It is not necessary to have supported the AmeriaanAfkg.t irj , Vietnam — nor now to acitbc6t1„arfnecr iniervention in Angola either by tliJnited States or one or more of her...

Sir: The British and Irish Governments may feel quite satisfied with the security situation in Northern Ireland now, and particularly in South Armagh, with their hot-line...

From Dr T. D. M. Martin Sir: How odd of the reviewer of The Victorian Public School (December 27) to take Kipling's lines • • Then ye contented your souls With the flannelled...

Sir: N 1 9 , ancy Mum, in her comprehensive review of c. as far as women were concerned, denies that the Inte rnational women's year' was after all a non!vent, and proceeded to...

Sir: Richard West states (in his article on Ireland) that eighty-eight executions were carried out by the wartime Irish government. Professor Lyons (himself citing T. P....

Sir: I was encouraged to read that Mr Patrick Cosgrave is facing up squarely to the uncomfortable problems brought about by the immigration policies of successive governments...

Sir: Mr Witcombe's letter (December 27) is none the less interesting for failing to touch upon the subject of my letter which you kindly published in your December 13 issue,...

From Mrs M. E. Smith Sir: Dr Rhodes Boyson in his article 'Passing the buck' (January 3) pointed out that the influence of school governors in spheres other than appointments is...

Sir: No doubt it is Scrooge-like and pompous to complain of inaccuracy in a question in your Christmas Quiz (December 27). Nevertheless, Vaughan Williams did not say that Mahler...

Patrick Cosgrave The morale of a political party is a curious, evanescent, mercurial thing: for no very tangible reason it takes sudden leaps up and down. I remember, some...

Li A Minister for London. This is not a new suggestion but it remains a good one and has lately been gaining ground. Nor is that surprising, as London becomes ever more...

David Napley The Police Bill now before Parliament aims to improve the procedure for making complaints against police officers. This, of course, fully accords with modern...

Stuart Reid The new Archbishop of Westminster, who is likely to be named by the Pope later this month, Will inherit a church that is going through its worst crisis since the...

Victor Evelyn It is an unusual spectacle to see the chairman of a nationalised industry rushing into print twice in three weeks — in letters first to the Sunday Times (November...

Richard West Dublin Last summer in Ireland there was a plague of lady-birds, which are feared here as they are in England ()four house is on fire') and in Germany where they...

Out of Molehills Jim Higgins It is an interesting fact that. most people of my acquaintance do not know the name of the new head of British Leyland; they do, however, know...

Winter light Denis Wood While the days are still slow to lengthen, winter &rkn . ess in the country brings to my mind the • ginning of The Return of the Native in which, a...

Bangers Bernard Dixon 'l op prize for the daftest piece of quasi-scientific advice offered recently must go to the British Medical Journal which, just before Christmas, chose...

Kissinger: the grim truth Auberon Waugh From time to time I receive letters, pamphlets and other material through the post from a gentleman whom I think I have never met, but...

Richard Cobb The Making of a Saint: the Tragi-comedy of J ean - Jacques Rousseau J. H. Huizinga (Ha mish Hamilton E7.95) • • . There is only one thing that might Perhaps be...

Robert Skidelsky The Last Bunker; A Report on White South Africa Today Guy Arnold (Quartet Books E5.50) The Portuguese military uprising of Aril 1974 changed the balance of...

Harriet Waugh P eers and Plebs Madeleine Bingham (George Allen and Unwin £5.50) Class is one of the safest commercial publishing Prospects. Everybody belongs to. a class, and...

Francis King Between Me and Life Meryle Secrest (Macdonald and Jane's £7.50) Although she was undoubtedly one of the finest women painters of the twentieth century — a little...

°an Robinson Russian Studies of China E. Stuart Kirby ( Macmillan £10.00) T he grievances of the Chinese against USSR are not hard to understand. In all the murky st ory of the...

New thrills Patrick Cosgrave Some years ago some bright young publishers hit on a jolly wheeze: rather than publish before Christmas titles that might get lost in the huge...

Old grouch Benny Green The Marx Brothers Scrapbook Groucho Marx and Richard Anobile (Star Books 75p) Memoirs of a Mangy Lover Groucho Marx (Manor Books 65p) There is no reason...

Publishers have never had much time for television as an advertising medium for booksIn the first place, most of them can't afford it. In the second, there are few titles likely...

John McEwen 'The Golden Age of Spanish Painting' (Royal Academy till March 14) is a disappointment. Apart from the Goya exhibition of 1964 this is the first substantial show of...

Mini-America Kenneth Hurren The Hot L Baltimore by Lanford Wilson (Tower, Canonbury) The Browning Version by Terence Rattigan, and Carol's Christmas by Frank Marcus (Kings...

Expirations 'Cinema The Counsellor Director: Alberto De Martino Stars: Martin Balsam, Tomas Milian 'X' Warner West End 1(110 mins) Rancho Deluxe Director: Frank Perry. Stars:...

Nicholas Davenport hi. boom times — no one can say that the City is dull or boring when nearly every market . booming except gold — a money column largely writes itself. Last...

How right we have been to be sceptical of statistics. Remember all those jokes about blind reliance on figures? The way to reduce the chances of someone planting a bomb on your...

Mixed economy problems Benard Hollowood "This radioactive waste that we're importing from Japan, Germany and other countries," said Cartwright. "Presumably we're processing it...

No. 894: Scots wha hae Set by M. K. Cheeseman: Burns Night this year b y well be an occasion . for further outbursts ,I 3 ) , the Scottish Nationalists. A pity the poet h...

Charles Seaton reports: Competitors were a sked for an extract from the sort of school Prospectus that might be expected if the here. Ed ucation Voucher system were ever adopted...