B etty Boothroyd, reputedly an ex-Tiller Girl and former deputy-speaker in the House of Commons, broke six centuries of tradition by being elected its first woman speaker. Mr...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 ANOTHER EURO—SUCCESS F or those who have listened to the BBC news...

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Not such a rough House: or All Quiet on the Westminster Front SIMON HEFFER A is there has been no end of being nice to Sir Edward Heath since the Sovereign awarded him the...

M adam Speaker Boothroyd I have known for over 30 years, and can testify to her humour, generosity and compassion. She is companionable as well. Not long ago a few of us were...

Gleb Shestakov witnesses the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the Russian heartland St Petersburg GOSTINII DVOR (`Merchant's Hall') is the oldest shopping centre in St Peters-...

ON Sunday last, the first mass meeting of London clerks of all grades was held at the Reformers' Tree, by the Clerks' Unions. The speakers asked for higher wages, less hours,...

war in Afghanistan, and the misery of the Afghan people Kabul THE FRUIT trees were in blossom; far away the sun shone on the snows of the Hindu Kush and our host, a kindly...

Matt Frei argues that those seeking Gaddafi's overthrow should look more closely at the alternatives Tripoli AT TRIPOLI airport a screen lists all the international flights...

Michael Heath

Dominic Lawson on the significance of Nigel Short's famous victory over Anatoly Karpov AS SOON as I entered Nigel Short's room in the Anibal Hotel, Linares — the host of his...

The first in an occasional series truth behind our classic foods 'I KNOW fish fingers pretty well,' claimed Mark Fitzpatrick, factory general manager of Birds Eye Wall's in...

Mr Ivor Barry received this letter from Gary L. Englund, OD and Douglas L. Major, OD of Vision Care Center in California. Dear Ivor, To allow me to take the best care of your...

LATE ONE evening last week I was called to see a patient in the hospital. I cursed the day I qualified as a doctor, but not as roundly as I used to, because the journey to the...

It's dogged as does it PAUL JOHNSON N o politician worth his salt should be discouraged by electoral failure. Consider the case of Menachem Begin, who died last month. For...

A LAUREL for the BBC's Money Pro- gramme, or a lifebelt? The Wincott Foun- dation's judges rated it the best programme on its subject. By now it is just about the only one....

Lloyds' chiefs run the risk of repeating their biggest mistake CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he men who run Lloyds Bank chairman Sir Jeremy Morse and chief exec- utive Brian Pitman —...

HEAD OFFICES were a good place for economies to start. Who needed two of them? Who needed two of everything, or anything? Well, perhaps the customers do — especially if they are...

I FEEL more than a qualm as I see Imperi- al Chemical Industries shuffling out of its nylons — Du Pont can have them, we don't really want them, it's not a core business . . ....

FROM British Telecom (who else?) comes a fine example of Patrick Hutber's law: Improvement means deterioration. Ask for the telephone number of someone who has moved house, and...

wing of John Patten, the new Secretary of State for Education and Sci- ence, I read with some attention his recent Spectator article. The whole drift of the argument was...

a belief in damnation, thinks that it is 'self-evident that we are born with a sense of good and evil'. I can find no evi- dence, of any kind, for his assertion. The human...

Sir: Mr John Patten, as a Roman Catholic and a comfortably-off member of the ruling class, obviously finds it difficult to under- stand the outlook and actions of those mil-...

minds have taken the real- ity of hell with utmost seriousness until the last 100 years, wouldn't it be wise to side with Augustine and Aquinas and Luther and Calvin and...

Sir: I am sorry that Watkins fi/s has to depend on visits from his father before he can watch the rugby (Diary, 25 April) but I cannot accept that it is due to the deterio-...

Sir: The leading article on Hayek (28 March) was a generous tribute to a great thinker. The sneering letter of Mr Charles Fyffe (17 April) should not be allowed to pass without...

Sir: John Simpson is absolutely right about the BBC. How can anyone claim that their coverage of the general election campaign was biased against the Tories when it was their...

Sir: Dominic Lawson (Diary, 18 April) writes that he knew of only one other per- son (besides Michael Trend) who guessed — or rather estimated — exactly the extent of the...

Sir: Your television critic, Martyn Harris, seems to have been confused by watching too much television. In his column of 21 March he reviewed Nicholas Craig's Masterclass and...

I took the number 52 bus down the Cowley Road to Oxford City Centre. I was going to a Good Friday Church Service to commemorate Christ's Crucifixion. From the bus window I...

Herald of a noisy world James Buchan MAYNARD KEYNES: AN ECONOMIST'S BIOGRAPHY by D.E. Moggridge Routledge, £35.00, pp.941 I f only Keynes were alive today! We live in...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION NOW by Ferdinand Mount Heinemann, £18.50, pp.289 B etter lucky than right, the French say, and there is an element of luck as well...

