Is the nation divided, and if so who or what is dividing it? Mr Harold Wilson has now accepted that Mr Heath is, as a matter of fact, conduct- ing that 'radical change in the...

JOHN MACKINTOSH, MP To sit through Mr Rippon being questioned in the Commons is a curious experience. One can understand the reactions of the wogs- begin-at-Calais type of Tory...

AIMS . '

The overweening demands of television were never more tastelessly satisfied than when the Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza was publicly__guestiOned not only in front of the...

ceremony to meet him for a few minutes, in Australia men waved mugs of beer at him with a cheery 'good on you, mate'. In Hong Kong clerics pondered how to persuade him not to...

RENFORD BA M BROUGH - - Went to St John's, Cambridge, as an and graduate, and,has been there almost contin ously ever since, except for a spell as a co miner in the Sunderland...

AMERICA The China lobby JOHN-GRAHAM Washington, DC 'We need someone to negotiate with the Chinese. Do you speak Polish?' So ran the caption to a cartoon recently in the...

Controlling an epidemic STANLEY JOHNSON It is ironic that by far the most sensational - outtsreak of cholera, at least up until the time of the Pakistan disaster, should have...

Minerva's owl DENIS BROGAN `Minerva's owl flies only in the dusk.' This phrase, obscure to the Anglo-Saxon mind, is in fact a lot clearer than many of the dicta of Georg...

By 'a Conservative' About newspaper claims to know who we are, we propose to say nothing except that there has been as much misunderstanding of our identity as of our opinions....

Looking eastwards MICHAEL STEWART Three major facts dominate world politics today: First, the existence of two enormous power blocs, the chief of one being the United States,...

There were ten green bottles And great and noisy have been the falls thereof. Lord Hall gone, with much noise and fury from himself, from the Post Office workers, from parts of...

Once more on the campus trek A. LROWSE 'Working one's passage' in America for me means lecturing my way from campus to campus—a very good way of getting round the United...

The stuff of dreams and nightmares PEREGRINE WORSTHORNE Journalists have a rather contemptuous at- titude to advertisements..They recognise, of course, that these large blocks...

Grants to stay RHODES BOYSON The very day that a conference was being held on the progress of the Independent University Mrs Thatcher announced, to the disappointment of many...

Vowel functionS JOHN ROWAN WILSO\ There has been alarm expressed about the number of doctors now working in our hos. pitals with a less than perfect command of the English...

Forty years later the pain of love Suddenly pressed upon him; Breaking the long silence, then the words He used for passion were harsh and dry as strings. Wryly, not to be...

From the 'Spectator,' 3 December 1870— Science has done a great deal for the beseiged French, not only in the way of balloons, but in the way of photography. We understand...

Sir: Your article on 'War Guilt' makes saddening reading to anyone who remembers that the same arguments were paraded out to de- fend paeificism and appeasement in the...

Sir: It seems to me that, in your leading article 'The Right to Strike you have given words to a very common confusion of thought. Fundamental liberties, if r u . analyse them,...

Sir: Roger Scruton's review of two recent critiques of linguistic philo- sophy in the SPECTATOR (26 No- vember) - is scathing but his defence of linguistic philosophy is not ef-...

Sir: The fact that more people watch the televising of the so-called Miss World competition than al- most any other tele-event tells us a lot about ourselves. I use the word...

Sir: Statement 1 of Tynan's reply to my reply to his reply, agrees with me. Thank God for that. Statement 2. Is this a casual mis- take or a deliberate lie? Statement 3. I am...

Letters from Dr A. L. Rowse, G. W. Mackworth-Young, C. H. Sis- son, Peter Paterson, Tony Palmer, Martyn Snow, Katharine Kenyon, David Cohen and others. Shades of blue Sir: My...

Dear Mr Jay: There is always special reason for one's own Opcn Letter. A. E. Jenkins 10 Worcester Road, Sutton, Surrey

use of British defence regulations in Israel and the West Bank. A point that seems to have escaped his notice is that there happens to be a war going on in the area. and defence...

Sir: This is an old Welshman writing. He has just celebrated his ninetieth birthday. I claim to be the very oldest subscriber of the SPECTATOR-a regular reader since 1899 when...

Sir: Sir William Armstrong says that 'the chief danger to which politicians and Ministers are ex- posed is not, as is often supposed, that obstructive bureaucrats will drag...

Sir: Mr Keevil. in his letter about my article on Bermuda (24 Octo- ber), mangles logic wonderfully. I don't see why the fact that so many black Bermudians are self- employed...

Sir: It is interesting to note that even at the age of fifteen, Jane Austen was paving the way for one of the great achievements attributed to the 'present gener- ation' by Mr...

Sir: Speaking as a stone-deaf and retarded adolescent, I object strongly to Clement Crisp's patron- ising cynicism, puerile bigotry, and arrogant snobbery in his condem- nation...

Sir: Roger Barnard in his article `Bad taste' (7 November) uses such difficult words in such dreadfully long sentences that I daresay I am mistaken in thinking he wants us to...

Sir: Absence in America prevented me from replying to the various letters about my Address as Presi- dent of the Shakespeare Club at Stratford, but really there was nothing to...

No. 633: Broadcast Most readers will see or hear the Queen delivering her annual mes- sage on Christmas Day. Many will have their own ideas of the sort of message they would...

RENFORD BAMBROUGH The Devil himself was the first existentialist. By his fall he denied his own knowledge of good and evil, and elevated the un- conquerable will into an...

ERIC STOKES Colonialism in Africa 1870-1960: Vol 11 The History and Politics of Colonialism 1914- 1960 edited by L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan (cut. £5) Colonialism in Africa,...

