Mr Peter Walker early this week threatened to do something about Centre Point, like making it too expensive for Mr Harry Hyams to keep it empty or like legislating so that the...

There can be no doubt about the rightness and the boldness of the Government's decision to float the pound. Whereas, between the end of 1964 and the devaluation of 1967, the...

Sterling: End or the beg ining Hugh Macpherson A couple of weeks ago I commented on the fact that the class of 1970 — the bright young entrants to Westminster — had come of...

PUZZLE HAVING survived many a monetary crisis of his own was impressed by the various reactions around the House as it gathered to consider the price of beef, and the shape of...

A very influential City man, declaring positively "I'm a floater," nevertheless had this to say to me: "The risk is of uncertainty. On Monday and Tuesday this week we had to use...

The road to freedom Richard Body Every Tory Minister and nearly every Tory MP should have thrust into his hands Hayek's Road to Serfdom. Written in 1945, its theme is very far...

The bitch Route Thirteen Marina Warner "You're not a real newsman till you've lost your first cameraman" (Attributed to American news programme) Each night in the restaurant...

Beaverbrook: The honest intriguer Patrick Cosgrave Was Beaverbrook an intriguer, a manipulator, a Machiavellian figure? And how successful was he in this nether world of...

This* is more than just another biography of feu le Roi, although Anthony Hartley does provide an adequate summary of de Gaulle's career and" doctrine. But the main thrust of...

Auberon Waugh Grendel John Gardner (Deutsch £1.75) The Tenant John Gill (Collins £1.50) The Lost Ones Samuel Beckett (Calder and Boyars £1.40) It is depressing how very few...

Michael Bentley Lord Carlingford's Journal: Reflections of a Cabinet Minister, 1885 edited by A. B. Cooke and J. R. Vincent (OUP £2.50) The Diary of Sir Edward Walter Hamilton...

Roger Scruton Only Connect Richard Hoggart (Chatto and Windus £1.50) In The Uses of Literacy Richard Hoggart tried to describe the collapse of workingclass culture under the...

Barbara Hardy T. S. Eliot Bernard Bergonzi (Macmillan £3.50) A document for future historians brooding bitterly on the influence of publishers on scholarship: an intelligent,...

Simon Raven Bestseller: The Books That Everyone Read Claud Cockburn (Sidgwick and Jackson £2.50) In 1932 Q. D. Leavis published a book called Fiction and the Reading Public in...

Bookbuyer Leni Riefensthal is in London for talks with Tom Stacey about the publication of her remarkable book of photographs of the African tribe, the Nuba. Reifensthal is an...

by Veronica Orme Public health inspectors have recently again drawn attention to the appalling conditions prevailing in some of our catering establishments and the revolting...

The worst is yet to come Clive Gammon The monstrous number of repeats presently on offer would seem to cast o chilly light on this week's announcement by the ITV companies...

Light Rck i e i Ntiges Persons of a cynical bent might have been expecting the worst at the curtain rise of La Traviata at Covent Garden last week: one of the world's most...

Elusive Makarova Ko in Y OUng A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke. There were times, however, in her Covent Garden debut as Giselle when Natalia Makarova...

Broken promise Kenneth Hurren Though there was nothing doing precisely in the West End, the beginning of this week, surveyed in advance, looked reasonably promising and the...

Pastiche master Mark Le Fanu The American director Peter Bogdanovich's admiration for Howard Hawks was evident enough in The Last Picture Show, still running at the Curzon....

glory Benny Green The Americans, who have always tended to f eel Uneasy in the presence of art, have Contrived over the years to evolve a most effective way of relieving their...

An intriguing situation is in the making over there on the South Bank when the National Theatre moves into its own new home about eighteen months from now. The National will, of...

Lovely grub Pamela Vandyke Price All of us have hooves of clay, but we needn ' t kick our worshippers in the puss with same. It has just been brought to my notice that I once...

