What the nation wants, if the more extreme opinion polls published in the final phase of the election campaign are to be believed, is another long spell of Labour u.overnment...

After it's all over PETER PATERSON Cabinet making (in the non-craft sense, that is) remains as the great Lord Salisbury described it: 'Feeding time at the zoo.' And unless the...

What was it all about? GEORGE GALE I imagine that in years to come, supposing I am ever asked, or ask myself, what is it that I chiefly recall of the 1970 general election, I...

And so to Brussels CRABRO The timing of the general election has had at least one important advantage. The risk that one or other of the two major parties might have...

Seen from afar JOHN GRAHAM Washington—America's neo-isolationism is a selective, rather than a pervasive, attitude. It is not that the executive, or the legislature, or the...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS The tumult and the shouting dies. The punters, reckoning up their losses, Can't stand the ancient sacrifice And gladly turn again to horses. The brave...

Uneasy peace BILL GRUNDY When I first saw it I thought 'That's trouble', then I thought 'He must have gone mad', after which I thought 'and that means really big trouble'. In...

`Mr Heath will no doubt go on fighting as bravely as he can—but under the gaze of the increasingly cold eyes of many of his alleged colleagues' (Mr Roy Jenkins) 'I do not pay...

Reflections on a general election BY SIX INDEPENDENT CONTRIBUTORS Kingsley Amis 'SLIGHTLY MORE OF A PLAGUE . . . on one of your houses.' Thus the heading of a piece I wrote...

STRIX In a drought such as prevails at the time of writing I tend to feel smug, for two years ago the Conservators of the River Thames gran- ted me a licence to abstract water...

The book of vanities SIMON RAVEN Every year, some scores of distinguished citizens are invited by Messrs Adam and Charles Black to fill in a simple form, in order that their...

Box 99 LESLIE ADRIAN My dear Prime Minister, 1 cannot at the. moment of writing be 100 per cent certain who you are. But for the purposes of this particular communication it...

Conservation in the shade STANLEY JOHNSON A little time ago, Earth Day was celebrated in the United States on 800 college cam- puses and by 3,500 high schools; but—in that...

A First—without a star DENIS BROGAN I was about thirteen when I borrowed from Rutherglen public library a book by an un- known author, E. M. Forster, whom I at first took to...

The price of Gormenghast ANTHONY BURGESS It is impossible not to be moved by Maeve Gilmore's memoir of her husband, Mervyn Peake: A World Away (Gollancz 40s). I feel an...

GEORGE HUTCHINSON Nothing So Strange Francis Williams (Cassell 50s) Last Boat to Folly Bridge Eric Hiscock (Cassell 30s) It saddens me very much to have to turn this notice of...

PATRICK ANDERSON The Journals of Anais Nin 1939-1944 edited with an introduction by Gunther Stuhlmann (Peter Owen 55s) The third volume of Miss Anais Nin's cele ; brated...

Martin SEYMOUR-SMITH The Life of Ezra Pound Noel Stock (Rout- ledge 70s) Noel Stock, an Australian critic, was one of Pound's many disciples during the Tate 'forties and...

J. G. FARRELL Born in Exile George Gissing (Gollancz 50s) Memoirs of an English Officer Daniel Defoe (Gollancz 50s) The Manchester Man Mrs G. Linnaeus Banks (Gollancz 50s)...

Invisible man BARRY COLE Ali and Nino Kurban Said (Hutchinson 30s) A Family Failure Renate Rasp translated by Eva Figes (Calder and Boyars 30s) The Kindling Janice Elliott...

CHARLES STUART Prussia: Myth and Reality E. J. Feucht- wenger (Wolff 50s) Mr Feuchtwenger's new book takes a refresh- ingly detached view of the history of Prussia which is...

D AVID KNOWLES The Kingdom in the Sun John Julius Nor- wich (Longmans 70s) Can any hundred years of mediaeval Christendom surpass the century between the Norman Conquest and...

DENNIS DUNCANSON Asia Awakes: A Continent in Transition Dick Wilson (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 65s) Readers of Mr Wilson's survey of China, A Quarter of Mankind, are familiar...

This is a•heroic effort to elucidate the immensely complex economic problems which arose late in Henry VIII's reign. There is much arcane information to be found in these pages;...

PENELOPE HOUSTON A few years ago, one of the Italian, or spaghetti, westerns borrowed fairly liberally from a Japanese (or suki-yaki?) western. Such, these days, are the...

Unchaste & fair BRYAN ROBERTSON If Gainsborough sets up fresh tensions between figures and an enveloping or subsidiary landscape, Degas, now shown splendidly in a loan...

From the 'Spectator,' 18 June 1870—Dickens was privately buried in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday last . . . It is somewhat curious that his death occurred on the fifth...

Byzantine beasts JOHN HIGGINS `This is too gentle, we want wild beasts here ... the music must crash.' The comment was Strauss's own, made during the rehearsals for a Prague...

Ercles' vein HILARY SPURLING King John (Stratford-upon-Avon) Buzz Goodbody's production of King John at Stratford is a comparatively simple affair but, considering the solemn...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT If democracy is to be preserved the publica- tion of opinion polls during an election campaign will have to be prohibited: or so I am almost tempted to...

JOHN BULL Here we go: as I write the week has started badly. War Loan is down to a new low and equities are drifting once again. The trade figures for May are far from...

From Anthony Cowdy, Richard Balfe, Pro- fessor Max Belog, Mary C. McWhirter, Bill Grundy, Yvonne C. R. Brock, Dr Donald M. Bowers, Captain Threadneedle Unionists under...

Sir: Mr Sherman (Letters, 13 June) has changed direction, and no wonder. His tacit admission that the argument is about the pros and cons of commercial radio rather than about...

Sir: Mr R. A. Cline (13 June), is right in one respect only—the difference between 'gross' and 'net' interest is unpromising election material. It is more than that; in the case...

Sir: I was interested to read Barbara Maude's short article (6 June) about pont'. tion and politics, the reason for which seems to be a call for more control over our...

Sir: I was interested to read the piece by my distinguished colleague George Gale (13 May) on the Prime Minister's performance with a pipe; he is however wrong. Mr Wil- son does...

Sir: Professor Laqueur (Letters, 6 June) does not seem to have understood the drift of my criticism about his reference to Stalin's view that Voroshilov was a British agent....

Sir: In his reply to my previous letter, L. Clarke (13 June) refers to 'those who know enough about South Africa to be entitled to form opinions.' Does he seriously think that...

Sir: 'The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. but that's the way they're betting' (not, as you printed-13 June—Vying). The distinction is fine-1 bet....

PHILIDOR L. I. Loshinsky (1st Prize, sass Tourney, 1953). White to play and mate in two moves; Solution next week. Solution to No. 495 (Easom-4R3/1b3Q2I...

Across 1 Cheated of the same family in bed! (6) 4 Two impediments to getting a century; it's savage (8) 8 Not so unaffable with Miss Darling! (3, 5) 10 Ceremonial to the North...

No. 610: Morgenblitter Competitors are invited to submit a piece of verse (limit fourteen lines), subject: 'On Being Without Newspapers'. Entries, marked 'Competition No. 610',...

The great illusionist JOHN WELLS Haroldini is now generally acknowledged to be the greatest stage magician of the twen- tieth century, and despite the unfortunate publicity...