Mr Hart's, ump S ome observers say that Senator Gary Hart speaks through his nose rather more than he used to. This extra nasality gives his voice the faintest twang of Presi-...

Over the worst Charles Moore M r Denis Healey has now been Sir Geoffrey Howe's opposite number, in various guises and with one gap, for nearly ten years. In all that time,...

F or some reason when a girl is described as the daughter of a 'top gynaecologist', one immediately has a very clear impression of her. That impression very closely re sembles...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £17.25 £17.25 £20.50 £26.50 One year: £34.50 £34.50 £41.00 £53.00 For special offer turn to P.24 Name Address US Subscriptions: $75.00...

Nymph, in thy orifices . . . . Auberon Waugh Tt seems unlikely that more than a thous- 1. and people in this country have read Mr Leon Brittan's Police and Criminal Evidence...

Fred Bridgland I t i is tempting now that peace — or, rather, something more like an imposed tra nquillity — is threatening to breakout in. southern Africa to regard the region...

Christopher Hitchens Concord, New Hampshire A merican politics is a sort of permanent contest between 'backers' and 'believers'. A candidate needs lots of both in order to be...

Adam Nicolson Kirkenes, Norway J ohn Steinbeck once recommended 'the s imple expedient of dyeing different countries different colours so we would know whether we werefor or...

Charles Foley Malibu, California I t is given to few of us to enjoy the best of both worlds, but such is the genial destiny of a dozen men — mostly board- room figures — who...

Patrick Bishop O the opening day of the New Ireland ‘.../Forum the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, John Hume, said: 'Let no one doubt the Forum's impact on...

London has been excited, though not alarmed, by the discovery of a plot to blow up three great railway stations -Victoria Street, Paddington, and Char- ing Cross — with...

Gavin Stamp T he most entertaining obituary I recall chat'. 'Without interest in politics and bored by men's affairs, she was indifferent to the problems of her times.' If...

Andrew Brown W henever I find that I have to stand well back from the edge of the plat- form at tube stations so as to keep under control the urge to jump, then I have only to...

Dusk raid by Inland Revenue Jock Bruce-Gardyne F o ur Years ago Mr Nigel Lawson, then Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Pa?d a visit to the annual conference of the...

Principal of Pusey House, Oxford, wrote a diary in Kuching, Sarawak (Borneo), during the first six months of the second world war. His unpublished thoughts on the Liturgy,...

Sir: Of course I do not oppose the right Qf journalists to express their own views in chronicles. Facts, however, ought to be' correct. In the Spectator of 4 Februa r Y Richard...

A wise church Sir: In the circumstances it was wise to invite a Roman Catholic to review the collection of essays, When will ye be wise?. It is easier for one outside to see...

Sir: Pace Colin Welch (Centrepiece, 28 January), Britain's economic complacency and decline might have been abated by Gladstone's 'sinking to selling cement to Arabs': after...

Sir: I must be one of the children Lord Sligo asks to finish the great swastika incident story (15 February), so I should oblige. Unfortunately his story is false in every...

Plight PsYchi of Dr Anatoly Koryagin, the Russian atrist now in prison in the Soviet Unio n ? K Th ree years ago, on 13 February 1981, Dr tw e l ve - Year was arrested and...

Sir: Sadness at your own reported departure from the editor's chair is _certainly sweetened by the suggestion that Mr Ingrams is also leaving. Is it too much to hope that the...

Sir: I assure Mr David Pugh (Letters, 4 February) that I was quite aware that two interpretations are possible of the story of Onan. Until quite modern times the `solitary vice'...

S , ir : A man who can find bookstalls bulging with ripe porn' should not lightly be criticised. But Richard West's survey of S candinavian literature (`The threat to 4...

article 'Wiser counsels' by Colin elch (21 January). As admitted by the author himself, this is a continuation of the blatant personal attack under the guise °r 'Personal Views'...

Restrictive practices Colin Welch T don't have the advantage as I write of 'knowing the result of the Chesterfield by- election. But I am saddened by the thought that, if Mr...

An unattractive patriot Paul Johnson Begin: A Biography Eric Silver (Weidenfeld & Nicolson £12.50) M enachem Begin was the first Israeli i Prime m inister to run policy on...

