G as was found off Bournemouth. The Liberal Party's strategists said that ambiguities in their party's relations with the SDP needed quickly to be resolved. Interest rates fell...

An unpopular front I n Monday's Guardian, Mr John Evans, who is Labour MP for St Helens and shadow minister for employment and in- dustrial relations, described how he was...

M r Bill Sirs is 'absolutely astonished' that the National Dock Labour Board could not decide whether the Ostia should be unloaded at Hunterston or not. . After all, the steel...

I f Mr James Prior becomes, as is ex- pected, the new chairman of GEC when he finally leaves his post as Northern Ireland Secretary, he will be following in the footsteps of...

W e are all, in our weak moment. Peter Preston.' Who makes this - r d ) . l Ying attack on the editor of the Guar- _ 1 . 4 0 Not some reader upset that the jailor allows...

T he travails of Mrs Geraldine Ferraro have rendered Mr Walter Mondale's campaign even more hopeless than it was already. As yet the only failings that can be attributed to her...

Air mail £17.25 £20.50 £26.50 £34.50 £41.00 £53.00 For special offer turn to p.14 Name Address .... US Subscriptions: $75.00 (Airspeed). The Spectator is published weekly by...

Caliban at Blackpool Auberon Waugh D avid Dimbleby's exclusion from the BBC's team of commentators at this year's party conference came as a great relief to those of us who...

A s readers of this diary may remember, Wivenhoe is having trouble with its port, which has been greatly expanded in recent months with grim consequences, such as fleets of...

Christopher Hitchens Paphos ach country affects headline and cap- tion writers in a different but similar way. If the subject is some crisis in French diplomacy, then you can...

Stan Gebler Davies Kinsale, Co. Cork T he barmen were to go on strike in Dublin, and there was panic. An agency of the state let slip the interesting fact that We do after all...

Probably the most important piece of news in the week — at least, admitting that it is in every respect authentic — is the account of the successful steering at Meudon, near...

Richard West Barnsley, Yorkshire A local journalist told me that, during the miners' strike, now nearing the half year mark, 'Barnsley has been in the eye of the storm'. This...

Raymond Keene rrigran Petrosian, world chess champion from 1963-69, died in Moscow last week, at the age of 55. He had been seriously - ill for the past year and quite...

J. B. Priestley B. Priestley, who died last week at the age of 89, wrote his first article for the Spectator in 1922. It appeared in the issue of 14 Octo- ber, a review of...

Peter Levi In all the recent excitement about travel books the one that gave me greatest pleasure is a new one in Greek by Zesimos Lorenzatos, an elderly essayist and literary...

The Spectator for twelve months and receive free THE GAMES WAR A Moscow Journal by Christopher Booker Open to non-subscribers or to those who want to take out a gift...

A victorious witchhunt Paul Johnson T he National Union of Journalists have won a notable victory in their witch- hunt against David Dimbleby. I have written about this odious...

H ere comes the chance to buy a stake in the London theatre. Not, that is, as an angel — one of the eternally hopeful, occasionally rewarded long-shot punters who put money into...

S ay au revoir to your cow, but not goodbye. She will return to you after many days, transformed after a long and subsidised sea voyage. This is the advice from Smithfield,...

H ow deep. how post-prandial, just now, is the calm of the Treasury, and how sudden the eructations that disturb it! They signal discomfort ahead, and the need to endure a...

I Vs feeding time at Guernsey Zoo, where they are looking for companies to spon - sor the animals. Just send £1,000, and they will put your company's name on any enclosure whose...

Sir: Gavin Stamp (Letters, 18 August) has misunderstood my perhaps over-concise statement of the changes in the status of the Soane Museum. I must emphasise that the Museum is...

Sir: Paul Johnson (The press, 18 August) is a little out of date when he says that 'Phone-tapping, in practice, is virtually confined to government and its agencies.' He is no...

Shares for all Sir:• Christopher Fildes's note 'A wider circle' (City and Suburban, 18 August) does little justice to the unprecedented steps which the Government is taking to...

Sir: Does your cookery correspondent Digby Anderson (11 August) suffer from birdcage palate? Besides all that macho nonsense about stinking game, he appears to condone smoking...

Sir: Geoffrey Wheatcroft (Diary, 11 Au- gust) objects to the Chinese capital being known in the West as Beijing. At the risk of a charge of didacticism, may I point out that the...

Sir: Anyone who questions the plausibility of Virginia Moriconi's view of history, as summarised by Roger Lewis (Books, 14 July), should turn to Philip Warner's re- view of...

Sir: If anyone can persuade me to cough up £35 for Dr Robinson's Georgian Model Farms, it's Gavin Stamp (Books, 11 Au- gust). But is he really so sure 'no pise cottages survive...

me infinitely sad. As an American who has for the last two years enjoyed the friendliness and hospitality of the people of what in truth must bd one of the most lovely countries...

Sir: While I am sure Michael Trend in- tended no ill in welcoming Peter Charlton's study of Stainer (Books, 14 July), I think he might have spared us the suggestion that...

