T here was an air of déjà vu about last week's important Central Committee plenum in Moscow. An ailing and elderly Mr Andropov shuffled to the rostrum to deliver a long and...

T hadn't realised until I read the News of 1 the World last Sunday that we still have an official hangman, and a deeply frustrated one at that. Mr Harry Allen, who carried out...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 IRO 7.75 £18.50 E24.50 One year: £31.00 I R.C35.50 £37.00 £49.00 Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator and sent to...

Problems of Merseyside Auberon Waugh O ne of Mrs Thatcher's most enlightened actions in her' second administration 4.1 0 well prove to be the decision not to have a Cabinet...

Colin Welch O f the rising Mr Kinnock we all have a strong if superficial impression. We all know him to be Welsh, sharp, humorous, lowly in origin if not in ambition, a bit of...

Michael White T en days after the election a neighbour in the unemployed actors' belt of West London arrived with a curious story. His son, aged 13, had just decided to join...

Paul Johnson W riting in the Times on Monday, the most sensible of the Labour leaders, Gerald Kaufman, noted sombrely: 'Among all the challenges the Labour Party faces as it...

Washington It is the custom of the American press to cover English affairs as if they were something quaint and Lilliputian. Royal events get an awful lot of notice, as do off-...

Charles Glass Beirut T he man from Fateh told us that the mutiny against the leadership of Yasser Arafat was over. The rebels, he told us con- fidently as he leaned back on...

Lord Carnarvon made a very sensible speech on agricultural depression on Tuesday at Newbury, in which he deprecated the disposition to rely on Government for help in relation to...

Timothy Garton Ash Czestochowa T hey have come as pilgrims from all over Poland, marching softly through the night. Now at last they are massed on the meadow before the...

Richard West O ne of the harshest attacks I have ever read on the people who now govern South Africa was published in 1930 under the title Caliban in Africa. The author i...

Harry Eyres T he Sunday before last, at Queen's, Jimmy Connors was blasting John McEnroe out of existence. The familiar voice from the commentary box, as mature and mellow as...

Mr Lawson's agenda Jock Bruce-Gardyne T he day I signed on at the Treasury as Economic Secretary in September 1981 the Financial Times index fell 15 points, sterling almost...

The Belgrano incident Sir: Simon Jenkins's account, 'The truth about the Belgrano' (11 June) differs sharp - ly from the truth about the Belgrano in a re- cent book The Battle...

I I I I I London WCIN 2LL. I U I I I I I I I I I I I I I U U I I I I I U I open to non-subscribers I U I To: Introductory Offer, Subscription Dept, The Spectator, 56...

reasons for the sinking of the Relgrano credible (11 June)? He is naive if he does. Regardless of all the debate sur- r ounding Francis Pym and the Peruvian Peace plan, two...

debate.? After all, the people who are trying Sir: Is it not time to sink the whole Belgrano debate.? After all, the people who are trying to make capital out of it are the...

Sir: While John McEwen's art criticism is generally sounder and more consistent than most — his recent piece on Richard Long was excellent — I believe his reading of the Royal...

Sir: A letter (11 June) from John Cole's on- ly known fan, and just when we were hop- ing the BBC had begun to get the message — how very unfortunate! Richard Ingrams is of...

Sir: Mr Bruce Anderson is of course welcome to review a book in terms of per- sonal animus and indeed to tangle with me, if he thinks that altogether wise (18 June). But he must...

The wonderful youth Robert Blake The Younger Pitt: The Reluctant Transition John Ehrman (Constable £20) W illiam Pitt, the younger, was one of Britain's greatest Prime...

Caroline Dawnay Kings and Queens Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon (Dent £5.95) M emories of being read to as a child are always wintry ones. 'Salad Days' and The King and I' roared...

Francis King 0, How The Wheel Becomes It! Anthony Powell (Heinemann £6.95) T his is a rum title for a rum novel. Unlike such other Anthony Powell titles as Afternoon Men,...

Harriet Waugh The Watcher Charles Maclean (Allen Lane £7.95) Little Brother John McNeil (Century £7.95) Woman in Red Paula Gosling (Macmillan £6.50) Puppet for a Corpse Dorothy...

