It is characteristic of the present threadbare Government that at a time when the railways are rapidly approaching a state of chaos as # result of the `go slow,' when one of the...

The Fulton Committee was prevented by its terms of reference from examining the machinery of government, and in particular the way in which this has developed in recent years....

Summer began to run true to form, with rain, trouble on the railways, and pressure on the pound. Sterling and British government stocks fell to their lowest levels ever as the...

The torture of the three-way split AUBERON WAUGH Still reeling with astonishment at their own bravery in defeating the Government's Rhodesia Order in the Lords, the Tories are...

ELECTIONS-1: FRANCE MARC ULLMANN Paris—For the politicians of France, this is the week of the tactical alliances. By the time the electors go to the polls for the second time...

ELECTIONS-2: CANADA JOHN GRAHAM Toronto—Tuesday's election, were a hinge in Canada's history. No- one had ever seen a campaign like the one that led up to them, and no one...

THE CONSTITUTION ROBERT BLAKE 'We were beaten,' George Wyndham declared after the passing of the Parliament Act of 1911, `by the bishops and the rats.' Even as the history of...

AMERICA MURRAY KEMPTON Wa.shington—lf the City of the Poor is a failure as an appeal to the sensibilities, it is because it is so brilliantly successful an embodiment of its...

CIVIL SERVICE F. A. BISHOP F. A. Bishop retired from the Civil Service in 1965. having served as Principal Private Secre- tary to two Prime Ministers. as Deputy-Secre- tary to...

THE PRESS BILL GRUINIDY 'The trouble with X,' the Bishop of Malta once said, in the middle of some extra- ordinarily Byzantine negotiation, 'is that he is an honest man. And,...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Since all examinations are a bore, Progressive students claim by manners devious Their pride will not allow them any. more To sit for History Previous....

GEORGE HUTCHINSON An unseasonable gloom, more dismal than the weather, seems to be settling over much of our sceptred isle just now. As the summer days slip by I find that you...

PETER J. SMITH The activities of the Ministry of Defence chemical and biological warfare (cm) research centre at Porton Down have lately been the subjects of much controversy....

It's in the bag JOHN ROWAN WILSON My old father-in-law was something of, an obsessional, and if any mishap, however un- likely, had caused him inconvenience in the past, he...

The gadfly stings again TIBOR SZAMUELY The Soviet mentality is without doubt one of the great mysteries of our age. Many have tried to penetrate its recesses : psychologists...

From the 'Spectwor'. 27 Jour 1868—It will be remembered that at the last election for Bristol, for the scat vacated by Sir Morton Poo, Mr. J. W. Miles, a Conservative, was...

TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN Washington--The latest McCarthy victory is even more startling than earlier triumphs, for if the machine Democrats cannot carry New York (where the...

J. H. PLUMB We rarely realise how completely steeped we are in western culture : born in it, bred in it, edu- cated in it, we accept it and believe in it, and seldom give it...

PETER VANSITTART My Friends Wizen Young Brigit Patmore edited by Derek Patmore (Heinemann 35s) Grand Tour Today William Sansom (Hogarth 30s) The Ghost of June Rupert...

JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE One of the charges often levelled at the Johnson administration is that it has 'lost interest in Europe.' In reality the Kennedy administra- tion's...

MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH Three Plays and a Ballet E. E. Cummings edited by George Firmage (Peter Owen 37s 6d) E. E. Cummings, who combined the earthiness of a determined philistine...

BRYAN ROBERTSON The Pure and the Impure Colette translated by Herma Briffault (Seeker and Warburg' 25s1 My absurd private image of Colette, as a kind of amalgam of the...

D. C. WATT Munich 1938 Keith Robbins (Cassell 55s) Poland and the Western Powers 1938 - 39 Anna M. Cienciala (Routledge and Kegan Paul 56s) Contemporary historians find...

True grue PETER PARLEY The Short Night Ronald Kirkbride (Arthur Barker 25s.) A Traitor's Crime Roderic Jeffries (The Crime Club 18s)._ Pimpernel 60 Peter Kinsley (Michael...

wiNsrroN S. CHURCHILL The Arabs and Israel Charles Douglas-Home (Bodley Head 15s) Israel's decisive victory over her Arab neigh- bours just one year ago has, in fact, decided...

Cartoons from the General Strike Michael. Hughes (Evelyn, Adams and Mackay 12s 6d). Stripped to the waist, a gigantic worker is about to do battle with a pygmy army of Armenian...

DAVID WILLIAMS It's a pity Margaret Powell and Mayhew couldn't have coincided on the time-scale. She'd have made such a marvellous interviewee. 'I went to hand [Mrs Clydesdale]...

