The most remarkable moment in Mr Healey's Budget speech was when he announced, after he had been on his feet for nearly two hours, that he was going to give a general judgment...

The suggestion that the Government is about to unveil a five-year plan to make the country less dependent on imports by growing more food is welcome — though surprising, given...

For all that his forthrightness has almost certainly earned him a heavy rebuke from his political masters, General Sir Frank King, General Officer Commanding in Northern...

It is probably too much to hope that Arab governments will have the sense to see for themselves the implications of the most recent clash in Beirut between the indigenous...

Sir: It seems incredible that a British Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, like the offical Conservative and Liberal parties, proposes to make us pay, indefinitively,...

Sir: Your two Devizes correspondents (April 3) would have Her Majesty, as Head of the Church of England, order a day of prayer in order to seek divine guidance in the momentous...

Sir: Mr Patrick Cormack's article (March 29) laments the sad state of the English country houses. He says, "It is in them and in our churches that we come closest to the soul...

Sir: Mr Patrick Cormack, MP, expresses. the hope in his article "Heritage in Danger" (March 29) "that whoever is caught by the Capital Transfer Tax and the Wealth Tax, it is not...

From Sir Frederic Bennett, MP Sir: Hugh Trevor-Roper (March 15) has done a real service to the cause of maintaining good community relations here and in regard to our national...

Sir: Martin Sullivan compares the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus with that for the Moorgate train crash (April 5). But the documents about the latter were written within...

Sir: Spectator's Notebook (April 5) in trying to establish that women are following Mrs Thatcher into influential jobs missed the point. There are two ladies standing for the...

Sir: Congratulations on your first Peregrinations. It read very well and it is clear that I am going to have to keep a sharp eye out. Of course, if it gets too good I shall go...

From Mrs George Orwell Sir: In your paragraph about the late Cyril Connolly, 'Dying beyond his means' (April 12) you correctly say an appeal is being sent round to raise money...

On underestimating Harold Patrick Cosgrave Since the last parliamentary vote on the EEC the press, the politicians and miscellaneous others have been happy playing at their...

It went unremarked that the Conservative Party had it in their power to force the Prime Minister to go to the country by calling a General Election on the historic vote on the...

Lord Bloggs, through years of party strife, Had earned his barony for life And, sometimes, was inclined to sneer At each hereditary peer; For what had any of them done, Except...

Whatever happened to former Liberal pink elephant Christopher Mayhew? I got up very early one morning (9.30 am) last week and found him chairing an international conference of...

Last night we received a Piece of Ill News at the Club, which very sensibly affected every one of us. I question not but that my Readers themselves will be troubled at the...

There is balance and balance, as the admirable Allan Hargreaves — of the London commercial station, Capital Radio — has been demonstrating to the IBA. Learning that he was to do...

British publishers are understandably irked by the American government's attempts to dismantle the British Market Agreement by means of its recent Anti-trust suit (this column,...

Twenty questions for believers Francis Carr Next Wednesday, April 23, St George's Day, is the official birthday of William Shakespeare, acknowledged to be the greatest figure...

Answering the sceptical A. L. Rowse Most of the nonsense written about Shakespeare comes from people who know little or nothing of Shakespeare's Age, or of the life and...

How common a market? Victor Selwyn After the uncertainties of the past thirty years, one can hardly be surprised if a CBI poll among British industry shows a vote for the...

Capful Bulging with beef • Should give relief; Flooded with wine Sounds good and fine; Engulfed by eggs Some bounty begs A land replete With lots to eat; Or so I thought This...

Disputes within disputes David W. Wragg It is simply a statement of the obvious to say that an island nation is dependent on its ports for economic survival. No doubt the poor...

The moral appeal Patricia Hodgson Situation vacant, wanted: a natural governing party to fill the vacuum existing in British politics since 1963. Several applicants have, of...

Brian Inglis "What makes us tick?" the Advertising Standards Authority asks in a full page advertisement, replying to recent criticisms. Mysteriously, most of the page is...

Simon Raven on growing up Hardy This new biography*, as its title declares, deals with Thomas Hardy's youth. The bulk of it is a blow by blow account of his struggles and his...

Frank Morley Eliot Stephen Spender (Fontana Modern Masters 80p) Stephen Spender in this introduction to Eliot's poetry makes good advantage of having been born twenty-one years...

Elwyn Jones The Manson Murders Vincent Bugliosi, with Curt Gentry (Bodley Head £3.95), Most murderers know their victims. Most murderers have a discernible motive for their...

Soi-disant Peter Ackroyd, Look At The I-larlequins Vladimir Nabokov (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £3.25) Mr Nabokov clearly thinks of himself as a very good, if not a great writer;...

Ugly duckling Benny . Green In those bleak but depressingly frequent moments when the gulf between his aspirations and his achievement seems too vast to contemplate, and the...

The failure of leftist writing Petru Popescu More and more western writers visit Russia and Eastern Europe: the majority as guests of Unions of Writers, Boards of Culture and...

Medicine A woman, a dog and a walnut tree John Linklater An interesting psychological experiment at Loughborough University recently made headline news* by demonstrating...

In April, Come he Denis Wood My mother-in-law used to maintain that the cuckoo was first heard everywhere in the land on April 17, her son's birthday, and woe betide any badly...

Are we what we eat? Pamela Vandyke Price People do look like their pets. As one minces, Agag-like, across the excrement-encrusted pavements of the Royal Borough, one...

Missionary doctor Martin Sullivan I have just put down a book which I hope everyone who reads this column will go out at once and buy. It is Daylight Must Come by Alan Burgess...

The following letter, dated March 21 and addressed to the Editor of The Spectator, was received from Mr John Desborough, Secretary of the Parliamentary Lobby Journalists: The...

Guilt by association Bill Grundy . 1t was, I remember, a child who spotted that the emperor had no clothes. It takes a child's eye to see that there is nothing to see. But...

Kenneth Hurren half persuaded at Stratford Henry V by William Shakespeare; Royal Shakespeare Company (Stratford-upon-Avon) A Family and a Fortune by Julien Mitchell, from the...

A nation's tragedy Kenneth Robinson Distant Thunder Director: Satyajit Ray Stars: Soumitra Chatterji, Babita 'A' Academy One (105 minutes). This is the Indian film that won...

What do you know? Evan Anthony This is going to be, probably, the first 'conceptual' art review ever written. Simply put this means that participants will be provided with the...

Canadian capers Robin Young The National Ballet of Canada are a strong company built in the tradition of our own Royal Ballet but, as befits a group from North America, rather...

Mr Varley's dear oil Nicholas Davenport Time being short I am reserving my criticism of Mr Healey's budget for next week. Today I have chosen a subject which is irrelevant to...

The anger of the dispossessed Bernard Hollowood I am middle class — all right, lower upper middle class — and angry. But not really for the reasons stated so eloquently in a...

I am sorry if I seem always to be criticising — perhaps a glance at my portrait above may explain my carping nature — and promise to try and find something nice to say about...