The jobs of a government The party conferences are upon us; the political year opens; and the coming months will provide the essential but still missing evidence upon which...

Two events dominated the week: in Jordan a bloody civil war erupted between the Pal- estinian guerrillas and the supporters of King Hussein, and at home the Government's...

Dead or alive? -the political mongrel PETER PATERSON What price the Liberal party? The rump of this once and former half of the two party system, now relegated to the...

NOTEBOOK I have thought for some time now-that there must exist, high up in the Home Office, a very hard-line man. The Rudi Dutschke affair supports my suppositions. The Home...

Three aspects of world communism An American testimony Constantine FITZGIBBON That Soviet communism does not recognise the existence of justice in any form compre- hensible...

TIBOR SZAMUEI X The Council of Ministers of the USSR at present consists of ninety-five members. Fifteen of these are included ex officio, as Prime Ministers of the so-called...

ANTHONY GREY Trying to compress the essentials of Chinese politics and government into a slim, 175-page volume is something like as difficult as writing the words of the Lord's...

Getting out of the groove JOHN ROWAN WILSON That judge who recently decided to check in his wig and make a new career for himself in the City will have struck an answering...

Chic—not shock DONALD McLACHLAN If a woman of good looks and publio standing draws attention in a manifesto of 1,200 words to changes in her make-up, she is suspected either...

Shooting ideas BILL GRUNDY On Saturday I listened to a rather interesting programme. It was called The Class that Caine in from the Cold, and it was described as 'A political...

Stands Scotland where she did? DENIS BROGAN By a series of accidents that concern no one but myself, I have made only the briefest visits to my native land in the past two...

From the 'Spectator,' 24 September 1870—On Friday week, Mr. Lowe was presented with the freedom of Elgin, which, as he remarked, he could never make any use of; but he made the...

My dear Simon : From the cool heights of the seventh heaven, I am writing this after reading your reminiscences of me. You say that you find it difficult to reconcile the...

Sir: I am grateful to Mr Carslaw for point- ing out a typographical error in my article. The rise in wages should have read as £1,500 million, not £500 million. If you include...

Sir: I hesitate to differ from your final Viewpoint (19 September), but I should have thought that the meaning of Kipling's dictum which you quote, 'Power without responsi-...

Sir: Simon Raven's article on the 'strange- ness of E. M. Forster' attempts to provide insight into this man's character by citing examples from hit. personal relationship with...

From Douglas Houghton MP, Lynn Converse, Simon Digby, Dr K. Subrah , manian. Nicholas Davenport, Rev Guy Bowden, T. J . B. Heelas, M. Yaren, Harold Wilson's lost battle Sir:...

Sir: Manuela Sykes invokes the UN Charter in support of the rights of the Palestinians (Letters, 29 August) yet she is opposed to the UN Security Council resolu- tion and,...

Sir: Your comments on the deplorable hi- jacking episode (19 September) miss the essential point, which is that effective power is no longer centralised in the hands of...

Martin SEYMOUR-SMITH The Sphere History of Literature in the English Language: Vol. 1: The Middle Ages edited W. F. Bolton Vol 2: English Poetry and Prose 1540-1674 edited...

SIMON JENKINS Cities on the Move Arnold Toynbee (Oxford University Press 42s) I am always suspicious of subjects which have been plundered from older disciplines and then been...

GORDON RUPP Luther Richard Friedenthal (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 90s) Having just finished Mr Friedenthal's satisfy- ing and impressive study of Goethe, I turned hopefully to...

THOMAS BRAUN The Romans and Their Gods in the,Age of Augustus R. M. Ogilvie (Chatto and Windus 21s) An inscription found outside Rome, where the revered society of the Arval...

MOLLY LEFEBURE Hogmanay and Tiffany Gillian Edwards (Bles 35s) I Remember: An Arrangement for Many Voices Edited Pat Barr (Macmillan 30s) Hogmanay and Tiffany by Gillian...

A. L. ROWSE What has the Elizabethan historian to con- tribute to the study of Shakespeare? Was his contribution really necessary? Yes. Fully to understand the work of Dickens...

PENELOPE HOUSTON Once upon a time, Hollywood acquired a Prince Charming. Anything he touched turned to box-office; he made a small pic- ture, The Graduate, which by beating...

Familiar ground KENNETH HURREN Except for those irrevocably committed to a belief in his genius, reviewers confronted with plays by Harold Pinter tend to be as wary as puppies...

First instalment RODNEY MILNES It is only comparatively recently that recording companies have started to cater for the collecting instinct. All Mozart's sym- phonies...

Alive and kicking DUNCAN FALLOWELL When the Beatles withdrew from public performance the excuse was that their in- creasingly complex records could not be reproduced on-stage....

JOHN BULL Brewery shares are beginning to look inter- esting again. The price of beer went up last December and it is going up another notch shortly. This has a good effect...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Ever since I went into the City at the time of the Wall Street crash I have always wanted to write a history of the great depression. But time slipped by and...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Rats prefer listening to Mozart. One in ten people in Dawley, Shropshire. claims to have seen a ghost. Moon rock has certain properties in common with...

CHRISTOPHER BOOKER I do not imagine that I shall be returning to the subject of wine again—but in homage to the original distinguished inhabitant of this column Mr Cyril Ray,...

Since Flowers introduced 'keg' beer in the mid-1950s, sales of what is in effect a pasteurised beef have multiplied many times. It is now forecast that keg beer sales could rise...

PHILIDOR M. Niemeijer (La Liberte, 1928). Whi e to play and mate in four moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 508 (Kiss--4B3/ plPkPlp/ pP2p2P/K3N3/p7/P3Q3/16); Q-K41, no...

DAEDALUS A prize of three guineas will be awarded to the sender of the first correct solution opened on 5 October. Address solutions: Crossword 1448, The Spectator, 99 Gower...

No. 623: Artful aid Set by M. W. Matthews: Mr Agnew has produced two alliterative phrases which, according to the Sunday Telegraph, promise to become legendary tongue-twisters:...