Political climate is an evasive thing, difficult to pin down, difficult to analyse, and difficult to assess. But in one important area of national life there has been a most...

In rejecting any form of import substitution or control, the Government has left itself with only the floating or, perhaps better expressed, sinking pound — which it...

Sir: Voraciously each week I swoop On Ogilvy's poetic scoop, That verse of April 12th though, jarred — Egad! He is a Euro-bard! To strike a balance, what about Objective...

Sir: My longish absence from your columns must not be taken as evidence of my endorsement of your varied and varying views about home and foreign affairs during recent months....

opinion' from the 'for and against' experts who are now busy trying to direct Our vote on the EEC is not easy. Without volumes of statistics, the salient points seem to be: 1....

Sir: Your columnist John Linklater ('A Woman, a dog and a walnut tree', The Spectator, April 19) reports accurately the content and factual results of my research, but seriously...

Sir: It is a pity that Mr lain Scarlet should be so ill-informed about lay magistrates and their training, in his article printed on March 22. The idea that lay magistrates are...

Sir: I have had to suspend my regular order for The Spectator three to four weeks ago due to rather serious illness, but I purchased a copy yesterday again, and felt compelled...

Sir: Whilst reading with interest Mr Jamieson's article: 'The Whiggery of Sir Keith Joseph' (April 12), I am forced to disagree with some of the points he makes. Mr Jamieson is...

Sir: As a member of SOGAT, employed part time by the MNG (Mirror Newspaper Group) I take exception to gilL Grundy's derogatory remarks about elderly SOGAT members and their...

Sir: Alec Stanley (April 12) utters the very "envious howls of the egalitarian left" mentioned by Dr Boyson. Envy used to be called a deadly sin, meaning deadly to those who...

Sir: Lord Balogh recently announced in the House of Lords that government income from North Sea oil could be as much as £4,000 million between now and 1980, together with some...

From the Dean of St Paul's Sir: Mr Nicolas Walter's courteous letter (April 19) calls for some reply from me. He suggests that my comparison between the evidence for the...

Sir: Seeing No 853 (Test question) Competition in The Spectator for the week ending April 5, I was reminded of an incident in my life about the age of five when I was poorly,...

Sir: As we were given to understand that Mr Shelepin was here on a private visit as a private guest of the TUC, we should now be told how much the continual police escort and...

Sir: Bernard Dixon states (April 12) that the Rutherford haboratory is seeking £25 million, with which it intends to promote further research into the structure of matter....

Sir: If The Spectator can steel itself to read through an apparent heresy and then read on, I'd like to commence by saying that Tony Benn is on the right track; but with his...

Sir: I have been appointed by the Shaw Estate as authorised biographer of George Bernard Shaw, and would like to hear from any readers who have letters or information that might...

Patrick Cosgrave Even my warmest admirer would never describe me as being outstandingly efficient in the conduct of my personal affairs. A negative judgement would be applied...

Why are newspapers so uncommonly secretive about themselves? If politicians acted as they do we would be accused instantly of trying to hide things from the public. The recent...

Samuel Pepys mentioned backgammon in his diary in 1665. So I will too. On the first real day of spring in London, sitting on the terrace in the sun with lobsters and champagne...

There are but few Men who are not Ambitious of distinguishing themselves in the Nation and of growing Considerable among those with whom they converse. There is a kind of...

and the maze of the capital transfer tax. Attentive listeners included Lord Dulverton, who is trying to restore large tracts of Scotland to agricultural use, and Dame Sylvia...

Friends of playwright Rodney Ackland were surprised to read in the Times Diary a week or two ago that he had gone off to "darkest Africa to preach his version of God to the...

Mr Kenneth Parker, respected editorial director of Cassell since 1964, has just been paid one of publishing's subtler compliments. He has been fired, along with twenty-odd...

Harold Lind Anyone who is convinced that Britain's membership of the EEC will bring about either a political millennium or a political catastrophe can stop reading now, since...

Oh! What a surprise! Our spirits will fall and then rise; For amiable Healey Has turned out quite mealy By cutting our spending to size. Sloshed up to the eyes! Our liquor he...

Sihanouk and Khmer Rouge Bill Manson The trouble with Sihanouk is you can't help liking the old B. Five years of war haven't really wiped out his naughty spoilt little boy...

