he Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool ended with an eleven-minute standing ovation for the Prime Minister's speech. She affirmed that educational re- form was to be a...

CHINA'S UKRAINE W e do not often look at 'the roof of the world'. But the recent demonstrations against Chinese occupation in Tibet should cause us to look again. For what has...

THE IRA's policy is to advance with the ballot paper in one hand and an armalite rifle in the other. At present, the IRA is able to conduct the policy in local govern- ment...

In Charles Glass's article last week (`The mind of a hostage'), the caption under a photograph read, 'A haggard Charles Glass pictured in Damascus on his way home after his...

The reason why the Conservative Party needs lesbian street theatres NOEL MALCOLM J ournalists are the drama critics in the theatre of politics; it is, of course, for purely...

Lord Gowrie's guests in a pretty peppermint-green-and-white striped mar- quee in Wiltshire. This very jolly party preceded the private view of Sotheby's sale of Wilsford Manor,...

More power to the elbows of ordinary working people and their families AUBERON WAUGH A . disturbing news item appeared in Lord Stevens's reinvigorated Star news- paper last...

The Japanese have all the time — and money in the world to conquer London. But, as Dominic Lawson discovers, they must first survive culture-shock IT IS a scene familiar in...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard sees as self-defeating the liberal rejection of a Supreme Court nomination Washington AT MY golf course in rural Maryland, far from the political...

The coming abortion reform bill faces falsely based opposition, Mary Kenny argues IF David Alton's Private Member's Bill — to be presented in the House of Commons on 28 October...

Margaret's men: a profile of Lord Young, who would be chairman of the Conservative Party This is the first of a series of profiles of men whom the Prime Minister admires....

not to publish this interview with Tony Benn. . . until now TONY Berm's diaries are published soon. The following extract has been quoted in the serialisation in the Sunday...

The media: Paul Johnson argues that South Africa is right to fight inflammation WE ALL censor things we do not approve of but we do not call our actions cen- sorship. I...

The City's astronauts retrieve our exports from the black hole C H R ISTOPHER FI LDES S ilencing Denis Healey is beyond my powers, but I came closest to it when he was...

SOME companies are more privatised than others, and British Gas remains one of the others. Witness its brush with a merchant banker. The gas men wrote to him, asking to come and...

THE yuppie's farewell to serious money? Shudders run through a thousand Gucci wallets as Salomon Brothers confirm that, for them, bond dealing is no longer the most fun they can...

PROGRESS report on the new scenic tramline, or Docklands Light Railway: its progress is fitful. The trams, like the rest of us, seem to be sensitive to the weather, and the...

CHANGE and action, I was saying last week, must be on their way to the Stock Exchange's overloaded settlement systems — unable to cope with the new sharehol- ders conjured up in...

Sir: Tom Pocock's article 'Demise of Fleet Street' (12 September) was outstanding. However, need he be so worried? Covent Garden is still the name for fruit and veg; others like...

Sir: Perhaps I may make two observations about your comments on Mr Bryan Gould's ideas (Leading article, 3 October). The argument in favour of giving shares in their companies...

Sir: Owing to absence on holiday I have only just seen Graham Greene's letter in your 29 August issue in which he questions the statement that in Nicaragua 'education is now...

Sir: Dr Anthony Daniels (`Too dependent on welfare?', 3 October) reports on filthy housing estates inhabited by people 'slat- ternly beyond belief, who seem to become more...

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...

Sir, If follies 'must lie in the eye of the beholder', then much depends on the quality of that eye (and mind) when presenting them to the public. Mr Shomro- ni (Letters, 10...

A Miss Benson complained to the Press Coun- cil about an article by Richard West ('Time to free Mandela', 2 May). This was its adjudication: Richard West's article in The...

Sir: A Westminster friend visited Charter- house to play First XI cricket. In later life he says that the visit made him realise, for the first time, that he was a snob. John...

How their food lost its edge Digby Anderson MY first memories of eating in France are of a picnic in 1957, by a lake near Montreuil at the back of Le Touquet. It was a proper...

In the pink for St Hubert James Knox I thought I'd wear my rat-catcher and Monsignor Gilbey's butcher boots.' 'I hardly think that's suitable for a saint's day. No, it really...

Why I love Paris Diana Mosley THE city is divided into 20 arrondisse- ments, each with its town hall, of which the first eight, the centre of the shell, all contain marvels....

