Three unwise men When three ex-Prime Ministers - Mr Macmillan, Mr Heath and Sir Harold Wilson - start criticising Mrs Thatcher and When the Dailv Mirror gathers these faded...

Political commentary Remember May Day? Ferdinand Mount Politicilins are different from us. Thev have worse memories. Quite often. one stands agape at the things they manage...

Notebook When Lord Spencer is asked whether his daughter Diana is going to marry the Prince °f Wales, he replies that there is not one Single Word of truth in it. If that is...

Another voice Visitet atque defendat Auberon Waugh At a time when the thoughts and the praycrs ot the entire nation are turned towards the prlettY. nice-looking Lady Diana...

The Polish melodrama Trim Garton Ash Warsx~Eaw I'le Poland play seems to have reached a Short interval Tlhere is some rumbling from the SWings, but we have time to cast an...

Amalrik's final protest BOhdan Nahaylo This hits beenll a LisastrouIs vear for the Multifariots Soviet human I-i' olts laovenIlent A prolIongied maljo offnllsixvc 'ii inSt t...

America's black powder-keg Henry Fairlie tt'i is /IIII,,WII It ()onc kkcrc to t.k m110t people iI AnlciC. todait, I I)ot IC lpt t II )oC \k It I\C MI Rci Iu, n II I his I...

The division of Labour David Marquand In the six weeks since the last Laiour Partv conference, political commentators - and. fo-r thaI t Illmatte r . I Lari NI I I", I\ c...

What's in a name? Antonia Martin Already reeling from a frenzy of nametItching Bombaywallas (as the people of bat city are apt to refer to themselves) are .raced to withstand...

In the City Inflation and the index Tony Rudd To index or not to index. That, during a period of inflation, is the question. Up till now the answer in the UK has been not to...

The underdog factor Sir: Patrick Marnham, in his Postscript 'Monitored' (15 November) calls for the banning of opinion polls for at least a month before election day on the...

Letters IRight to get it wrong hir: H L Mencken liked to boast that he had Wrongly predicted the result of every American election he had written about Icluding the Roosevelt...

Bemuddled Sir: You write (Notebook, 15 November): 'Mr Fitt did not hesitate to blame Northern Ireland's two leading churchmen, the Roman Catholic Cardinal 0 Fiaich and the...

BFianchina out tr: I was surprised to read your comment in ie Notebook (18 October) about British tail Plans to redevelop Windermere sta°n If you had taken the trouble to check...

Antisemitism in France Sir: I have been among Sam White's devotees for more vears than I care to remember. I must, however, take issue with him over his article ('The French...

Country conflict Sir: Patrick Marnharn ( Postscript. X November) says that Marion Shoard, author of The Theft of the C(ountrYside, works for the Council for the Protection of...

Art for whose sake Sir: John McEwen should be encouraged for writing objectively and successfully drawing a dealer from his lair to declare his interest (William Joll, Letters,...

Peter Simple Sir: Much gratified as I am by Ricolal West's review of The Stretchford Chronicles (8 November), I feel I should point out that although I am the writer of about...

Drinking for pleasure J.G. Links When I was quite young and, being an Orphan, quite rich compared with most of mY Hampstead friends, a Mr Nassauer of Frankfurt was introduced...

Books Seeing and understanding Prue Shaw Dante the Maker William Anderson (Rout- ledge £18) We know very little of Dante's life: even his date of birth (May 1265?) is...

Smith of Smiths A. N. Wilson Sydney Smith Alan Bell (Oxford £9.95) Sydney Smith was one of the funniest men who has ever lived, so that no biography of him which allows him...

Direct attack Max Hastings The Smoke And The Fire John Terraine \QIugwick £8.95) In 1963 John Terraine published Douglas Haig.: The Educated Soldier. It was an IMPortant and...

Time-bomb Desmond Stewart Dispossessed: The Ordeal of the Palestinians 1917-1980 David Gilmour (Sidgwick £12.50) Palestine in Perspective: Politics, Human Rights and the...

Isaac Foot Alan Gibson (BMy randfather Isaac Foot Sarah Foot Hainey Books, St Teath, £1.75) was the new Leader of the Labour Party %vas a Young man he turned from the...

Paper-thin Benny Green The Complete Works of Saki (Bodley Head £10) In the Rubaiiat there occurs the following: Yon rising Moon that looks for us again - I low oft hereafter...

Look Lively Francis King Judgement Day Penelope Lively (Heine mann £6.95) It is a long time since Penelope LivelY established herself as one of the best of living English...

The Sum of Things Olivia Manning (Weidenfeld £5.95) Imago Bird Nicholas Mosley (Secker £5.95) The Sonq of the Nightinmale Bruce Arnold (Hamish Hamilton £6.95) A House...

Arts Struggle and strife Bryan Robertson Illuminations (Lyric, Hammersmith) The Caretaker (Lyttelton) After indulging myself for several enjoyable weeks in these columns...

°Pera Luckv "Odney Mimnes alstaff (Kent Opera) Opera-companly paranoia is a moveable CorIdition The two London houses take it in t'rns roughly week by week - to accuse P'...

Cinema Carnival time Peter Ackroyd The Alternative Miss World (X', selected cinemas) It has always seemed to me one of the saving graces of the English that, at bottom,...

High life Unstylish Taki In Mav 1978 1 wrote in these pages about foreigners using English gentlemen's clubs as Trojan horses, and mentioned the example of Michael Thomas....

Replacements h. Richard Ingrams 6all1s and Dr Who are the favourite Progranmmes of William Rees-Mogg, we hardted on Monday's Panorama. It was Of th Imagine the austere and...

Postscript Fine art Patrick Marnham Last week a burly man, best described by his appearance and manner as 'an obviOl05 South London scrap merchant', came to the door on a...

Low life Training Jeffrey Bernard All is not vet lost. Last Sundav I moved to a delightful flat in London. got divorced the very next dav and then opened the DailY Telegnmph...