"One thing is certain: we cannot just go on as we are. And this, I am convinced, virtually the whole country now realizes," Mr Reginald Maudling wrote on Tuesday morning; and,...

The Rome talks between the Foreign and Finance Ministers of the European Ten have ended with much mutual congratulations, and with a French acceptance that the proposed European...

Palpitations over Tony Barber's appointment to chair the Conservative Advisory Committee on Policy — though without the title either of deputy leader of the party or Deputy...

A new life of the PM Hugh Macpherson There never was much doubt as to what would be the hard selling point of Andrew Roth's new biography of the Prime Minister*. In June a...

Heath's old promises Patrick Cosgrave It has long been a commonplace judgement on the present Government that it is lacking in the capacity for — even, perhaps, in the will to...

The bulldozing of Covent Garden Minette Marrin Che sera sera is the motto of the Russell family, who until the beginning of this century owned the Covent Garden area as part...

two women gold medallists. • • Like many men, I imagine, I was most excited to read in my newspaper recently that certain types of contraceptive pill have the additional effect...

The political and literary worlds were almost equally amazed last April to discover that a poet had been appointed to a job in the Conservative government. Both knew that...

Michael Bentley The Maurice Case edited by Nancy Maurice, with an appreciation by Major-General Sir Edward Spears (Leo Cooper £4.50). Supreme among Lloyd George's favourite...

Denis Donoghue Wild Excursions: The Life and Fiction of Laurence Sterne David Thomson (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £3.95) Sterne was born in Clonmel on November 24, 1713 and died...

Edward Norman Christ, Faith and History: Cain bridge Studies in Christology, edited by S. W. Sykes and J. P. Clayton (C.U.P. £4.20) One of the least convincing features of...

Bookbuyer The monstrous blast of the regiment of liberated women has not sounded to much effect in publishing. Most publishers categorically deny that there is any...

Many happy returns Evan Anthony It doesn't take long for any perceptive art reviewer to realise that he shouldn't take on the job expecting it to earn him the respect,...

A bad bit of timing up in Leeds has inconveniently synchronised the final of this year's International Piano Competition with the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday. It is bad...

• Theatre: Previews to note for those who will take a chance (at reduced prices) before the critics have their say are Brendan Behan's Richard's Cork Leg, with the Dubliners, at...

Puppets in love Christopher Hudson Ken Russell has made another film about a dynamically creative man who rebels against the conventions of his day, leads a passionate and...

Gold medal Rodney Milnes One of the great blessings of the Proms is that the BBC financial umbrella can cover the appearance of visiting orchestras without occasioning the...

Caught napping Kenneth Hurren When a reviewer, sitting in a theatre about his scrupulous duty, falls asleep and suspects he has missed something vital, the only thing to do...

Past indefinite Clive Gammon Three-quarters of an hour of golden oldies formed the first part of BBC1's If Britain Had Fallen, familiar snippets of film that we have all grown...

Benny Green In that masterly public relations job for the Athenian cause, Thucydides' Peioponnesian War or 'nice guys always finish last,' there occurs towards the end of Book...

On safari Carol Wright In recent years winter holidays have become more and more popular — especially the long-haul variety. With packaged holiday prices ready to fall any...

No. 720: No fool like ... Competitors are invited to put forward a list of the Six Greatest Fools in History (with brief reasons for their choice). All must be named persons of...

Sir: You are of course perfectly right in maintaining that Britain, which so irresponsibly left the Ugandan Asians unprotected, has a moral obligation to take them in. South...

Our people." If by phrases like these you hope to persuade the British people that something is true which is demonstrably untrue then you must take the native inhabitants of...

Sir: I have no great faith in political protests against the misdeeds of the Great Powers made from a safe distance. Mr Fanshaugh, the director of Eltham Laundry Supplies, SE9,...

Sir: I imagine that I am one of the relatively few subscribers of your journal in Iceland and that is even more reason for me feeling justified to ask you for your readers'...

get your facts right before writing on subjects for which you are obviously not qualified to comment. It is the techniques which British and German trawlers use which are...

Sir: Having just participated in the International Congress on the History of Medicine in London, I am in a position to make a remarkable diagnosis on one of your reporters. The...

Sir: May I, as a former prison visitor, hazard a suggestion as to the cause of the present trouble in the prisons? My view is that the prison warders feel (rightly in my...

From Mrs Elisabeth Cussons Sir: Now that one has calmed down from the shock of the Munich tragedy and the stock market is back to normal after its two-day depression, it is...

Sir: Referring to Skinflint's comment in his City Diary of September 9 I do hope that he is successful in building up a personal holding of Scottish Widows shares in view of...

From Dr John A. H. Wylie Sir: When one is both grateful and honoured as I am to see my offering figure in the august pages of The Spectator it may be thought unseemly to crave...

Sir: I have been asked to undertake some original work on the painter William Muller, 1812-1845, with a view to a monograph and a probable exhibition. I would be grateful for...

Sir: PC (Notebook, September 2) takes the Times to task for its " steadily-declining " level of accuracy in reporting. It began to slide downhill, he says, "when advertisements...

Sir: Reading your often equilibristic and obviously inevitable English with pleasure and curiousness I am (with my Cassell's) sometimes frustrated by newborn or mediaeval...

It's enough to make a girl weep. There I was the proud possessor of three conlecutive winners and a second from the last four selections, preparing to pay a long-overdue tribute...

Nicholas Davenport This is the season of the year when there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the financial world with very little to notch up at end of it — except, of...

I feel like a lifeguard jumping into a rip tide asking Christopher Chataway, who is believed to be doing what he can to reactivate the engineering industry, to have a word with...

I remember Nanny dying Nephew Wilde With Kinross the only share in my portfolio ' performing ' at the moment, I am inclined to rush out and put all my liquid assets into gold....

Buy Higgs ei Hill John Bull In some ways, I always feel guilty about selling short. After all, should fears be expressed that a group is going bankrupt, regardless of the...

Social welfare scapegoats? John Connell • The recent decision of West of Scotland staff with the Department of Health and Social Security to refuse to work overtime on...

Juvenile justice Jef Smith Earlier this summer Mr Anthony Marsh, chairman of the Lewisham Juvenile Court and twenty years a magistrate, resigned from his post to draw attenton...

Clothing grants Custos Custos has already described how to check entitlement for free school dinners. This week it's the turn of clothing grants. Ann wrote to Custos some...