The wrong reaction, 'Do not gloat' and 'This is no time for complacency'. Delegates to the Conservative Party Conference at Brighton this week have been overwhelmed with pious...

Political commentary Mr Benn in his hour of triumph F Ferdinand Mount At the end of Blackpool. down hy the dootrack and the gasworks. the side streets are as imcan as ever....

Notebook Brighton Last week at Blackpool the weather was tranquil. But storms took place inside the Winter Gardens. Here the hurricanoes crack their cheeks, rain pours down....

Another voice The reason why Auberon Waugh Nothing in the past fexN weeks has been more prCdictahle than the chorus of surprise. shock and horror with which nearly all...

Where Carter's weakness lies ?R Henry Fairlie W14aslingtol Texas and California are two of the states in Which I have actually lived for a while. I liked Texas from the...

Schmidt fights the extremists Tim Garton Ash Berlin While the British Labour Party lurches drunkenly to the left, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt will continue soberlv to steer his...

Who speaks for England now? J. Enoch Powell Those attending the (onserlvative Conference at Brighton will have been sitting hugging themliseles 1ll last week ait the Spectacle...

A private Bank of England Tony Rudd As this ioN crtnicntt consi deCr *which oreanisations it might he able to sell oft tfr read'. CaSh. no-on1e seem11s to hlxav suggested that...

Preston revisited A J P Taylor 4.J.RP. Tav lor has been re iiSihing. for Granada television /Olur Lancash ire towns where /the spent his childhood and xvouth - Soulthport,...

Vive la France! Sir: Sam White has drawn attention to the negative and pig-headed attitude displayed by large sections of the British press to all things French (27 September)....

Sir: It is always interesting to see a myth created. Of the Euston Arch A.J.P. Taylor writes (27 September): 'British Rail actual Iy refused to allow the stones of the arch tO...

Letters The cult of the wild Sir: As %oU saw fit to dcvote your editorial of 27 Septermbcr to mn problems in Kent. perhaps xou might allow me space to reply. Strangely enough....

Arts counsellor Sir: No doubt Alexander Chancellor would find it perfectly casv to answer Charles Osborne's strictures (4 October) and to justify his view that the Arts Council...

Arcades and arches Sir: In his entertaining article. 'A SoLIthport childhood' (2() September). A.J.P. Taylor speaks of laussmann makinri arcades iIl Paris. I believe the only...

Hoi polloi Sir: I am sure that Taki is able to speak for himself, hut it is surely David Pugh who is in error (Letters. 4 October). I loi polloi' transliterated as such is no...

Books Learning by imitation Graham Greene b'lis iS the last offour 'xrtracts from Mr (Gre(ee's x alIolbioirpl)llical rctr-osp'(its of Ii is novels/ XVWhhforin part of WaYs of...

No mugwump Geoffrey Wheatcroft The Letters of Evelyn Waugh Edited by Mark Amory (Weidenfeld £14.95) Fourteen years after his death Evelviy Waugh retains the power to...

Area bombing Max Hastings The Nuremburg Raid Martin Middlebrook (Allen Lane £7.95) The Battle of Hamburg Martin Middle- brook (Allen Lane £7.95) Military operations which...

No authority Nicolas Walter Authority Richard Sennett (Secker £6.95) The central question of politics, as Lenin put it, is 'Who whom'?' In political theory this may be put...

Old order Francis King Samurai Hisako Matsubara (Bodley Head £5.95) Three images dominate Samurai - a novel written in German by a Japanese woman writer. The first of these...

Arts Contorted trees John McEwen It is quite an event when an artist of the stature of Kenneth Armitage has his first full-scale London show of new work for I , vears, and an...

Theatre Thleatre So enjoy N% Bryan Robertson they're Playing Our Song (Shaftesbury) Jeeves Takes Charge (Hampstead) When it comes to Neil Simon's plays most Of my...

Cinema Horrorscope Peter Ackroyd The Shining ('X, selected cinemas) This is in many ways a remarkable film; its clarity and resourcefulness far exceed the quality of the...

High life Advantageous Taki In the winter of 1966 1 was, as usual, in debt to John Aspinall. a man who no longer needs an introduction to Spectator readers in view of recent...

Television Agony Richard Ingrams I had been horing to 1ha,1c a icrt snlee at Barrv Norlan11 oll Moll(L nieiht but there Was a Power cut caused by equinoctial izales fOd...

Postscript Managing Patrick Marnham The great government information row is not over vet.Two weeks ago a retired tax-snooper called T.Bingham failed to find the source of a...

Low life Surveys Jeffrey Bernard Mary-Jane Robinson. a seven-year-old girl friend of mine. gave me a poem the other day which goes: Oh dear. Oh dear. What will I do? My soxs...