T he number of governments forbidding their countries' athletes from competing in the Commonwealth Games rose to 30, including those of India, Zambia, Zim- babwe, Guyana and the...

MR EDWARD Heath told the House of Commons last week, `If one comes finally to having to go for full sanctions I do not see how they could possibly be enforced without a...

THE Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres's surprise summit meeting with King Hassan II of Morocco should not be compared too closely to Anwar Sadat's trip to Jerusalem in 1977....

THE QUEEN'S ALIEN CIRCLE L ast week, Mrs Thatcher and her Gov- ernment were in a very difficult position. Her opposition to economic sanctions against South Africa had isolated...

Thatcherites who would prefer to be without Thatcher BRUCE ANDERSON L ast October, who could have pre- dicted that by this summer recess the main political issues would have...

r Terence Wheldon, the solicitor dealing with Philip Larkin's estate, says that his diaries were burnt shortly after his death but that he will proceed 'at a leisurely pace...

Beginning to waver towards the idea of indolence AUBERON WAUGH atching The Cocktail Party on Thursday night at the Theatre Royal, in Bath — it moves to the West End this week...

The Queen seems to be ready to confront Mrs Thatcher. Charles Moore examines the roots of the monarch's obsession with her Headship of the Commonwealth ON HER 21st birthday in...

Stephen Robinson returns to a Britain which over-simplifies South Africa SINCE my return from South Africa three weeks ago many people have asked me if South Africa is really...

Sir, — You often give us pleasant anecdotes of our four-footed friends. You may think the following worthy of record. I have a little dog, a not particularly well-bred fox...

Richard West discovers an English pioneer in the Philippines, and finds the Irish critical of him Iloilo, Philippines ON REACHING Panay Island from Neg- ros, over the Guimaras...

THE MARQUIS AND THE PLOUGHMAN Shirley Robin Letwin asks what class is, and finds it generally misunderstood JUST when the demon class began to ravage the land is difficult to...

James Naylor watches the violence outside the ring at the Frank Bruno fight FOR far too long, those who administer the popular British sports have tried to blame a mysterious...

James Innes on the man who wins by-elections for the Liberals by unorthodox methods ANDREW Ellis is 34 years old, stands 6' 4" and is Secretary General of the Liberal Party....

Brian Inglis remembers a former editor of the Spectator, who died last week THE Manchester Guardian's London office in the early 1950s was a nest of talented young...

The media: Paul Johnson complains about the bullying of television viewers over South Africa ONE of the consequences of the lack of competition in our duopoly television sys-...

Promises, promises: or, the importance of being honest CHRI S T 0 PHER FILDES f Ernest Saunders is worth his weight in gold, he will come out on the bullion scales at about...

ROBERT Maxwell buys shares in the way other people take pot shots at clay pigeons: whirr, bang, tinkle. He will have enjoyed the marksmanship that brought down five per cent of...

LATEST excuse for the stock market shake-out (as if it needed excusing) is dissent between the Government and the Sovereign — the first time this has knocked shares, says a...

I CANNOT see why Ralph Harris should want a break, just because he has been toiling away in his shirt-sleeves and plum- coloured waistcoat for 30 years, changing the way we all...

Uncle Sam wants to pass the parcel JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE C W e need some help.' That was the message, directed primarily to Bonn, from US Treasury Secretary James Baker last...

Sir: J. M. Synge had Hodgkin's disease for several years, culminating in an inoperable stomach tumour which led to his death at the age of 37 in 1909. He never suffered from...

Sir: Since I associate myself, wholeheartedly, with the views expressed by Mr Auberon Waugh (Another voice, 12 July) I, too, by the definition expressed by Judith Askham...

Sir: I have not yet seen the Commons Defence Select Committee's report on the Mayhew letter leak, but I believe that the Brittan-Bowe-Ingham exercise illustrates the supreme...

invited material on Wilkie Collins to be sent should have read 45 Chalfont Road, Oxford.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - At 20% off the Cover Price! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I my cheque for f enclose (Equivalent $US & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months...

The causes of Suez J. Enoch Powell FROM THREE WORLDS by William Clark Sidgwick & Jackson, f13.95 A fter 30 years the memory which abides with me of the Suez episode that...

