23 DECEMBER 1972

Page 3

Mr Heath's petulance

The Spectator

It now looks as if the Government's intention is to make more or less permanent the apparatus of a prices and incomes policy. The stop-gap freeze is to go on for a further sixty...

Page 4

A Christmas sermon, 1972 VEN after a year in which

The Spectator

many of the dangers which have confronted the world since 1945 — and most notably that of nuclear war between the super powers — seem to have been averted if not dissolved, the...

Page 6

Political Commentary

The Spectator

Reality and the Labour Party Patrick Cosgrave What, anyway, is all this fuss about the European parliament in Strasbourg, and why should anyone care whether the Labour Party...

Page 7

No fixed parity

The Spectator

At last it has happened: in spite of the pressures exerted by our new European partners, the Chancellor has announced that Britain will not return to a fixed exchange rate for...

Corridors . .

The Spectator

PUZZLE'S FAVOURITE CHRISTMAS story is the one about the choir of the Department of Health and Social Security, which sang Christmas carols not for but to the Secretary of State,...

Page 8

A Spectator's Notebook

The Spectator

"We do know more, and we do know better than our students" wrote the new Chairman of the Governors of the BBC, Sir Michael Swann, in a contribution in the Black Paper on...

Page 9

The American Scene

The Spectator

Spiro Agnew v. the trendies Al Capp In a recent issue of the New Statesman, Arnold Beichman, of the Department of Politics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in my...

Page 10

Short story

The Spectator

The ugly picture A,. P. Hartley "What would you like most in the world to see? " Rupert asked his sister, Celia. It was a fine June evening, and the two children were...

Page 11

L. P. Hartley

The Spectator

Over the past couple of years or so, L. P. Hartley occasionally dropped in on us at 99 Gower Street, sometimes for lunch, sometimes for evening drinks. He was a very delightful...

Page 13

Festivities

The Spectator

Vive la pud de Noel! Geoffrey Humphrys Christmas 1972, it seems will be the last we spend outside of the Common Market. What will happen to our Christmas Puddings has not...

Page 14

Religion

The Spectator

Christianity in the schools Edward Norman It is now about a year since a complaint that a modern hymn book in use at a London comprehensive school expressed ' left-wing ' bias...

Page 15

Simon Jenkins on the hopes and fears of Colin Buchanan

The Spectator

There are certain things at which we British are supposed to be very good. They include making tea, retreating from Empire, building Rolls-Royces and, among those who care, town...

Page 16

Quacks around the deathbed

The Spectator

Auberon Waugh Black Marsden Wilson Harris (Faber £1.80) Report to the Commissioners James Mills (Barrie and Jenkins £1.80) Something rather sad seems to have happened to...

Page 17

Quirk and skullduggery

The Spectator

Jan Morris The British in the Caribbean Cyril Hamshere (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.00) The noblest achievement of the British Empire was the creation of new white nations...

Page 18

Quips from the computer age

The Spectator

Douglas Dunn Nobody's Business Penelope Gilliatt (Secker and Warburg £1.95) New Queens for Old Gabriel Fielding (Hutchinson £2.00) The Story of a Non-Marrying Man Doris Lessing...

Page 19

Quick and the dead

The Spectator

John Welcome An Unsuitable Job For A Woman P. D. James (Faber £1.90). The Caterpillar Cop James McClure (Gollancz £1.80). Smokescreen Dick Francis (Michael Joseph £1.95)....

Late gift books

The Spectator

Mysterious Britain Janet and Colin Bord (Garnstone Press £5.90) Some marvellous photographs together with a somewhat eccentric text describe, rather than solve, the mysteries of...

Page 20

Bookend

The Spectator

Bookbuyer Bookbuyer, his nose twitching like the Quorn's Boxing Day hounds, is happy at last to detect a little Christmas charity in the air. What is of more moment yet, it...

