(You could spend a weekend just deciding where to go.) Whichever part of Britain you choose to go away to, you'll find a Trusthouse Forte hotel nearby. In fact, there are...

Storm in a D - cup T wo senior RUC officers were mur- dered by IRA gunmen as they returned from a secret meeting with the Irish police; in recent weeks a spiral of sectarian re-...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 THE CHURCH'S CHANCE hen a national system of elementary education was...

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and Comic Art; can you draw properly if you want to?' at 6 p.m. on Wednesday 12 April at the house of the Royal Society for the Encourage- ment of Arts, Manufactures and Com-...

'Oh, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers?' NOEL MALCOLM E lections, as the old saw has it, are never won by the Opposition, but they are sometimes lost by the...

W hen I joined The Spectator in 1954 the Notebook, as it was then called, was written by 'Strix': Peter Fleming. I have forgotten why he chose to identify himself,...

Change and decay in all around I see AUBERON WAUGH T here was a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful picture in last Wednesday's Daily Mirror. Reporting on the Budget, and...

One would expect a Tory government to be sympathetic to historic institutions. Jahn Casey details its bad treatment of the universities and professions CONSIDER the following...

LAW AND ORDER. Often, this means 'the rope'. Lately we have seen much more law, and rather less order, so let us not have them linked together like love and marriage, or horse...

There are elections, of a sort wonders what they presage Moscow THIS Sunday, millions of Soviet workers, out of interest or curiosity, will go to their neighbourhood school or...

Anatol Lieven searches for a true national prophet among the competing Islamic factions Somewhere in Afghanistan FOR eight days we exchanged polite but guarded smiles. Maulavi...

THE strength of the feeling against Jews in Vienna is a little perplexing. On the 18th inst., seventeen elections to the Municipal Council were held, and eleven Councillors were...

The last thing El Salvador needed was electoral success for Arena, writes Ambrose Evans-Pritchard The assassin was chosen by drawing straws at a meeting held by Major Roberto...

Michael Heath

Mihir Bose found his name on a petition that he had never signed TWO weeks ago my name appeared in The Spectator at the bottom of a statement which I had never seen, or been...

Nigel Lawson is paying off the Germans should do it instead NIGEL Lawson's recent budget highlights the national debt. This now stands at £160 billion, and it costs £18 billion...

The last of our Lent series on English spiritual writers. I have lived to sec Reli g ion painted upon Banners, and thrust out of Churches, and the Temple turned into a...

Birmingham is suffering the effects of another construction boom. Richard West reports Birmingham SITTING next to me on the train from London were two young Asian women, one a...

. . . or almost £30 on The Spectator If you're forced to share The Spectator with fellow students, then you'll know how difficult it can be to track a copy down. Now you can...

The media: Paul Johnson examines the implications of a fighting word HOLY Week is an appropriate time to remind ourselves that Jesus was, in reality if not in name, put to...

Brief for NatWest's new counsel: credit delayed is credit denied CHRISTOPHER FILDES L ord Alexander of Weedon, the Desert Orchid of Lothbury, came galloping home in the...

THE cherry blossoms are out in Washing- ton, to welcome the finance ministers gathering there next weekend, but the financial economic climate is getting col- der. So the stock...

PAMELLA Bordes and I are doing re- search on the Net Book Agreement. My contribution is to spot a report from Peat Marwick McLintock, which says that if publishers insist on...

HERE is a new use for life assurance. From now on, it is for insuring your life. For years it has been for regular saving — with the life cover serving as the effective...

Sir: The article, 'The Pentagon plays chess' (28 January), contains several gross mis- conceptions and factual errors. The Deep Thought project is not entire- ly funded by...

Sir: Mr A. N. Wilson ('Time to turn to Labour', 11 March) laments the lack of investment in necessary public services by the Government. I do not agree with his solution that we...

Sir: Dominic Lawson's delightful story of Dick and Stephen White (Diary, 25 Febru- ary) brings to mind the story of how the American press found out about Richard Nixon's secret...

(11 March) sip its nectar at the table of Lady Antonia Fraser? Barbara Dorf 11 Pembridge Villas, London W11

Sir: Readers of Michael Trend's article ('Trickling Away', 4 February) can take comfort from the fact that the Christian Church has consistently maintained that baptism, unlike...

He is denied the full complement because it has taken ten years to grasp the elementary truth about Thatcherism. Three whole cheers for The Spectator. This may seem excessive...

Sir: I was greatly interested to read Aube- ron Waugh's article on Gavin Grant and the RSPCA's current campaign for a dog registration scheme (18 February). On 22 December last...

Sir: Michael Trend wonders who ('Schooled for success?', 11 March) Miss F. Horsburgh was that her picture should hang among those of the Ministers (now Secretaries of State) for...

Sir: Alas, Dinu Lipatti died when only 33, not 43 as stated in Noel Malcolm's other- wise excellent review (Books, 4 February). In his limited repertory he stood alone,...

