T he legal right of parents to choose their children's schools was upheld in the High Court after a challenge by the Com- mission for Racial Equality. The EEC demonstrated its...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 A TIMELY INSULT T here are many possible reasons for feeling glad at...

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The party waits for Mrs Thatcher to answer the national question SIMON HEFFER B eing Mrs Thatcher at the moment can- not be an entirely enjoyable experience. Hardly a day...

L ast week our car was snatched by the police. Actually it was not our car. The week before the roof of our car, a converti- ble, was slashed by a thief. It was a rented car...

Now perhaps we can have a Royal Commission on the Gibraltar shootings AUBERON WAUGH T he Broadcasting Act, by which Inde- pendent Television franchises were last week...

Watching the IMF in Bangkok, Michael Lewis decides that money is too important to be left to bankers Bangkok THE CROWD in the hall outside the prin- cipal G-7 meeting rooms...

Janine di Giovanni finds the Ethiopian Jews still baffled by life in Israel Zefat, the Galilee THERE IS a very bad but telling joke in Jerusalem: since the olim, the recent...

Marek Matraszek describes the strange rise of Lech Walesa's former chauffeur Warsaw LECH Walesa does not rule Poland. Nei- ther does the prime minister, Mr Krzysztof Bielecki....

MR. BALFOUR has been making a few not very important speeches at Manchester, on Education and the de - fensive organisation of the Kingdom, but has said nothing of any...

Michael Heath

MANY of my patients are like Wagner: they have their good moments but their bad quarters of an hour. I have a patient whose torrential loquacity leaves my head spinning, but who...

Sousa Jamba believes that President Kaunda should go whatever the outcome of Zambia's elections ZAMBIANS at last have an opportunity to dethrone His Excellency Dr Comrade...

Edward Whitley tries to unravel the enigma of Britain's most elusive press baron FEELINGS run high against Robert Max- well and Rupert Murdoch, two press barons who have been...

But, as William Dalrymple describes, the future of the Borders' hill farmers is less certain Kelso, the Borders THEY closed the local school a few years back. Now the bus...

A reader saw this in a Brittany Ferries' 1991 brochure DELIGHTFUL CROSSINGS AND DELICIOUS CROISSANTS Each year, more and more people choose to travel to France and Spain with...

Paris is still worth a Mass, just PAUL JOHNSON A short trip to Paris to see the Geri- cault exhibition at the Grand Palais. No one ever painted horses better, and the show was...

Sir: James Le Fanu's article (`The doctor's dilemma', 12 October) certifies the NHS internal market as dead. I believe that reports of its death have been greatly exag-...

Sir: I was shocked to read Antony Lambton's article on the return of Every- man (Books, 5 October) with its tasteless comments about Lord Weidenfeld and the company I work for....

Sir: In Henry Porter's article, 'Keeping up appearances', (12 October), he twice likens Lloyd's to a casino. My understanding is that the function of a casino is to fleece the...

Sir: Charles Moore's article, (`Time for a more liberal and "racist" immigration poli- cy', 19 October) confuses two very different groups of people. Those who seek asylum and...

Sir: Pamela Riley claims (Letters, 19 Octo- ber) that I refer to myself as a `kid' at 32. I do not. I was referring to my staff at the Modern Review — 'a bunch of kids' who...

Sir: London Weekend Television enjoyed the suggestion that it is, in Martyn Harris' words, central to the BBC's conception of itself (`. . the BBC exists to make pro- grammes...

and white'. On this basis, he argues for a more racist immigration policy. Mr Moore is clearly English-speaking and white. He is articulate and intelligent. He is also inhu-...

Sir: Paul Johnson (And Another Thing, 19 October) is correct in his recognition of the viral spread of Political Correctness. As a graduate student in the Business School of the...

Sir: I have long admired your 'Unlettered' column and wonder whether your readers might enjoy examples of equally stimulating telephone conversations with switchboard operators....

Sir: Douglas Chambers appears to believe that in my book, Darling Loosy, I attribute Princess Louise's 'fatal loss of trust' in her husband Lord Lorne entirely to a sledging...

Sir: Although, for me, Julie Burchill can do no wrong she does get things wrong in the hallowed tradition of English journalism. She believes that when Reagan was running for...

Moral force in search of a widow Geoffrey Wheatcroft ORWELL: THE AUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY by Michael Shelden Heinemann, £1 8.50, pp.564 he body-snatching began early. After...

St Olaf's church at the dalehead stands In peace beyond the gloomy screes; Where the vicar from 'forty to 'forty-two Was the Reverend George O'Cheese. Simon Curtis

Jo Grimond OLD MEN REMEMBER by William Douglas-Home Collins & Brown, £16.99, pp. 192 D ear William! Only an exceptionally nice character would start his book by casting himself...

Michael Davie DAME EDNA EVERAGE AND THE RISE OF WESTERN CIVILISATION: BACKSTAGE WITH BARRY HUMPHRIES by John Lahr Bloomsbury, £14.99, pp. 242 T he late A. J. Liebling of the...

Richard West THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA by Thomas Pakenham Weidenfeld, £20, pp.738 A is an enemy of the slave trade, Samuel Johnson prayed each night that the Europeans would stay...

Frederic Raphael BYZANTIUM: THE APOGEE by John Julius Norwich Viking £20, pp.389 o r many years, the eastern Roman empire was not regarded as a proper subject for edifying...

Peregrine Hartington OAKSEY ON RACING: 30 YEARS OF WRITING AND RIDING by John Oaksey Kirzgswood, €15.99, pp. 427 J ohn Oaksey is first and foremost an enthusiast, and it is...

Anita Brookner SAINT MAYBE by Anne Tyler Chatto, €14.99, pp. 337 A nne Tyler is a chaste and cheerful writer whose novels about slightly tacky households in downtown Baltimore...

Robert Kee T he inscription on a fine triumphal arch in the heart of the Irish Republic's capital states that 'Ireland built it as a monument to her bravest soldiers'. This...

William Boyd LITTLE MAN: MEYER LANSKY AND THE GANGSTER LIFE by Robert Lacey Century, £17.99, pp.547 mil' ackie Mason, the American comedian, has a joke about the Mafia. Those...

Hilary Corke A MOMENT OF WAR by Laurie Lee Viking, £14.99, pp. 178 I n December 1937 Spain was tearing itself apart and Laurie Lee could no longer bear to remain outside the...