GEOFFREY SAMPSON New Horizons in Linguistics edited by John Lyons (Pelican Original 10s) Until recently, modern theoretical linguistics was the preserve of small groups of...

GRAHAM HOUGH The Stubborn Structure: Essays on Criticism and Society Northrop Frye (Methuen 60s) Since the Eliot-Richards-Leavis-Empson explosion in the earlier part of the...

CHRISTOPHER HUDSON Tides John Montague (Dolmen Press 22s) Poems from an Island Michael Shayer (Fulcrum Press 21s) The Visitors Barry Cole (Methuen 25s) Lucidities Elizabeth...

NORMAN GASH Palmerston Jasper Ridley (Constable 63s) -or Mr Ridley's new biography of Palmerston has two great merits. It is the first to make systematic use of the Broadlands...

JOHN WOOD The Challenge of World Poverty Gunnar Myrdal (Allen Lane The Penguin Press 84s) Unable to express himself fully in his mam- moth three volume 11 million word Asian...

AUBERON WAUGH Play t Man an Peter Forster (Eyre and Spot- tiswoode 35s) • There is a whole generation tucked away between those writers like Hugo Charteris, Patrick...

First fiddle? GILLIAN WIDDICOMBE Marching towards 0 Level Music, I was indelibly instructed that the two greatest violinists in the world were Jascha Heifetz, for his wizardly...

Cashing in on Christmas CHRISTOPHER HUDSON It is difficult to be miserly about Scrooge (Dominion) which will give a lot of pleasure to countless children and a lot of money to...

Fashion's favour KENNETH HURREN London's 'first night scene' moved down river last week to the Greenwich Theatre, where a full complement of critics (includ-• ing a few who...

Crink'm-crank'm Patrick Skene CATLING Crinkum-crankum? Just in case the meanings of the word have slipped your mind, and the meanings are certainly slippery, allow Me to be of...

Leger domain EVAN ANTHONY To those who go througli the motion without the necessary conviction, genuflection may place a strain upon the knee; and uninspired reverence can...

Out and about CLEMENT CRISP The Manchester premiere of Kenneth Mac- Millan's new ballet, Checkpoint, was one of those occasions calculated to, give a stage manager nightmares...

Against the odds RODNEY MILNES Anyone concocting a parody of nineteenth- century opera would have to turn for inspira- tion to Donizetti's Anna Bolena. It has got the lot. The...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT It is nice to know, said a correspondent Investing under the Tories', that you an- ticipate a return of the bull market in equities in late 1971-1972 but how...

optimistic about the future of FI- 4 "-h racing last week in view of his pessimism over the raising of prize money until well into the 'seventies, we should be grateful for the...

I was delighted when that hard-working nice chap Christopher Chataway became Minister of Posts and Telecommunications on the formation of the Conservative Government, and I am...

CLIVE GAMMON No sport could ever have stood a better chance of being strangled at birth than surf- board riding. Maybe it's gone on for centur- ies in Hawaii or wherever, but...

I came across an old country guide the other day. It listed all the tradesmen in each village in my part of the country, and it seas impressive to see the great variety of...

A few days ago, while performing the desper- ately vital act of putting as much space as possible between me and what is sometimes a feu years ago; ,be. was4 massive,--...

There is a growing suspicion that students should be seen but not heard, that somehow they have overstepped the limits of their participation in university life and have got to...

The Chaine des Rotisseurs was founded in 1248 and, when you think of it, the man who turned a nifty spit must have wielded con- siderable influence in those pre-cookery class...

No. 1458 DAEDAUS A prize of three guineas will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 14 December. Address solutions: Crossword 1458, The Specs tator,' 99 Gower...

MARY NORTON How best to choose books for children? The uestion is: can we? Or rather, should we? hould we not perhaps—for the older hildren—avail ourselves of book tokens?...

CAROLA OMAN The King's Room Eilis Dillon. illustrated by Richard Kennedy (Hamish Hamilton 12s) The Befana's Toyshop Gianni Rodari, translated by Patrick Creagh illustrated by...

TOM HUTCHINSON The God Beneath the Sea Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen (Longmans Young Books 35s) The House on the Brink John Gordon (Hutchinson Junior Books 18s) Good-Night,...

ISABEL QUIGLY Thursday's Child Noel Streatfeild (Collins 25s) , Some writers deal with a fantasy world in terms of realism, and get labelled realists forever, no matter how...

MOLLY LEFEBURE The Prince in Waiting John Christopher (Hamish Hamilton . 25s) To Sunset and Beyond Alec Lea (Hamish Hamilton 25s) Telford and the American Visitor Ray Pope...

K. CROSSLEY-HOLLAND Through the Window Charles Keeping (Oxford University Press 20s) A Brother for Momoko Chihiro Iwasaki (Bodley Head 18s) Where the Wild Apples Grow John...

BOOKS FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN The Apple and the Butterfly and The Egg and the Chicken Iela and Enzo Mari (A. and C. Black, each 15s). Two picture books without words. A...

the age of five without first consulting them, or knowing them well. They have already developed certain literary tastes and few books can appeal universally. The books below...

It was a bit of luck for me that on the day that the post brought the parcel of twenty- three Books for Christmas there arrived also Mark, to spend the weekend with his...

: Himself, the darlin' talking dog, Kenneth Bird's most happy creation, returns in Stardom For Himself Kenneth Bird (Macdonald 18s) and results in a darlin' book which I read...

retelling of things past, snatches- us back to Norman England with . The Witch's Brat (Oxford University Press 16s), which tells how a humpbacked boy helps to found the hospital...

Read- ers 30s) drops us back into the past: eight- eenth-century London and all that: crooked bounty-hunters and some real historical names like Sir John Fielding to plug the...