Lord Lambton's resignation and subsequent statement provide a textbook example of how such things should be done. He becomes tangled Up with a call-girl; surreptitious...

• It is very likely that the next six months will determine the result Of the next general election. The recognition that this is so clarifies the minds of politicians...

Notebook On Wednesday, after question time, the House of Commons, and particularly Tory backbenchers, waited eagerly for a statement by the Prime Minister on what is now known...

We had a pleasant and sentimental, if somewhat sad, occasion at The Spectator offices last week, when a farewell dinner was held for Edward Deacon, our retiring circulation...

Sir Harry Legge-Bourke, former chairman of the Conservative 1922 Committee, and perhaps the last of the knights of the shire, died on Monday, after a long illness. In the...

Dr Who, in the person of Jon Pertwee, began a new adventure last Saturday, in the company of his steadfast assistant Jo Grant and the inimitable if bone-headed Brigadier...

also watched the England-Scotland matc h in the Home International series. It %viol thrilling match, in which Scotland plaYe u well above themselves, and England at sonic; thing...

Wilson's little bit of sunshine Patrick Cosgrave 4 „ It hough the generalisation to the effect that Gov ernments lose elections rather than op r/ P s itions winning is true...

Christianity and homosexuality Lord Soper interviewed by Peter Storey Peter Storey: How do you think the Christian churches view the problem of homosexuality today and how do...

Flagrant misreading Louis Claiborne Mr Louis Heren, writing in the Times week on "The long road to impeachnie l4 has grossly misrepresented my views, re ed last week in the...

Cosgrave in charge John O'Sullivan No party leader has ever faced a less daunting task than Mr Liam Cosgrave, the Irish Prime Minister, last Saturday when he addressed the...

PUZZLE FINDS THAT any scandal involving a minister inevitably raises questions of security, whatever its real nature. Tories naturally expect that the fellow-travellers and...

iceberg Tony Palmer er . Death Cap June Thomson (Constable 1„e £2.00) if i .der on a Dying Day John Dunn (David 'Ice and Watson E2.00) L . r ernember when working with Jonathan...

John Groser The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam (Barrie and Jenkins V1.50). Conditioned as we are by the political pipe dream — the white heat ot the tech nological...

Jan Morris The Missionaries Geoffrey Moorhouse (Eyre Methuen 0.95). Close your eyes and think of missionaries, and what do you see? Perhaps a flaming miir-. tYr. Possibly a...

Ronan Fanning Roger Casement Brian Inglis (Hodder and Stoughton £4.50) On February 23, 1965, the remains of Roger Casement, hanged for treason in Pentonville Prison for his...

Liam Hourican Drums in My Ears Benny Green (Davis Poynter £2.50) This book has a nondescript title and an air ot having been thrown together with no verY urgent critical...

Clare Boothe Luce Stephen Shadegg (Leslie Frewin £3.33) "In the beginning," writes Stephen Shadegg with the solemnity of the Republican sense of immortality, "the great game of...

Bookbuyer This Sunday marks the beginning of a . publishing era. It is on that curiously chosen day that Russia joins the Universal Copyright, Convention, which means, in very...

Kenneth Hurren on sugar cake and a bird on the wing The idea of reviving No. No, Nanette doubtless appealed to its promoters because of an excited calculation that it would get...

The other Don Rodney Eines Of all the plays that Verdi tui- jo into operas, Schiller's Don Cw' iti is surely the greatest, with„:0 powerful mixture of three 4 " . 8 1...

Hooked on fishing Clive Gammon The Philpott File on BBC 2 has been concerning itself with the sporting life: this week fishing was the subject. Fishing itself is almost...

Tea and sympathy Christopher Hudson Producer, director and screenwriter — that's super-talented Melvin Frank, one of the few triple-threat geniuses in the movie business....

I have good news for Bernard Delfont. A projected follow-up to Hitler — The Last Ten Days, called The Last Days of Dr Goebbels has been abandoned, or at least postponed,...

Martial obsession Evan Anthony Before you impetuously (and foolishly) decide to give away your last toy soldier, I suggest you visit the Wildenstein Gallery, New Bond Street,...

Benny . Green To any man who appreciates a well-turned melody, it was highly gratifying to see how, on the occasion last week of Irving Berlin's eighty-fifth birthday, everyone...

Unseen discrimination Michael Meacher Whether the people of Hartlepools have the worst teeth in the country is not known, but they certainly have the lowest ratio Of dentists...

Technological priorities Bernard Dixon Next Sunday, hordes of boffins and politicians from throughout the world will gather in The Hague for the First International Congress...

Not in Parkinson Denis Wood When my friend Maud bought an old cottage in the country she began at first to develop the-garden in a fairly conventional way, but eccentricity...

Swift spring Peter Quince • One by. one themilestones of spring slip past. The usual hesitant shift from winter to summer seems to speed up in these very mild years, so that...

The Cinderella subject Pamela Vandyke Price As a topic, gastronomy is tough. It has to be: British puritanism, shuddering from the gratification of an appetite as simple as...

,Snadow over the City Nicholas Davenport It is always said that in some industrial democracies free enterprise works better when palms are greased. Certainly, when that...

Stepping out with K John Bull There are some in the UK shoe industry who say that the manufacturing process should be left to. foreigners who do the job better and cheaper....

For want of anything better to do, I idly flipped through a glossy little pamphlet that arrived in my post this week. It was the presidential address of Mr Ian Maclean at the...

Probing deep Mr Wotherspool As a merriber of - ale Stock Exchange few facts to emerge from the Lonrho court case have shocked me, with the exception perhaps that Duncan...

Sir, — I have been surprised and rather concerned by the lack of comment in your columns concerning the French Nuclear Tests. Apart from your editorial on the Commonwealth,...

Sir, — My first response to Mr Tony Palmer's comments on my novel The Send-off (one can hardly call it a review, since .in sixty-eight lines he never mentions what the book is...

Sir, — As the person who drafted the letter, the contents of whigh Mr Mark Braham (May 19) has referred to as " puerile over-simplification, malicious over-statement," and...

as part of a peace treaty she will give full compensation and help with rehabilitation to the Arab refugees. This is a very unusual move for a victorious country, particularly...

Sharp Edge sailed in at the Curragh and the great classic success story goes rolling on. Admittedly his eventual starting price of 5-2 was nothing to shout about, but at least...

From Lord Barrington Sir: I was interested, but puzzled,' by Madeline Simms' questidn to Mr Collis in her letter of May 12. She asked him to explain what advantage he supposed...

Sir: It may well be that others not less kind-hearted and tolerant than Mr D. Watkins, even if less convinced of their possession of these admirable qualities, are also tired of...

letter to you as an attack on bachelors. As it happens, I am a bachelor; and there are few things I need less than the smug, impertinent, ' sympathy ' and ' understanding' of...

Sir: Everything John Rowan Wilson says in his column about sex (May 19) is true except for his reference to our magazine. Sexual counselling and therapy do indeed remain "one of...

I think the phrase 'group sex' is somewhat inaccurate. The objection is that the film has the effect of making group therapy sessions and ' encoun, ter ' techniques seem like...