Throughout the last two years of trouble in Ulster visitors to the province have looked in vain for a break in the sectarian character of its politics. Miss Devlin's victory in...

If only Jim were a Tory PETER PATERSON One by one the issues on which the forth- coming—October?—general election is likely to be fought are being brought out by the...

A tiff in the laager ANTHONY DELIUS If there was any prediction that could have been made with absolute confidence about this week's South African general elections, it was...

Overkill season GEOFFREY WAGNER New York— As I write, baby seals are being systematically bludgeoned to bloody pulp around the Gulf of St Lawrence (the only area legally to...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Dr Spock has come to England to speak for the Civil Liberties Legal Defence Fund, Inc. The 'Inc' is important, indicating that it is the American...

The Pooh revolutionaries IAN MacGREGOR Consider, with as much patience and sym- pathy as you can, the plight of the left-wing academic—not that pleasant tweed-jacketed fellow...

J. W. M. THOMPSON The fact that the run-up to the general elec- tion coincides with a period of galloping inflation is not going to help politicians to make good the loss of...

Red hands across the sea QUINTIN HOGG Carson fought for an Ireland united under the Westminster Parliament. Redmond, who in August 1914, without a moment's hesita- tion,...

On student strikes & pasquills MERCURIUS OXONIENSIS GOOD BROTHER LONDINIENSIS I am glad to learn, from your letter of the 8th inst., that those absurd speculations of Master...

From the 'Spectator', 23 April 1870—A meeting was held in Trafalgar Square on Friday by a number of poor persons calling themselves the "Land and Labour League," who made...

Political squibs LESLIE ADRIAN At 2s 3d per copy the official report of debates in the House of Lords (commonly (or perhaps one should say nobly) named Hansard, cannot be a...

Penny foolish BILL GRUNDY If you're a reader of the Daily Sketch, you may have noticed something different about it lately, quite apart from the marked liberal-, isation of...

The message of the spheres GEORGE GALE The electric thread, or skein rather, which never lost hold of Apollo 13, which still held when the oxygen tank exploded, which kept...

MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH It was announced this week that the second winner of the Booker Prize for fiction, which is worth £5,000 and a trophy, is Bernice Rubens for The Elected...

Worlds apart BARRY COLE Kappa Ryunosuke Akutagawa translated by Geoffrey Bownas (Peter Owen 36s) The Hide Barry Unsworth (Gollancz 32s) Shadow of the Monsoon William Man-...

KENNETH YOUNGER Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department Dean Acheson (Hamish Hamilton 105s) Dean Acheson's memoirs of his years in the State Department...

BERNARD LEWIS The Chatham House Version and Other Middle Eastern Studies Elie Kedourie (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 75s) Much has been written about the pro- cesses that have...

M. LLEWELLYN SMITH Politics in Modern Greece Keith R. Legg (Standford up/our 95s) The nature of modern Greek politics has frequently been misunderstood by those who have been...

PATRICK ANDERSON Being Geniuses Together 1920-1930, Robert McAlmon revised by Kay Boyle (Michael Joseph 60s) I've wanted for years to get hold of the late Richard McAlmon's...

Trouble in the pit GILLIAN WIDDICOMBE So the London orchestras are squabbling again. Its not surprising: hardly a month goes by without some juicy swap or scandal behind some...

readers were informed of the English Stage Company's refusal to invite the SPECTATOR'S critic to any future production at the Royal Court. At the insistence of the Arts Council...

Island story JOHN HIGGINS A year ago Edward Downes, introducing Humphrey Searle's Hamlet to a Sunday evening gathering of the Friends of Covent Garden, said it was the duty of...

Little father PENELOPE HOUSTON The Sixth of July (Paris Pullman, `U') Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (Rialto, 'X') It is possibly slightly rough on the Russians that any...

Giddy heights HILARY SPURLING Whose Turn Next? (Cinoherni Klub at the Aldwych) Richard III (Stratford) Medea (Greenwich) Widowers' Houses (Royal Court) The Cinoherni Klub from...

or bust REGINALD 1VIAUDLING Reactions to a Budget normally come in two phases. There is the first shock, the delight with tax reductions, or more frequently, of late, the fury...

DAVID MONTAGU By Easter it is normal for the pantomime season to be over, but there is one par- ticularly tired piece of pantomime indulged in by politicians which has, I am...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT The City looked at Mr Jenkins's little gift horse in the mouth and rudely showed its disapproval. The post-Budget markets on the Stock Exchange were quick to...

JOHN CHOWN The selective employment tax, first intro- duced in the 1966 Budget, was originally designed to collect £600 million gross and to yield £315 million net. Since then...

Safe and sound? JOHN BULL The insurance industry is in a particularly troubled frame of mind at the moment. At home motor , business has suddenly become much more itifficult...

From D. H. Cameron, Lt-Col H. R. Pelly, George Henry, L. Clarke, Tibor Szamuely, R. W. Taylor, A. H. Samuel, Christopher Mohler, M. Doutrepont, Emrys Jones. The dwarfs of Lime...

Sir: As one who has lived in South Africa a good deal longer than Mr Douglas Brown, I found his 'Tennis balls, my liege' (4 April) not only well below the standard of his...

Sir: In his article 'A policy for the environ- ment' (11 April) Mr Heath expounds Con- servative views on problems such as clean air, noise, water resources and so on and asks...

Sir: Lajos Lederer (Letters, 11 April) 'flatly denies' Mr Ribicic's responsibility for the massacres described in my article. Such ex cathedra pronouncements, I fear, carry very...

Sir: Mrs Hilary Spurling speaks (18 April) of the 'revolution' in producing Restoration comedy which William Gaskill 'largely engin- eered' through his National Theatre Recruit-...

Sir: Whatever is happening to Winchester? How can your reviewer (18 April) pretend that he thinks so eminent and beloved a politician as Sir John Betjeman's Wykeham- ist is...

Mr Bigg's story JOHN WELLS This week we begin publication of the world's most wanted manuscript: the first- person story of the Great Newspaper Rob- ber MISTER BIGG. It has...

Sir: In his very fine review of Chomsky's book (II April), John Sparrow unfortunately repeats Chomsky's self-serving lie that he is 'conducting . . . a ceaseless campaign...

Sir: With regard to John Julius Norwich's comments on A History of the Crusades (21 March), I wish to inform you that at all times 'Liege' was written with an acute accent. It...

Sir: While sympathising with Mr George Gale (11 April) I feel obliged to contest cer- tain points which he made in that article. The taxes which Mr Gale complained of, on...

No. 602: Self-praise Set by Joyce Johnson: 'Scorn not the sonnet' wrote Wordsworth, and proceeded to laud it in sonnet form. Competitors are invited to contribute to the...

I Get rid of the receiver for protection? (7) 5 Falcons has e their favourite pursuits (7) 9 'The never taste of death but once' (J. Cursor) (7) 10 It happened when one wrote in...

PHILIDOR P. C. Thomson (1st Prize, ACM. 1940). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 487 (Barclay and Sweeney...