Studying football hooliganism T he Conservatives improved their majority in local government elections in Wandsworth and Westminster, contrary to poll-based predictions, though...

1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 SALVATION BACK TO FRONT O n 17 September 1988 the leading article on this page was entitled 'Remem- ber Rumania'. It called on Western gov-...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - Save 10% on the Cover Price! RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK 0 £66.00 0 133.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £77.00 0 £38.50 USA Airspeed 0 US $99 0 S49.50 Rest of Airmail 0...

Testing Mrs Thatcher for EEC positive NOEL MALCOLM In the eyes of her critics, of course, she has never had positive proposals to offer on Europe — only hostile reactions to...

M ost things which I read about the Royal Family confirm me in the republi- canism to which, reading Milton, I was an easy schoolboy convert. Last week's article in The...

Allan Massie examines the old relationship with England and questions the future of the United Kingdom IN HIS Rectorial Address at Glasgow University in 1900, Lord Rosebery...

The South African government and the ANC are united in their opposition to the capitalist system, argues Don Caldwell Johannesburg SOUTH AFRICA's National Party and African...

Stephen Handelman meets the people who are united in their resolve to defy Moscow Cerauskstes, Latvia COWS graze contentedly beside Highway 12, the main road linking the...

Michael Heath

James Bowman reports that President Bush's `wimpish' attitude is at odds with much of American opinion Washington WHEN Mrs Prunskiene, the Lithuanian Prime Minister, came to...

listening to Lord Soper's version of the Sermon on the Mount LORD Soper's socialism, he had told me before he mounted his ladder at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park for at least...

Michael Lewis tells the inside story of the promotion of his book in America and Britain I SHOULD have guessed I was in for trouble from the uneasiness of my Amer- ican...

a year on the regular UK newsstand price — that's £1.06 a week, or less than 86p if you take out a three year subscription. We'll even send it first class to your home,...

Alex Morgan describes a frustrating week as a British Rail employee I WAS reading about Bob Reid's enthu- siasm for his new job as chairman of British Rail the other day. He...

THE House of Commons Committee has decided that the preamble of the Central London Railway Bill had been proved, subject to certain conditions, chief among which are provisions...

The media: Paul Johnson on the morals of putting private conversations in print WHEN is a conversation confidential? Always, unless both or all parties agree to treat it...

WHAT I like about the pecking order at the International Monetary Fund is what Lord Melbourne liked about the Order of the Garter: there is no damned merit about it. By those...

A TESTING week for the Italians. They received visits from John Major, J. Dan- forth Quayle, Colin Moynihan and me. Mr Quayle had the chance to brush up on his geography and...

Inflation gives Kinnock another chance to miss from in front of the posts CHRISTOPHER FILDES Y ou would be surprised how many people know just what to do about infla- tion....

I KNOW what Harold Wincott meant: `The mind of any columnist with frequent and regular deadlines to meet' (as he wrote, meeting - a deadline 30 years ago) `becomes, inevitably,...

Conspiracy theory Sir: Hong Kong will be grateful if Parlia- ment approves the British Nationality (Hong Kong) Bill. But it will take more than 250,000 passports to save Hong...

Sir: It was helpful of Murray Sayle (`Fifty Thousand Men in A Boat', 28 April) to remind us that the British Government had intended to introduce democracy into Hong Kong before...

Sir: Andrew Kenny in his plea for con- sistency in the treatment of radiation dan- gers (`Up and Atom', 21 April) demons- trates how easy it is for a polemic to sink into...

Sir: Your correspondent Mr Allan Massie (28 April) suggested that Guinness used the code name 'Ascot' when preparing their bid for Distillers, 'because so many of the Distillers...

tenor of your leading article (Still An Evil Empire, 14 April), may I point out that Russian democrats are totally behind Lithuanian independence. We Russians fighting for...

Sir: There are further possible reasons for suggesting that John Casey ('In Such a Night', 14 April) is correct in surmising that Shakespeare was familiar with the Roman Easter...

Sir: Noel Malcolm is looking for a collec- tive noun for public relations people. I suggest 'a puff of PROs'. Basil Saunders 18 Dartmouth Park Avenue, London NW5

Sir: Mr Heseltine's insistence that Mrs Thatcher will lead the Conservative Party into the next election — however much we doubt his sincerity — must be seen as shrewd politics...

wrong when he stated that Churchill 'came to power after mercilessly denouncing' Chamberlain and using that example to urge Heseltine publicly to attack the poll tax. In the...

will spawn more vigorous Atlantic depressions, but he is wrong to deduce that Britain will thereby experience stormier conditions. For the centrifugal pole-ward Coriolis force,...

Far East of Eton Murray and Jenny Sayle either of us is, strictly speaking, an expert on the newly fashionable topic of education in Japan. Your genuine pundit should, at the...