Les taureaux et les Rosbifs Claude Sarraute QU'EST-ce qu'ils ont apres nous, les British? us arretent pas de nous debiner, de nous taper dessus, de nous griffer, de nous...

Killing the self he loved John Lahr OSCAR WILDE by Richard Ellmann Hamish Hamilton, £15 0 scar Wilde was famous before he had achieved anything. This in itself makes him our...

Anita Brookner A SOUTHERN FAMILY by Gail Godwin Heinemann, 171.95 T -. hirteen years ago Gail Godwin wrote an extraordinarily capacious and sym- pathetic novel entitled The...

David Wright MAKERS OF THE NEW: THE REVOLUTION IN LITERATURE, 1912-1939 by Julian Symons Deutsch, £12.95 GENIUSES TOGETHER: AMERICAN WRITERS IN PARIS IN THE 1920s by Humphrey...

Max Egremont BROKEN BLOOD by Simon Blow Faber, £14.95 L ast year Lord Glenconner gave a party for his 60th birthday. The celebra- tions took the form of a cruise through the...

Anita Desai FAMILIAR WARS by Julietta Harvey Michael Joseph, £10.95 T he experience of exile gives rise to a particular kind of poetry. Its origins lie in the small countries...

Non-fiction: The History of the Countryside by Oliver Rackham, Dent, £8.95 The Second Oldest Profession by Phillip Knightley, Pan, £3.50 Coasting by Jonathan Raban, Picador,...

Mary Clive VICTORIAN DELIGHTS by John Hadfield Herbert Press, £12.95 H ere comes another picture-book, this one devoted to some of the minor arts of the last century. My...

Nigel Short CHILD OF CHANGE by Garry Kasparov with Donald Trelford Hutchinson, £14.95 M any a player who has become World Champion and has scaled the Mount Olympus of chess,...

Theatre More placebo than purge Christopher Edwards The Hypochondriac (Lyric Hammersmith) I n a quiet week, the prospect of Tom Courtenay playing the lead in a Moliere...

Josquin's magic Peter Phillips E r me, 30 September was a day of redheads and blackheads. It started early in the morning with Brian Redhead on the Today programme making a...

Angel Heart ('18', Leicester Square) On the down escalator Hilary Mantel A lan Parker's new film starts off as one thing and turns into another; though it is by no means...

The Art of German Drawing V (Goethe-Institut, till 12 December) Saracen Heads: Peter Howson (Angela Flowers, till 31 October) Edited view Giles Auty W andering with an...

A song in your ear Marcus Berkmann U p to the minute as always, I have just bought my first Walkman, a mere six or seven years after everyone else. Taking it on holiday to the...

Showing off Ursula Buchan I n my own small way I contributed towards reversing a long-established trend this season: on Bank Holiday Monday, I entered nine pickling shallots...

Monsters and machines Wendy Cope Q uite a few people are convinced that it exists and many more would like it to. Some apparently sane individuals claim to have seen it with...

Ordeal by newspaper Taki am by now thoroughly convinced that going to bed early, laying off the booze and tobacco, and in general taking care of oneself can seriously damage...

Good for a laugh Jeffrey Bernard Anyway, I am risking the bet because I believe Loch Nessie to be a case of public wishful thinking. After all, a monster would make good...

Stage fright Alice Thomas Ellis A s Someone remarked yesterday, 'It is quite easy to be natural, but fearfully difficult to pretend to be natural.' This was apropos of home...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value 113.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first...

What'll Be the Title? Jaspistos I N Competition No. 1493 you were asked for a poem inspired by Justin Richardson's one with the above title. By kind permission of Punch, I...

Barbs in Seville Raymond Keene 0 n Monday in Seville Kasparov and Karpov commenced — with a draw in 30 moves — their second century of games to determine supremacy in world...

in circuit, and identifies correct radial definitions, viz. 1 waste, 8 pale, 12 pain, 15 sheer, 18 sunny, 24 band, 28 course, 29 see, 36 draught, 39 beaches. Winners: Mrs M. B....

You are invtied to transpose a story in the Old Testament into a verse fable complete with moral (maximum 16 lines). Entries to 'Competition No. 1496' by 30 October.

Manzara ONE of the things I've learnt from writing this column is that you cannot begin to tell what a restaurant will be like from the way it looks. If you were walking past...

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