5 MARCH 1977

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Let the bleeder bleed

The Spectator

With only five British Leyland models still in production there is no doubt that—yet again--the company faces a grave crisis. Despite every financial incentive offered under the...

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Political Commentary

The Spectator

The Tories' uncertain tide John Grigg Mrs Thatcher has called upon the Tories to 'prepare for office', and according to the normal laws of politics it should, indeed, be only...

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Notebook

The Spectator

The last week has been a sombre one for those professionally concerned with the laws of libel, that is for those more likely to be on the defendant's than the plaintiff's end of...

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Another voice

The Spectator

One just man Auberon Waugh In the village of Chilton Foliat, Wiltshire, where I used to live, stands the Tudor mansion famous for its legend of the Littlecote Ghost. The story...

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Toothless bulldogs

The Spectator

Richard West Johannesburg When somebody asked the other day what Change I had seen in South Africa, I found tn . yself giving the very subjective answer that life was much...

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Rationing easy murder

The Spectator

Charles Foley Los Angeles The American arms industry—much of which calls California home—is watching with warm professional interest to see what steps the new President may...

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'Sanjay hatao'

The Spectator

Amit Roy In the 1971 general election, the Indian opposition parties ganged up on Mrs Gandhi with the war cry : 'Indira hatao' (remove Indira). The people were not impressed....

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Labourturmoil in London

The Spectator

Tony Craig Labour's manifesto for the Greater London Council election in May is blandly entitled It's Looking Good. This better describes Conservative chances of recapturing...

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Treason of the anti-clerks

The Spectator

Ferdinand Mount Sir Edmund Leach is Provost of King's College, Cambridge. He is also Professor of Social Anthropology, Senior Fellow of Eton College, a Trustee of the British...

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Something old, something new

The Spectator

Christopher Booker I must apologise for an injudicious attack of 'flu which prevented me last week from continuing my exploration of some of the deeper issues lying behind what...

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Racing

The Spectator

Confederacy Jeffrey Bernard The thing that delights me most about racecourse con-men is their method of approach. One man at Kempton Park last Saturday who tried to chat me up...

In the City

The Spectator

A new industrial strategy? Nicholas Davenport If you ask me why Wall Street has been behaving bearishly in the face of a huge refiationary spending programme—a boost of...

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In the right ?

The Spectator

Sir : I am grateful to Colin Bell (26 February) for his reference to my incorruptibility, advise him to learn to spell my name correctly if he wants to make anagrams on it,...

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Whooping cough

The Spectator

Sir: Mr Cosgrave's article on the whooping cough vaccine and the cold-blooded attitude of Mr EnnaIs was most timely and expressed exactly my own fears for a six-month-old son....

Medical ministers

The Spectator

Sir : John Grigg (26 February) asks for further instances of medical men who have risen to the leadership of their countries. Two immediately spring to my mind: Dr Hastings...

Sir Harold Wilson

The Spectator

Sir: Sir Harold Wilson is to lead a commission investigating matters in the City. He should be a good choice for this particular position. Looking through the pamphlet put out...

Permissive society

The Spectator

Sir: It is time John Torode (Letters, 19 February) moved from the Guardian where he has never been at home to the Telegraph where he belongs. The former is a mental resting...

Sir: Despite John Torode, CHE has never supported the Paedophile

The Spectator

Information Exchange. The Bill which we have drawn up and which we are endeavouring to have sponsored in Parliament seeks to make the age of consent for homosexuals the same as...

Alibi

The Spectator

Sir: I would like to comment on a book review (5 February) entitled Alibi that has recently come to my attention. It concerned a book by Taki Theodoracopulos, The Greek...

Not Scotch

The Spectator

Sir: Mr George Gale's relations (26 Februuary) are not Scotch. They may be Scots. Mr Gale may send me a bottle of the former. I shall drink to the latter, David M. L. Richardson...

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Books on the Performing Arts

The Spectator

The divine monument Peter Conrad MY Double Life Sarah Bernhardt (Peter Owen £6.95) Sarah Bernhardt and her World Joanna Richardson (Weidenteld and Nicolson £6) Bernhardt was...

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The culture trail

The Spectator

Asa Briggs The Nationalisation of Culture Janet (Hamish Hamilton £8.50) It is almost as difficult to write about the history of the arts as state-supported activities as it is...

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In tune

The Spectator

Benny Green Lyrics on Several Occasions Ira Gershvim (Elm Tree Books E4.95) As a general rule, the literature of popular music is too ridiculous to have any practical use...

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Reel tears

The Spectator

Peter Ackroyd The Men Who Made the Movies Richard Schickel (Elm Tree Books £5.95) Fritz Lang Lotte H. Eisner (Secker and Warburg £9.75) The Bogart File Terence Pettigrew...

Disco queen

The Spectator

Rodney Milnes The Callas Legacy John Ardoin (DuCk worth £5.95) Perhaps this exhaustive discography should have been sent for counsel's opinion rather than review. Of the...

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The rules of the game

The Spectator

Anthony Burgess Grand Piano Sidney Harrison (Faber £6.95) On Playing the Flute Johann Joachim Quantz, translated by Edward R. Reilly (Faber Paperbacks £4.95) Shakespeare, who...

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In retrospect

The Spectator

Nick Totton The Bread of Those Early Years Heinrich Boll (Seeker and Warburg £2.90) Lunar Caustic Malcolm Lowry (Cape £2.50) The Collected Stories of Noel Blakiston (Constable...

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Arts

The Spectator

Scottish landscape painters Martin Baillie Landscape painting inevitably played a leading role in the emergent Scottish school of the second half of the nineteenth century...

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Cinema

The Spectator

Soft movie Clancy Sigal The Last Tycoon (Empire, Leicester Square) Les Violons du Bal (Phoenix, East Finchley) Helter Skelter (Carlton, Odeon Kensington) F. Scott...

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The atre

The Spectator

Gang shows Ted Whitehead Privates on Parade (AI dwyc h ) Salome (Round House) it's odd how many autobiographical plays a re Populated by stock characters. in Privates on...

Art

The Spectator

Pioneer press John McEwen Artists at Curwen (Tate till 3 April) was put together at two months' notice to fill a gap. In the circumstances, its organiser, Pat Gilmour, the...

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Dance

The Spectator

Tame shrew Jan Murray The Royal Opera House regrets to announce that John Cranko's Onegin, scheduled for its first performance by the Royal Ballet on 16 February, has had to be...

Television

The Spectator

Fake issues Richard Ingrams The BBC's Money Programme is sorely in need of reformation. Last week we were promised an inquiry into the financia l plight of the middle classes,...