No risk of fallout the results of two by-elections: Mrs Eli- zabeth Shields became the first woman Liberal MP for 35 years when she over- turned a 12,000 majority in Ryedale,...

treaty in the American Senate reveals the rich ambiguities of the word `terrorism'. Democratic Senators who backed Mr Reagan's Libyan adventure are much queasier about anything...

THE BIFFEN BAROMETER T here are certain politicians who are assured of a good press. Mr John Biffen is a Prime example, and this fact has to be recognised before the...

The Tories in search of an eanum leader FERDINAND MOUNT A nd what exactly, the returning traveller is asked, is it that they are so worried about up there? Well, schools and...

W hen I heard of Lord Shinwell's death last week, a recollection struck me. I turned up some notes I made after dining alone with Lord Montgomery in April 1948. I don't often...

Further gloomy thoughts on the city of Liverpool AUBERON WAUGH Unfortunately, the match had not been started for more than three minutes when I fell into a deep sleep and...

Christopher Booker calls for an answer to why, as Nikolai Tolstoy's new book reveals, thousands of Cossacks were sent to their deaths by the British AS THE Waldheim affair has...

Christopher Bobinski reports on how Russia's neighbour feels about Chernobyl Warsaw HANDLING Soviet sensibilities in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident has been quite as...

Nicholas von Hoffman watches American punters putting their money on the stock market boom And all this out of Change-Alley? Every shilling, Sir, all out of stocks, tuts,...

Richard West reports on a strange alliance of Muslim and Christian Salamanca AS SPAIN comes up to a general election, also the 50th anniversary of the civil war, it appears...

Donald Trelford, editor of the Observer, defends agreeing to follow union ultimatums A CURIOUS thing about editing is that weeks, months, can go by without major alarms or...

Mrs Thatcher's time is up as an economic strategist If Heseltine can persuade a sizeable section of his Tory colleagues that he has a new formula to reduce unemployment, and...

that editors and governments should co-operate to protect national security DURING the recent crisis with Libya, a good deal of classified information about the United States'...

Miss Lindo's admirable project, com - municated on Monday last to a meeting of ladies and gentlemen, held at the rooms of the 'Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals',...

The message to the Government from the grassroots JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE his reduction from 30 to 29 per cent • • . represents the first cut in the basic rate of income tax since...

Sir: I could not believe my eyes when there fluttered from my Spectator a promotional folder for Marxism Today. Your magazine — occasional lapses apart — presents a perceptive...

Sir: In answer to your Diary note (10 May) about seating arrangements at the Periodical Publishers Association's annual editorial awards dinner, may I point out that the reason...

Sir: Alan Watkins's warning (Diary, 3 May) to be suspicious of clergymen with mous - taches because 'they are usually unba - lanced evangelicals' reminds me of the way I was...

Sir: Pot and kettle department: Sheila Hutchins (Letters, 10 May) takes the otherwise excellent Jennifer Paterson cor- rectly to task on the latter's recipe for Cockaleekie. But...

Sir: The Trustees responsible for the Burns Monument, Burns Cottage and the Museum at Alloway, Ayrshire, are fortun- ate in having the Spectator in eight volumes, published in...

Sir: I do not wish to comment on Paul Johnson's account (9 May) of the printing unions' refusal to allow the Observer to print a book review by me or to let its readers know...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for £ (Equivalent $US & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months 6 Months UK/Eire D £41.00 El...

A maverick for her? Colin Welch THEY SAY THE LION: BRITAIN'S LEGACY TO THE ARABS A PERSONAL MEMOIR by Anthony Parsons F or Sir Anthony Parsons in 1965 `decol- onisation had...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft JAN CHRISTIAN SMUTS: THE CONSCIENCE OF A SOUTH AFRICAN by Kenneth Ingham Weidenfeld & Nicolson, f14.95 H ow did Smuts get away with it? His career can be...

Richard Shone BRITISH ART SINCE 1900 by Frances Spalding Thames & Hudson, f10.50 T his is the first general survey of 20th-century British art to have been pub- lished here...

Frances Donaldson RAT WEEK by Osbert Sitwell Michael Joseph, f7.95 R at Week is the name of a poem by Osbert Sitwell written at the time that Edward VIII left his throne to...

It was like clear water or like clean air: No particular taste to it, no odour, no colour, nowhere anything put up in front or in back of it, so you saw clean through it and...

Peter Levi TOO DIRTY FOR THE WINDMILL: A MEMOIR OF CARYL BRAHMS by Caryl Brahms and Ned Sherrin Constable, £12.95 C aryl Brahms was my closest cousin and favourite relation,...

Duncan Fallowell HERBERT VON KARAJAN by Roger Vaughan Weidenfeld & Nicolson, f12.95 T his is an informal look at Karajan written in a manner which used to be called new...

Winter's tales Dance Julie Kavanagh The Snow Queen (Birmingham Hippodrome) Le Baiser de la fee (Royal Opera House) T wo world premieres within a fort- night, of ballets based...

Mass (Bernstein Festival, Guildhall School) Aida (New Sussex Opera, Brighton Festival) Massive hype Rodney Milnes T he big question is, why a Bernstein Festival? What has the...

Antonio Garcia Lopez (Marlborough Fine Art till 31 May) Madrid Realist Giles Auty F or me, two events, in their different ways, have brightened the grey inclemency of the...

The Two Noble Kinsmen (Swan, Stratford) Troilus and Cressida (Barbican) Henry IV Part 1 (Pentameters) Friends and foes Christopher Edwards T he RSC celebrated the opening of...

Love Letters (`18', selected cinemas) Voices from the past Peter Ackroyd W hen Jamie Lee Curtis wakes up in a Roger Corman film, one can generally expect the worst: Miss...

Themes and variations Ursula Buchan I f there is a discernible trend in garden- ing in the late 20th century it does not lie in the direction of innovative garden design but...

Cannon fodder P. P. McGuinness I Cannes It has already been suggested that the Cannes Film Festival ought this year to be renamed the Cannon Film Festival. Th e orgy of...

Indoors and out Peter Levi S nooker is still very popular at the moment, perhaps people bet on it, and you can follow it on television more easily than football, let alone the...

LESS THAN HALF-PRICE More stimulating than any lecture, funnier than the set books, The Spectator should be required reading for every student. With Student Subscriptions...

Worlds apart Taki Norman's dinners are legendary, and for good reason. He is, afer all, considered by many the numero uno of American letters, and like most numero unos of...

Flights of fancy Jeffrey Bernard I was trying to drink a cup of tea in ° 131 bath this morning and I dropped it in th e water. I didn't get out at once but lay there, in the...

Ash, no sackcloth Alice Thomas Ellis T he telephone continues to baffle me. I came home the other day to find a message from Maureen. She had been dusting the drawing room...

\AN' Roman pleasures HOT news on the restaurant scene in Rome now is the new McDonald's, which has done more to damage Italo-American relations than have any of the recent...

To enable competitors to economise on postage, entries for one or more week s of the competition and crossword may be posted together under one cover, addressed 'Competition...

T he British Chess Magazine has a reputation for the publication of artistic books, rather than sure-fire commercial successes. Such were Coles's anthology of Sultan Khan's...

I n Competition No. 1420 you were in- vited to supply extracts from the diary either of a Sloane Ranger or a Young Fogey. Though 'Sloane Ranger' is a compara- tively new-minted...

In the rarefied society of 11th-century Japan civil servants and ministers some- times used to couch their communications in poetic form. You are invited to provide a modern...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words `Chambers Dictionary' above) will be awarded for the first...

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