`Are we in a Labour manifesto or a Tory manifesto?' A n explosion aboard a Soviet sub- marine lying 480 miles north-east of Ber- muda and 900 miles off New York obliged it to...

THE DECAY OF DEFENCE E ven in the week of a party confer- ence, perhaps especially in the week of a party conference, it is important to remem- ber that not everything which is...

Spectator by 31 October 1986.

The amazing new-found complacency of the Conservative Party FERDINAND MOUNT hat question of Wittgenstein's says it all about language, doesn't it?' an eager philosophy student...

A ndreas Whittam Smith, the editor, has certainly stamped his personality on the Independent. But whether this is a good thing is more open to question. The pap- er's first...

The Sunday Times can't understand a Scoop when it sees one AUBERON WAUGH Whatever the reasons for this alarm, it is certainly not because I am a closet moder- ate who believes...

CAN WE AFFORD TO LOSE HER? Coinciding with the Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth this week, our first poll (conducted by telephone from 15 to 22 September) deals...

THIS week, we launch the Spectator Poll. Conducted by the Harris Research Centre, the survey is designed to elicit the opin- ions, not of the general public, but of those...

Christopher Hitchens detects pre-summit weaknesses in the President's position Washington RONALD Reagan's meeting with his opposite number in Reykjavik this week had better be...

Caspar Weinberger imagines what would be made of Nelson's moral courage today This address was given at a Trafalgar Day dinner last year. ON THE night of 20 October 1805,...

THE Committee appointed after the Socialist riot to inquire into the orga- nisation of the Metropolitan Police, has made a wise Report, which says in many words that the force,...

which the 'hunger marchers' had on him fifty years ago WHAT left a mark on my mind at the time was the dignity of the 200 Jarrow marchers, by contrast with the antics of many...

J. Enoch Powell believes that the Brighton bomb changed Mrs Thatcher's Irish policy EMERGING from the wreckage of the Grand Hotel at Brighton in October 1984, the Prime...

Timothy Garton Ash finds private enterprise thriving in the Divinity Superstore East Oxford `NORTH Oxford', according to the Sup- plement to the OED, is now an adjective. The...

Adrian Furnham finds too much is revealed about oneself by a new board game I HAVE often thought that the 'board' in `board games' has always been misspelt, and would more...

John Cooke celebrates two centuries of fashion in umbrellas GREAT men have given their names to many sartorial accessories: hats and boots; cigarettes, watches and whiskers;...

Paul Johnson analyses the latest attempt to bring the Corporation under control A GREAT deal of nonsense has been talked and written about the appointment of Duke Hussey as...

Creating the party piece for Nigel as the proud pound rides low CHRISTOPHER FILDES S cene: a smoke-filled room, furnished creatively with glass table, grass wallpaper, and...

IT IS indeed a pleasure, or at least an instruction, to see the Bundesbank tun true to form. In the reign of Otmar Emminger Can optimistic central banker is one who believes...

I HOPE that your budgie got his allotment of TSB shares. He should sell them the moment he gets them, and that will keep him in birdseed. He will also have learned to think of...

THERE is a new fashion in bank chair- men: bankers. I rather like it. First the Midland, after 60 years of assorted gran- dees, takes a banker from across the road. Now Barclays...

Sir: May I thank the various readers who have so splendidly solved the riddle about Halley's Comet which I recently posed in the Diary (20 September). The most suc- cinct...

Sir: Mr Richard Bassett seems to have let his enthusiasm run away with him (`Grounded at last', 4 October). Godfrey (or Gottfried) von Banfield was unquestionably a gallant...

Sir: May I add a personal recollection to Jeff Bernard's note on the 'gruesome exhibit' in Scotland Yard's Black Museum (Low life, 13 September). The bottled arms in fact...

Sir: Paul Johnson is right to draw attention to the lack of protest over the Labour Party's action in banning the four newspap- ers of the News International group from its...

enclose my cheque for f (Equivalent $US & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months 6 Months UK/Eire 0 £41.00 0 f20.50 Europe (airmail) 0 £50.00 0 £25.00 Outside Europe......

Sir: The motor industry must spend an awful lot of time trying to persuade us to Buy British. In my case this would be more effective if they did not name their models Marina,...

Sir: May I question Colin Welch's attribu- tion of the 'Makes yer proud to be an Englishman' remark to Winston Churchill defending a public figure arrested for indecent exposure...

Sir: Christopher Booker (Diary, 6 Septem- ber) is off-beam to declare that 'the death of Henry Moore removes the very last major figure of the Modern Movement in any of the...

Sir: May I, out of fairness, be permitted to correct a serious proof-reading slip in your issue of 27 September last which had the effect of gravely debasing the most con-...

