`Jump!' S ylvia Heal won the Mid Staffordshire by-election for the Labour Party by a majority of 9,499, a swing of 21 per cent from the Tory party. It was thus registered as...

E OR The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 AN ANGLICAN TRAGEDY A s Dr Runcie announces his retire- ment as...

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T he Calcutt Committee on the law and the media has apparently got its report almost ready. Given that it was appointed only last summer, it has worked with commendable speed....

Noel Malcolm investigates the growing corporatist opposition to Mrs Thatcher, and finds that it makes for strange bedfellows THE SHREWDEST comment on the Mid Staffordshire...

Stephen Handelman reports on the antagonism between Moscow and Vilnius Moscow OLD habits, it seems, die hard. Anyone visiting the Soviet Union for the first time this week...

James Bowman on the political delights of capital punishment Popular men, They must create strange monsters, and then quell them, To make their arts seem something....

Anyone can be wrong A SUPERNOVA is a star that tempor- arily brightens exceedingly — on occa- sion as a preliminary to exploding. The region at its centre is characterised by...

Ian Buruma on the Japanese taste for erotic cannibalism THE film I'm about to describe is entitled Love Ritual. It was made in Paris by an Italian director called Aldo Lado....

Robert Fox argues for a need to anticipate events in Europe and reshape defence policies `WHAT'LL the boys do down on the farm after they've seen Paree,' was the refrain for...

Michael Heath

SIR John Lubbock succeeded on Tues- day in inducing the London County Council to pause in carrying out one of the most unwise of their projects, that of excavating a tunnel...

Jock Bruce-Gardyne surveys Mrs Thatcher's challengers NAPOLEON identified luck as the quality he asked for above all others of his generals, and Mrs Thatcher's first 11 years...

Sandra Barwick on fake social workers who get to examine children FASHIONS in dress and music have long been analysed for deeper lessons they are thought to hold about the...

The media: Paul Johnson wants more debate on the legal issues THE Budget and the Mid Staffs by- election meant that the War Crimes Bill passed its second reading, by 273 to 60...

Sir: I am afraid that neither your editorial (17 March) nor the letters (24 March) will help to resolve the political disaster of the community charge. Those of us who oppose...

Sir: How right Martyn Harris is about the `solemn idiocies of bilingual policy' in Wales (Diary, 10 March). I once saw a contractors' roadside notice near Hawarden (a part of...

Sir: Steven Berkoff's nonsense (Letters, 17 March) is perhaps self-evidently so. Any artist is fundamentally a craftsman; his craft may be writing, poetry, painting, music or...

in the same difficulty of comprehension of what the community charge is all about (Letters, 24 March). The former states that 'it is unfair'. As we all share free access to the...

Sir: I am writing following the article by Harry Phibbs, 'Cardboard village' (10 March). Whilst agreeing wholeheartedly with Phibbs' desire for factual and empiric- al data...

Sir: Am I alone in finding Wendy Cope's repeated references to her inability to operate her television set and its associated video recorder tiresome in the extreme? Surely...

Sir: We welcomed the article on 3 Febru- ary by Nigella Lawson. A further visit may prove a more reliable guide for your readers. We were caught on the cusp, as on the day...

Sir: The policy of the United States to- wards the Republic of Lithuania suggests inconsistency in US foreign policy. The State Department may be correct in claim- ing that the...

Sir: What is happening to our 'sweet English tongue' when the literary editor of a national newspaper, Graham Lord, (Let- ters, 24 February) can write . the judges — who...

Sir: In his review of Titmuss Regained (10 March) Colin Welch quotes Bacon to the effect that 'the higher a man climbs, the better the world's view of his arse'. For years I...

This is the fifth in our Lent Series on English spiritual writers. THE few who regularly read poetry now may well find that it fills a kind of religious craving in their lives....

SELF-FINANCING. New bright ideas such as compulsory dog registration are being advertised as 'self-financing' schemes. What it means is that the schemes will have a power to...

A meteoric fall for the stars Barry Riley D own they go, one after another, the domino line of the business superstars of • Thatcher's Britain. They were the Good Time guys...

Share tippers and financial writing Stephen Fay O ne legendary press baron would make two telephone calls as soon as he arrived in the office — the first to his City editor...

MR GLADSTONE and his Cabinet gazed beadily down from the walls of the Palace of Westminster, as the Governor of the Bank of England turned his own beady gaze on the post-Budget...

AT Lloyds Bank, when they lose £715 million, they like to look on the bright side. Brian Pitman, Lloyds' ebullient chief ex- ecutive, says in the report and accounts that it was...

ODD and sad were the goings on at Framlington, the unit trust managers — so City and Suburban was saying two years ago, when Throgmorton Trust was trying to take them over....