Peter Levi Charles Williams: An Exploration of his Life and Works Alice Mary Hadfield (OUP £15) C harles Williams has an oddly high reputation, which puzzled me for 30 years....

Ferdinand Mount on the Treasury Kevin Sharpe on the Puritans Jeffrey Bernard on Racehorses of 1983 Francis King on Desmond Hogan

Richard West The Boss: Charles J. Haughey in Government Joe Joyce and Peter Murtagh (Poolbeg Press 1R£6.50) w hen the most wanted murderer in Ireland was found to be staying as...

Julian Jebb The Anatomy Lesson Philip Roth (Cape £8.95) T his novel completes the trilogy about ilave l the a dventures of Nathan Zuckerman, with ist, begun with The Ghost...

Christopher Hawtree Sun rising David Cook (Secker & Warburg £8.50) 'rnhe conversation was about the state of 1. the baby's nappy, but its sub-text was about authority and...

The Spectator for twelve months and receive FREE a signed copy of GOD'S APOLOGY A chronicle of three friends by Richard Ingrams Open to non-subscribers or to those who want...

Jeffrey Bernard A Jobbing Actor John Le Mesurier (Elm Tree Books £7.95) 1 , 1:311 r1 Le Mesurier once 'told me that he tia , l elt so insecure one day that he got on a is' ....

Peter Paterson Growing Up Russell Baker (Sidgwick & Jackson £9.95) M y one recollection of meeting Russell Baker of the New York Times was at somebody's house in London,...

Out of step Julie Kavanagh Different Drummer (Royal Opera House) Different Drummer (Royal Opera House) Vfirst there were to be cloth wings twisted by dancers into curious...

A new look Rodney Milnes The Valkyrie (WNO, Cardiff) Andrea Chenier (Covent Garden) Patience (Coliseum) The Gondoliers (Sadler's Wells) T he most extraordinary thing about...

Inflation Peter Ackroyd Rumble Fish ('18', Lumiere Cinema) t was made yesterday (almost) and yet it has been photographed in black-and- ;9 with it begins in a mood of urban...

Seeing stars John McEwen Eugene Atget: Photographs of Old France; Adrian Berg: recent watercolours; John Murphy: Beyond the fixing of appearances (Serpentine Gallery, till 25...

Sun and sand Giles Gordon Boesman and Lena (Hampstead) Playboy of the West Indies (Tricycle) (Polish They Theatre, 238 King Street, W6) D ermot Hayes's set for Athol Fugard's...

Trying Richard Ingrams T don't know whether the departure of 'Aubrey Singer heralds a purge of BBC executives by the Director General Alasdair Milne, but I would guess not....

Fun and games Taki A s everyone who loves Italian food knows, the Mafia frequent restaurants where the food tends to be perfect and the staff unusually polite. I became aware...

ke bye blackbird Jeffrey Bernard Ij I t b 's been another rather silly week in the b ack garden of Soho. On Monday I met a black bird with thrush and, as I predicted a st...

Wednesday laughter P. J. Kavanagh T am now in a position to reveal myself as 1 one who has penetrated the Ministry of Defence establishment at Porton Down. Admittedly it was a...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a poem, in their own style or that of a well-known poet, on the disappearance of the halfpenny. After 704 years of healthy life...

No. 1310: Booking the cooks Set by Jaspistos: Cookery books, of which there is now a superflux, have become increasingly recondite and absurd. You are invited to supply the...

Down in the forest te £,,, by Doc Down in the forest te £,,, or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 Edition 'Dictiona rlutio ry' under name and address) — for the first...

S CROSS T jam R Al C ORRA R E R A S AIWID ANCE LIDIAIA T o 1 5 _1 3 1 1 , • j aLljo . E TTERS N I D t N E S R K A I I g by E W a E t C P L o .. 4E IA SIR R The...

Famous four Raymond Keene I t is several months since I announced Nigel Short's triumph in takin g to p honours at the Grandmaster tournament in aku, Gary Kasparov's home...

S ome disruption to public services and national newspapers was caused by the TUC's 'day of protest' at the Government's refusal to - allow employees at its com- munications...

HOUSE OF COMMONS Times Guide 1950 & 1959 editions. James Mackay, 31 Cottenham Rd, Walthamstow, London Eli 6RP. BRADSHAW'S BRITISH RAILWAY TIMETABLES pre-1939 and 'Mixed...