John Casey argues the case for keeping the ancient Japanese accession rites on the new Emperor's coronation THE Japanese government has announced that the accession ceremonies...

Getting away with murder James Buchan THE INNOCENT by Ian McEwan Cape, £13.90, pp. 232 N ine pages into The Innocent, Ian McEwan's newest novel, the reader will get a jolt....

Vicky's working now, as well, eight hours six days a week, and saving most of what she earns. She likes the people there. They tease her about Carl. He's twenty-one. He's got an...

John McEwen MAN RAY by Neil Baldwin Hamish Hamilton, £20, pp. 446 M an Ray (1890-1976) is well served by books, not least by his autobiography, notorious for containing only...

Ross Clark THE NEON BIBLE by John Kennedy Toole Viking, 112.99, pp. 162 JOY THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA by Hanif Kureishi Faber, f12.99, pp. 284 T he name John Kennedy Toole sounds...

Piers Paul Read EUNUCHS FOR HEAVEN: THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND SEXUALITY by Uta Ranke-Heinemann Deutsch, f14.95, pp. 326 I n Germany there are not just professors of theology,...

Andro Linklater THE DAY GONE BY: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Richard Adams Hutchinson, £18.95, pp. 388 I n his magisterial work, The Private Life of the Rabbit, R. M. Lockley noted...

They've told me over and over it can wait Till the next day — the cook, housekeeper, members Of the family — meaning that mine's An unimportant task, as they see me stare,...

He scoops himself into a huff as our car lights interrupt his journey. I try in vain to woo him from his bed of nails. He strikes out with his spikes the way that Aborigines...

The city's rich with one Lancastrian thing And that's red-brick. The good-bad-poem sort: Some looks like raw rump steak, some's lobsterish; Some's rosé pale; some shines like...

S. J. B. Barnish THE ROMAN EMPIRE OF AMMIANUS by John Matthews Duckworth, £35, pp.608 0 n a mountain ridge stands a young staff officer, gathering intelligence; by his side...

Harold James THE HIDDEN DAMAGE by James Stern Chelsea Press, f17.95, pp. 372 G ermany after the disintegration of a totalitarian state-philosophy, Germany in complete...

Exhibitions 1 London's Pride: the History of the Capital's Gardens (Museum of London, till 12 August) The glory of the gardens Mary Keen G oing to look at gardens indoors is...

A masterpiece restored Deirdre McMahon J ust over a month ago the National Film Theatre had a one-time-only viewing of the 1962 television recording of La Fille Mal Gardee. It...

Troilus and Cressida (Stratford) Troy boys Christopher Edwards T he anti-heroic tenor of this Shakespeare work lends itself to our age. All traces of military idealism...

Learning from the past Peter Phillips I cannot resist alluding to the case, recently discussed in the press, of the art student who resigned from one of our colleges because...

John Lessore (Nigel Greenwood, till 26 May) Catherine Goodman (Cadogan Contemporary, till 19 May) Beef without complaint Giles Auty A nyone who has taken a serious in- terest...

The Krays (`18', selected cinemas) Mother's boys Hilary Mantel T here was once a musical about the Kray twins — or so I am told by the editor of the Times Literary...

'Stephanie', by John Ward, on show at Agnew's.

Code comfort Wendy Cope F irst of all, I may as well make use of this opportunity to tell anyone who has my telephone number that it now begins with 071. Until today, like...

Suffering from exposure Taki The first to get outed was Malcolm Forbes, and it was typical. Forbes was a 'On a clear day you can see some countries where English clubs aren't...

Thrills and spills Jeffrey Bernard L ast week's 2,000 Guineas day at New- market turned out to be one of the most memorable days I have ever experienced at the races....

In the soup Zenga Longmore E arlier this week, at seven in the morning, a pathetic little group, Uncle Bisi, Omalara and I, could be seen stand- ing at the incoming flight...

ELIZABETH David rarely gives inter- views. One would even have said that she never gives interviews, except that last year she gave in to the cameras and allowed Jancis Robinson...

COMPETITION ci i.i.vAS REG AL 12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY Revised version Jaspistos SCOTCH WHISKY I n Competition No. 1624 you were asked to supply a new National Anthem,...

City sights Raymond Keene A ny successful tournament will con- tain an element of sporting interest, such as, will master X make his grandmaster norm or who will win first...

There is, somewhere, an annual Bulwer- Lytton fiction contest for awful writing. Please try to win it within a maximum of 150 words. Entries to 'Competition No. 1627' by 25 May.

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A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word `Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

Springtime ups and downs Frank Keating T he Cup Final is all tinselly window- dressing and commentator Motson's awe- struck nasal superlatives. The poignant back-parlour stuff...