The dangers of Heath's and Nixon's Gaullist orthodoxies The first visit of Mr Heath to Washington as Prime Minister affords a suitable oc- casion to see whether much sense can...

DAVID OWEN, MP Walking into the chamber of a House of Commons lit by a combination of storm lanterns and candles was rather like entering a Gothic cathedral. All that was...

The gross scandal of the manner in which the Arts Council distributes largesse continues. Opera and ballet, inferior arts at the best and at less than the best suitable for...

Light relief MICHAEL WYNN JONES If ever proof was needed that electricity is the life-blood of the nation, this week provided it. Even the relatively short (2-3 hour) cuts...

ROBERT CONQUEST Educated at Winchester and Magdalen, Oxford. Ex-infantry officer, ex-diplomat, ex- literary editor of the SPECTATOR, ex-aca- demic. Now, historian, poet,...

Baker in the woodpile FRANK WHITFORD Berlin If the West German coalition government is the most progressive in Europe it is certainly not the most secure. Although it began...

FRANCE Universities two years after CHARLES HARGROVE Paris `The university situation is good on the whole. The new institutions are being set up. The statutes of fifty-five...

By 'a Conservative' One of the most difficult tasks facing the thinking politician is to find means of ex- pression which are neither hackneyed nor banal, or, if novel, are not...

Art for art's sake DENIS BROGAN In the past ten days or so we have had a great , deal of serio-comic politics. Mrs Barbara Castle has vigorously denounced, without naming it,...

Half a pint and half a frontal KATE WHARTON The disc jockey—a young man with an old unpleasant face that possibly (but not much) has something to do with the endless would- be...

New variations on Elgar ROBERT CONQUEST Clemenceau once remarked that there is no one as aggressive as a pacifist. One might sug- gest also that there is no one as Fascist as...

From: Brigadier R. F. Johnson, Michael De-la-Noy and others, J. Fendall, Angus Maude MP, Peter Reddaway, George Katkov, Pro- fessor C. W. K. Mundle and others. Gentlemen, the...

pin In his letter to your columns, Guy Bowden stated that the jour- ney of the Archbishop of Canter- , bury to South Africa was under- taken out of a sense of pastoral care for...

Sir: Mr Bragg is right in suggest- , ing that a single rate tax would meet most of Professor Vaizey's objectives. In a paper circulated by the Conservative Political Centre...

Sir: I am most grateful to Mir W. van der Evken for so obligingly confirming the thesis on Penguin Education which I propounded in my review of 14 November, although it might...

Sir: At Christmas time, when all men of goodwill are peculiarly aware of the power of love. may we appeal through your columns on behalf of men and women whose personal problems...

(12 December) concern- ing the debate on 'The State of Britain Today', which took place on the radio programme Speakea‘r, are, to use his own word, fright- ening. He starts off...

the astonishing ex- perience of seeing Mr Francis A. Bown striding through the town in his Enoch Powell kit, complete from turn-ups to Homburg, may have viewed with some...

Sir: I am surprised that no reply has been . printed to Mr Edgar Young's letter (14 November) about Herr Strik-Strikfeldt and his book Against Stalin and Hitler. That letter was...

Sir: I am very glad to learn from John Rowan Wilson that the sub- ject of doctor-patient communic- ation is being tackled seriously. As a schoolmaster it was for many years my...

Sir: We should be grateful to Mr Waugh for his censure of Mr Melvyn Bragg's 'Colonel and Lady Sewell' (14 November) and for thus drawing, attention to a tendency which threatens...

Sir: John Mackintosh, MP, falsely implies that the loss of sover- eignty in the EEC would be com- parable to that caused by present agreements and constraints. In fact, present...

Sir: Roger Scruton's essay (28 November), ostensibly a book re- view, was aptly entitled 'Casuis- tries'. He equates 'linguistic phi- losophy' with 'analytical philoso- phy'....

Sir: Crows, I believe, are ' perfectly nice birds. Of course they don't think, feel (in a human sense) Or speak or have anything else to do with words. They aren't...

