T here have been arguments for some time about the quality of the Conservative team in Parliament. Issues and Principles aside, the Labour Party had, or so it was said, a far...

Ferdinand Mount The unacceptable face of Toryism was quick to surface. It was still midafternoon on polling day when I saw a tall man of some fifty summers come out of...

My own experience tends to confirm what somebody had already pointed out to me. This is that the Conservative victory in the election was hardly less popular among thOse who did...

Auberon Waugh The great temptation now is to forget all the aggravation and insults of the last 15 Years – I ignore Mr Heath's brief and disastrous administration as being of...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington The news of the election in Great Britain caught this country in a preoccupied moment. In California, people, were threatening each other with...

Nicholas Ashford Johannesburg Although Lord Carrington, the new Foreign Secretary, is familiar with the prob l ems of southern Africa he will neverthe less find he is now...

Richard West The new Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, has said that his first priority on assuming office will be the improvement of Britain's relations with Europe. I doubt...

Sam White Paris It is now ten years since General de Gaulle retired after his defeat in the 1969 referendum and the event is being celebrated by a fresh flood of books on the...

Jo Grimond I thought the Liberal Parliamentary Party would come back from the election holding ten or eleven of their seats though I did not foresee the particular casualties...

Neal Ascherson Edinburgh A day before the election which cost her Moray and Nairn, a curious letter from Mrs Winnie Ewing appeared in the Scotsman. She reflected on the...

Even now, if any very strong-minded traveller should be able to defy the ominous silence of Bradshaw and the neglect of Cook, and more regardful of what has been, than what is,...

Germaine Greer Crusade has begun. The Blessed Marg a ret, already beatified by her lieutenant, N.orman St John Stevas, is mounted and t , i( ling into battle. This crusade...

Christopher Booker Some months ago I began an irregular series of articles here on some of the more widely-held of contemporary beliefs about the fundamental nature of human...

The coming Budget Nicholas Davenport Taking its cue from Mrs Thatcher the Stock Exchange reacted to the great Conservative v ictory in a confident but restrained manner. There...

Sir: Having just returned from eight days in Jerusalem I am astonished to read Mrs Silkin's grossly inaccurate retort (5 May) with reference to Mr Pinner's very fair rejoinder...

Sir: Theassassi nation of A ireyNeave and the letter from Matthew Parris, which caused such a fuss during the election campaign, come as small surprise to one who was...

Sir: Hayim Pinner, Secretary General of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, is being over-sensitive in his reaction to Richard Ingrams's complaint that in the television...

Sir: Richard West refers (14 April) to the new services and prayers at present being inflicted upon Anglican congregations. At a recent Deanery Synod meeting a complaint was...

Sir: I was surprised to see no reference to the work of the magazine Rebecca in last week's profile of James Callaghan. This small Cardiff publication has provided more...

Sir: In his attempt to justify his allegations against, as he puts it, his `current bête noire Ronald Harwood', Richard Ingrams noW sees something sinister in my failure to...

Alastair Forbes The Great Lover: The Life and Art of Herbert Beerbohm Tree Madeleine Bingham (Ham ish Hamilton £7.95) The two most notable bicentenaries of 1979 are those of...

Geoffrey Sampson Language and Responsibility Noam Chomsky (Harvester £10.50) This book is based on a series of recorded interviews with Noam Chomsky on issues ranging from...

Hugh Lloyd-Jones !In and Thought in the Hellenistic Age: _ma Greek World View, 350-50 B.C. John unians (Thames and Hudson £10.50) At least until very lately, classical...

Anthony Storr The Innocence of Dreams Charles Rycroft (Hogarth £6.95) Dr Rycroft begins his book on dreams with a criticism of Freud's ideas with which I fully concur. Freud...

Alan Watkins Who's Who 1979 (A. and C. Black E25) I have several moral maxims for modern journalists. In retirement or the evening of my days, whichever comes first, I hope to...

Benny Green Little Tacit by Richard Findlater and Mary Tich (Elm Tree £6.95) Harry Relph, alias Little Tich, has never been granted quite the same degree of immortality which...

Francis King Innocent Erendira and Other Stories Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Cape £4.50) When Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude first appeared in translation...

Peter Jenkins B eh t (Royal Court) The Merchant of Venice (RSC, Warehouse) BY coincidence I caught up with John Barton's small-arena version of the Merchant, in which perforce...

Rodney Milnes The Ice Break (Covent Garden) After the premiere of Tippett's opera two years ago, I wrote that it was not every new opera you wanted to hear again as soon as...

John McEwen The new show of Donald Judd's work (Lisson till 1 June) should be required viewing for anyone who still thinks he is a minimal artist and therefore boring. As...

Richard lngrams I hope that the television companies are having a thorough post-mortem on their election coverage, examining in particular the craven way in which they have...

Michael Cardew Bernard Leach, whose death at the age of 92 was announced on 7 May, probably did more in his time to change the,. lives of potters in Britain than anyone since...

Taki Backgammon, the game that has replaced gin rummy as the hustler's delight, will take a step into the future this summer at the Philip Morris European Championship at Monte...

Jeffrey Bernard Tomorrow I have to sit down and write a few words about London's. afternoon drinking clubs as I know and knew them — for a 'girlie' magazine. Well, most people...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft The Ridgeway is the prehistoric path which runs from the Thames Valley to Avebury and beyond, across the Berkshire Downs (as I still call them, although...