The Chancellor of the Exchequer, at the highest point so far in a career marked more by intellectual pretension than performance or plausibility, has in recent days reaffirmed...

There are times when statistics tell their own tale; and the fact that thirty-nine Policemen — one of whom may have a broken back — as opposed to only six demonstrators were...

Perhaps the central thing about the precarious Middle Eastern settlement produced by Dr Kissinger's unflagging efforts is that the new Israeli government is satisfied that the...

From Miss B. Reid Sir: To quote what Winston Churchill (the lesser) said in the Commons a few weeks ago — "a referendum on the EEC would strike at the very heart of...

(June 15) has stuck in the same groove of cheap food which we gave..up by joining the Common Market. Yet when Mr Callaghan was asked in the Commons debate to name low cost food...

Market referendum held under present legislation would allow an enormous flood of alien money in to browbeat the British into giving . a 'yes' vote to final disappearance...

From J. Biggs-Davison, MP Sir: An element of the Conservative Party which does not, to quote Mr S. J. Lawson's letter, (June 8) consider, "free enterprise and social...

Sir: When I read the first paragraph of Mr Ridley's article, I thought to myself, thought I, "Thank Heavens! Here, at last, is somebody who really understands about inflation."...

From the Rural Dean of Wickford Sir: It is always difficult for priests such as myself, who have only spent eight years in the full-time academic study of the Holy Bible, to...

Sir: May I comment on Edward Norman's review of Alan Paton's book (Spectator, June 1) I am surprised at the Dean's indignaton towards what he calls the liberal intelligentsia....

Sir: There is a genuine world-wide consternation aroused by India's nuclear test. Mrs Ghandi and her Ministers are trying to assure the world community of their 'peaceful...

From The Hon. T. C. F. Prittie Sir: W. J. Whitehead's claim (Spectator, June 8) that the Palestine Liberation Organisation has "repudiated unorthodox warfare" is in the nature...

Sir: Writing about the 1954 Geneva Conference in the Spectator of June I, Bill Manson repeats the old story that ,the Vietminh only agreed to withdraw their forces from South of...

Sir: Nobody with any claim to be 'progressive , could regard himself/herself as a patriot. Patriotic sentiment:, are as benighted as was heresy to the Holy Office of the...

Musical Chairmen Patrick Cosgrave Being Chairman of the Conservative Party as Mr William Whitelaw is about to discover is a singularly thankless task. The manifold...

It often happens that the children of diplomats visit exciting and exotic places at a Young age. They twist their tongues round little-known languages and start to become...

The Kissinger affair and the law Louis Claiborne Did Henry Kissinger commit perjury when he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he did not direct the wiretapping of...

John Peyton, MP There was once, not all that long ago, a country called England. The name, which is Still used, mostly in connection with international sporting events, stood...

Behind the inevitable crisis P.A. Allum Economic and political crises have become the staple diet of Italian daily life in recent years. Last week's government resignation is...

There is nothing which more astonishes a Foreigner and frights a Country Squire than the sight of the Parliamentary Ruffian Party in full cry in the Chamber of the Club. My...

Soliciting for kicks lain Scarlet "Make picking-up legal? I'll bet it was a lawyer who suggested it." I had to admit it was — and a High Court judge at that. The girl at my...

Wheels of fortune Bill Grundy I have never been completely sure whether Hadrian built his wall to keep the Scots out or the English in. Both seem good ideas to me. I must...

The Gatsby smell Philip Kleinman The way in which cultural trends are reflected in advertising, and intensified by that very reflection, provides endless fascination. One...

Liberty, equality, snobbery Envy, so I keep hearing these days, is the canker eating into the soul of modern Britain. The most recent example cited is the howl of protest which...

Do rats like boozing? Bernard Dixon That's an odd question to ask. But it's an important one because much laboratory research on the effects of drinking is carried out with...

Paulinian dispute Martin Sullivan His name means 'Son of Consolation' and it fitted him admirably. He was honoured throughout the Christian world on June 11, his day, St...

Reflections in the water Denis Wood In our temperate land, we take for granted a supply of water, not only to make possible the growth of plants and for us to drink and wash...

The knack of the maker Pamela Vandyke Price Soon, doubtless, we shall all be informed that the ingurgitation of nosh and slosh is not merely a sinful but an economic luxury,...

It has always been something of a mystery that, after the prodigious promise of his youth, Felix Mendelssohn's ultimate achievement as a composer was disappointing. Of course,...

Nzabeth Longford 1 4 1 e Mitred Earl An Eighteenth Century „centric Brian Fothergill (Faber and Faber t4.75 ) 11 le eccentricity begins with the portrait on l i le jacket....

Osbert Lancaster Collected Stories Osbert Sitwell (Duckworth £6.50). It is with a certain measure of trepidation that anyone of the reviewer's generation must open this book;...

THE ECONOMICS OF INFLATION. Bressiani Turroni. Geo. Allen + Unwin: THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HIS rORY OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE — M. Rostortzeff, ed. don Street, Frazee (2 vols. Oxford...

Quentin Bell The Plundered Past, The Traffic in Art Treasures Karl Meyer (Hamish Hamilton £4.00) No work is more delicate or more difficult than that of the archaeologist in...

deseries ,Alldrew Crozier v o t gY HD (Carcanet Press £2.50 cloth £1.20 . t!tr) f Linear Journal Peter Riley (Grosseteste l ; I eW Books 54p) iriecil Meanderings in a Tongue...

Against the grain Peter Ackroyd Amarcord Frederico Fellini with Tonino Guerra (Abelard-Schuman £2.50) Boy Christine de Rivoyre (Hamish Hamilton £2.75) The Cockatoos Patrick...

Oh, Henry! Benny Green 0. Henry is no longer a very fashionable writer. No critic or reviewer ever so much as mentions him; the implication being that no intellectual or...

Bookend When, a year ago, Bookend cast a disapprov i a_ t eye at publishers who did not appear to 0e , paying their authors on time, Mr Desinol Briggs wrote to suggest that a...

tt victim of bibliomania hvid Chambers 5 Y continental standards we are !Parently short on bank holidays, "I'd it occurs to me that those of Who do not already take extra Ys...

Travesties by Tom Stoppard; Royal Shakespeare Company (Aldwych Theatre, London) It is a long time since my hands smarted so from applause for a flawed play as they did when the...

Goldie gets her gun Duncan Fallowell The Sugarland Express Director: Steven Spielberg. Stars: Goldie Hawn, Ben Johnson, William Atherton. 'AA' Ritz (110 Trinutes) An...

kilerepn i n and lity ens ! Lridcut Ni 31 hPoser in search of an ,,ith` rie e Must first supply himself 'ler„ a Powerful champion, and be few more compelling aei''Ilions than...

Dying swan Robin Young Demonstrators at the door and the threat of imminent disruption added to the excitement of the Bolshoi Ballet's return to London. However the protester...

W aspe Among those who braved the jeers of the demonstrators to fete Victor Hochhauser's and Lord Harewood's guests at the Coliseum for the Bolshoi opening were Anton Dolin,...

Shorthand and substance Evan Anthony The eccentricity of the madcap Englishman and the straightforward sincerity of the sentimental American are at least Otio of the more...

Nicholas Davenport There will be little remorse, when ,Jeremy Morse abandons his panel of Twenty. Before I had time to go on with this rhyme the Ten had eclipsed the Twenty....