Anthony Flew RACE, INTELLIGENCE AND BIAS IN ACADEME by Roger Pearson Scott-Townsend, Washington DC (unavailable in England) $25, pp.304 T he key word in the title should have...

Andrew Roberts THE MACMILLANS: POWER, PRIVILEGE AND FAMILY PASSION by Richard Davenport-Hines Heinemann, f18.50, pp. 370 F lowing her abortion and sterilisa- tion, she...

Since I was young, I've been the youngest and worshipped Venus in the sacred and fragrant colonnades of even her humblest serving maids. Some of the time I've managed to...

Anita Brookner MURDER IN ESTORIL by Edith Templeton Fourth Estate, f13.99, pp.250 E dith Templeton will go down in liter- ary history as the author of three perfect novels,...

Liliana Brisby MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS by Elena Bonner Hutchinson, £18.99, pp. 349 I only saw Elena Bonner once but I am not likely to forget the occasion: Andrei Sakharov was...

'Stand up and be counted!' they said. 'Be resolute and strong!' There was only one of me So the counting wouldn't take long; But, all the same, I lacked As ever both bottle...

How wrong Larkin was about everything save loss (and that, too, is only a guess?) for the barriers never came down. Only one thing is surely known as certain as sin's wages or...

John Osborne NOEL COWARD by Clive Fisher Weidenfeld, £17.99, pp.289 T here is a quotation in this book which, quite literally, stopped my breath with dread identification. It...

Until the End of the World ('15', Lumiere) Naked Lunch ('18', selected cinemas) A good snooze Vanessa Letts W im Wenders's Until the End of the World is the kind of film you...

My London pride David Mellor on a memorable Easter festival in Lucerne I n 1938, Toscanini, having refused to conduct in Salzburg as a further protest against fascism, raised...

A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics OPERA The Coronation of Poppea, Queen Elizabeth Hall (071 928 8800). Monteverdi's...

The Thieving Magpie (Grand Theatre, Leeds) Alone and underwhelnied Rupert Christiansen C onsigned by the Royal Opera House's politburo to the B list of critics and there-...

Adventures in Motion Pictures (The Place) Stars of the Bolshoi (touring) Light relief Deirdre McMahon A dventures in Motion Pictures has come a long way since it was started...

Out of decay, immortality Giles Au ty I was having lunch this Tuesday with a painter friend when news of Francis Bacon's death reached us. Bacon was in his 83rd year and was...

Off with your head Taki O h dear. A bad week for The Spectator's Low and High life correspon- dents. First of all Jeff. Getting fired by the Sunday Mirror, an organ once owned...

History lessons Martyn Harris T he IV or Institutional Voice is a mode of speech much discussed by lefty linguists, though of course its history is much longer. Its chief...

Hack off Jeffrey Bernard I t came as no great shock to me to be fired by the Sunday Mirror last week. I was only surprised that the editor, Bridget Rowe, bothered to let me...

In a word Nigel Nicolson hile I stood at the bar of the House waiting to take my seat for the first time, as many others will have been waiting this week, a Labour...

BRUNCH SAID in American is hunky, substantial, solidly respectable; said in English it sounds the epitome of naffness, exuding a mixture of the suburban and the effete. I...

Conquering hero Raymond Keene N igel . Short has done it. By defeating Karpov in the tenth game in Linares he has scored an historic triumph making him the first ever British...

COMPETITION A� E RL0 UR PURE HIGHLAND MALT .111,01.1111%? Song of myself Jaspistos PIJD_ EllIGHLAND MALT 11,1H WHINNY I n Competition No. 1725 you were asked for a poem...

I gratefully adopt John Sweetman's sugges- tion. You are invited to compose a ques- tion and answer, of a grotesque or eccen- tric nature, for inclusion in our 'Dear Mary'...

1057: Hornblower (2) by Mass A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of' £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word `Dictionary') for...

NI El"PA .1„. A 'E 0 U L RIUSUL E ,..U. 4 N ill.... u.1 8 P i t 81 O. A O orl 01 R A I N, 0 RI PI Li s 'I1DAEAN 1-- bi . _(1 w2_, i % u N G L ' A A LL ,, S A H N L • T HE...

More revered than the pier Frank Keating LEEDS UNITED deservedly prevailed in soccer's League championship after anoth- er helter-skelter blanket finish of goals as flukey as...

Q. When I have a hangover I am often con- sumed by guilt and am quite beastly to myself. Especially when driving alone in the car, I can't help cussing my stupid behaviour of...