14 APRIL 1979

Page 3

Arming the police by stealth

The Spectator

'Our police are wonderful' has long been a partly jocular, Partly complacent British attitude. Like many generalisations, it had more than a grain of truth. It was of course a...

Page 4

Political commentary

The Spectator

The bovine splendour of Mr Callaghan Ferdinand Mount Glasgow The Status Quo will be playing here next month, or rather the Status Qu — the 'o' has fallen off the sign outside...

Page 5

Notebook

The Spectator

Friends tell me that Mr Heath has indicated to Mrs Thatcher that he would like to serve in a Tory government, in spite of her publicly expressed preference for a Cabinet of...

Page 6

Another voice

The Spectator

The Road to Barnstaple Auberon Waugh General elections are times when political commentators are well advised to keep what is called a low profile. Passions run high....

Page 7

Rhodesia: the pipe-dream of partnership

The Spectator

Xan Smiley Salisbury The political aspirations of most Rhodesians and most Zimbabweans are grimly irreconcilable. Evolutionary change, not towards an awkward state of phoney...

Page 8

Squatters without rights

The Spectator

Nicholas Ashford Pretoria About 20 miles north of Pretoria, South Africa's neat and verdant capital, there is a 'city' whose name will not be found on a map. It is called...

Page 9

The Nazis who escape justice

The Spectator

Tim Garton Ash West Berlin Maidanek was the site of a concentration and extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. At least 350,000 people died there. Its staff numbered over...

Page 10

Sex education and parents' rights

The Spectator

Valerie Riches Parents have fundamental human rights in the upbringing of their children . . . 'This principle in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is supported,...

Page 11

The woman as the issue

The Spectator

George Gale In declining to take part with the Prime Minister in a couple of televised faceto-face confrontations for London Weekend Television, Mrs Thatcher let it be known...

Page 12

Can the Tories tame the unions?

The Spectator

Peter Paterson While the Prime Minister no doubt emitted a groan on hearing the news that the trade union leaders will appear on as many platforms as possible to support Labour...

Page 13

Cracking idea.

The Spectator

The idea that's hatching at our refinery is a real cracker. A £150 million catalytic cracker complex, no less — replete with delights for the technology buff: alkylation,...

Page 14

Defence priorities

The Spectator

Patrick Cosg rave 'Because', wrote Major-General Sir William Napier in his History of the Peninsular War, 'the English Ministers, so ready to plunge into war, were quite...

Page 15

Church and politics in rural England

The Spectator

Richard West The Barsetshire books which largely concern the life of Church of England clergymen, are not normally thought of with Trollope's political novels such as the...

Page 17

In the City

The Spectator

Poor investors Nicholas Davenport Some ass in a position of authority recently said that the individual investor was finished because he did not know how to look after his...

Page 18

Unscientific?

The Spectator

Sir: Elizabeth Whipp is surprisingly unscientific in her dismissal (31 March) of the arguments for Creative Evolution and Lamarckism whether advanced by Bernard Shaw or...

Funding the Arts

The Spectator

Sir: May I commend your editorial (17 March) on the dangers inherent in state support for the Arts and endorse your recommendations that private individuals should be encouraged...

Going too far

The Spectator

Sir: Jeffrey Bernard's chagrin at being overlooked yet again by the British Press Awards Panel is understandable. But for my crapulent friend to link me with the outsized,...

Leisure revolution

The Spectator

Sir: May I draw attention to another kind of differential between the income groups? Ever since the Industrial Revolution, lowpaid workers have had to rely on overtime to...

Church and state

The Spectator

Sir: If the last Reith lecturer, Dr Norman, needed any support for his main contention that Christianity was tending to be debased by the Churches themselves it is to be found...

Abuse of women

The Spectator

Sir: Richard Ifigrams has fallen over his coat Mead Ends', 24 March). The Women's Movement is accustomed to the hatred of a certain type of man, and it's usually nqt worth...

Page 19

Shit-list

The Spectator

Sir: I find myself puzzled by the paragraph in Mr Ingrams's television review ('Swinging') in your issue dated 17 March, which begins: 'Sir Fitzroy, (who may be a...