Peter Quennell Rainy Days at Brig O'Turk: The Highland Sketchbooks of John Everett Millais, 1853 Edited by Mary Lutyens and Malcolm Warner (Dalrymple Press £45) B ound in a...

Nigella Lawson Colette Joanna Richardson (Methuen £12.95) `W hat glosses or commentaries does a Colette book need?' wrote Henry de Montherlant in his Carnets; the same ques-...

A. N. Wilson Hymns Ancient & Modern New Standard 'The chief appeal of hymns is to the heart. They do not have to be great poetry to have great effect. Sung to a good tune,...

Gavin Stamp The Image of the Architect Andrew Saint (Yale £9.95) A chitects seldom lead very thrilling lives, so it is perhaps remarkable that members of the profession have...

Christopher Hawtree The Portable Edmund Wilson Edited by Lewis Dabney (Penguin £3.95) `H ave you found any professional criticism of your work illuminating or helpful? Edmund...

Beauty in the East Julie Kavanagh The Sleeping Beauty (Royal Ballet tour of Korea and China) T he Royal Ballet took The Sleeping Beauty to China because it was specifically...

In the dark Peter Ackroyd The Year of Living Dangerously ('PG', selected cinemas) T t begins with the shadows of demons mov- ing across a cloth; they turn out to be pup-...

Marriage lines Rodney Milnes Intermezzo (Glyndebourne) La Dori (Spitalfields) F rom a purely technical point of view, Glyndebourne's revival of Strauss 's aut obiographical...

Unrivalled Giles Gordon Inner Voices (National: Lyttelton) A Moon for the Misbegotten (Riverside) The Rivals (National: Olivier) Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (Kings...

Fighting fit Taki Munich T his is a city that was built for the arts; a centre of European culture, wit h some of the finest rococo and baroque architecture in the world....

Other things P. J. Kavanagh It will not have escaped the reader's attention that this column has so far avoided mentioning the election. (This col- umn does have a reader...

Drip feed Jeffrey Bernard I Was sorry I couldn't address you last week but I wasn't feeling very well. My ma n who dealt with my chest implied that I might have lung cancer and...

No. 1275: Disyllables Set by Jaspistos: You are invited to write a poem of from four to eight lines consisting entirely of two-syllable (to the ear) words. Entries to...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a short detective story in which Sherlock Holmes reaches a typically brilliant solution of the crime. I did say 'crime', so Basil...

A Prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 11 July. Entries to: Crossword 613, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL. ...........

sci 9A '1AAYAILEI2iRATE T NIHFA S L M 14 WHESSET LEDI -T 01011 L 5 I TENAGEMOT ATE I I F A T E A A .T H VEROL 1 1-4 tIP I T M O N 8 A N C E U PLUt1N Y N A U S A D N GMO_ A...

the £200 Chequers chess competition are still available at 88p (post paid) from Back Numbers, The Spectator, 56 Doughty St., London WC1N 2LL.

Plovdiv preview Raymond Keene Portorozh On June 24 (Friday) the European Team C hampionship starts in Plovdiv, tiulgaria. Our team is: Miles, Nunn, Speelman, Mestel, Keene,...

A t the postponed European Community summit meeting in Stuttgart, the Prime Minister expressed satisfaction at the agree- ment to give Britain a refund of £450 million on its...

R.W. CAMPBELL: any books by, particularly `The Making of Micky McGhee' (Allen & Un- win) and 'Sergeant Spud Tamson' (Hutchinson). E.M. Campbell, 18 Lower Park Rd, Hastings, E....

Published by the Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1 N 2LL. Typesetting by Websters Press (Graphics) Ltd, 60-66 Saffron Hill, London E.C.1. Printed by the Chesham Press...

Volume 250 January—June 1983 :! rt L zziverjty DEO . 14 1983 Library „. 4. 4. * Published by The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL

TI A) ARTICLE AR) THE ARTS AV) ANOTHER VOICE C) IN THE CITY CO) COMPETITION I) ILLUSTRATION LA) LEADING ARTICLE ) LETTER N) NOTEBOOK P) POEM PC) POLITICAL COMMENTARY PS...