`VERY WELL, ALONE' A British ferry, the Herald of Free Enterprise, which had just left Zeebrugge for Dover, capsized and sank in shallow water a mile off shore, with the loss of...

DECENT AND INDECENT T he Government's anti-Aids campaign is falsely based. As Auberon Waugh pointed out in his column last week and Mr Norman Fowler now admits, existing...

NOT the least of the odd things about the letter from Miss Patricia Hewitt, Mr Kin- flock's press secretary, to Mr Frank Dob- son, the pro-Kinnock London MP, was that it...

Heseltine rejects a short dash to freedom FERD INAND MO UNT t may be recalled that Mr Francis Pym, the last of the Old Wets to publish an alternative credo, advanced upon the...

T here were the usual complaints at Truro from Labour and Alliance politi- cians about 'cuts in services'. Only one, as far as I know, has seen — and said — that Mrs Margaret...

Trials and tribulations of a Top Writer AUBERON WAUGH I s any party fit to govern whose deputy leader refuses to have lunch with Mr Peter Jenkins? Why did other newspapers...

Mr Reagan's embarrassments over Irangate have strengthened the hand of Congress in its two-century old struggle for power against the President. By Nicholas von Hoffman The...

Peter Fabricius on the injection of a new element into the South African elections Cape Town 'FOREIGN critics overjoyed at Worrall campaign,' screamed the headlines the other...

Stan Gebler Davies reports on the aftermath of the ferry disaster Zeebrugge A DISASTER involving the death of large numbers of human beings is inevitably a messy business and...

Andrew Gimson discovers why Billericay Tories have stood by their MP A REPORT from Scotland Yard's Serious Crimes Squad is shortly to be delivered to Sir Thomas Hetherington,...

Alexander Norman explains why something is rotten in the state of the army LORD Morpeth may be eccentric. He admits to being a Liberal. It is tempting therefore to dismiss his...

Simon Blow remembers the remarkable way of life of an English fantasist `YOU promise you won't ever forget me when I'm gone,' Stephen Tennant said to me in December. Even then...

The media: Paul Johnson welcomes the new director-general and hopes for the best THE decision not to transmit as planned the `Secret Society' series is the first sign that a...

Nigel Lawson's Budget for the hustings JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE T uesday's the day that matters. According to Andrew Gimson, writing in this journal a fortnight back, Budget Day is...

I HATE to spoil a good party, but the stone-cold certain bet of the Budget speech is that Mr Lawson will congratulate himself on having created a nation of shareholders. He...

HOPES of a wider reform of capital gains tax are bubbling up, as so often at Budget time. They carry threats with them. I have long argued that a Chancellor wishing to stop a...

IS Nigel Lawson the revenue-raiser taking his cue from a seldom-praised Chancellor, Winston Churchill? In one of his Budget speeches in the 1920s, Churchill paused to drink from...

A CLASS of owners long since punished are those who marry one another. Hus- band and wife can opt to be taxed jointly or separately — but only on their earned incomes....

The secret of a popular Budget collect more tax CHRISTOPHER FILDES W ith one bound Nigel is free. See him saunter towards his Budget, pockets jing- ling, while an approving...

ONE proven form of direct ownership was penalised last month. Profit-sharing co- operatives like the John Lewis Partnership were told that distributions of profit from their...

TT Set by Caroline Moore he first three winners of the eight-week Spectator Twin-Town Treasure Hunt will receive outstanding prizes. The first prize has been presented by...

Sir: Paul Johnson (The press, 7 March) suggests that the circulation of the Inde- pendent is 'not much over 250,000. It will soon, I suspect, be looking for more cash and may...

Sir: With the greatest respect to A. N. Wilson (Letters, 7 March), his conclusions do not follow from his premises. It may be true that Our Saviour forbad divorce; it is no...

Sir: I congratulate Alexandra Artley on an excellent article on what has been identi- fied in America as post-abortion syn- drome. I have recently accompanied Olivia Gans, the...

Sir: Since you attributed to my department the honour of making Mr Kinnock what he is today (Leading article, 28 February), 1 must defend him from that charge. He belongs, you...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - Save 15% on the Cover Price! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for £ (Equivalent SUS & Eurocheques accepted) RATES 12...

Not Ajax but Ulysses J. Enoch Powell RAB: THE LIFE OF R. A. BUTLER by Anthony Howard M ollie and I have been talking', remarked the Master of Trinity to my wife, sitting beside...

