A fter Tory ill-success in last week's Euro-elections, a new opinion poll put the party's popularity with voters .14 per cent behind Labour's. The Chancellor said that mortgage...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 UNREAL MADRID N o doubt it is a good thing that every European leader at the...

The Spectator a day early. This means the Portrait of the week only includes events up to Tuesday.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - Save 15% on the Cover Price! RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK 0 £55.00 0 £27.50 Europe (airmail) 0 £66.00 0 £33.00 USA Airspeed 0 US $99 0 USS50 Rest of Airmail 0...

P. D.JAMES T he Society of Authors has announced that it is to administer two new literary prizes; the Prevo Prize funded by Lucy Astor for second novels, and the McKitter- ick...

One more triumph for devils and sorrow for angels AUBERON WAUGH F riday, which was marked in England by the publication of Professor Brian Cox's final report to the National...

Timothy Garton Ash explores the connections between an election in Warsaw, a funeral in Budapest and a Soviet leader in Bonn THE general crisis of communism has loosened the...

China's shrewdest city stands to do well out of the bloodbath in Peking, reports Murray Sayle Shanghai ARRIVING two weeks ago at the dead of night the only foreigner on a...

July July's woman of the month is Gillian Button, 25 years, 1st class degree in French and Drama, a producer's P.A. at Broadcasting House, earning £9,000 per annum. Gillian is...

Melik Kaylan explores the strange world of a Manhattan drug-dealer New York THERE is a certain kind of name-dropper whose range of acquaintance grows so wide and nuanced over...

THE air in the French Chamber is getting charged with electricity. Nobody has been killed yet; but on Tuesday four Deputies, the Republicans M. Arene and M. Etienne, and the...

Michael Trend stood in the Euro-elections. He found resentment towards the Tory leadership THERE is much talk at the moment among Conservatives about the 'Green- house...

Michael Heath

The press: Paul Johnson welcomes the progress of journalists from status to contract IN THE early 1930s, Stanley Baldwin, then leader of the Tory Party and number two in...

Irresistible force meets immovable handbag JOCK BRUCE-GA RDYNE I know that it is, just now, a profoundly unfashionable thing to do. But I suggest that we should raise a toast...

I AM startled to find, beaming at me from the financial pages, the familiar face of Sir Kenneth Berrill, erstwhile chairman of the Securities and Investments Board, and the...

The Treasury gets back to business as the great house bubble goes pop CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t seems a long time since the Treasury and the Bank of England, enjoying the rare...

THE approach of the Madrid summit was signalled by another lecture from Lord Cockfield. He called the Govern- ment paranoid in its attachment to a concept of sovereignty which...

SOME of the money has gone into stocks. We are tracing a familiar pattern — de- mand slows down and stocks pile up. The next phase sees the early birds getting stocks down by...

Sir: I must speak for all your canine readers — and, I hope, for others too — in regretting Alexandra Artley's article `Everything but the bark' (24 June). We should remember,...

Sir: Your contributor, Dominic Lawson Mow the bosses help themselves,' 17 June), draws useful attention both to the questionable level of some directors' re- muneration and also...

Sir: To the Whitehall record of reckless- ness over Hong Kong (Letters and Leading article, 10 June) I would like to throw in my two pennies' worth: in early 1987 the Department...

Sir: Auberon Waugh may be mistaken (Another voice, 11 June) in predicting that a British government, of either Left or Right, would send in the army, if faced with a situation...

massacre. The corpse of a nine-year-old boy with seven bullet wounds was brought onto campus. I saw bloodstained students returning with tear-gas canisters, bullets and the...

A brutish band of brothers Bevis Hillier PRE-RAPHAELITES IN LOVE by Gay Daly Collins, f15, pp.468 magazine for the newly-founded British Museum Society (a 'Friends'...

Anita Brookner BAUDELAIRE by Claude Pichois Hamish Hamilton, £20, pp.430 B audelaire continues to exert the horrible fascination of the scapegoat or black sheep, depending on...

Richard Shone CARRINGTON: A LIFE OF DORA CARRINGTON 1893 - 1932 by Grechten Gerzina John Murray, £18.95, pp.342 D ora Carrington is more famous for the circumstances of her...

Harriet Waugh THE RUSSIA HOUSE by John le Carre Hodder & Stoughton, £12.95, pp.344 adly, Smiley is absent from this tale of love and espionage across the East-West divide. The...

Noel Malcolm REMEMBERING BEETHOVEN: THE ORIGINAL BIOGRAPHY by Franz Wegeler and Ferdinand Ries Deutsch, £11.95, pp.200 N o sooner had Beethoven died than the biographer and...

Living here, I may nod at the seasons And leave the years uncounted. On summer Evenings, bats are pulled like threads down my Garden, squeaking their rubber soles, but signs Of...

Crafts Going to pot I t is very encouraging that recently stu- dio ceramics have been in the news. Sadly this is due not to any fresh insights or recognition from our jaded...

Going Dutch Giles Auty enjoys a crash course in the art and culture of Holland L ast week I attended what might be described fairly as a cultural commando course in Holland. So...

The Grapes of Wrath (Lyttelton) Our Ellen (Battersea Arts Centre) Pilgrims' regress Christopher Edwards Ithough it is in London only for a very brief run at the National...

ARTS DIARY A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics. OPERA Vitalism in Alger!, Covent Garden (240 1066), 11 July. Marilyn...

Europe and the Orient: 800-1900 (Martin-Gropius-Bau, West Berlin, till 27 August) Cross- James McGeachie W est Berlin at its best is the conversa- tional capital of world...

Six o'clock shadow Ferdinand Mount There is something interestingly shock- ing about tennis players deciding to Stand Up for Jesus. Bunny Austin, the last Englishman to reach...

Licence to Kill (`15', Odeons Leicester Square and Marble Arch) Minimalist Bond Hilary Mantel he first question is: does he need a licence? A little way into the new James...

Stale news Alice Thomas Ellis T he papers came late one day, so as I was already entirely au fait with the corn- flakes packet I read yesterday's. 'What is the news?' asked...

Not a bad old cove Wendy Cope N ursery rhymes are useful for every- body all through their lives,' said Iona Opie on last week's edition of The Child's Eye (Channel 4, 8 p.m.,...

is Midsummer Day, birthday of poor St John the Baptist; on 29 June it is SS Peter and Paul, a suitable day for eating the very delicious fish John Dory, other- wise known as St...

and Low life columns should resume next week.

Tolya toppled Raymond Keene T he Rotterdam World Cup appeared to be running a fairly predictable course. Anatoly Karpov, the former world cham- pion, was racing away with...

Teasing ten Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1580 you were in- vited to incorporate, plausibly, ten given words into a piece of prose, in any order. This sort of competition, a...

It was on the Bakerloo line yesterday, and it was unwitting poetry: Is there a single town or city with a monument to a commit- tee?' Using this as your first two lines, please...

L I T PROUT LI ITUR S.T I V A V ALIP LIR 11 1 FID E T S OLILIHriCir I NI H K_AL, O Ej h o A 0,SIE:RIVP ID Unclued lights (sources of spare parts): 6 (11/20); 8 (17/27); 14...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

is looking for: 1. A receptionist/office administrator. Applicants should have initiative, good typing skills and an efficient telephone manner, be tactful, calm under fire and...