Thirty years on Philip de Zulueta ANTHONY EDEN by Robert Rhodes James Weidenfeld & Nicolson, f16.95 N o one could ever accuse Anthony Eden of being a desiccated calculating...

Grey Gowrie A BALANCE OF POWER by Jim Prior Hamish Hamilton, f12.95 A gainst odds, Jim Prior has written a very good book. Any feeling of surprise has nothing to do with...

J. G. Links FLORENCE: A TRAVELLERS' COMPANION SELECTED AND INTRODUCED by Harold Acton and Edward Chaney Constable, £12.95 The pavement is thickly strewn with sepul- chral...

Francis King STARING AT THE SUN by Julian Barnes Cape, £9.95 S wift once wrote in a letter to Lord Bolingbroke: 'I remember, when I was a little boy, I felt a great fish at the...

They do it on their own or under the cover of darkness — silently, in true SAS style to fit in with the job, game of squash or whatever. Unlike women when the dam suddenly...

Andrei Navrozov LESS THAN ONE by Joseph Brodsky Viking, 115.95 P oets in our civilisation,' a famous poet wrote in his most famous essay, 'must be difficult'. He went on to...

Anita Brookner ROGER'S VERSION by John Updike Deutsch, 19.95 N obody writes English like John Up- dike. Whether the subject is adultery in a small university town (as it...

FICTION Galina by Galina Vishnevskaya, Hodder & Stoughton, £5.95 The Happy Countryman by H.E. Bates, Robinson, £4.95 Holding On by Mervyn Jones, Eland Books, £4.95 The General...

Christopher Howse THE STORY OF ENGLISH by Robert McCrum, William Cran and Robert MacNeil BBC Books/Faber, £14.95 T he placemat at a Beefeater Steak- house told me that the...

Christopher Hawtree 0-ZONE by Paul Theroux Hamish Hamilton, f9.95 61 t'll be a relief when I'm through with this one,' punned the author with a sigh as Starship Megabucks...

The Players Theatre A golden jubilee Ann Mann I t is always a rather sad, yet inevitable fact that, throughout the years, many nota- ble art-forms have been forced to give...

The Good Father (15, selected cinemas) Unhappy families Peter Ackroyd A ny film which begins beside Clapham Common tube station is bound to be of a somewhat sensational...

Paradise unnamed Peter Phillips T he re-issue of the 1981 Leipzig Gewandhaus / Kurt Masur recordings of the two symphonies of Franz Liszt (EMI 29 0732 1 and 2) brings to mind...

Mary Swanzy (Pyms Gallery till 25 October) A chance for the dead Giles Auty I n last week's issue Alistair Hicks wrote: `London isn't renowned for giving young painters a...

FREE) Subscription rates are being held at the old price for a limited period only. Take advantage of this special offer now! I would like to take out a subscription to The...

The answer lies in the soil Ursula Buchan How often have you met a keen, hard- working gardener who boasted of his fertile, friable, slightly acid, moisture- retentive, medium...

Missing persons Wendy Cope A bout 18 months ago I heard Jeffrey Archer being interviewed on Radio 4's Midweek. At one point the interviewer, Ian Hislop, suggested that some...

Win some, lose some Jeffrey Bernard The pleasure and luck of having been there to witness the race was hardly dimi- nished by the fact that some French yob stole my luggage at...

Cop the lot Taki I t is now perfectly clear to me (as President Nixon used to say) that both the fuzz and Customs & Excise will not rest until most of the Spectator's regular...

Holiday reading Alice Thomas Ellis Cairo efore setting out on the hols I grab- bed a few books more or less at random, except that I imposed on myself a certain discipline,...

Tackling the French from both ends Auberon Waugh F or years I have been urging Christ- opher Collins, of Bibendum to open up his rich store of old clarets to Spectator read-...

BIBENDUM 113 Regents Park Road, London NW1 8UR Telephone: 01-586 9761 Ref Product Price* No. Value Cabernet Sauvignon, Pays de l'Aude 1985 12 bots. £27.31 Ch. du Petit...

Gary triumphs David Sp anier S o Gary Kasparov did it, with a game to spare. The final score which settled the world championship was 12 points to 11 . in Gary's favour. The...

Doc's orders Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1441, you were invited to write a piece of plausible prose incorporating at least six of the clues (punctuation changeable) in the...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first...

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A peom, please, addressed to or about a telephone directory (maximum 16 lines). Entries to 'Competition No. 1444' by 24 October. The top winner of this and the next two...

NORMALLY, I am suspicious of 'cheap' restaurants — a drastic cut in quality to save £5 on the bill is not a very good deal, though the usual one. Eating out simply is expensive...