Sir: Although rising ninety-six my memory is still green re turtle mar- malade. We had it served to us as a special treat on the old reforma- tory training ship 'Archer', moored...

No. 635: Her infinite variety Set by Jane Doe: 'Uncertain, coy and hard to please' seems as doubt- fully relevant as 'ministering angel' in these days of Women's Lib, militant...

JOHN FLETCHER When Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature last year for 'writing which' (the citation ran) 'in new forms for the novel and drama, acquired...

JOSEPH LEE The Irish Economy Since -1922 James Meenan (Liverpool University Press £6) The Irish economy poses a fascinating chal- lenge to the student of underdevelopment....

PERCIVAL SPEAR King of the World: The Life and Times of Shah Alam, Emperor of Hindustan Michael Edwardes (Seeker and Warburg 63s) There is a morbid fascination in the break- up...

J. P. T. BURY Napoleon and Paris Maurice Guerrini trans- lated, abridged and edited by Margery Weiner (Cassell 84s) The historic links which bind Napoleon and Paris are made...

G. S. KIRK Hamlet's Mill: An Essay on Myth and the Frame of Mind Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend (Macmillan 84s) This imaginative but perverse volume repre- sents...

AUBERON WAUGH Mia Robert Nathan (W. H. Allen 30s) The Chosen Pla( e, the Timeless People Part One Paule Marshall (Longman 35s) Scarcely a novel has ever been written which...

The Great Age of Fresco Millard Meiss (Phaidon £11). After the Florence flood of 1966 and by way of thanks from Italy to those who helped in the restoration of the Florentine...

Lulu's back in town KENNETH HURREN In the teeth of the seasonal wave of benign goodwill, London's Royal Court Theatre is playing host to the Nottingham Playhouse production of...

Tourist attractions CHRISTOPHER HUDSON David Lean's film Ryan's Daughter Empire, Leicester Square) is an epic love story from the1940s or early1950% It is slow moving, trivial...

Kerr's kitchen Patrick Skene CATLING In this country, in this season, most people fortunately can look forward to a few days of bacchanalian plenty of food and drink. We wish...

GILLIAN WIDDICOMBE Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn on 16 December 1770. He was not, as he later encouraged the Viennese aristocracy to think, the natural son of a king....

Ladies' nights EVAN ANTHONY Reviewing art shows can be a giddy business, particularly if you attend the openings. It isn't all champagne and white wine, though. There is,...

The finest bric-à-brac shop in Europe J. B. DONNE It is sometimes remarked that the British Museum can display only the tip of the ice- berg of its vast collections, and that...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT A milestone on the slippery road to inflation has been the floating of £40 million of loan stock by the ice with a coupon of 101- per cent. It was issued at...

Selwyn Lloyd used a piece of typical Butskellian dogma when he introduced capital gains tax as a sop to those envious of the fortunes made from the property boom of the 1950s....

a large Kensington Department Store last Saturday, having willed Simian to victory to the unlikely accompaniment of a Sinatra love song on the stereo. So on to Ascot with a...

I'm awaiting the opening of the international rugby season with pleasure—a pleasure tinged only by the regret that, this year, I don't think I shall be able to make the Paris...

It was generally believed, until quite recently. that squirrels hibernated around this time of year and remained tucked up in their nests until the first warm days of spring. I...

It has all been most delightful watching Soho's restaurateurs pleading not guilty to harbouring rats on the premises, rats in this context presumably being a reference to the...

Lovely parties ... what do we think of when we think of them? And by parties, I mean occasions when people gather, not specifically for dinner or any setmeal. Just as no woman...

Performance, the film starring Mick Jagger and James Fox, is at last to be shown from 4 January at Warner's new West End cinema in Leicester Square. The full saga of how this...

No. 1460 DAEDALUS A prize of three guineas will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 28 December. Address solutions: Crossword 1460, The Spec- tator, 99 Gower...