From Sir Edwin Leather When you, sir, of all people, r i esort to saying exactly the same tilin g five different ways, your leaders may perhaps be forgiven I °r thinking that...

strong Opposition' would have been more to the point in respect of the present political crisis had it read Wanted — new Party.' For recent events indicate all too clearly that...

Sir: In your very comprehensive review of our present economic situation (Devalue now, float later ', June 17), you say that it is generally agreed that sqeezes on the money...

Park House, Batheaston, Somerset Sir: A sudden storm in a clear sky was accepted by the ancients as a judgement. The crack in the image of sterling, allegedly so bright, has...

Sir: The note on double vandalism at the Hyde Park end of Piccadilly (June 24), strikes a welcome warning. One hopes that it may start a campaign quite as important as that...

Sir: It would be unrealistic to deny the truth of the sexual trend of modern youth. We have known for years what goes on statistically in the universities, be it Prague, America...

Sir: In an age that exalts the plebeian above all, the fact is being overlooked that leadership in any sphere, whether active or passive, has always emanated from a natural...

Sir: may I once again urge Air Vice-Marshal R. I. Jones (June 17) to read and judge for himself the primary evidence about the Palestine refugees and not to take on trust...

From Dame Jean Conan Doyle Sir: I was interested in Isabel Quigly's review on Ivor Brown's book about my father (June 10) and Roger Woddis's letter (June 24). Whilst I agree...

From Captain Duncan Neil DevA ll „ Sir: My late father began b" readership of The Spectator befor the Boer Wars when, as Heed master of the Marist Brother School, Johannesburg,...

Sir: I was somewhat surprised see that a letter from Mr Berket e had been entitled ' Humphry 8 8 . 1 , (June 24). My surprise was effect! ely dispersed on reading it. No tl...

Sir: One is still puzzled whether nationalisation really means public ownership of each separate industry nationalised, and whether it is legal or illegal to picket any and all...

Sir: Skinflint in City Diary (June 3) criticised insurance companies' attitudes to claims and what he referred to as their reluctance to pay in full on most occasions. The...

Sir: Although I deplore the coldly cutting terms of Mr John Calvin's letter (June 10), I too have in recent months bristled at the quite unnecessary ' bossiness ' of some of Mrs...

Sir: Mr Reg Freeson (June 10) says that the cost of property is a central cause of inflation. Surely it is a result: too much money accruing frorn increased incomes boosted by...

From Mrs W. S. Green Sir: I must protest at the sentimental article on the sad story of the Duke of Windsor in your issue of June 3, especially on the slur cast on Queen Mary....

Sir: Does this rather unflattering caricature remind you of anybody alive nowadays? I was browsing through some books recently and same across one called A Sailor's Life in...

Nicholas Davenport To whom credit is due for the brilliant stroke of floating the £ last Friday morning before we had woken up I do not know. Certainly not to the Bank of...

In the past I have referred to the M & G Unit Trust Group as standing firm against the temptation of warehousing,' but I fear that I have upset the chairman of their investment...

It's not entirely the done thing to go ' royal ' to Ascot — that is, if you intend writing about the experience. Far better to impart the joys of a jellied eel on the Heath than...

Scottish and Newcastle John Bull Since I have been recommending specific speculations for the account only once have I sold a share short. This was Guest Keen and Nettlefolds....

Off to the highlands Nephew Wilde My stockbroker, Wotherspool, was rather surprised about my decision to buy S. Hoffnung last week. But now that the £ has been floated I am...

The internal brain drain David Williams The brain drain is no new feature in the life pattern of the more able parts of our community. There has been much discussion about the...

Not quite professional Jef Smith Are the professions good for us? The arbitrary but apparently unquestionable division of functions between barristers and solicitors looks...

Fi nding their way ernard Dixon Co nvincing new evidence has just apP e ared which virtually solves one of the 11131.0st intriguing puzzles ever tackled by , s i° 1 0gists —...

On the side custos One area of possible abuse of social security benefits is where claimants work on the side, and draw their unemployment pay and supplementary benefits. To...