Leslie Huckfield, MP Leslie Huckfield led the recent parliamentary delegation to Israel and had talks with the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary If Europe and the United...

Detente and the fall of Shelepin Gerald Segal The key issue to focus on in any attempt to analyse the departure of Alexander Shelepin from the Politburo ruling body of the...

By ROSS McWHIRTER I N an announcement in The Spectator on March 15 I told how a group of people, for whom I am the spokesman, had been meeting to discuss what can be done to...

Gilbert Ryle on French and Anglo-Saxon philosophy In this, the ninth volume of his fine History of Philosophy*, Professor Copleston, SJ, traces French philosophical thought...

Simon Jenkins London 800-1216: the Shaping of a City Christopher Brooke assisted by Gillian Keir (Seeker and Warburg £8.00) In most of the great old cities of Europe, the...

Jan Morris The Chief Eileen K. Wade (Wolfe Publishing £2.75) My grandfather, cherishing a probably quite unreasoned prejudice against the Scout Move ment, habitually insisted...

Richard Luckett Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg edited by Leonard Stein (Faber E17.50) It was Schoenberg'-s custom to protest when critics attempted to...

Nancy Banks-Smith The Gaiety Years Alan Hyman (Cassell £4.95) A review of Our Miss Gibbs was the first story ("Night of Delight at Barnoldswick") that I wrote for my first...

Edward Thorpe Making a Ballet Clement Crisp and Mary Clarke (Studio Vista £3.25) The Pre-Romantic Ballet Marian Hannah Winter (Pitman £1 . 0.00) A Loftier Flight Mary Grace...

Benny Green Contrary to the old motto, very few pictures are really worth a thousand words, and virtually none justify a whole book. Even so, books about films have now begun...

On top of the word Peter Ackroyd A Word Child Iris Murdoch (Chatto and Windus £3.00) I am not sure if the title of Iris Murdoch's latest annual is meant to describe the...

Education Will the nonsense never stop? Rhodes Boyson, MP Part of our current national disease is that we suffer from both overtaxation and over-legislation introduced by...

Rising Sun Bill Grundy If you've been into your newsagent lately to pay that ever-increasing paper bill, you may have noticed that pile of unsold Suns on the counter. Look...

Conquering boredom Philip Kleinman I always watch ITV. The programmes may not be up to much, but the commercials are wonderful. All right, that's a joke and a pretty stale...

Getting through Lain Scarlet Somebody told me the other day that penal reformers and publishers who put out "that kind of esoteric stuff" have a similar image: "They're...

Taming the H-bomb Bernard Dixon Power generation by detonating two hydrogen bombs undergound every day that is one of the latest and certainly zaniest notions yet to be...

Resisting temptation Martin Sullivan Christ, we are told, was tempted in all points as we are, and yet was without sin. The author of the anonymous epistle to the Hebrews puts...

Kenneth Hurren on the memory and the memorial Lenny by Julian Barry (Criterion Theatre) A Little Night Music, book by Hugh Wheeler, songs by Stephen Sondheim (Adelphi) Norman,...

Arthur Jacobs During the first interval, the bass who was singing the role of Doctor Bartolo pushed his way in front of the stage curtain and appealed to the audience to...

Regional operations Rodney Milnes One of the most encouraging facets of our national operatic life is the vigorous yet steady artistic development of the regional companies....

Nureyev's festival Robin Young Festival Ballet have rather more than a surefire hit in their new production, by Rudolf Nureyev, of Sleeping Beauty — which is to say, when they...

Kenneth Robinson Harry and Tonto Director: Paul Mazursky Stars: Art Carney, Phil Bruns, Ellen Burstyn, Larry Hagman 'A' Rialto (120 minutes). What Changed Charley Farthing?...

The Budget and the boom Nicholas Davenport The Stock Exchange was right to welcome Mr Healey's budget speech with a roaring rise in the FT index of nearly 40 points to 340. It...

Bernard Hollowood A lot of people seem to be worried about the social contract. Some don't know what it is and would like to. Others, realising that even the best things are...

You have heard more than enough about the rights and wrongs of the. budget by now, and cannot even afford to drown your sorrows. (Thank heavens no Chancellor has yet discovered...