William Deedes BALDWIN by Roy Jenkins Collins, £12.95 tanley Baldwin has attracted many biographers. The earliest one on my shelves is Arthur Bryant, whose tribute was...

a kidnapped prime minister Caroline Moorehead THE MORO AFFAIR AND THE MYSTERY OF MAJORANA by Leonardo Sciascia Carcanet, f9.95 V ery soon after the body of Aldo Moro was...

Rupert Christiansen KOBBE'S COMPLETE OPERA BOOK edited by the Earl of Harewood Bodley Head, f30 T he easiest way to convince oneself that opera is a silly business is to read a...

John Bayley PRESENCES: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by P. J. Kavanagh Chatto & Windus, T here are poets in any age who can give the impression of talk; of poems that are a sort of...

Shirley Robin Letwin PHILOSOPHERS AND PAMPHLETEERS: POLITICAL THEORISTS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT by Maurice Cranston OUP, £12.95 • T he Enlightenment that preceded the French...

Francis King THE ENIGMA OF ARRIVAL by V.S. Naipaul Viking, f10.95 A lthough the blurb describes this work as a novel, mountainous waves of fact constantly burst into the...

Architecture Misunderstood modernism? Gavin Stamp Le Corbusier: Architect of the Century (Hayward, till 7 June) T he only building ever erected in Brit- ain by...

Ariadne auf Naxos (Covent Garden) Carry on Ariadne Rodney Milnes A mong the many benefits of approaching senility is the ability to con- sign really unpleasant experiences to...

Decadence (Wyndhams) Performance artist Christopher Edwards T his is a revival of Steven Berkoffs play for two actors first seen in 19131. - As well as writing the piece,...

Patrick Heron: Jo Grimond Portraits and Garden Gouaches (Waddington till 28 March) Victor Newsome (Marlborough Fine Art till 28 March) Unfamiliar ground Giles Auty . small...

STUDENTS ARE TWICE AS LIKELY TO ENJOY THE SPECTATOR AT LESS THAN HALF-PRICE More stimulating than any lecture, funnier than the set books, The Spectator should be required...

Gothic ('18', selected cinemas) Naked horror Zenga Longmore I n the eerie recesses of the Villa Diodati, Mary Shelley, Shelley himself and Byron sit by a crackling log fire....

The other Gorbachev Noel Malcolm R adio 4's Feedback programme has improved immeasurably ever since it was taken over by Christopher Dunkley of the Financial Times. All the...

Feminism and fiddles Wendy Cope I think the first Country and Western song I ever learned must have been 'A Four-Legged Friend'. If I remember right- ly, it was sung by Roy...

• Bottle on the slopes Taki Gstaad r eadread somewhere that Swissair was the third best airline in the world. Not surpri- singly, I disagree. If the Swiss national . airline...

Blue flu news Alice Thomas Ellis The sickening thing is it's all my own fault. Wandering along a country lane in the rain and the hail and the sleet as Christmas receded, I...

Hampstead kid Jeffrey Bernard caught up with him. Yes, some fighters are given strange nicknames by their managers and the press. In 1956 I feigned flu and took the night off...

come-down for them to dwindle into egg plant. These gorgeous vegetables seem particularly suitable for this season, clothed as they are in their splendid lenten vestments, so I...

In last week's Spectator Wine Club the price of Coteaux de Tricastin 1985 was only £39.23 for 12 bottles, not £49.23 as printed. Closing date for orders is 8 April.

*: (v- Business could do better Digby Anderson THE following document has come into InY possession and is published here in the public interest. Confidential memorandum to...

The German approach Not enough children Mary Kenny 13 ritish schoolteachers often compare themselves unfavourably with their con- tinental counterparts. Look at the remun-...

An end to selection James Bowman M uch has been written about the new centralism in the Government's approach to education under Mr Baker. Together with the new examinations...

Aide-mernoire Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1462 you were in- vited to supply a mnemonic poem to help the reader remember some present-day related names or facts. Memory...

Short's circuit Raymond Keene N igel Short is in danger of being referred to the Monopolies Commission. In spite of other important happenings, such as the Karpov v. Sokolov...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £13.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first...

T HIVE K 0 E 1 ROUNDMA Ul P L IGI T LY 0. 2 1. A W A G E N T 0NIOLLIRMHOT1110 OIRIVIAS I RUIVEREST _ 2 &EALTIME & Rn H SINIATIURERN. E AGUE H A .11. N S s & A A NIASILL 'B I R...

You are invited to write a poem of 10 or 12 lines in tlankish' verse in which the first line consists of four words of one, two, three and four syllables in that order, the next...