Page 21

A Consumer's Guide to Critics

The Spectator

Critical condition Will Waspe Reviewing the same play twice, the late Mrs Dorothy Parker used to say, was like being sick on an empty stomach. It is a dictum of wider scope...

Page 25

Gilbert's 'Aesthetes'

The Spectator

Benny Green The reappearance in London, if only briefly, of Patience, is a useful reminder that there is no reason why a musical Should not be about something, even though with...

Page 27

Country Life

The Spectator

Vows can't change nature Peter Quince I am about to break a vow, a half-hearted sort of vow, I must plead in self-defence, but still a species of promise. I am going to sink...

Page 30

Flaws in education's White Paper

The Spectator

Sir, Mrs Thatcher's White Paper has received a good press, but it is possible to view two of its proposals as regressive, namely continued university expansion and the provision...

Juliette's Weekly Frolic

The Spectator

You try to explain that Spanish Steps ran the race of his life in Saturday's ' SGB,' that you wouldn't have missed it for the world, that you're jolly pleased you supported him,...

Sir, While one can concur in your views (December 9),

The Spectator

about the Ardens and their theatrical antics one is astonished by your tail piece that Shakespeare was a Tory. Even the least versed in the Bard could conceive of his...

The cultural Left

The Spectator

From Miss B. E. Thomas: iir, While I agree with your vieW , expressed in your editorial of December 9, that it is not surprising to find a pronounced left-wing bias in the...

Page 31

Sloppy English

The Spectator

Sir: Many BBC listeners must Share, as I do, Mr L. E. Weidberg's bête noire ' negociate ' (his letter, 'December 16). For me the beastliness is shared by the equally insipid '...

Not de-coked

The Spectator

Sir: In your Will Waspe feature in The Spectator for December 9, reference is made to a member of the public not being able to buy a " Coke" in the Crush Bar of the Royal Opera...

Frelimo activity

The Spectator

Sir: I agree with Brigadier Calvert (Letters, December 9) that Frelimo Claims about their successes in Mozambique should be treated with scepticism. Take the recent attack On...

Man for all seasons

The Spectator

Sir: Reviewing The Grey Sheep (December 9), Mr Auberon Waugh pays a much deserved tribute to its author, Peter de Polnay. Praise to Mr de Polnay is nothing new; he has been...

Into Europe

The Spectator

Sir: If a casual reader may voice an opinion, I should like to endorse Mr Partridge's remarks (December 2). Who, listening to Mr John Davies's statement of his "passionate...

Clouding the issue

The Spectator

Sir: Many of the Prime Minister's original policies are either disarranged, dying or dead. I feel that it would be appropriate if Mr Heath were to change the name of his vessel...

Page 32

Gloomy tidings

The Spectator

Nicholas Davenport It is customary, I know, to write a bright cheerful article which may be enjoyed over this excruciating festive season but I just cannot do it. The economic...

Page 33

Skinflint's City Diary

The Spectator

It is hard to believe that there is such an absence of originality and creative power Within the Department of Trade and Industry as to prevent further funds being directed to...

Page 34

Account gamble

The Spectator

An attractive punt John Bull At the end of every year with almost clockwork regularity financial columnists of most newspapers make their nap selections for the coming twelve...

Portfolio

The Spectator

A date with ICL Nephew Wilde Chin-wags between two bachelors can sooner or later be expected to lead, to the same thing. And so it was with Wotherspool late last Saturday...

Page 36

Pensions

The Spectator

They mean well, but . . . Frank Wintle A sorry affair, this pensions business. The Government has brought two Bills before the House of Commons in recent weeks which are meant...

Page 37

Socialities

The Spectator

Legal advice Custos If the Citizens Advice Bureaux issue a Press statement, then something fairly imPortant is being commented on. And last Week's notice (which is only the...

Medicine

The Spectator

Ethic and cosmetic John Rowan Wilson One of the more formative conversations of my medical education took place in a surgical tutorial. There were about eight of us present....