Anita Brookner THE WOMEN OF GUINEA LANE by Gabriel Fielding Hutchinson, £9.95 abriel Fielding made his debut as a novelist in the 1950s and immediately impressed as a...

Colin Thubron LIFE AND DEATH IN SHANGHAI by Nien Cheng Grafton, f12.95 0 ne of the most surprising aspects of China's Cultural Revolution is that so little memorable...

Mary Clive `IN SOCIETY': THE BRIDESHEAD YEARS by Nicholas Courtney Michael Joseph, £14.95 I t all all depends on what you mean by `society' and what you mean by 'in'. Was...

Raymond Carr ARGENTINA 1516-1982: FROM SPANISH COLONIZATION TO THE FALKLANDS WAR by David Rock I. B. Tauris, £24.50 A STATE OF FEAR by Andrew Graham-Yooll Eland, £9.95 hat...

Anthony Blond MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD: A PIONEER IN SEXOLOGY by Charlotte Wolff Quartet, £25 The married man who seduces the governess of his children remains free, as free as the...

Anthony Storr ROSSINI by Richard Osborne Dent, £14.95 S chopenhauer, who thought that music was the most serious and profoundly signi- ficant of all the arts, considered that...

Laurence Lerner ESSAYS ON SHAKESPEARE by William Empson Cambridge, £25, £7.95 E mpson was a professor, but he had all the qualities that academics are often accused of lacking:...

Fiction The Battle of Pollocks Crossing by J. L. Carr, Penguin, £1.95 A Day in Summer by J. L. Can, Hogarth Press, £3.95 Jacques and His Master by Milan Kundera, Faber, £3.95...

The Proms Big and beautiful Peter Phillips 0 n the day that Bill Athey scored 142 not out for England, and I, after much tribulation, finally passed my General Flying Test,...

Hannah and Her Sisters (`15', Odeon Leicester Square) The joke wears thin Peter Ackroyd W oody Allen has now been cano- nised, at least by the cinematic establish- ment; but...

Dybbuk (Almeida) Ghost story Christopher Edwards H ere is an opportunity to see Bruce Myers's brilliant adaptation of Anski's Yiddish classic, The Dybbuk. The original work,...

Educating the arty Giles Auty T here is probably no practice on earth so attractive to foolish theory and propo- sals as art education. During the few years when I taught,...

Impolite fiction Noel Malcolm D esert Island Discs showed a good sense of timing when it chose to interview Sir Geoffrey Howe last week. For once, there were no questions...

is expanding its advertisement sales department. It is looking for: 1. Someone with previous experience of selling direct to clients and advertising agencies, capable of...

And so to bed Ursula Buchan B edding-out began as the exercise and diplay of economic muscle. A large gar- den full of half-hardy annuals said a great deal about its owner: he...

This is the first of a summer series of lithographs of the Kent and Sussex seaside by Alan Powers, entitled Views of the South Coast. The series has been commissioned by the...

Bails of plasticine Alexander Chancellor I t is both frustrating, and in a way a relief, that my deadline for this column precedes the eve-of-wedding television interview with...

For better, for worse Taki I am not one for big weddings. The idea of signing away one's liberty in front of all those people seems almost obscene. Girls, however, cannot do...

After the party Alice Thomas Ellis We had what I hope I may describe as a most enjoyable luncheon party yesterday. I rose at dawn to cook the potatoes and keep an eye on the...

Travellers' tales Jeffrey Bernard after all. I came home last week, though, to find I have been served with a bankrupt- cy order. You win some, you lose some. way , the...

,,,Ortt,J0L .0%6JY ..ortfk., rot I HAVE been going to weddings every week this month, all those children of what seems yesterday have turned into ravishing lasses and strapping...

Preparations Raymond Keene ary Kasparov has two great mentors — Alekhine and Botvinnik. Alekhine's brilliant games inspired him, but Kasparov has experienced the exceptional...

Telecrostic Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1430 you were asked to invent a telegram from a well-known Person (alive or dead) to a contemporary, together with the reply, the...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) will be awarded for the first...

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An old favourite returns. A poem, please, in which the rhyme-words are as follows and in this order: going, good, showing, should, lazy, crazy, tiff, if, unclenching, say,...