A fter Mr Rupert Murdoch had described r a lreports that he intended to sack the editor of The Times as 'malicious, self- serving and wrong', it was learned that he had...

The Windsor Bypass scheme Ferdinand Mount L ast week Sir Angus Maude wrote: 'It has always been far too expensive to im- prove the educational standard of working- class...

M rs Olive Brown of Erith in Kent was due to appear this week before magistrates in Bexley, facing a charge of Manslaughter. She was the owner of two Doberman Pinschers which, a...

Eire Surfa rr e mark An mail 6 months: £12.00 £13.181 £14.50 £18.50 One year: £24.18) i24,011 £29,00 £37.01) US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made...

The angry caller Auberon Waugh `Mhe great new British sport — news- '. paper bingo — went chaotically awry yesterday. Thousands of Daily Mail readers simultaneously...

Edward Mortimer T he Palestinian problem is, like several other aspects of the contemporary in- ternational scene, increasingly depressing to contemplate. I revisited...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft Johannesburg I n the 1890s, the last years of Paul Kruger's South African republic, there were two sorts of newspaper in the Transvaal. There were papers...

Vernon Bogdanor I t is widely believed that Mr Prior will shortly unveil a new devolution package for Northern Ireland. This will be the fifth occasion on which a British...

Richard West T here is not much interest here in this week's general election south of the border in what is still generally called the Free State. Although the citizens of the...

Peter Paterson T he surrender terms dictated to British Rail by Lord McCarthy's committee of inquiry on Tuesday at first sight looked the only way of preventing Sir Peter...

Peter Ackroyd K ensington Town Hall does not, on the face of it, seem an ideal place to 'break the mould' of British politics but it has its Virtues — neither too smart nor...

Michael Davie t is an extraordinary fact that even after I Mr Rupert Murdoch has owned The Times and the Sunday Times for a year, both his own nature and the character of his...

Sir Andrew Clarke's opinions always command a certain respect, but his defence of the Channel Tunnel will not, we fear, convince many of its op- ponents. He misses the strong...

Patrick Marnham W hen announcing that the editor of The Times, Mr Harold Evans, had been singled out as 'editor of the year' last Monday Brian Inglis said: 'In the year he has...

Operators Paul Johnson T he Laker story continues to fascinate because it is one of those occasions When we are given a little glimpse into how big business operates and the...

Poaching Tony Rudd P oaching in the City used to be rare and frowned upon. People used to be familiar with field sports and although they had a sneaking admiration for...

Sir: Though one can well imagine the feel- ing of euphoria inspired by an exquisite per- formance of La Boheme, Taki seems to be allowing himself to be carried away by a...

Sir: Alexander Chancellor is mistaken in saying in the Notebook (30 January) that Graham Greene has never written a work of non-fiction other than travel books. Ten years ago I...

have much sympathy with the views of Mr Simon Richards in his letter of 30 January. For a number of years, as a member of the Council, I have watched with sorrow, but little...

Sir: The demand to break all cultural and social links with the USSR is wrong on many counts. It confuses the regime with the people. One has only to read S. - Richards's own...

Questionable motives Sir: Mr Ferdinand Mount's sensible remarks on the subject of rape in your issue of 30 January move me to write to you about a phenomenon which, it seems to...

USSR, Mr Simon Richards writes (Letters, 30 January): 'All such links should be broken until the Kremlin learns to live with freedom'. I picture the Kremlin on its knees,...

Sir: In his interesting article about Coll- ingwood's autobiography in the Spectator (16 January), Jo Grimond states that the book lacks an index. This was indeed true of its...

The mad governess Peter Quennell The Wider Sea: a Life of John Ruskin John Dixon Hunt (Dent £15.95) he world, declared a book-critic in 1 1862, reviewing a series of...

James Cameron The Gate of Heavenly Peace Jonathan D. Spence (Faber £11.50) T ien An Men, the Gate of Heavenly Peace, is for anyone who knows China the centre and symbol of...

A. N. Wilson arbara Pym died with Stoic quietness Li in January 1980. A few months later, Macmillan published her last novel, A Few Green Leaves, and her many admirers must...

Mary Kenny The Myth of Motherhood: an Historical View of the Maternal instinct Elisabeth Badinter (Souvenir Press £8.95, £5.95) I t is evident that our attitudes towards...

Paul Ableman U ntil 1979, big power nuclear policy was V governed by the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction, or MAD. In that year, President Carter issued Presidential...

Hugh Massingberd T here are probably enough romantic snobs, be they homosexualists, anglophile American expatriates or fan- tasising suburban ladies, to ensure a market in...

Duncan FaHowell Social Studies Fran Lebowitz (Sidgwick Jackson £6.50) A merican Vogue calls Fran Lebowitz the `natural successor to Dorothy Parker:. Her last book,...

Philip Warner A lthough the publishers omit to mention the fact in their description, this is partly a work of fiction. For example: "Mr Quisling?" exclaimed the King in ob-...

James Hughes Onslow Alternative Medicine Andrew Stanway (Pelican £2.95) A doctor writes about all forms of quackery. He can't quite explain acupuncture but does concede that...

All's well and flying high Rodney Milnes T he ENO's new Dutchman has been subjected to an extra degree of critical attention since it is the first production by the company's...

Ah dahleeng Peter Ackroyd Chanel Solitaire (`AA', selected cinemas) E mpty glasses are always being throws over shoulders; people come in looking dishevelled because they have...

Miss Bossy Boots Mark Amory Hobson's Choice (Theatre Royal, Hay- market) An Evening's Intercourse (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) Where There is Darkness (Lyric Studio) T wo new...

Memorable John McEwen L ast week saw the death of two of England's oldest and most distinguish- ed painters, Ben Nicholson and Sir Cedric Morris. They were almost...

Feel it Richard Ingrams I gnoring my advice, television companies continue to turn political biography into soap opera. The latest person to be given the treatment is Nancy...

Don't think Jeffrey Bernard T don't see her very often nowadays and 1 when I do it's accidental; pure chance. Yesterday, cruising through a Wardour Street traffic jam, I...

The cruel sea Taki New York A s everyone who has been to Beverly Hills knows, the balder and shorter t he tycoon, the flashier, blonder and taller his companion. The same...

but not the manner of Charles Kingsley, who wrote an 'Ode to the North-East Wind', you are invited to compose a poem (maximum 16 lines) in praise of a slug, a bog, a fog, a tor-...

amusing and accurate definitions of get- ting old. It was the myopic Thurber who realised he was getting old when men he bumped in- to on the pavement began saying, 'Sorry,...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 8 March. Entries to: Crossword 545, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. 1...

Quiz answers Raymond Keene T his year's quiz was quite tricky and nobody succeeded in avoiding all of the traps. The answer to question 1 (where did Antonius Block — played...

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