27 OCTOBER 1967

Page 1

The roots of industrial anarchy

The Spectator

When the present Government first came to power, just three years ago, it enjoyed only a small majority but a large fund of goodwill. And among the trade unions in particular,...

Page 2

inaction pending

The Spectator

So our application to join the European Community Is in and remains in We might have known it. Like all these; other glowing initiatives, the great European adventure neither...

Cancer, coupons and cant

The Spectator

No drain of brains or skills is likely to de- pnve us, evidently, of our ample ...national talent for cant. This week's news that cigar- ette coupons are to be forbidden is a...

Portrait of the week

The Spectator

Parliament reconvened this week. The Lords re- versed their July amendments to the Abortion Law Reform Bill and returned it to the Commons. Mr Wilson and Mr Brown were' kept...

Page 3

Drink to me only

The Spectator

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS 0, drink with me only orange pop And leave the whisky there, Or take a little fruit-juice cup • And do not look for beer. The man that does not take a drop...

Politics in a cold climate

The Spectator

POLITICAL COMMENTARY AUBERON WAUGH If there is anything in the world more depres- sing than Gorton on a wet, cold, foggy after- noon, it is Gorton when the sun shines. The...

Page 4

The Tories on the Tories

The Spectator

SPECTATOR POLL At Brighton last week the SPECTATOR invited all those taking part in the Conservative party conference to complete a brief questionnaire about the conference....

Page 5

Mr Wilson's last chance

The Spectator

GOVERNMENT DESMOND DONNELLY, MP The next session of Parliament, which opens on Tuesday, will see a new situation in British politics. The partisan arguments of last sum- mer...

Page 6

Rules of the game

The Spectator

AMERICA MURRAY KEMPTON New York—Did not Madame de Sta0 once judge that Benjamin Constant was no longer in love with her because he was beginning to take pains with his...

Chess no. 358

The Spectator

PHILIDOR Black White 8 men 8 men A. Ellerman (Good Companions, 1919). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 357 (Wainwright): Kt x P. no...

Page 7

Balance-sheet for Utopia

The Spectator

RUSSIA: FIFTY YEARS AFTER —2 TIBOR SZAMUELY When the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia fifty years ago they did so with the avowed aim of building a socialist society....

Page 8

SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

NIGEL LAWSON America's greatest contribution to western philosophy to date (the field is admittedly not all that strong) has, I suppose, been C. L. Stevenson's 1938 Mind paper...

Page 10

Adamant for drift

The Spectator

PERSONAL COLUMN PATRICK COSGRAVE It is usually forgotten by readers of Churchill's famous description of the Baldwin government --`decided only to be undecided, resolved to be...

A hundred years ago

The Spectator

From the 'Spectator,' 26 October, 1867—There has been a dispute in the City about the Lord Mayor's show. The great merchants want it abolished as a nuisance, and Alderman Allen,...

Page 11

Season's greetings

The Spectator

CONSUMING INTEREST LESLIE ADRIAN 'Everyone likes to receive these agreeable and bizarre picturettes,' wrote Rose Macaulay long ago on the subject of Christmas cards, 'but how...

A Vietnam diary

The Spectator

PHILIP GOODHART, MP Saigon—There has never been a conflict more dominated by statistics than Vietnam. This is perhaps inevitable when a great power with immense bureaucratic...

Page 12

Snob stories

The Spectator

TABLE TALK PENIS BROGAN In a dull and depressing week, two pieces of news have galvanised me. One is the undoing of a great historical crime of the nineteenth century. It was...

Page 13

Beyond the Oxgrave MID-AUTUMN BOOKS

The Spectator

ANTHONY BURGESS 'Oxgrave'; it's a useful portmanteau but it suggests a full-bloodedness that isn't really a ppropriate—rivers of gore enriching the earth where the great beasts...

Page 14

Paths to glory

The Spectator

NIGEL NICOLSON 'Consanguinity,' wrote a reviewer of Winston's life of his father, 'is by no means a recommen- dation for the post of biographer.' On the contrary, it is rather...

Page 15

Festschrift

The Spectator

J. H. PLUMB In the last ten years, the Festschrift has be- come an established English institution— sooner or later, it would seem, every historian of distinction is acclaimed...

Page 16

Kindled to music

The Spectator

CHARLES REID George Frideric Handel Paul Henry Lang (Faber 5gns) The Skein of Legends Around Chopin Adam Harasowski (William Maclellan 84s) Since music 'can't be put into...

Page 17

In a glass case

The Spectator

MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH Language and Silence collects thirty-one of Dr Steiner's critical contributions to various periodicals and divides them into such cate- gories as 'Humane...

Page 18

In the park

The Spectator

VERNON SCANNELL Sun leans lightly on all temples; In the park the far trees Melt at their shadowed knees. Summer supplies its simples For all but one disease: • Young dogs,...

NEW NOVELS

The Spectator

Adventure story KAY DICK The Honey Spike Brian MacMahon (The Bodley Head 25s) The Hen's House Peter Israel (Deutsch 30s) Nest in a Falling Tree Joy Cowley (Seeker and Warburg...

Page 19

Elegiac poet

The Spectator

A. L. ROWSE Sidney Keyes: A Biographical Inquiry John Guenther (London Magazine Editions 12s 6d) I never knew Sidney Keyes. But I had a curious experience in regard to him. In...

Page 20

Aubrey's brief life

The Spectator

AUBERON WAUGH Beardsley Brian Reade (Studio Vista 6 gns) Beardsley Stanley Weintraub (W. H. Allen 35s) The revival oiAubrey Beardsley's reputation between 1%5 - and 1966 left...

