tactically F.1. "4 been the most dispiriting and boring British general • - •ctio n thi s L _ s campaign since the war; and parts of it have been not a d en . d isgraceful as...

Election points Sir: I was appalled that the three party leaders agreed to appear on The Frost Interview. We are told from all sides that the country is fighting for survival....

Esq, and Miss Judith Empson (September 2), it seems inconceivable to any true Conservative that Mr Enoch Powell cari ever lead the Conservative Party. At the last geheral...

From Mrs Tessa Collins Sir: Were I a member of Mrs Shirley William's constituency I should be most grateful to her for making so clear , before I cast my vote, the esteem in...

why the Conservative Party is 50 committed to membership of the Com mon Market. It needs little more than a cursory glance to appreciate that most of the things the EEC stand...

Sir: The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs (September 7) implies that Britain cannot legally leave the EEC unilaterally: "The power of Parliamen t to abrogate international...

cannot alter the basis of its authority Without consulting the electorate. This Was recognised at Westminster 1910-13 over the very question of Irish Home Rule and the connected...

reached extinction through W orthlessness. Just another piece of Paper. The then German politicians, h owever, had enough decency to give back to their government bondholders...

Sir: As one of the volunteer soldiers who J u mPed on Exercise 'Bold Guard,' and r il arr owly missed the Kiel Canal, I would Ike to thank you for the excellent piece on the...

Mr FitzGibbon (October 5) is right. mY Mind is inferior — would anyone Wi th a superior mind play the mouth ?Egan for a living' ) — and as he says, my "'Oughts are muddled 'as...

Sir: In her riposte (September . 28) in connection with Kenneth Robinson's review of her book Dark Corridor, Denise Robins uses that cynical old wisecrack about "laughing all...

Sir: Benny Green (September 28) might have added, in pursuit of his hypothesis, that Sir Edward Elgar was born in 1857. Victorian England's strident self-confidence was rather...

From the Rev. D. G. Davies Sir: My heart leapt up when I beheld and read (part of) the article, The Survival of Poetry.' How excellent to say, "over the last twenty years the...

Cynicism is not enough Patrick Cosgrave It has been a sad and shoddy campaign. No intelligent elector could have had his heart lifted at any moment of it, and the worst...

apectator October 12, 1 974 Wilson seems the most skilled, and Mr Heath the most obdurate, of politicians, both ha ve , been excessively plastic in the hands ° I unelected,...

I hear two things, one discouraging, one !socouraging, out of the bowels of Conservative Party headquarters. The first is typical of the i neanness and lack of spirit which...

Sensation before accuracy George Gaskell and Rod Bond The performance of the opinion polls in predicting the outcome of the last two elections may have led some cynics to...

(An Opera in One Scene to the Airs of The Beggar's Opera) Mr Edward Macheath, Leader of the Blueboy Highwaymen, known as Mac the Smile Mr Harold Opshun, Leader of the Red...

I shake hands might and main, With "How d'you do," and "How d'you do" and "How d'you do" again! Jerry the Merge (Trio. To the Air of: '0 Polly, you might have toyed and...

tae s merely serve to obscure these. c As presently organised the polling companies , arinot come up with these important sectional br eakdowns. If the media are interested in...

The Dublin preference Frank Delaney It is a matter of fact that Ireland, North and South, now plays a bigger part in the politics and administration of Britain than at any...

Labour had between them a quota of academics and lawyers which won popular appeal in a country where standards of education and affluence had, ironically, progressed by leaps...

The non-issue David W. Wragg Imposition though it may be, obviously an election is one of the benefits of democracy and much to be preferred to life under a left-wing tyranny....

Molly Mortimer Australia is not the first western-orientated nation to give official aid to African guerrillas; Norway has long outbid her two hundred thousand dollars; but she...

Voyage to Egalitaria On my Arrival in Egalitaria, whither I had journeyed to observe the Mode of Electioneering there practised, I was at once Accosted by a Fellow, an Emissary...

TODAY Candidates Never mind the quality feel the width There is a greetings card on the market which announces that "THIS IS NATIONAL SEX WEEK" and, inside, exhorts the...

The TV election Philip Kleinman How important are the party political broadcasts in determining the outcome of elections? The experience of last February, when according to ....

Bernard Dixon It is, I suppose, some part of MY brief in this column to provide relief from the magazine's political content and flavour. That's a difficult task these days,...

In a straight line Michael Stourton Pursuit is the word for it. A pursuit within the pursuit. An example of such single-minded occupational dedication that it ought long ago...

Revealing the cracks Martin Sullivan When St Paul's was washed a few years ago everyone was delighted, The building shone in splendour and at night with the floodlights playing...

David Garnett on friends and friendship , 1- ,? v illg? The worst thing about this excellent 7 " rv eY* of the principal figures of 'Bloomsbury' is the Child which to my ears...

Bernard Hollowood Big Business C. Northcote Parkinson (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £3.95) "And then there is the clean air, the honest atmosphere of commerce; an atmosphere...

Kenneth Robinson Eflid Blyton Barbara Stoney (Hodder and t•oulghton Ea 25) E nid Blyton's father had a sallow face, an engaging personality and a nose just a fraction Loo l...

Gwyn Hughes. SAKI complete short stories. Sodley Head, — Box 492, THE "GENIUS" by Theodore Praiser. Foster, 22 Croft Way, Sevenoakes, Kent. KENNETH TYNAN: Curtains. Box 501....

Victor Montagu The Conservative Nation Andrew Gamble (Routledge and Kegan Paul £4.95) If a man is at the point of death he might conceivably be braced by a private consultant's...

opectator October 12, 1974 There is one character in the book who causes the author to break from his attitude of factual reporting and to indulge in personal judgment. The...

London sighs Peter Ackroyd The Camberwell Beauty V. S. Pritchett (Chatto and Windus £3) The Black House Paul Theroux (Hamish Hamilton £2.75) The Terrors of Dr Trevites Peter...

Bookend The influence of television programmes on books has long been an accepted fact of p romotional life. More recent is the realisation by television producers that "the...

All that jazz 1/e nny Green „, much taken last week by the rich comedy `Readers' Letters' pages of this journal. Or among those epistles a small outrage was h a - :,.' u ltted,...

OF THE ARTS Kenneth Hurren on Peter Nichols's wrong turning The Freeway by Peter Nichols; National Theatre Company (Old Vic) The Old One-Two by A. R. Gurney, Jr; Basement...

Ring of truth ey Milnes The extraordinary thing about Gaz Friedrich's new production of Das Rheingold and Die Walkare at Covent Garden is that it actually is new. Over the...

Great stuff Fallowell IP T. s hni t's Entertainment Director: ek Haley Jnr. 'Ll' Dominion (138 'la, flutes) Miller Director: Peter Bogir,i,anovich Stars: Cybill Shepherd, Q A...

Even should Labour come out on top in this week's election, it is no certainty, I hear, that Mr Hugh Jenkins will retain his post as Minister for the Arts. Though Jenkins has...

The war outside the hustings tiicholb Davenport Our electoral debate becomes more ahd more irrelevant and unreal as the reality of a world recession begins to darken our...

If any company's books were produced on the same principles as Britain's official statistics, the auditors would anathematise it with qualifications, the Stock Exchange would...