Obscurely and imperfectly and subject to aberrant freakishness, the House of Commons strives to represent the nation. On occasion the Commons anticipates the will of the people,...

I don't much mind the TV and press deliberately excluding anti-Market news, and deliberately playing down the efforts and impact of anti-Market MPs. That, after all, is to be...

One of the lessons of the miners' strike was that the Emergency Committee of the Cabinet did not function very well — partly because none of its members were certain about...

The voice of moderation is far from still in the Republic of Ireland. Some people there find it possible to combine the anger and outrage they feel at the Londonderry shootings...

Some power cuts are more heartless than others. On Sunday week last I sat, accompanied by a twelve-year-old, watching the final episode of the BBC's splendid Sunday serial of...

I see that Lord Windlesham, the able, energetic and amiable Minister of State at the Home Office, is to become overlord of government activities in relation to the voluntary...

24 Hours et al. Gyles Brandreth Chaos has enveloped the BBC's Current Affairs Department of late. Superficial chaos, born out of the necessity of moving Panorama, 24 Hours and...

lerence Prittie' calls Adenauer " the one g e r eat e Ad German statesman of the twentieth A -it urY." But just how great was rTenauer') What did his greatness consist titi e "...

James Blish Richard Ellmann Ulysses on the Liffey (Faber £3.50) In a preface, Professor Ellmann, Joyce's biographer, declares: "A recent writer on Joyce has said that after...

From Laurance Reed MP Sir: In " Political Commentary " (February 19) Hugh MacPherson refers to the commitment I made in the Bolton Evening News, on the eve of the last...

Sir: I feel that I must write in appreciation of the Spectator's masterly leader on the Iniquitous (Common Market) Bill. It concisely expresses the views reached after long...

Sir: It is always irritating to see an interesting argument marshalled in false or unworthy terms. Mr Attwood-Wood's letter contains a pretty example of false analogy backed by...

From: Dr John A. H. Wylie Sir: Some weeks ago you lent me me generously of your space to state my views concerning some of the televisual fare proferred by the BBC. May I...

From Professor John J. O'Meara Sir: My attention has been called to the paragraph under the above heading in your issue of February 12. You write that 'in making the appointment...

Sir: Having just read Tibor Szamuely's article on the BBC programme The File on the Tsar' (February 5) I .find myself totally confused. I feel sure that he must realise that the...

the mark in his reference to Mowbrays Bookshops, when previewing Jacques Monod's Le Hasard et la Necessite. When we decided to turn our shop at 28 Margaret Street, London, into...

Sir: As the former director of the Albany Trust responsible for the decision to refer Albany Trust casework to the Samaritans (only about 60 per cent of it, incidentally,...

Front the Rev J. M. C. Yates Sir: Aided and abetted by the critics, publishers sometimes quote extracts from reviews to show that their latest products are the last words in...

• Sean Connery's return as James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever (Odeon, Leicester Square and Kensington, and New Victoria) is such a sell-out that it was inevitable that someone...

John Cranko's Poe,me, l'extase is a b a l let which cries out for ., applause and the reception it got fro m audience at t h e Royal Opera House was nothing short of rapturous....

Thete could be no doubt about the genuineness of the tributes from all sides of the House of Commons to Sir Keith Joseph last week when he presented his report on administration...