the decline of the spirit Spring is a time of rebirth; yet it is also the time of the death of Christ. It is the time when "Jesus knew that his hour would come that he should...

Few arguments could be more absurd than that contained in Mr Whitelaw's recent statement to the effect that withdrawal from the EEC would create unemployment in Britain, and...

During the recent Middle East negotiations Mr Rabin's Israeli government was under two exceptionally severe pressures. In the first instance, Mr Rabin and his colleagues realise...

As there seems no end to the dogmatism and doctrinaire folly of the Secretary of State for Education and Science, there also seems no end to Mr Prentice's dishonesty and...

The Tilbury dock strike, and the decision of two foreign firms to remove their operations from the area if the strike does not come to a rapid end, and if industrial relations...

Sir: As the Prime Minister comes off his Common Market fence following the - fundamental (of course, he was joking!) re-negotiations" he would do well to heed this extract from...

as a charade, and I say this as a pro-Marketeer. To state, however, that Conservative anti-Marketeers may have put "a little too much trust" in Labour's 'antis' is surely the...

Some time ago it was decided to search for the necessary conditions for a (global) market of maximum purchase in expanding populace; and the findings were finally published in...

Sir: While we agreed with the principle of Dr Rhodes Boyson's article (March 22), we feel that there are certain points that cannot go unanswered. We believe that Dr Boyson...

article on the financing of students' unions. Of course the membership of student unions should be made completely voluntary, the Students themselves weighing up the pros and...

Sir: Your main leading article of March 15 contains some damaging statements about the TUC which are quite untrue, as could readily have been checked by a telephone call to...

From Dr H. Jacobs Sir: Dr John Linklater's article (March 22) points out to what many hospital doctors and consultants, who are far from the seats of privilege and power,...

Sir: Oxford has only one Professor Trevor-Roper.Your readers will learn with no surprise that his outlook was hardly shared by the rest of us who in the end did not vote against...

Sir: Mr McWhirter's article (disguised as an advertisement, March 15) on the need for a printing and publishing concern independent of trade union control is probably the most...

Sir: Mr Kilroy-Silk, the recently appointed PPS to Mr Hugh Jenkins, Points out (March 22) that Mr Jenkins now fears that if the burden of VAT is lifted from the arts in this...

Sir: It is not possible in a short space to deal with all the matters raised in Rodney Milnes's article about Phoenix Opera (March 22). May I, however, put the matter into some...

1. Phoenix might have taken more notice of the March 1974 warning if it had been couched in terms other than routine, and if it had been signed by the Finance Director rather...

From Mrs Sheila Bums Sir: Mr J. R. Bevins writing on 'Changing patterns' (March 15) makes trite predictions and observations which are pale beside the true changing pattern in...

Timing the next election Patrick Cosgrave I like elections, with all their paraphernalia of excitement, with all their real and false drama, and with all the sham and...

John Stonehouse is still being hounded by the newspapers as well as the British authorities in a manner sadly reminiscent of the Stephen Ward case. Dr Ward had to face, on the...

It is not that I think that I have been more witty than I ought of late that at present I wholly forbear any attempt towards it. I am of the opinion that I should sometimes lay...

J. Enoch Powell, MP The word "sovereignty" has an old-fashioned, imperialistic sort of sound which for many people is repellent and to most is not conducive to clear thinking....

Collectively we recommend To the voters we should send Our united view. Sixteen pro, and seven con Gives a, guide to vote upon That should see them through. Let this message...

Easter offering Bernard Croft Gillie Potter, son of the manse and high churchman of Hogsnorton, invented a racehorse for one of his radio chronicles — New Overcoat, by Easter...

Home front left bare David W. Wragg The White Paper on Defence added little to the statement befolre Christmas by Mr Roy Mason. Perhaps the most significant development,...

Towards socialism John Vincent-Smith The Portuguese revolution has moved a steP further, the cause and the direction being neither of them entirely unexpected. Th e , origins...

