It is always an impertinence to call for the departure of the leader of another state, especially when that leader has been democratically .elected by a comfortable majority of...

It will be for the best if the limited war that has been fought by Egypt, Syria and Jordan, with help from Iraq and most of the rest of the Arab world, is sufficiently...

Sir: In your article ' Victory or Settlement?' (October 13) you hit the nail on the head. It is only a military stalement between Egypt and Israel, brought 'about at the tragic...

'(October 13) that it is unreasonable to criticise their (Egypt and Syria's) aggression since all they seek is the recovery of some of their territories seized by Israel...."...

Sir: There can surely have been no greater act of treachery in recent times than that committed by the British government in refusing to send war materials to Israel, nor any...

of a "clear moral code" on which the general practitioner can base his advice to patienVs. and its replacement by a mock psychiatry in which "greed is called idiopathic obesity,...

Sir: Your correspondent Joel Cohen is less than fair to the Edinburgh financial community ('A fair share of the miracle': October 13). He is perfectlY correct when he says that...

Sir: Mr Stern's retort to my letter of October 13 on Marxism and the Common Market was as ungenerous as it w as pettyfogging. No one who supports British entry in to Europe...

Mr Barber and his Cabinet c olleagues are obviously frightened men, It is only when you have reached the point of ultimate desperation that You accuse someone of being a '...

Sir: John Vaizey who, in his article entitled ' Impenitent imperialism ' in your issue of October 13, wrote of the Empire in retrospect, might be interested to know of the...

Sir: With reference to the correspondence on the Book of Dzyan, I wonder if I might have some space to say something on the positive side, and on behalf of Mme Blavatsky....

Sir: I note that you headlined my recent letter on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland with the words Irish Mess, as you headline all (or almost all) letters dealing...

The eiderdown brigade Patrick Cosgrave Looking down from the press gallery at the House of Commons last week I had the momentary feeling that everybody there had just come out...

When . Isaw that Nixon had decided to offer an edited version of a transcript of the Watergate tapes, a bell rang. The President tried c l : esperately to come to terms with the...

'The really ominous note is that an overwhelming majority of Conservatives think that the Liberal revival threatens their Party more than the opposition' We have once again...

Is a revelation at hand? Francis Wintle When the chips are down, as they often are, I, for one, am for democracy and for more of it. "People," as the motor car manufacturer...

Can we blame the economists? H.C. Allen Canberra When I left Britain recently for a period in Australia, the debate on the causes of inflation was still being waged unabated....

Girding the loins Joseph McSimon A much overlooked technique in politics is the Japanese art of belly-talk. This is the trick of making a statement for general consumption...

And the tenant suffers Leslie Loader Rent control and subsidies for tenancies and houses, as opposed to rent allowances to needy tenants, were first brought in with the main...

The fourth Gospel Mart in Sullivan Most people think that radicalism in religion is a recent innovation and probably began with the publication of Honest to God. Christians...

A DNA danger Bernard Dixon Scientists have been m uch maligned in recent years — rightlY so, in many cases — for neglecting their social responsibilities. In particular, they...

Change and decay Peter Quince The process of growing older, somebody said, is not a smooth and uninterrupted business, but a succession of jolting descents: more like falling...

The majority of the press corps gathered at the Jockey Club last Tuesday were expecting a pronouncement on the future of the Grand National — with or without a live performance...

Benny Green The inquest on the Edwardians continues in conditions of everincreasing din and chaos. Information pours in, opinions proliferate, interpretations breed like...

'That mysterious laVAr, by which books of Similar intent make their entry into the world ■ Inopportunely together, continues to hold good. Their genesis, one presumes, is...

Peter Ackroyd The Is'apillan of Malta Nicholas Monsarrat (Cassell £2.50) All Under Heaven Pearl S. Buck (Eyre Methuen £1.75) I have not been reading that awful ' Who's Who In...

Beverley Nichols Evelyn Waugh and his World, edited bY David Pryce-Jones (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £3.75). "If Evelyn had been offered the choice of being black-balled by...

Kay Dick Portrait of a Marriage , Nigel Nicolson (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £3.25) One of the most unfortunate consequences of pre-publication serialisation, that is extracts...

Bill Grundy The 'Orrible Synne E. J. Burford (Calder and Boyars £3.95) Life in Victorian London L. C. B. Seaman (Batsford £2.50) When Dr Johnson announced that being bored with...

There is only one way to begin this review, and that is to say that William Vivian Butler's The Durable Desperadoes (Macmillan £2.75) is absolutely necessary reading for...

Bookend As one who has often bemoaned the lack of useful scholarship in British book trade affairs. Bookbuyer was intrigued to get wind of a major publishing research project...

The late Arthur Wing Pinero's play, Dandy Dick, revived at the Chichester Festival in the summer arid 'now in London at the Garrick, is. a' farce surviving from a day before the...

Scott in Oklahoma a Christopher Hudson In a thin week for West End cinema, Stanley Kramer's Oklahoma Crude ('AA' Leicester Square Theatre) finds itself with more space than...

After the match 'Clive Gammon Certainly by the time you read this the England-Poland World Cup qualifying game will have been the subject of many thousand words. Let us...

Screw and death Rodney Mikes To present The Turn of the Screw and Death in Venice within four days of each other is to do considerable disservice to the latter. Both operas...

Dances of love, Robin Young It is inevitable that comparisons be made between Jerome Robbins's In the Night and his earlier Chopin ballet, Dances at a Gathering, which it has...

The Arts Council last week put out another lavishly produced Report — this one on the "planning and redevelopment of London's entertainment area with special reference to the...

Nicholas Davenport The Israelis have kept their nerve, the stoat markets have kept their nerve, and if there is a cease-fire fairly soon, assuming that the Arab attacks have...

Digesting the Phase 3 proposals during the last week or two has left me more antipathetic than ever, if that's possible, to regimes requiring detailed intervention in the...

Double hazard Nephew Wilde The task of selecting a share is made doubly difficult this week. Firstly, the Middle East war has given the stock market the jitters. Secondly, as...