The most significant and frightening thing about Mr Callaghan's speech in Blackpool on Tuesday was not what he said, which was in many Ways admirable, but the fact that the...

It wasn't Mr James Callaghan's week. He told us to pull our socks up. Few clapped, and the pound nose-dived, losing zq cents to 81.63 after the Prime Minister's speech to the...

Oh God! Oh Blackpool! John Grigg Since last weekend Blackpool has been the political capital of England, with most of our Present ruling establishment—Labour ministers and...

I suppose that one of the lessons of this week's Labour Party conference in Blackpool is that no one is indispensable. Sir Harold Wilson, who only a year ago dominated this...

Richard West As our train came to the West German frontier, I noticed that everyone in the second-class coach appeared to be citizens of the poor states of Europe—Turks,...

Robert Blake The capitulation, for no other word can describe it, of Mr Ian Smith will leave white Rhodesians in a state of shellshock for a long time to come. All accounts...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington When the sound went out, the two debaters stood stock still and silent at their lecterns, the height of which had been negotiated so that Ford...

Patrick Cockburn Damascus Last Sunday four Palestinians walked into the Semiramis, a large old hotel in the heart of Damascus, and asked for a room. The reception clerk told...

Stig Stromholm Stockholm When Byron woke up one morning and found himself famous, he was surprised. Yet he had been living in relative obscurity for less than twenty-five...

Neil Kinnock Next year Britain--at least the Britain of a million and a half unemployed, a massive balance of payments deficit and public borrowing requirement, an investment...

Mary Kenny The Peace Movement goes on—not only in Northern Ireland—but all over the small towns of the Republic. Each week the reports come in : 2,000 in Killarney, 5,000 in...

Antonia Martin An acquaintance of mine has just spent a small legacy on buying himself a 'second home' in Wales. Thereby he has committed at least three sins against today's...

Christopher Booker Despite a somewhat arcane correspondence in The Times, no one has yet drawn attention to what was by far the most remarkable feature of the long and...

Only genius Hans Keller Facts, for a change, will do us a football world of good, especially since our own football world is in the habit of contrasting 'entertainment' with...

Leger dope Jeffrey Bernard I've just had lunch with a man who'd like to remain nameless. It's a temporary measure. Should you want to challenge the story he told me that I'm...

On the financial rocks Nicholas Davenport The City has certainly played ale game. It took the bait of that preposterous coupon-141 per cent—on the £600 million 'long' (1994)...

Sir: As Ian Bradley pointed out in his article in your issue of 18 September, all the main parties have at various times taken up the devolution case with different degrees of...

Sir: In Mr Ackland's memory of the first production of The Three Sisters (18 September) he writes of things past as though they were non-existent today. In his tender evocation...

Sir: Messrs Waugh (for whose speedy recovery let us all pray) and Pivcevic are entitled to support Croatian autonomy, but the fact remains that pro-Pavelic sympathies strongly...

Sir: Lament for equities by Nicholas Davenport (of 11 September) seems to ignore one part of the equation of supply and demand. The supply of equities has been very greatly...

Premier in low profile George Hutchinson Callaghan: The Road to Number Ten Peter Kellner and Christopher Hitchens (Cassell £3.95) Dislike or disapproval of one's subject is...

Peter Conrad The Question of Things Happening. The Letters of Virginia Woolf, Volume II: 1912-1922 edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann (Hogarth Press £9.50) The...

George Gale The Spoiled Child of the Western World Henry Fairlie (Sheldon Press 24.95) Henry Fairlie has been in the United States for ten years now, immersing himself in that...

Nick Totton Hard Feelings and Other Stories Francis King (Hutchinson £3.95) Who Do You Think You Are? Malcolm Bradbury (Secker and Warburg £3.50) My Organic Uncle and Other...

Benny Green The West End Horror. A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D. Edited by Nicholas Meyer (Hodder and Stoughton £3.50) In January 1881 Mr Sherlock Holmes, While...

Francis King The Death of the King's Canary Dylan Thomas and John Davenport (Hutchinson £3.25) I was always more apprehensive about an encounter with John Davenport than about...

Jan Morris Everest The Hard Way Chris Boni ngton (Hodder and Stoughton £6.95) Nearly twenty-five years ago Mount Everest was climbed for the first time, and altogether useless...

Nicholas Maw Rodney Milnes It was Sir Thomas Beecham who remarked that the two greatest English opera comPosers were Handel and Delius. Before the second world war opera, like...

Soft sell John McEwen Images of an Era, a collection of post-war American posters at the ICA (till 10 Oct) is brought to us through the rather ominous 'imagination and...

Phillip Bergson San Sebastian's 24th Festival International de ()lie opened disconcertingly with riots in the street as the Basques tried to commit filmfesticide. The Spanish...

Moonglow Kenneth Hurren Jumpers (Lyttelton, National Theatre) Mother's Day (Royal Court) Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs) Same Time, Next Year...

Boating trip Ian Cameron Fifteen years after the completion of his first feature film, Jacques Rivette has finally achieved the evanescent status of being the director...

Mucking about Richard Ingrams The confrontation between Ford and Carter, highlights of which were shown on Tonight—for once at a reasonable hour--was notable for only one...