Heritage in danger Patrick Cormack, MP Easter will bring the visitors again — to Chatsworth and to Blenheim, to Wilton and to Woburn, to Burghley and to Belton. By Michaelmas...

Brian Inglis Attending a.television debate in Belfast earlier this month I was surprised to hear an aspiring Unionist politician disparaging the Irish. Did he, I asked, watch...

Spring books John Hunt on the human face of a 'man of action' The autobiographies of most explorers, unlike those of great men whose progress towards fame is a more pedestrian...

Quentin Bell Augustus John A Biography, Volume II: The Years of Experience Michael Holroyd (Heinemann £5.25) The Seventh Child Romilly John (Jonathan Cape £3.95) "A little...

Leo Abse The General Strike Patrick Renshaw (Eyre Methuen £9.75) Kier Hardie Kenneth 0. Morgan (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £8.00) When the Churchill commemorative fund was...

George Gale The King, the Press and the People Kinley Roby . (Barrie and Jenkins £6.50) The Hanoverians, the Guelph family, which through a female line providing some trace of...

Roy Fuller The Penguin Book of English pastoral . Verse Edited by John 13arrell and John Bull (Allen Lane &LOCI) Penguin anthologies, in their proliferation, haven't always...

Colin Wilson Memoirs Cardinal Mindszenty (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £6.00) When Cardinal Mindszenty was freed from a Communist prison during the abortive Hungarian uprising, he...

The Partners Bernard Kops (Secker and Warburg £3.25) Sun Child Angela Huth (Collins £2.95) Mr Kops's odd and apocalyptic novel begins very badly: Daniel Klayman (the surname is...

A fine romance Benny Green There is a Professor French at the University of Kent whose preoccupation with one writer, and more particularly one book by one writer, is clearly...

Bookend Most columnists : will tell you that if they deserve any credit at all, it is not so much for the stories they print but for those they don't print. Sometimes they are...

Education The advance of the levellers Rhodes Boyson, MP The country went one step further towards the collectivist non-choice society when, on March 11, Mr Prentice and the...

Eternal triumph Martin Sullivan I came across a remarkable passage in Plato the other day which reads like an inspired prophecy of the message of the Crucifixion. "The...

Good old 'Grauniad' Bill Grundy It doesn't seem like twenty years since Mr Alastair Hetherington became editor of the then Manchester Guardian. As a matter of fact, it isn't....

Opinions of polls Philip Kleinman One third — would you believe? — of the adult population of this country have now been interviewed by market researchers. This...

Code cot chemistry Bernard Dixon The strongest Criticism that can be made of the Royal Institute of Chemistry's cede of conduct. issued for the first time last week as a guide...

Ernie Money on the story of the Burrell collection Sir William Burrell was a shipping magnate, a Glaswegian and an inveterate collector. He was born in 1861 and started buying...

Comedy of eras Kenneth Robinson Funny Lady Director: Herbert Ross Stars: Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Heidi O'Rourke 'A' Odeon, ILeicester Square (138 minutes)....

Frau Bracknell Kenneth Hurren , The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Greenwich) Night Must Fall by Emlyn Williams (Shaw Theatre). If there had been any doubt about...

Waspe The Young Vic company is off to Mexico next month to give performances of Frank Dunlop's production of Macbeth at Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Mexico City and San Miguel. The...

Inflation and the public sector Nicholas Davenport It was very rash of speculators to Jump into some of the shipbuilding and aircraft shares earmarked for Mr Benn's...

Cash in your old shares now! Bernard Hollowood "In January when the FT index stood at around 150 and I was in despair a 'friend' offered to relieve me of all my share...

How can the French possibly have a surplus of eleven million hectolitres (242 million gallons) of wine? Quite apart from the nonsensical concept of surplus in this context,...

Charles H. Stahl The US wholesale price index declined 0.5 per cent in December of last year and , dropped a further 0.3 per cent in January and 0.8 per cent in February. The...