Muddling through? The steel industry is in a mess, and the steel strike is in a muddle. The muddle and the mess extend beyond the industry and its dispute. They now embrace the...

Political commentary Olympian brows at work Ferdinand Mount The Olympic Games, according to one senior Labour ex-Minister, are 'the toy department of life'. Ted Heath argues...

Notebook Not long ago I found pinned to the m antlepiece behind my desk a photocopy of a sheet of 1 0 Downing Street writing paper bearing the signature of Harold Macmillan. In...

Another voice Love in the afternoon Auberon Waugh Dr Donald Coggan's retirement from Canterbury last Saturday at the age of 70 may not be so puzzling, or pose so many...

Japan's military mole Murray Sayle Tokyo In Tokyo jail, by Tokyo town, MajorGeneral Yukihisa Miyanaga, 58, formerly of the intelligence section of the Japanese Ground...

Djilas's kind of communism Richard West In the present mood of hysteria about Russia's aggressive intentions, it is good to read this reassuring observation: 'The Russian...

Kennedy gets it right Nicholas von Hoffman Washington It Is difficult to recall when last a speech, Something approaching an oration, saved a failing candidacy. In recent...

Unequal before the law J.A.G. Griffith When Lord Denning and others say that trade unions are above the law, outside the law, with 'privileges' and 'immunities', they create...

The broadcasting straitjacket Geoffrey Wheatcroft Last week's announcement from the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was a predictable anti-climax. The likelihood is...

The Monster awakes Christopher Booker For us battle-scarred veterans of the Great War against Planners and Developers of the early Seventies, there is a distinct whiff of deja...

Letters Mental health and ECT Sir: When a journal asks its music critic to review a book on psychotherapy. I suppose we should not be too surprised if it occasionally emits...

Sir: Geoffrey Wheatcroft's sombre piece on electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) is all too accurate. I have had personal experience of two friends going in voluntarily for...

Gas-bagging Sir: Mr Grimond describes the Government's policy towards the Gas Corporation as 'another weird, macro-economic exercise' (19 January). Perhaps he finds it weird...

Rugger down under Sir: 1 trust Mr Peter Jenkins does not plan any visit to Australia in the immediate future, as he has succeeded in alienating all sections of the community by...

Russia and the BBC Sir: In reply to Mr Waugh's emotional article about the BBC language course 'Russian - Language and People' (19 January), I should like to state...

Quote unquote Sir: While Christopher Booker, in his review of the third edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Quoations (12 January) makes some valid points, he is also rather...

The first Pope Sir: If Professor Hans Kiing meant what Mr L.C. Squires (Letters. 19 January) implies in claiming that no scriptural quotations 'support the primacy of Peter'....

Man of style Sir: It is'sheer nonsense for Benny Green to dismiss Walter Pater (26 January) as an ineffectual aesthete and to write, 'Pater never had anything to say at all'....

Cleaning up Sir: Auberon Waugh's article 'Time to clean up Neasden' (19 January) could not have been more perfectly timed. Only three days later we received the news that...

Raymond Chandler Sir: With the authorisation of his estate, I am preparing a collection of Raymond Chandler's letters for publication by the Columbia University Press. I should...

Books Images and imaginings Polly DeOMin An enormous scaffolding of critical comment and interpretation clings precariously to the frail structure of photography. Photography...

Fair or Free? Stephen Koss Tariff Reform in British Politics 1903-13 Alan Sykes (Oxford £16) Joseph Chamberlain never ceases to fascinate, and usually to baffle. Too...

Utopias Anthony Storr Utopian Thought in the Western World Frank E. Manuel and Fritzie P. Manuel (Blackwell £19.50) This immense book, nearly half-a-million Words long, is a...

Memory lane A.N. Wilson Truth is Two-Eyed John Robinson (SCM Press £4.95) Half the pleasure of pausing in a down-atheel provincial town is the discovery that forgotten eras...

The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison (Chatto £4.95) Uncle Julia Markus (Raven £4.95) Wrinkles Charles Simmons (Alison; Sec- ker £4.95) A Reckoning MaySarton (Gollancz £5.50)...

Terrifying Francis King The Gamecock Michael Baldwin (Faber If it were not so hackneyed, Wellington's remark about a draft of troops sent to him in Spain - 'I don't know...

Arts Unrecognised, unneglected Hans Keller Radio 3 is broadcasting Robert Simpson's String Quartets Nos. 4, 5 and 6, together with Beethoven's three 'Rasumovsky' Quartets,...

Opera Jolly evening Rodney Milnes The Merry Widow (Coliseum) Werther (Covent Garden) Most of the problems of staging operetta in so large a theatre have been solved in...

Art Illuminating John McEwen London is notoriously lacking in large exhibition rooms, so the opening last week by Nicholas and Fiona Logsdail of a huge new space at 56...

Theatre Extremes Peter Jenkins 4ichard III (Round House) Born In The Gardens (Globe) Liberty Hall (Richmond) Scarcely anyone in the audience could Understand a word of what...

Television Lucky dip Richard Ingrams I wonder how many people feel uneasy about the Archbishop of Canterbury-Elect appearing on the Parkinson Show? Probably not very many....

High life Ladies' man Taki New York I stood on Park Avenue among the bankers and the preppies and waited for the senior senator from Massachussetts to drive by on his way to...

Low life Sportsmen Jeffrey Bernard Now that cricket, as I knew and loved it, has been very nearly ruined for all time bY Kerry Packer, floodlights, white balls, black pads,...

Postscript Silver service? Gavin Stamp 'This bus is operated by Selkent District,' it now says on my No 63. 'Let's make the most of London.' Buses are now to be run by...