' Mugging ' is one of those somewhat playful-sounding names, like flagging,' under which thoroughly nasty behaviour is camouflaged. The euphemistic approach to unpleasant...

Mr Heath attends the Paris summit and he does so, in effect, as a member of the European club. The legislation is passed; and although the United Kingdom does not formally...

The rediscovery of Tory liberalism Patrick Cosgrave The true consequences of the battle of Blackpool are not to be found in whether or not the Tory establishment triumphed...

The Solicitor General occupies a curious position in any government. He is a Law Officer, a title conveying a certain distance from ordinary politics. But, unlike his colleague...

STANDING BEHIND the Prime Minister at a party recently, Puzzle noticed two dreadful things. The sleeves of his jacket are pressed so that a sharp crease runs from shoulder to...

Televising the House of Commons has seemed to me to be most desirable, and Robin Day is to be commended for plugging away at his campaign to have the proceedings televised live....

"There is no doubt whatsoever that the Conservative Party is very deeply and angrily divided... The Conference was a triumph for Robert Carr" This year, as in previous years,...

Crawfie in Wonderland 1. Terry Pitt I am normally unsure whether writing autobiography or reviewing it is the more narcissistic. Here I am certain; for Marcia Williams has...

Shirley Robin Letwin on the birth and death of the individual If we wish to be authentic,' must we rebel against all social authority? Professor Trilling's answer is, No, and...

Auberon Waugh The En l King Michel Tournier (Collins £2.50) am Elijah Thrush James Purdy (Cape £1.50) Goodness knows what Michel Tournier is actually saying throughout the 317...

Storm Jameson Rose Macaulay Constance Babington Smith (Collins 0.25). Few writers attract from their contemporaries the same mindful attention, interest, affection, for their...

Philip Ziegler Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times Vol. 1 1819-1861 Cecil Woodham-Smith (Harnish Hamilton £4.50) Can there be anything new to 'say about Queen Victoria? Each...

J. I. M. Stewart The Life to Come and Other Stories E. M. Forster edited by Oliver Stallybrass (Arnold £2.50) This volume opens with five early stories of only minor interest....

Basil Taylor Greuze; 1725 - 1805 Anita Brookner (Elek £7.00) Why — the question is also put in Dr Brookner's first sentence — another book now on this "not very lovable...

John Buxton The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Cultural Achievement A. L. Rowse (Macmillan £3.95) More than twenty years after he began his history of the Elizabethan Age, Dr...

Bookbuyer Hard on the heels of a public complaint by the mother of the Kray twins, Weidenfeld and Nicolson have postponed the publication of John Pearson's book about them, The...

Opera Music to match that epic Rodney Milnes The successful production of Prokofiev's War and Peace is important on a number of counts. If the first stage performance of a...

Heads you lose Kenneth Hurren The production of Shakespeare's quartet of ' Roman' plays, essayed this season by the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratfordupon-Avon as a...

Readers cursorily familiar with the London night-club scene may have been surprised by one omission from Atticus's benevolent salute to the entrepreneurs of the business in this...

Politician as hero Christopher Hudson The Candidate (' A' Bloomsbury), directed by Michael Ritchie who made Downhill Racer, is the best film about American electioneering...

In defence of Alf Clive Gammon When 1984 was adapted for television, so the BBC reminded us last week, there was a national outcry. The producer of the programme was...

Sound investment Benny Green The advantages of speaking on the radio over appearing on television are obvious enough. For one thing you don't have to shave, or submit to the...

Sir: No one could have been more delighted than myself to read that Sir John Betjeman had been appointed to the post of Poet Laureate. In view of the impending national disaster...

regarding the implications of the Royal Assent to the European Communities Bill. Moreover, what you say is a timely guide as to what attitude those of us who have opposed Market...

Sir: One aspect of the question of whether Britain should accede to the Treaty of Rome (which, incidentally, I have read in English translation), and whether the British people...

Europe' celebrations, may I suggest that Mr Heath and his friends assemble on the White Cliffs of Dover, face France, bow three times, join hands and jump off? Norman Henry 29...

Sir: The small cartoon on your political page (October 7) seems to imply that King Canute believed he had power to stop the rising tide. But surely the object of this...

suspect that despite this seaside gathering of the faithful, it is the big majority of the people of England that really counts. State inflationary policies and feeding "lame...

From Miss B. E. Thomas Sir: I am Tory to the backbone — and it is not an inherited allegiance, as my parents were Liberals — but when I and others with similar opinions...

Sir: I suppose one should really be prompted into throes of violent demonstration and attendance at a whole rash of endless committees' folowing an exceptionally stimulating...

Sir: There is a simple explanation for the poor flow of information about patients from the hospitals to the general practitioners (John Rowan Wilson, October 16). Before the...

Sir: Auberon Waugh in his review of Edna O'Brien's Night (October 7) says he simply does not believe that even in Ireland it is normal to dig a grave at the funeral while...

Sir: Mr Douglas Curtis tells us that over 90 per cent of prisoners still come from the most deprived section of the working class. Since indictable crimes have more than...

Sir: In reply to Dr Bazarov's letter (October 7), Hodder and Stoughton are happy to be publishing the David Burg and George Feifer biography of Solzhenitsyn because they are...

Sir: While not possessing sideburns, grey or otherwise, and not considering myself in any sense ' odd ' I am proud to consider myself a Liberal. Given the minimal publicity...

Sir: I have been commissioned to write a biography of the late George Devine, and would be grateful for the sight of any relevant letters, papers, or photographs. All such...

I'm reading Gregory Blaxland's Golden Miller (Constable £3.25) and enjoying it. It's a nice change to find a racing book written by a layman — if you can call a military...

The reactionary Bank and the reformist Chancellor Nicholas Davenport The Editor stole the good joke before I 'had time to make it — that the Chancellor had put up Bank rate by...

If the Bank runs out of Money it may issue as much Money of its own as it may need by merely writing on any ordinary paper. From the Rules of the Game of Monopoly, Messrs John...

Wotherspool picks Hestair Nephew Wilde It is almost a status symbol for some people to hold shares. How often one hears old ladies discussing the performance of their...

A sell and a buy John Bull I was left smarting last week when I saw Shipping Industrial Holdings plummet on the news of the Clarkson losses. This is the sort of situation that...

Population, poverty and taxation Margaret Wynn Politicians have always been reluctant to have a population policy, even when, as in 1964, there seemed to be a good reason for...

Understanding special areas Jef Smith Pretty soon, a colleague of mine said recently, you will be able to walk right through Liverpool from one special area to another — start...

Ageing cells Bernard Dixon Do we grow old by mistake? One currently Popular theory of ageing strongly suggests so — the mistake involved being a particular type of error in...

Free for all Peter Quince People do not seem to bother as much as they once did about the free gifts which the countryside offers at this season. Hazel-nuts, wild plums,...

Carol Wright "Go East young people" should be the cry of the travel writer where longer distance holidays are concerned. The Caribbean, unless package holiday prices fall, and...