PAUL GRINKE The traditional three-day vernissage of the Venice Biennale, when the national pavilions are opened to an invited audience of painters, critics and dealers, has...

Puzzly puzzle HILARY - SPURLING The True History of Squire Jonathan and his Unfortunate Treasure (Ambiance, Queensway) The Real Inspector Hound (Criterion) My Giddy Aunt...

BALLET CLEMENT CRISP With the Royal, Festival and Western Theatre Ballets all going full blast last week, the dance pollen count was pretty high in London. Festival Ballet,...

Oedipus simplex JAMES PRICE Oedipus the King (Odeon, Haymarket. 'A') Only When• I Larf (ABC, Fulham and Edg- ware Roads, 'A') Separation (Chelsea Essoldo, 'X') Two a Penny...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Who on earth would want to buy a government bond? A common enough question today to which the vulgar answer is 'Only a fool.' Every- one knows that the...

INDUSTRY GEORGE MICHAEL The Government, the IRC and certain theoreti- cal economists would do well to cast the odd i glance at United Glass. It would tell them something they...

BUSINESS VIEWPOINT BARRY KING Barry King is managing director of British Relay Wireless and Television. The extent to which government intervention can disrupt and unbalance...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES To suggest the methods and standards of a quite unusually pig-headed lance-corporal is something that ministers should strive to avoid. As thd" affair of Mr...

CUSTOS The market in equity shares reflects more and more strongly a widespread lack of confidence in money values. The Financial Times index is within 10 points, or 2 per...

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL Having had a lucrative run with Cambridge Instrument as Rank and George Kent fought for control, I am encouraged to look again at the instrument-makers for...

Sir: I must thank Quintin Hogg for so opera- tically demonstrating my suggestion that the position taken up by such as he can have na resort to reason (21 June). But I confess...

sultants long associated with East Nigeria and Biafra, may I be permitted a few comments on Robert Horton's astonishing summary of recent Nigerian politics (Letters, June 2I)?...

LETTERS From : W. C. I. G. Birch, George Knapp, Kenneth Al/sop, G. M. Lee, Kenneth Hayes, Commander Robin Bottsfield, RN, A. Danielian, T. P. Walters, the Rev Canon T. G....

absolute rule by the executive, to which you draw attenlion, are only too evident (21 June). And it has become clear that it is not only the liberty of the citizen that is thus...

Knowledge of the properties of matter and the laws of physics makes it possible to predict the course of a physical happening. Nothing that we know of the physical universe...

articles in your issue of 21 June will be followed by a similar pair about early Chris- tianity. The reader will then be better able to judge whether God has 'shown up' or not....

seems to have let him down in his reply to Ken- neth - Allsop's article On religion (21 June). He upbraids Allsop for his bankrupt post-Christian sentimentality, and attacks him...

God' (21 June), imagines historians of the far future asking 'How were St Thomas Aquinas's five proofs of Jehovah's existence re- conciled with, say, the anti-matter theory of...

a serious matter for discussion any more, and judging by your 'Kenneth Allsop and Quintin Hogg on God' feature, it now appears to be a subject for farce with a 'pop' journalist...

Allsop's point than Mr Allsop himself (21 June). His reply to Allsop's denial of the existence of God was as brilliant an example of doublethink as ever drew applause in, the...

Sir: I was surprised to read your statement that the Lords were foolish to act as they did 'not because UN resolutions should be binding on a British parliament . . (21 June)....

Sir: There is one point which Mr Maclure's comprehensive article on 'Students: Art and Soul' (21 June) failed to mention. Each art student, having completed his pre-Diploma...

Sir: Never up till now have I read in the SPECTATOR a despicable article. I am sorry to say that this has now happened with Miss Nancy Mitford's so-called 'Revolution diary' (31...

AFTERTHOUGHT JOHN WELLS CRO BRIEFING TO ALL DEPTS. SUBJECT: `BIAFRA'-CONCLUDED Through no fault whatsoever of any member of this office, and I do assure you of my abso- lute...

I particularly enjoyed her lively and witty account of the recent French revolution. Nothing remarkable in that, of course, and hardly worth bothering to write to you about it....

COMPETITION 'There seem to be gremlins at work on my friend, Jack Fingleton, among the Sunday. Times copytakers. Even while he was apolo- gising because a previous article was...

Trevor Grove reports: Competitors were asked to submit extracts from a revolution diary kept during some civil disturbance not, on this occa- sion, in France, but in England: a...

Across 1 Retaliate heatedly ? (8) 5 Not, however, a Phrygian one although rather old hat! (3-3) 9 Outbreak among pied mice (8) 10 Bonnie Annie's cognomen (6) 12 'It is not...

PHILIDOR BLk White 7 men 8 men Du Chateau (1884). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 392 (Weenink): K x P!, threat 2...