It will probably be necessary for Europeans to learn a great deal more about the personality and policies of Senator Henry 'Scoop' Jackson, a serious candidate for the...

In one of his rare moments of insight Marx observed that history never repeated itself save as farce. The generalisation will be taken out and re-examined by everybody now...

Sir: You are right (June 29) to point to the connection between disregard for the law and the attack on free speech. The two simply cannot be separated. The law allows each man...

Sir: I have noihing but admiration and support for your stand against the Common Market, as you will know from my letter published just before we entered that disastrous...

Sir: Mr Ernest Wistrich's snide suggestion that the anti-Marketeers' lack of funds is "a reflection of the weakness of the anti-Market case, whose supporters are not prepared to...

From the Revd. Michael Scott Sir: Your note beneath my letter (June 29) omits Alan Paton's reference to the fact that the time spent away from my flock (the coloured people in...

Sir: It is refreshing, at long last, to read a fairly objective assessment of the Prime Minister's immensely notable qualities in Patrick Cosgrave's article about him At last I...

reply to Douglas Jay's article concerning food prices Ernest Wistrich rebutted its most obvious inanities. There is a further major point that Douglas Jay never seems to have...

increasing disregard of the law is the fault of the Government whose first duty is to enforce it. For far too many years, Home Secretaries have adopted a placatory attitude...

Sir: What an absurd fellow your Dr Linklater is! He talks about the "soaring abortion rates" — though the British abortion figures have hardly changed for the past three years....

Sir: As an occasional reader both of your paper and of Motor Cycle News I should like to protest against the arrogance of Bill Grundy's article in your issue of June 22. I...

Sir: I liked very much the fine romantic Jekyll-and-Hyde conception of me, and of Bloody Murder, in your Crime Compendium. Jekyll Symons is somebody whose "reviewing of crime...

Sir: The unfortunate Mr R. L. Court, reeling under the lash of the Rural Dean of Wickford, must be wondering what he has done that deserves such treatment. Mr Court pointed out...

with the Dean of Wickford's letter in the June 22 issue. It is difficult to see why an alleged priest would take issue with someone *saying homosexuality is immoral. If he would...

Sir: Dr Bernard Dixon's remarks on the importance of the Chinese language in directing science along the right road (June 8) are underlined by the Flixborough disaster, the...

Sir: It does not seem to have occurred to Mr Jacob (Letters, June 29) that an intelligent person like Anatole France could have adapted someone else's phrase to his own use –...

Patrick Cosgrave, Readers with medium long memories will recall that, some years ago, Mr Macmillan successfully teased the late Hugh Gaitskell in a moment of indecision on the...

even sure if she'd be good So what did she do? I leave it to you She did just what you'd do too. And Mr Thorpe and Mr Steel and Mr Pardoe are just as desperate as you can...

In the winter of 1944-45 I remember a broadcast by General Smuts. At that time Russia, aided by Allied weapons, was advancing into the West, but in the eyes of the cartoonists...

When British troops sat on the Dutch frontier for one week in September, 1944, some people wondered whether 'Monty' had failed to get petrol and ammunition from General...

David Crouch, MP Within the Labour Party, Mr Wedgwood Benn is hard at work on his plans for the socialisation of British industry_ His proposed National Enterprise Board will...

The end of détente ? Gerald Segal The President of the United States, Richard Macon, and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger are in the Soviet Union this week surely aware that...

Harold Wilson's policy-makers G.W. Jones In the British system of government the Prime Minister is part of a collective executive, the Cabinet, of which as chairman he is the...

Dutch treat Clive Gammon It's not time to be waving bunches of tulips about in triumph yet. There is still Wednesday to come. The Brazilians seem to be gathering their...

It is the work of a Philosopher to be every Day subduing his Passions and laying aside his Prejudices. I endeavour at least to look upon and their Actions only as an impartial...