Sir: I agree with Richard West's view ('The Irish example', 11 August) that the ex- travagance and shortsightedness of Irish politicians have brought the Irish economy close to...

Sir: How sad that J.L. Bradley (Letters, 1 8 August) should have chosen this moment to declare his dislike of Taki's writing! The fun of life is that few of us see the same view...

Sir: Two of your contributors in the 18 August issue seem to have gone astray. Andrew Brown (Pit for the unwary) writes of `Shirwell' Colliery supported by Frank Machin's NUM...

Hell starts to freeze Colin Welch L ong before the fall of Constantinople the Greek Phanariot community had made peace with their prospective con- querors. They regarded the...

Defender of the Faith • Thomas Szasz Freud: The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (Faber & Faber £9.95) I n every...

Patrick Skene Catling The Best of Modern Humour Edited by Mordecai Richler (Allen Lane £10.95) T here are two seasons of the year when publishers offer books which are sup-...

Mary Hope Voices in an Empty Room Francis King (Hutchinson £8.95) F rincis King's craft is now such, that embarking on his latest novels is like getting into a superbly...

ONE PAIR OF HANDS by Monica Dickens and 'Young Men in Spats' by P. G. Wodehouse. M. MacAndrew, Holmwood House. Mid Holm- wood. Dorking, Surrey. THE FLY PAPER by John Gilbert....

Peter Ackroyd The Time of the Assassins: A Study of Rimbaud Henry Miller W ith an introduction by Anthony Burgess (Quartet £7.95) H enry Miller's essential view of Arthur n...

Nicolas Walter William Godwin Peter H. Marshall (Yale University Press £14.95) W illiam Godwin achieved fame and fortune with two books — An En- quiry Concerning Political...

Timothy Garton Ash Putting Up with the Russians, 1947-1984 Edward Crankshaw (Macmillan £12.95) T his collection of Edward Crankshaw's essays and reviews is a deep breath of...

Clement Dodd Arab and Regional Politics in the Middle East P. J. Vatikiotis (Croom Helm £19.95) p rofessor Vatikiotis has gathered together a selection of his many articles on...

Artemis Cooper The Quixotes: Short Stories R. C.Hutchinson, Edited by Robert Green (Carcanet Press £8.95) 101 C. Hutchinson showed a shop- assistant the sort of jacket he...

Technology Rodney Milnes A ccording to Bayreuth tradition, new Ring productions improve at their second showings — this was certainly true of the Chereau staging — so I was...

Monochrome Peter Ackroyd Broadway Danny Rose ('PG', selected cinemas) A nother film in black and white! This is becoming a fad, and one begins to suspect the motives of those...

Couched Maureen Owen or his new six-week series of In the 1' Psychiatrists's Chair (Radio 4, Satur- days 7.05 p.m.), Dr Anthony Clare went to America where he interviewed a...

Papier-mdché Christopher Edwards Butley (Fortune) Heart of Darkness (Gate at the Latchmere) T he new production of Butley, at the Fortune Theatre, is a depressing revi- v a...

Well-placed Taki I t begins right after Wimbledon ends. At Annabel's, at Harry's Bar, during weekends in the country. It is always the same question, and it's asked more often...

Bits and pieces Peter Levi T he BBC has lost ground to commercial television because the commercial sta- tions are thought to be funnier, so it is about to recover the ground...

Puritan Jeffrey Bernard T he puritanical streak is the deep-seated , spinal cord which runs through every 'ow-lifer. There's nothing like the pleasure of throwing stones in...

Brotherhood P. J. Kavanagh T ong afterwards, what I most clearly L./remember about a trip to Russia — to Leningrad — is two visits to a Russian Orthodox service. One tires, in...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a richly Johnsonian comment, in verse , on the modern scene. In Skye Boswell wrote in his journal: showed to Dr Johnson verses in...

Harry's game Raymond Keene A lthough it is outstanding perform- ances by young players which normal- ly attract the headlines (such as Michael Adams's draw with Kasparov, or...

No. 1335: Women's lit. Set by Jaspistos: Browsing at a station bookstall, I noticed a women's magazine offering two stories entitled 'Beware the Office Romeo' and 'Blonde for a...

Prize: £10 – or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 edition (ring the word 'Dictionary' under name and address) – for the first correct solution opened on 10 September. Entries...

Vb RP IN AV I '15 T T E NIUf0IO 'I A N A S ELII AIM! I Bi!■S 1 1.: 4 E S E L IA 0 E GCELLtPUTTER TIGEtEl4P14ECULE0 GINER ANTERiORGO PF G 1 , A 4 1 1 N A U1NTEIL N...

Wine Club Auberon Waugh F rom bitter experience I tend to be extremely sceptical when a wine mer- chant tells me, four years after a poor vintage, that he has revised his...

c/o 12 Helmet Row, London EC1V 3QJ Telephone (01) 251 4051 PRODUCT PRICE NO. OF VALUE CASES 1. Chateau de Moines, Lalonde 12 bots. £49.09* a Pomerol 1980 (Moueix) or £44.09 2....