford is as good as anywhere in Britain for seeing modern paintings, and particularly suited to the...

AND THE CITY The market after the Labour Conference Nicholas Davenport Looking at Mr Wilson on TV Presiding like a god over the Labour Party Conference, I was reminded of the...

Bernard Hollowood It's quite possible that the Government's index-linked savings certificates will revolutionise the distribution of wealth in Britain. Though the scheme is...

There is an efficient port in Britain (yes, there is) and its continued success and growth have been a source of embarrassment for the Government, and a thorn in the flesh of...