The use and abuse.gfp"jvilege The Speaker, Mr George Thomas, is the historical prdfctor of the powers, rights and privileges of the House of Commons. When he was asked this...

Political commentary The Vertical of the Bigs Ferdinand Mount Grand Hotel des Bains, il Lido di Venezia Mr Pierre Trudeau sits down at the next table with his son. The boy...

Notebook New York The mood darkens. People say that the mixture of isolationism and bellicosity here is less intense than it was some months ago, but it is striking all the...

Another voice The Venetian Henshaw factor Auberon Waugh Few people who saw the Observer this week can have avoided the haunting face and name of Mrs Doreen Henshaw, a...

Low down in Laos Murray Sayle Bangkok Nursing Home Considering the generally horrendous state of the news from South-East Asia, an incident on the Keong River last week,...

The Anderson question Nicholas von Hoffman W4ashington In the interstitial period between now and the explosion of waffle that will issue up and Outwards like a mushroom...

The hollow men of 1940 Sam White Paris This year's commemoration of the 40th anniversary of General de Gaulle's defiant broadcast from London - 'France has lost a battle, she...

Remembering Sanjay Karan Thapar In Hindi Sanjay means victory. Sanjay Gandhi was enjoying the ripe fruits of political victory when he died in an air crash this week. By then...

The Zimbabwe minefield Stephen Hastings In a fit of exasperation Cecil Rhodes once wrote of 'the unctuous rectitude' of British public opinion. What would he have made of the...

Letters The Guru of Ram Sir: In common with a growing number of other people (see, e.g., your forthcoming payment of libel damages to Mr Ronald Harwood) I am sick of being...

Marita at the Mayfair Sir: Taki wrote last week about Marita Phillips's mime show - shared, incidentally, with Adam Darius- at the Mayfair Theatre, adding 'the critics . ....

Wyeth's popularity Sir: John MeEwen (14 June) surely does less than justice to the art of Andrew Wyeth, when he claims that 'he deals exclusively in clich6s', and 'as an...

Liturgy in aspic Sir: Despite the scathing attack by Christopher Booker (21 June) on the church's attempt to bring its language into the 20th century and restore its liturgy to...

On being an architect Sir: Public criticism of architecture is to be encouraged and Dr Gavin Stamp's 'Castles in the air' (7 June) about the justification for the British...

Poverty was real Sir: Mr Waugh is always good for a laugh especially when he attacks sacred cows and even when he writes heartlessly he can be outrageously funny; I was much...

Books Bountiful Lady Astor Alastair Forbes Nancy Astor: Portrait of a Pioneer John Grigg (Sidgwick £8.95) Counting milestones against the clock is as good a way of...

Whig world Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd Holland House Leslie Mitchell (Duckworth At their best the fashionable Whig aristocrats combined a knowledge of the arts with a gift...

Stylish Gavin Stamp Transformations in Modern Architec- ture Arthur Drexler (Secker £7.95) Undeniable though it has been since the first white boxy houses appeared on...

Late Cage Hans Keller Empty Words: Writings '73 - '78 John Cage (Marion Boyars £12) To the serious student of Cage - and there are many of them, whether they know it or not...

Show-bizzy Paul Ableman Homelands John Wiles (Constable £6.95) Warren Linden, the hero of this book, directs a play in Dusseldorf. His designer goes around sloshing...

Re-assessments Amorist and ascetic Benny Green Ann Veronica H.G. Wells (Virago Modern Classics £2.50) An Unsocial Socialist Bernard Shaw (Virago Modern Classics £2.50)...

Arts Growing out of the soil Rodney Milnes limajoki, Lohtaja and Naantali Festivals A recent cartoon in the Helsinkin Sanomat showed a road sign with the legend 'Welcome to...

Fruitful John McEwen The most exemplary exhibition in London Just now features the first 1 5 years' worth of Work of the English sculptor Nigel Hall (Warwick Gallery, 33...

Cinema Treacherous Charles Clover Angi Vera ('A' Gate One) Courage Fuyons ('AA' Curzon) Angi Vera begins and ends with a close-up of the heroine's face, bug-eyed and...

Television Old sea-dog Richard Ingrams No one has done better in the obituary department than the late Lord Mountbatten who was assassinated last August. Since then there has...

High life Temps perdu Taki Paris Scott Fitzgerald was the undisputed master at evoking the loss of youth, at portraying lives wrecked by over-indulgence and...

Theatre Challenging Peter Jenkins Nicholas Nickleby (RSC, Aldwych) The life and adventures of Nicholas Nickleby go on for eight and a half hours altogether which is a long...

Low life Characters Jeffrey Bernard I'm seriously thinking of writing an extremely unserious play for television about the people in and around Lambournmy neighbours, God...