Bringing a touch of class to the supply of M&S's knickers CHRISTOPHER FILDES splendid dinner at Grosvenor House this week launched Britain's newest major company, Courtaulds...

LUNCH has an almost mystical import- ance in the City, and the state of the lunch - book is a leading indicator. It is therefore baddish news for Mrs Thatcher's Government that...

Does his end justify his genes? Colin Welch REBEL WITH A CAUSE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HANS EYSENCK W.H. Allen, £14.95, pp. 310 rofessor Hans Eysenck's first chapter heading is...

Philip Glazebrook WHERE I FELL TO EARTH: A LIFE IN FOUR PLACES by Peter Conrad Chatto, f16, pp. 252 his restless, dazzling book describes the relationship of Mr Conrad, a...

Gabriele Annan THE FOLKS THAT LIVE ON THE HILL by Kingsley Amis Hutchinson, £12.95, pp.246 T his is Kingsley Amis's'19th novel. The format is soap opera: eight to ten members...

Mr Jones was an expert In the art of origami. He would thumb through volumes Of his clean kitchen paper Before wrapping chips As though changing a nappy. He made paper hats To...

Robert Oakeshott AGAINST THE GRAIN: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Boris Yeltsin translated by Michael Glenny Cape, f12.95, pp. 215 A number of Oxford Colleges, among them Brasenose,...

want to read it? Anne Chisholm THE PRINCE by Celia Brayfield Chatto & Windus, £12.95, pp.586 11) ear Dotti, Thank you for your letter of 29 Jan to the literary editor,...

Evelyn Joll INSIDE CHRISTIE'S by John Herbert Hodder & Stoughton, £20, pp. 407 I n The Great Gatsby, Meyer Wolfsheim, the man who 'fixed the 1919 World Series', says to the...

me to move it away. (They say the right to complain is mine.) — I was sorry, we argued, they swore. I was fine Till they grabbed my neck, hit me and punched me that day I parked...

John Henshall CONCRETE by Thomas Bernhard Quartet Encounter, £5.95, pp. 168 S ome years ago, as the train pulled out of Paddington, you passed a huge graffito by the tracks....

Photography Big shots Giles Auty In Our Time: the World as Seen by Magnum Photographers (Hayward Gallery, till 6 May) A t one time many believed that the important advance...

An Evening with Peter Ustinov (Theatre Royal, Haymarket) Someone Like You (Strand) Favourable impressions Christopher Edwards P eter Ustinov, whose 'big' personality is so...

Celia (15, selected cinemas) The violence of children Hilary Mantel A nn Turner's remarkable first film is set in Melbourne in 1957 and its main character is a little girl of...

Les Troyens (Opera de la Bastille, Paris) 1875 and all that Frank Johnson T he opening of a big new opera house in a capital city must offer some sort of guide to any age's...

.am...a A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics DANCE Royal Ballet, Covent Garden (240 1066). On 26 April Kirov stars Altynai...

Short shrift Wendy Cope N ot a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. It's a long title, isn't it? When you consider that this was Jeffrey Archer's first book, it's quite surprising...

The Russians are coming Peter Watson I n the coming week we shan't be able to move for Russian art. There is more of it coming under the hammer than there were Tory traitors...

Celebrities • squared Taki 0 New York h dear. Just as I sat down to write yet again about the ghastliness of Hollywood — this is Oscar week and every other subject is taboo...

Small print Jeffrey Bernard T en days ago I thought I was going to be a job for an ambulance but yesterday I managed to get up and cross my threshold for the first time since...

Ears, idle ears Zenga Longmore W henever we hear Boko's voice over the intercom, Olumba and I frantically tidy up. There are ten flights of stairs to climb between the...

...111111111111111EIM, The Bell Inn, Aston Clinton I AM always suspicious of country house restaurants. You know the sorts of places: dining rooms filled with dried flower...

Wine drinkers' wine and slurpers' tipples Auberon Waugh I had hoped to keep the price of the sample case (7) of this nice, cheap offer at under £5 the bottle, despite the fact...

Price No. Value 12 bats. £81 12 bats, £41 12 hots. £39 12 bots. £49 12 bats. £61 12 bots. £73 12 bots. £60 do GRAPE IDEAS, 3-5 Hythe Brid g e Street, Oxford OX1 2EW. Telephone:...

Dutch courage Raymond Keene J an Timman put up a brave fight against Anatoly Karpov in the final of the qual- ifying series to decide who will meet Kasparov for the world...

VAS RF L GV 12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY 12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY Vice versa Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1618 you were asked for an end - of-term report, by a teenage pupil,...

Do people still propose marriage by letter and receive written replies? Let us assume the age of gallantry is not yet dead. Two `modern' letters, please (maximum 150 words), the...

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 the first three correct solutions...

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