I n Northern Ireland, loyalist extremists every night attacked the homes and fami-. lies of policemen. The Chief Constable said 14 officers had fled their homes in the last...

THATCHER'S IRISH FOLLY 0 ne of the complacent English myths about Northern Ireland is that the situation there is immensely complicated and unpre- dictable. (The myth arises...

A NOVELIST who described a nation which launched its latest frigate at dead of night would not be thought to have attemp- ted a realistic work. He would be thought to be...

SOMETHING of the qualified nature of the Vatican's latest criticism of liberation theology may be gathered from press reactions to it. 'Vatican urges passive resistance,' said...

R eading what I had written last Sun- day on the Fulham by-election, one of my nearest and dearest said that it was 'all right' but contained 'too much about rail- way...

The problem of a female MP who will not pay her restaurant bills AUBERON WAUGH A sound rule in political journalism, taught me by the great Alan Watkins, is never to become...

Britain is about to get a new and bigger bomb. Timothy Garton Ash questions the choice which Mrs Thatcher favours — and others fear SOMEWHERE out there in the dark freezing...

The excitement at Westminster on Thursday afternoon was quite unequal- led in our history, the House of Com- mons being crowded from floor to ceiling — applications for places...

Christopher Hitchens on the fascist sect which is infiltrating the Democratic Party Washington AMONG the minor hazards of air travel in the continental United States is the...

William Deedes on the desperate state of Australian cricket Melbourne TWO of Australia's leaders are in the toils: Allan Border, captain of cricket, and John Howard, who leads...

This week Benazir Bhutto returns to of avenging her father's death THEY sang farewell the last time Benazir Bhutto left Britain for Pakistan. The cham- ber of the Oxford Union...

Melik Kaylan reports on the troubled gay culture of Greenwich Village New York MARCH was quite the cruellest month for New York's Mayor Koch. At the same time as a massive...

Outsiders: a profile of Stephen Dykes Bower, enemy of Modern architecture THE visitor to Stephen Dykes Bower's Essex home is received in some style. The architect himself...

The press: Paul Johnson suggests that the print unions should dare to accept Mr Murdoch's offer RUPERT Murdoch had the laugh on his critics last week. In the first place he...

WHO needs the Grand National when we have the European Monetary System? To the professional punter, Brussels at the weekend offered far more attractions than Aintree. A good...

STANLEY Kalms calls Woolworth's stock an inferior-quality mishmash. The manage- ment, he says, has sold 60 previous sites, and is now wandering in the high street in search of a...

Porpoise treads on Standard Chartered: will they, won't they, join the dance? CHRISTOPHER FILDES the takeover sportsmen blast away at them, as though they were as fair game as...

Sir: To my astonishment, I found myself in total, melancholy agreement with Andrew Alexander's gloomy forecast 'How Ulster could ruin Britain', (29 March) of what may happen in...

Sir: While in London for a short visit, I was shown the article by Christopher Hitchens, `Liberty for Jew baiters' (1 March). I cannot comment on most of the article, because...

Sir: In his admirable television commen- tary 'The absurdity of censorship' (5 April) I find it surprising that Alexander Chancel- lor, of all people, should fail to recognise...

Sir: Andrew Gimson's review of the pre - sent state of embryo experimentation (`In - humanity beyond conception', 5 April) was admirable. It tended, however, to present a more...

THE SPECTATOR SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for f (Equivalent SUS & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months 6 Months...

The happy hedonist Alastair Forbes DUFF COOPER: THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY by John Charmley on't really like Cooper', there one day, under that statesman-diplomat's ever-...

Most of the inconveniences of my Demise will not, however, be borne by me Consoling, now that almost anything Unusual brings with it anxiety. Often I feel perhaps I don't mind...

John Zametica FDR by Ted Morgan Grafton, f20 F ranklin Delano Roosevelt, the polio- stricken American president, is still re- garded with innocent esteem. His record as a...

Eric Christiansen THE BURGUNDIAN NETHERLANDS by Walter Prevenier and Wim Blockmans Cambridge University Press, f50 F rom 1384, the Netherlands and much of eastern France...

Peter Quennell MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE LA TOUR DU PIN edited and translated by Felice Harcourt Century Publishing, f6.95 IMPERIAL MOTHER, ROYAL DAUGHTER: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF...

Brian Martin MEMOIRS OF MANY IN ONE by Alex Xenophon Demirjian Gray, edited by Patrick White Cape, £8.95 T he sick and senile hold a grisly fas- cination for Patrick White. In...

Non-fiction Alfred Gilbert by Richard Dorment, Yale, £9.95 Child of the Twenties by Frances Donald- son, Weidenfeld, £4.95 The Romantic Rebellion by Kenneth Clark, John...

The name confronts you a wind with a wet slap in it leathering the fell, flapping black oil-skins, spitting at squinting eyes. Ewes bunch at the wall, the collie slinks low,...

Anthony Blond WHAT'S THE JOKE?: A STUDY OF JEWISH HUMOUR THROUGH THE AGES by Chaim Bermant Weidenfeld, £12.95 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous....

David Sexton IN THE AMERICAN WEST by Richard Avedon Thames & Hudson, f40 R ichard Avedon began his photo- graphic career taking ID shots when he was in the Merchant Marine...

Cinema Absolute Beginners (`5' selected cinemas Back to the Fifties Peter Ackroyd I n retrospect the Fifties seem only a partly reassuring time — drained, faded, a...

Robert Organ (Browse & Darby till 26 April) The Rural Idyll (Sally Hunter & Patrick Seale till 25 April) Country fare Giles Auty F or many painters the attractions of city...

Mephisto (Barbican) The Normal Heart (Royal Court) The Rivals (Bristol Old Vic) An unforgettable film Christopher Edwards T his is a stage version of Klaus Mann's novel...

Concentration and intimacy Rodney Mines T here were many surprises in Jonathan Miller's television production of Cosi fan tutte, nearly all of them nice ones. First, at a time...

Two tycoons Alexander Chancellor W hat is good about BBC2's Forty Minutes series is not only its usually in- teresting choice of subject but also its practice of letting...

Fixing Felix Taki elix Rohatyn is the senior partner of Lazard Freres, chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation, and the man who got the credit for saving the Big...

Mixed blessings Alice Thomas Ellis I don't want to go on and on about the weather but when it's hanging on your eyelashes in the form of snow or blasting up your sleeves in...

A bite of the Apple Jeffrey Bernard T en days in New York City was revita- lising and exhilarating although I spent far too much time in Bradley Cunningham's bar. Bradley's...

n•A u tpro u `TO rear a healthy progeny in ways of piety and usefulness: to preside over the family and regulate the income allotted to its maintenance: to make home the sweet...

Bristol: Les Semailles I AM well aware that those who live out of London, and prefer to stay out of London, are poorly served by this column. The thing is, most very good...

LESS THAN HALF-PRICE More stimulating than any lecture, funnier than the set books, The Spectator should be required reading for every student. With Student Subscriptions...

Bottom for top Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1415 you were in- vited to write a verse or two in the style of Cole Porter's 'You're the Top', substitut- ing for 'top' an...

No quarter Raymond Keene T his week I wrap up coverage of the historic GLC Challenge, the last in the series of GLC sponsored events which commenced in 1980. Apart from...

You are invited to devise a last will and testament calculated to cause the max- imum discord and confusion on the part of the living and the maximum amusement on the part of...

CEE(-spring) was omitted from: (Ac) 5 placentae, 16 croceate, 25 cerate, 29 crease, 39 cetacean, 41 clientele, 43 retrocede; (Dn) 15 cleaned, 19 incense, 25 receded, 30 '...

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