The Cheltenham test The Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, added to his appearance of foolishness over the banning of trade unions at GCHQ, Cheltenham, when he correlated...

Political commentary One thing after another Charles Moore The British 'establishment' has few more cunning devices in its armoury than the inquiries which ministers set up...

Notebook I discovered it was TV-am's first anniversary this week when I turned on the television and saw the programme's Presenters digging into a very small cupcake with a...

WVhat is America's jANi - policy? Charles Glass Beirut I n his memoirs, Diplomat Among Warriors Ambassador Robert Murphy describes a conversation he had with the Turkish...

Reagan's real appeal Christopher Hitchens Washington How does he do it? It is the question of the hour, nay the question of the year. How is it that Ronald Reagan, sneered at...

Where Desire meets Pleasure Simon Courtauld Breakfast was served after the train left Atlanta, Georgia, and it must have been somewhere near the Alabama border that the old...

A marriage deranged T. E. Utley Last week Mrs Thatcher decided that, at all costs (including the suspension of whatever vestiges remain of the doctrine of ministerial...

A curriculum for Scotland Allan Massie Scottish education used to be famous; it is well on the way to becoming infamous. In 1826 the Statistical Account for Scotland reported:...

In the City Budget thoughts Jock Bruce-Gardyne The Chancellor's pre-Budget retreat has come a little late this year. Nor is it what it used to be. With just six weeks to go...

Holiday reading Sir: Paul Johnson ('The press', 21 January) knows perfectly well why not only Sunday magazines but also the newspapers of which they form part are so crammed...

Sir: I would like to dissociate both myself and the Campaign for Justice in Divorce from the views attributed to us by Tessa Reay ('Lord Hailsham and Dr Allan, 14 January). CJD...

Setters IL Justice in divorce ISir: In her article ('Lord Hailsham and Dr Allan', 14 January) on the current divorce Bill before Parliament, Tessa Reay has been misled by the...

European freedom Sir: A more attractive version and Possibly a more accurate form of the anecdote by Anthony Blond (Books, 7 January) about the attitude of Moslems towards the...

Faith's works Sir: Colin Brown (Letters, 14 January) asserts in reply to Eric Christiansen that no such person as St Faith ever existed. On the contrary, she was a virgin and...

Sir: I sympathise with Paul Johnson wanting to weep for the fallen trees after he apparently read 12 colour magazines at once, as I would when anyone was forced into such an...

Facing facts Sir: Harry Robinson (Letters, 14 January) refers to Oscar Wilde's and Jeffrey Bernard's observation that it is possible to 'appreciate the stars from a prone...

Smith's church Sir: Most of your readers will know well enough the problems of small country churches which are in urgent need of repair. To ask for their support for one in...

Hands off Onan Sir: I am normally not one to cast doubts upon the learning of the likes of Mr Colin Bayliss, who seems, from his address, to be a fellow-Welshman, particularly...

Centrepiece Not quite beyond endurance Colin Welch Years ago Michael Wharton and I, I then and he then (as gloriously now) Peter Simple, gave dinner, or rather tried and...

The old lure J. Enoch Powell Britain and Ireland 1914-23 Sheila Lawlor (Gill and Macmillan £20) or anyone concerned with that part the United Kingdom known as NOr thern...

Grand mogul Patrick Skene Catling Sidney Bernstein Caroline Moorehead (Cape £12.95) Caroline Moorehead has written a dutiful, thorough, glowing eulogy to Sidney Bernstein,...

No Waugh shortage Mark Amory The Essays, Articles and Reviews of Evelyn Waugh Edited by Donat Gallagher (Methuen £20) In 1977 Methuen published a selection of Evelyn Waugh's...

Rumblings of a sage Peter Quennell Thomas Carlyle: A Biography Fred Kaplan (Cambridge £25) Of all Victorian great men, Thomas Carlyle presents the easiest target, and for...

Theatre Views of women Giles Gordon Unsuitable for Adults (Bush) Strider - The Story of a Horse (National: Cottesloe) Eve (Lyric Studio, Hammersmith) Calamity...

Art Provincial John McEwen The Omega Workshops: Alliance and Enmity in English Art 1911-1920 (Anthony d'Offay, 9 & 23 Dering Street, WI, till 6 March) The Omega Workshops...

Music Roll-call Peter Phillips As if pausing to draw breath before the unspeakable glories of 1985, the rollcall of composers' anniversaries for this year is modest. There...

Television Thorn in the flesh Richard Ingrams When BBC big-wigs start writing to the papers to defend their programmes, you may be sure they have got the wind-up. Last week...

High life Choice Taki New Y~r! Thank God for Peter Jay. otherwi0 T New York would feel like a sk reSo^i out of season. Everyone who is described a a fun person by magazines...