Sir: I should be grateful if you would allow me the use of your correspondence col- umns to draw attention to the forthcoming centenary (October 1989) of the birth of the great...

Sir: I find myself wondering from time to time how particular actions of EEC bureaucrats and politicians are supposed to further the Community's principal aims. One such...

Sir: From various highly challengeable assertions and, I think, some plain errors in David Nokes's de haut en bas review of my life of Burke (Spectator, 14 January), may I...

I t is odd to think that politicians were once notorious for flattering the voters. Gladstone and Disraeli would compete in complimenting assemblies of working men on their...

9:26 I dreamt that I was Esther At a Purim carnival, And we strung up Haman high And his tears began to fall. Revenge gaped like a pit As we danced upon its jaw; He seemed a...

Anita Brookner THE GROWN-UPS by Victoria Glendinning Hutchinson, £11.95, pp.252 1 - 1 . eartlessly, effortlessly amusing, and with a touch of Weldonian snappiness, The...

Sara Maitland AIDS AND ITS METAPHORS by Susan Sontag Allen Lane/Penguin, £9.95, pp.95 C ompared to heart attacks, cancer, even road deaths, few people have died of Aids. Yet...

Democracy's Finest Hour Suppose, in AD 33, The People then had chosen well; That 'Give us Jesus!' they had cried And blown the Christian myth to hell! But, No! Barabbas was...

Geoffrey Robertson A PRICE TO HIGH by Peter Rawlinson Weidenfeld, fI6, pp.264 etachment is a professional virtue in D a barrister, but a rare quality in the writer of...

Michael Davie DADDY WE HARDLY KNEW YOU by Germaine Greer Hamish Hamilton, £13.95, pp.311 M s Greer's account of her search for her father makes a tremendous book. It opens...

Philip Glazebrook FIRE DOWN BELOW by William Golding Faber, £11.95, pp.3I3 A n enigmatic lady passenger aboard Mr Golding's leaky three-decker seventy- four (the crippled hulk...

While farmhands watched the box at night And supped their pints of ale, The newsroom unexpectedly Flashed an unlikely tale. Though warned 'Don't panic,' all the lads Were...

Jon Halliday TO THE RIVER KWAI: TWO JOURNEYS— 1943,1979 by John Stewart Bloomsbury, £13.95, pp.175 W hen the emaciated prisoners who had built the railway on the River Kwai —...

Exhibitions Heartfelt Giles Auty John Heartfield (Goethe-Institut, till 20 April) Dieter Hacker (Marlborough Fine Art, till 14 April) Wolfgang Koethe (Flowers East, till 16...

Unobtrusive conservative Robin Holloway F ranz Schmidt is the most complete instance since J. S. Bach of a historically uninevitable great composer whose legi- timacy is...

Franz Schmidt, 16-18 June; associated concerts include The Book with Seven Seals (Leeds Town Hall, 17 June).

Hamlet (Olivier) The Misanthrope (Bristol Old Vic) Without • the Prince Christopher Edwards 0 f all Shakespeare's tragedies, we have been so used to this one that we hardly...

Dangerous Liaisons (`15', selected cinemas) Pure wickedness Hilary Mantel L es Liaisons Dangereuses has become Dangerous Liaisons so that the American market will not be...

Centre for Contemporary Art Luigi Pecci (Prato) Italy goes contemporary Alistair Hicks T he city of culture is fast becoming a restorer's paradise. The legacy of Flor- ence's...

Stomach- Wendy Cope W hen P. J. Kavanagh expressed the opinion, a few weeks ago, that television critics should review the programmes that people actually watch, it reminded...

Oh, to be in Holland Ursula Buchan or many years, one of the more popu- lar destinations for British coach parties in the spring has been the bulbfields of Holland or, as the...

Pampered premier Taki he happiest people in all Greece are the manufacturers of Pampers, the nappy- makers whose product has been getting a tremendous amount of free publicity...

Living dangerously Jeffrey Bernard The trouble is I have other dependants too. Apart from 'Mad' Jock who sleeps beneath the awning of the Palace Theatre and who needs a pint...

Lock up your daughters Alice Thomas Ellis I have crept up on the following from every conceivable starting point and I cannot persuade it to make sense: 'Moral- ity has rested...

things guests say When confronted with a fine dish at dinner is: 'Whose birthday is it?' Look blank and they go on, don't think we've had asparagus since Angela's wedding...

A pleasant custom, widely ignored in this country, is to hold strong tournaments in memory of a great player of the past. The Russians have organised several such events to...

Spock in reverse Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1566 you were asked for an extract from a book of advice to worried children as to how to deal with parents (or a parent) during...

You are invited to produce a piece of plausible prose (approximately 150 words) in which every word begins with one of the first five letters of the alphabet. Entries to...

The unclued lights and those at 1D, 7, 13 & 30 are or were parliaments or legislative assemblies. Winners: Myra Stokes, Bristol (£20); H. A. N. Brown, Brighton; John Coleby,...

A first prize of 120 and two further prizes of 110 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...