True poetry

The Spectator

Sir: Muriel Spark may be a fine novelist but she is not a poet. It is sad to see the Spectator (31 March) giving nearly a page to what is described on the cover as a 'new poem',...

Hugh MacDiannid

The Spectator

Sir: For an authorised biography of Hugh MacDiarmid, the authors seek letters, unpublished materials, reminiscences or other relevant information of any kind. Please contact...

THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN

The Spectator

IN SERVICE OF MANKIND personal service freely given. All its members are unpaid volunteers. St. John Ambulance also runs certificated courses in first aid, nursing and allied...

Page 20

Nonsense and sensibility

The Spectator

Anthony Burgess The Faber Book of Nonsense Verse Ed. Geoffrey Grigson (Faber £5.95) The Children's Book of Comic Verse chosen by Christopher Logue; illustrated by Bill Tidy...

Page 21

Cook's death

The Spectator

Jan Morris The Murder of Captain James Cook Richard Hough (Macmillan £7.95) One by one the sea lays its stories upon the desk of Mr Hough the Battleship Man, and one by one he...

Page 22

In the box

The Spectator

Conor Cruise O'Brien Death in Paris Richard Cobb (Oxford £4.95) In the Archives de la Seine in Paris there is a box bearing the title `Basse-Geole de la ,Seine, proces-verbaux...

Hack pack

The Spectator

Benny Green Wit's End: Days and Nights of the Algonquin Round Table James R. Gaines (Harcourt Brace £8.40) The disproportionate attention lavished over the years on the...

Page 23

Experiments

The Spectator

Francis King When I Whistle Shusaku Endo (Peter Owen E6.00) Of all Japanese novelists, Shusaku Endo is the most accessible to Western readers. This is not merely because he...

Page 24

Religious books

The Spectator

Pope of the kingly people Peter Hebblethwaite John Paul II: A Man From Krakow George Blazynski (Weidenfeld £5.95) Man from a Far Country Mary Craig (Hodder £1.00) The Acting...

Page 26

Convent life

The Spectator

Mary Kenny In Habit: An anthropological study of working nuns Suzanne Campbell-Jones (Faber £9.95) Nuns are misunderstood people, and the institution of the convent is badly...

Page 27

Arts

The Spectator

Postmodernism in Hillingdon Gavin Stamp The reaction of the establishment modern architects and planners to Christopher Booker's tele-documentary City of Towers was...

Theatre

The Spectator

Make merry Peter Jenkins The Merry Wives of Windsor (RSC, Stratford-on-Avon) It was disappointing to arrive in Stratford for the new Shakespeare season to find the performance...

Page 28

Art I

The Spectator

Prize hybrid John McEwen The work in Tony Carter's latest exhibition (Anthony Stokes till 21 April) confirms his uniquely unclassifiable status among contemporary British...

Page 29

Art

The Spectator

Uncertain Terence Maloon Officially sponsored 'packages' of contemporary British art always cause loud and long contestation, all the more when they Purport to be...

Page 30

Television

The Spectator

Dramatics Richard Ingrams I keep waiting for signs of the election to make themselves felt on the screen but, to date, it seems to have been something of a Phoney War. Partly...

Opera

The Spectator

Collaborators Rodney Milnes Katya Kabanova (Scottish Opera) Don Carlos (Covent Garden) Katya, the third instalment of the joint Scottish Opera-Welsh National Janacek cycle and...

Page 31

High life

The Spectator

Studious Taki New York Two years after taking New York by storm, the most successful nightclub in recent history has gone the way of the Labour government. In New York, where...

Low life

The Spectator

Sensitive Jeffrey Bernard Anyone who enjoyed the profile of Ian McEwan and the interview with him conducted by Professor Christopher Ricks on The Book Programme last week will...

Page 32

Last word

The Spectator

Black'n'white Geoffrey Wheatcroft Do things get better or worse? You will remember the conversation on the subject between Mr Foster the optimist and Mr Escot the pessimist....

Page 33

Chess

The Spectator

Lone Pioneer David Levy One feels mildly tempted to sympathise with the way that life has treated Korchnoi since his defection in the summer of 1976, but on reflection I think...