Page 22

Physical responses

The Spectator

JOHN HORDER High on the Walls Tom Pickard (Fulcrum Press 21s) The Ship's Orchestra Roy Fisher (Fulcrum Press 18s) Just over a year ago, in these columns, C. B. Cox, when...

Page 23

Mind ajar

The Spectator

C. B. COX Twelve years ago Elizabeth Jennings published a poem called 'The Enemies,' which begins: 'Last night they came across the river and Entered the city.' It's not clear...

Page 24

Ex-champ

The Spectator

MORDECAI RICHLER Between road shows, lecture tours, one-night New York stands and holding still long enough for Esquire to photograph him in boxing shorts, Norman Mailer finds...

Page 25

Into orbit

The Spectator

WILLIAM SARGANT Perhaps the reviewer should state that over two earlier books of his own Mr Koestler has been very critical of those who seek to try to understand some of the...

Shorter notices

The Spectator

The Trial of Queen Caroline Roger Fulford (Botsford 42s). Was the Queen guilty of a flagitious relationship with her Italian major- domo? Mr Fulford explores the course of this...

Page 26

Clever Dick at the front ARTS

The Spectator

PENELOPE HOUSTON There are two moments in Richard Lester's How I Won the War (London Pavilion, 'X') which fairly bulldoze their way out of the screen. In the first, a hideously...

THEATRE

The Spectator

Rare James JOHN HIGGINS The High Bid (Mermaid) Marya (Royal Court) Tom Paine (Vaudeville) Billy Russell was one of the great music-hall artists of the 'forties. With his...

Page 27

Lily-white Fred

The Spectator

TELEVISION STUART HOOD On the morning of 4 February 1966 the head of CBS news and current affairs, F,red Friendly, was sitting in his New York office watching an '. • array of...

Page 29

The Bank rate madness MONEY

The Spectator

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT It may be true to say that Bank rate usually comes down by 3 per cent and goes up by 1 per cent at a time, but to compare last week's rise of 3 per cent with...

Buying a bidder

The Spectator

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL I like the look of Phoenix Assurance at the moment. So much attention is being paid to the battle for the control of Yorkshire Insur- ance, which Phoenix is...

Page 31

Towards a European computer industry

The Spectator

BUSINESS VIEWPOINT BASIL DE FERRANTI Mr Basil de Ferranti is managing director (strategic issues) of International Computers and Tabulators, the largest computer-making company...

Page 32

CITY DIARY

The Spectator

CHRISTOPHER FILDES It will (I suppose) scarcely be argued that, now that takeover bids have so large a public fol- lowing, companies in bid situations have a duty as...

Page 33

ffolkes's business alphabet

The Spectator

Trust your nose

The Spectator

SAVINGS LOTHBURY '"How can you tell good poetry from bad?" I answered : "How does one tell good fish from bad? Surely by the smell/ Use your nose." ' The advice (Robert...

Page 34

Market report

The Spectator

CUSTOS Judging by the strength of equity shares at the beginning of the week I would say that the market has completed its consolidation phase and is now resuming its upward...

Company notes

The Spectator

Chairmen of property companies maintain their more cheerful note after the general gloom of the last couple of years. Mr Jack Bridgeland of British Land reports a 13 per cent...

Page 36

Drinking and driving

The Spectator

Sir: Criticisms of my letter of 13 October show how much confusion the new law has caused—no man clearly knows whether he is breaking it or not. Indeed, the decision not to...

1.00 years on

The Spectator

Sir : What will readers of our press a hundred years hence find most surprising? I discussed this with some friends and we looked through some recent copies of a morning paper....

Rough weather

The Spectator

Sir: I wouldn't want SPECTATOR readers to think me even more innumerate than I am. In convert- ing Centigrade to Fahrenheit, or vice versa, the first stage is add forty and the...

Public ends and private means

The Spectator

Sir: Of course the universalist-selectivist argument is important, even central, to the national eco- nomic debate. If and when these words are pub- lished we shall have seen...

Dead language

The Spectator

Sir: I am sorry for Mr Raven's dismal turn of mind, but offer him for an epigraph: SIMPLE SIMON. M. J. W. Bell Junior Carlton Club, Pall Mall, London, SW1 Sir: As a slight...

People's choice

The Spectator

Sir: I am surprised that Randolph Churchill, in his courteous review of my book The Selectorate (20 October), should put forward as a serious ob- jection to a primary election...

The prisoners of St Kitts

The Spectator

- LETTERS From Vernon Gibbs, John A she, M. J. W. Bell, W. P. ' , lathers, Peter Paterson, Nigel Vinson, Leslie Adrian, Janet Cox, Admiral Sir W. M. James. Sir: I feel...

Business viewpoint

The Spectator

Sir: Why were we treated to a photograph of Lord Cromer in your edition of 6 October? Is he your best-looking contributor? Janet Cox Apt. 15, 4123 de Maisonneuve, Westmount,...

Page 37

The great headline robbery

The Spectator

AFTERTHOUGHT JOHN WELLS Dusk was falling in Smith Square. It had been a cold, blustering October day, and the yellow- ing leaves that still clung so tenaciously to the branches...

Solution next week Solution to Crairaword no. 1296. Across 1

The Spectator

Lot's wik 3 wet bob 9 Melodeon 10 Iberia 12 Tribe 13 Straw-yard 14 Address- books IS Nainlywambies 21 Coriander 23 Trent 24 Ornate 25 Minister 26 Echoes 27 Brigands. Down. 1...

Crossword no. 1297

The Spectator

Across I Neapolitan fire-place? (8) 5 Where to build castles in the air? ( 6 ) 9 Pining, behold le bike followed by the Navy (8) 10 'On -, clerical, printless toe' (Brooke)...