DOINA CORNEA CEAUSESCU'S regime in Rumania shows evidence of wilting under pressure from the West, but not all the signs are positive. Clearly the Rumanian foreign minister...

P OLI TICS Windlesham and Thames: a little rocky on the deaths NOEL MALCOLM A maxim from Nietzsche: ' "I did that," says my memory. 'I cannot have done that," says my pride,...

EGGHEADS AND THE BIG LIE The media: Paul Johnson examines the complaint that our liberties are under attack THE Eighties have been a disastrous decade for the Left...

Bank advances THE principal supplier of chairmen to the banking nobility and gentry is the Bank of England. The Old Lady has her old boys in the chairs of three of our five...

__ _ C I T Y A N D S U B UR B A N NatWest fires the opening shots in the war of the City succession CHRISTOPHER FILDES 7IThe City raises its glass to the old cavalry toast:...

Treasury notes WHAT about room at the top of the Treasury? Every now and again the idea wafts out into Parliament Street that Nigel Lawson does not have to work such long hours...

LETTER S __i_______ I - -- --- . - - -- - Police priorities Sir: Auberon Waugh is right to mention sexual offences in his comments on newspaper editors and the police (Another...

Horrible noises Sir: Something must be done to resist horrible noises in public places. The other morning I witnessed passengers on the No. 45 bus in London being subjected to...

Nuclear nightmare Sir: There are a couple of important points about the Government's plans for the nuclear element of the electricity industry which have been largely...

Obtuse, not senile Sir: No, I am sure Ludo Kennedy (Diary, 28 January) is not getting senile, but he is being obtuse if he pretends not to understand why Dame Elizabeth Murdoch...

Smooth stones Sir: I learned with disgust from the Guardian of the intention of Lloyds Bank in Tunbridge Wells to close down its next door neighbour in Chapel Place, Hall's...

Waugh poet Auberon Waugh Has become a dangerous bore. His views on driving and drink Stink. Bryan Matthews Sandford House, Sandford-on-Thames Oxford

Buying Bosman Sir: Re Richard West's article on Herman Charles Bosman (14 January), it would appear that most South African schoolchildren have one over the 'well-read people...

Off the rails Sir: 'To reduce mugging on the Underground, close the Brixton extension of the Victoria Line,' writes Sir Michael Samuelson Bt from his Sussex seat (Letters, 21...

Culture and affluence Sir: Reading Auberon Waugh's Another voice (14 January) reminded me of the Pleasure I had in reading the Daily Herald during my formative years. The...

The best book of the year? Francis King THE COMFORTS OF MADNESS by Paul Sayer Constable, £9.95, pp.128 If one thinks about it, it is idiotic to attempt to give a prize, like...

Talking himself horse David Sexton TRAVELLER by Richard Adams Hutchinson, £12.95, pp. 277 W e always anthropomorphise. Since We are not animals, any account we can give of...

My Sister She was the first to hold her own spoon the first to amuse the uncles the first to wear the pink tulle dress. She was the first to get a Valentine a wedding bouquet a...

Opera Lear (Coliseum) Das Rheingold (Scottish Opera, Glasgow) Sound and fury Rodney Milnes Some of the heavier hacks have been a little hard on Aribert Reimann's Lear,...

Television Comparatively speaking Wendy Cope M ien are completely vainer than women,' said Michael to Elliot in last week's thirtyvsomething (Channel 4). I'm not sure that I...

Low life --------- Future shock Jeffrey Bernard D eath is no longer number one on My chart of private fears. It has been replaced by an outsider called The Possible Danger of...

SPECTATOR WINE CLUB More than chianti to take your fancy Auberon Waugh Our annual Tribute to Italy did not go too well last year - partly, I suspect, because of the drawn-out...