I I i s difficult to tell precisely what motive lies behind `gria's intervention in the Lebanon. For years now e a „mascus Radio has poured out propaganda for a soa iled Greater...

On the principle that when tradesmen press You for payment you place further orders on 1.e dit Mr Denis Healey asked for another and on the desperate principle that exte nding...

F rom the very first, there was reluctance to a dr 1 t1 that the unknown ex-Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, could really become the Democratic candidate in this year's P r...

One more footpath untrod Auberon Waugh The most encouraging piece of news last week was that Jimmy Carter, the plastic identikit American presidential candidate, has been...

Christopher Booker T ile Peculiar quality of surrealistic banality s urrounding Sir Harold Wilson's valedict ion—the absurd honours list, followed by howls of 'lies' and...

Andrew Alexander According to the Treasury—to say no of the Department of Prices and Consurned Affairs, the Trades Union Congress , t1 ,, t Confederation of British Industry...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft The selectors could claim that it worked: the Test Match was not the debacle that at one point seemed likely. And if in the first innings Close showed that...

Sir: Cannot Hugh Trevor-Roper, quoting Weber with approval on the distinction be tween worthwhile capitalists and 'Jewish a dventurer capitalists', see that, in the con: text...

Sir: The price of bread has gone up; of meat has gone up; of milk has gone up; of transport has gone up. The list is, of course, in the present context, endless. But the cost...

Sir: In your leader of 29 May You write: 'Once a currency is floating its fate is in the hands of literally thousands of currency dealers the world over: the object of their...

Sir: Having whole-heartedly applauded your doughty appeal, in face of the sinking pound, that 'Next time we will not—we cannot—be rescued by loyal and kindly friends: if we are...

Greene's plan to clobber the Post Office, and am endeavouring to put it into effect. Unfortunately,! am finding great difficulty in following his advice to 'post one letter a...

Robert Siudelsky OXford in The Twenties Christopher 1-10 I115 (Heinemann £4.50) C hristopher Hollis is an interesting man. He started off conventionally enough; clerical f...

M. I. Finley The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilisations Max Weber, translated by R. I. Frank (NLB £8.50) If it is proper to borrow from economics the term 'macro-theory'...

atrick Cosgrave 'Un pretentious and 'straightforward' are h Dat ronising words to use in a review. I would i , , av e to say something like 'John Buchan s "milers are vastly...

John McEwen Landseer Campbell Lennie (Hamish Hamilton £6.95) A dearth of personal letters and papers has always made Landseer's life a mystery, so news of Campbell Lennie's...

James Hughes-Onslow American Heartbeat: Notes from a Midwestern Journey Simon Winchester (Faber £5.25) East African Journey: Kenya and Tanganyika 1929-30 Margery Perham (Faber...

Le pop Christine Brooke-Rose Paris There was a time when 'pop' music meant a specific kind of music as opposed to rock or rhythm-and-blues and other types, but in France the...

Good, knight Rodney Wines There is a great deal to be said about Glynedebourne's new production of Falstaff and all Of it good. The work sounds marvellous in this house's clear...

Old times Ian Cameron Worst thing first: Vigilante Force (London Pavilion, X certificate) operates on the intellectual and, I fear, political level of Walt Disney, which is to...

Soft centres John McEwen At first glance Victor Newsome's paintings and drawings at Anthony d'Offay (till 18 A June ) look as cold as the medicine chest an' clinical bathroom...

Scene change Kenneth Hurren The Winter's Tale (Stratford-uponAvo n ) Twelfth Night (Chichester Festival) The Bard had a really bad time last week.. At Stratford and...

Play it again Jeffrey Bernard Hallo once again, Now in case you've only just come in I'll repeat that. Hallo once again. Well, that was the first sentence and I'll be going...