L s aipr try A small price to pay* ;* 4 4 0 v 4 +*^F * 44*. 04 <;.~- The past 20 years have ostensibly been an age of social liberalisation in this country. Manners and morals...

Political commentary Privatisers on parade Ferdinand Mount For one reading of the Conservative Party's mood towards the end of Mrs Thatcher's first session, you needed to...

Notebook Penguins the left-wingish paperback publishers, are just about to launch a new book, The M14eaning of Conservatism, by the very right-wing - not to say, reactionary -...

Another voice Those in peril on the sea Auberon Waugh Leucate Plage, Aude Until last summer, when I had to stay in England to attend upon Mr Jeremy Thorpe, I had visited...

What kind of man is Carter? Henry Fairlie Washington A few minutes before these words are being Written, President Carter won the first crucial vote in the Democratic...

An end to smoke-filled rooms George Gale New York Senator Edward Kennedy is the last of the big ranters. That much is sure. Whether, with the Democratic convention, we have...

Miami in the melting pot Richard West Miami On the day I arrived here, a riot broke out in the negro suburbs of Liberty City, where Many people were killed in May of this...

Fighting the public service Jo Grimond However it came about, the rise in salary Which many civil servants will get this year amounts to over 20 per cent. Part of it may have...

The most selfish game Wilfred De'Ath Byfleet golf course. A very fine summer afternoon at the height of the close season. The tall, grey-haired man walking across towards me...

The lord is with us Michael Ivens JIftil last week I had never been inside one s3f ier Majesty's prisons. A criminal omist ° You might say, for someone who used be on the...

The case for Reagan Sir: I have just finished Mr Waugh's article entitled 'The case for Reagan' (2 August). I am only 15 and am therefore not too clear on the rules and laws...

Letters I The Simpson affair Sir: Your reviewer, Mr Forbes, might have been good enough to read my book The Duchess of' Windsor, rather than quote a fellow journalist (2...

Sir: I find Henry Fairlie's comments on Carter in his recent articles to be very perceptive and Auberon Waugh's article on Reagan and Carter extremely unperceptive (2 August)....

Sir: I enjoy many aspects of your publica- tion, not least the unfashionable views so often propounded. I buy the Spectator for its originality of thought and variety of...

After the Olympics Sir: We were delighted to read Simon Courtauld's Notebook of 26 July in which he described so clearly the whole Olympic hypocrisy. I will make every effort...

Kenneth Tynan Sir: Back in 1950 my whole life was lit up by a long enthusiastic letter from Ken Tynan about a verse drama of mine. He said that it was hopeless as a play but...

Sir: Many thanks for Mr Auberon Wau2h's article in your issue of 2 August. It lifted the fog of malice and irrational prejudice generated by Messrs Fairlie and von Hoffman. Mr...

The case for Fairlie Sir: I have exceedingly admired the writings of Henry Fairlie for 30 years. I am glad that he still can recognise the abundant wisdom of John Midgley (2...

Books The ecstasy and the agony Nicolas Walter Everyday Ecstasy Marqhanita Laski (Thames8& Hudson £8.95) Moksha Aldous Huxley (Chatto & Windus £1 2.50o A Private Battle...

Prussian days John Keegan The Northern Crusades: The ',tic apd the Catholic Frontier 1100-1525 Erg Christiansen (Macmillan £12.50) Lunching a year or two ago in the Kasill...

Property speculations Anthony Quinton A Discourse on Property: John Locke and his adversaries James Tully (Cam- bridge £10.50) Our rude forefathers, if they happened to...

'Enemy aliens' Stephen Koss A Bespattered Page Ronald Stent (Deutsch £7.95) Collar the Lot! Peter and Leni Gillman (Quartet £8.95) Forty years on, the subject of wartime...

Transformed Francis King Other People's Worlds William Trevor (Bodley Head £5.95) One of the manifestations of sicker genius, increasingly common in his later years, was to...

Duffy Dan Kavanagh (Cape £4.95) Conviction Mark Daniel (Michael Joseph £5.95) The Fate of O'Louqhlin Dudley McCarthy (Macdonald £6.95) The Sound of the Gora Ann Harries...

Art Out of steam John McEwen Summer exhibitions tend to be throwaway affairs. Gallery stock is taken out of storage and gallery owners head for holiday oblivion with the rest...

Arts Buttonholed by Beckett Bryan Robertson Endgame and Krapp's Last Tape (Arts) The San Quentin Drama Workshop productions of Samuel Beckett's Endgame and Krapp's Last...

Opera Fi neish Rodney Milnes Don Carlos (Savonlinna Festival) One of the most interesting points about the revival of last year's new Don Carlos was that the Russian bass...

Cinema Flying high Peter Ackroyd Airplane! ('A' selected cinemas) It all seems so long ago now: high-rise office blocks were engulfed in flame, large planes fell out of the...

High life Running wild Taki To a Greek, or anyone familiar with the Hellenic language of modern times, the name Scattolini elicits the same kind of admiration one would feel...

Television Overrated Richard Ingrams The Editors, with its new master of ceremonies, the bumbling and inept Simon Jenkins. managed a breakthrough this week by mounting a...

Postscript Hedging Patrick Marnham The sun came out recently for four days of sweltering heat after six weeks of cold and rain. This was virtually bound to happen since on...

Low life Awayday Jeffrey Bernard The recent price increases on British Rail restaurant cars prompted me to try their fare the other day and leave my eggs unbroken at home. I...

Music and dance - ?M Gillian Widdicompe Every director of the Edinburgh Festival Irust long for a year when a high pound hits the normal tourist trade, and wet weather turns...

Edinburgh 1 980 17 AUGUST - 6 SEPTEMBER The problem of Festival dramT a Allan Massie Thle drama will be a flop; at least a disappointment. It always is. They never get it...

Words, words Tom Durward You can't keep a writer away from the Word. A Writer's Conference (Assembly Rooms. George Street, 26-30 August, 10.30 daily) promises a Noah's Flood...