Rhodes Boyson, MP Will inflation of prices and devaluation of all our values and services continue to escalate under this government? This seems inevitable as the huge wage...

Acid rain Bernard Dixon Scientists are fond of understatement. If you turn up any of most epoch-making discoveries of this century in the learned 'journals where they were...

Jesus wept Martin Sullivan "Sunt lacrymae rerum," says Virgil. "There are tears in things." And the mortality of all we value touches our minds. Our delights are transitory...

Kung phooey Kung Fu, I can't get away from it. You know how it is with a craze, it's like an earthquake. One moment you know nothing about it, the next it swallows you up. And...

Poor reception Philip Kleimnan Britain will hear its sixth commercial radio station the week after next when Newcastle's curiously named Metropolitan Radio goes on the air_...

Tea roses Denis Wood I found the other day two catalogues of Newry Roses from T. Smith, Daisy Hill Nursery, Newry. They were given to me in years soon after the last war by...

Pamela Vandyke Price The Spanish have tapas, the Italians antipasti, the Scandinavians snitter (which is scaled-down smorrebrod), the Greeks have me„zedhes, and the French hors...

Eggless flip Gill Pyrah The term "instant theatre,” which the group "Big Lies" employs to describe their weekly revue, Here is the News (Gallery, 234 Kings Road, Chelsea;...

Joan Robinson on the Pollyanna of economic growth The tone of Professor Beckerman's book* is somewhat grieved and defensive. "The case against economic growth has become one of...

Lord Balniel The End of the Postwar Era Alastair Buchan (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.50) Alastair Buchan's purpose has been first to analyse the way in which the great power...

Whether you love or hate his work a new Le Carre must be an event in the world of thriller writing. And, suitably — this merits at least a couple of cheers — his•new novel,...

Joshua Logan William Wyler Axel Madsen (W. H. Allen £3.75) Willie Wyler was always and is still out there in front. The rest of us were only "also rans." He was the one to...

magic Peter Ackroyd If Beale Street Could Talk James Baldwin (Michael Joseph £3.00) The Raining Tree War David Pownall (Faber and Faber £2.95) Baldwin is a professional...

Iron dukes Benny Green Most writers of fiction will tell you that next to having their pockets picked by the Public Libraries, the most painful professional outrage they have...

When you are on holiday, at home or abroad, you can still receive your Spectator. Send your address and 19p per copy to the Sales Manager, The Spectator, 99 Gower Street, London...

Bookend It was to have been an event reminiscent of the famous Book Bang, that literary extravaganza mounted in Bedford Square three years ago. Publishers were taking tents and...

OF THE ARTS Duncan FaHowell on 'Mame': Ball and chain Mame Director: Gene Saks. Stars: Lucille Ball, Beatrice Arthur, Robert Preston, 'A', Warner Rendezvous. ABC I Shaftesbury...

Fine Fig Rodney Mlles Le nozze di Figaro Mozart (Glyndebourne) Peter Hall's penultimate opera production was Tristan und Isolde (unless you count the National's Tempest) and...

Evan Anthony Just consider what happens to the Spectator who goes to see a conjuror Perform with the sole purpose of disco vering the trick. The more tricks he knows the...

Falling Hair Kenneth Hurren Hair by Gerome Ragni and James Rado; music by Galt MacDermot (Queen's, Shaftesbury Avenue) There has seemed to me an almost apologetic flavour...

The precarious sterling balance Nicholas Davenport If Mr Healey ever thought that Labour could win an October election by reflating the economy and making us all feel happy he...

Haslemere Estates have produced their annual statement in the form of an advertisement saying that assets are UP 50 per cent, the Investment portfolio is UP 52 per cent,...

The edition of The Spectator of January 13, 1973 included an item in Skinflint's City Diary headed 'Reject Shops'. As a result of this article Lord Queensberry instituted...

Charles IL Stahl When the Committee of Twenty was launched in September 1973, few thought that it would have achieved any constructive results by July 31 of this year. However,...