audi Arabia reduced its oil production 1. - 1 1 by 15 per cent and Britain cut North Sea oil by $4 a barrel, hoping OPEC would follow suit. After the European Court of Human...

A Budget for whom? Ferdinand Mount W e have in prospect next week a curi- osity: a Conservative Budget design- ed to fool the Conservative Party. Most Budgets introduced by...

T o beat or not to beat: that has been the question of the week. It arose first after the closure of a Church of England school to Toxteth, Liverpool, where children aged ° Illy...

UK Eire Suttee mail Air mail 6 months: £12.00 £13.00 £14.50 £18.50 One year: £24.00 £26.00 £29.00 £37.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the...

Mr Freeman's plaint 1 Auberon Waugh O n several occasions in the last few years I have written about the operation of the libel laws in this country. My particular complaint...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft A nd so 'that duplicitous bastard' (General Haig) 'Lord carry-on-selling the white-man-down-the-river' (the Johan- nesburg Citizen), Her Britannic Majesty's...

Dobson Payne g asser Arafat, the perpetual leader of 1 the Palestine Liberation Organisation, has amazed both his friends and enemies by a sudden decision to stop free...

Nick Downie A ghanistan is, or rather was, a very beautiful country, and the road which leads to the Khyber pass from Kabul, the capital city, twists through spectacular...

Murray Sayle E ven in these dark days le tout Tokyo has other things to talk about besides Poland, unemployment and the trade gap. At the moment, Japanese are more con- cerned...

Christopher Hitchens T own Hall on West Forty-Third Street has been the favourite meeting place of the New York Left for many years. A few nights ago there was a gathering...

Richard West Belfast T his week's by-election in South Belfast has turned into a contest between two churchmen: the Rev Martin Smyth, of the Presbyterian Church and the Official...

Alan Gibson I t is true that the English tour to South Africa was a well-kept secret, though there was no particular reason why it should have been. It is hard to see what...

Tim Congdon S ocial Democrat economic policy has not been much criticised. Until recently the omission was not surprising. There were hardly any ideas to which the label...

Quis custodiet? Paul Johnson T he Glasgow Hillhead by-election should give us the first indication of whether the SDP has staying power, and, in so do- ing, put to the test...

Amersham Unitd Tony Rudd S ooner or later it had to happen. The mechanism of the London new issue market works on a feast or famine basis. Either an issue is a success, in...

A determined attempt was made on Thursday to murder the Queen. As her Majesty, seated in a close carriage, was driving from Windsor Station to the Castle, a poorly-dressed man,...

Sir: I was saddened to see my friend Gavin Stamp mixing viciousness with ignorance in equal measures in his commentary on the `Art and Industry' exhibition in the Spec- tator...

Sir: I fear Alexander Chancellor (Notebook, 20 February) has been seriously ,misled by the Master of Peterhouse's perhaps understandable ignorance of the strength and popularity...

Sir: Could I, through you, ask your cor- respondent Richard West to reveal, if he can, his basis in fact for writing (20 February): 'Nor do the Northern Irish Presbyterians much...

Sir: In her review of Mazes and Monsters by Rona Jaffe (6 February), Harriet Waugh finds the idea of the game Mazes and Monsters 'hard to believe' and that, 'If you are able to...

Sir: Max Hastings, in his review of Pierre Galante's book (13 February), errs when he states that there was never any potential assassin in the ranks of the German armed forces...

Sir: Your reviewer Harriet Waugh ought at least to read the books which she damns with faint praise (27 February). Ngaio Marsh's detective Roderick Alleyn has in son Ricky, who...

Arms against hijacking Sir: The recent hijacking has once again called into question the ability of security services to provide adequate scrutiny of passengers to determine...

The new Counter-Reformation A. N. Wilson A fter the election of Albino Luciani to the papacy in August 1978, Cardinal Hume expressed his certainty that this was the Pope chosen...

Eric Christiansen is the author of The Northern Crusades and the translator of Saxo Grammaticus. Kathleen Raine's collected poems were published last year. Her many books...

Eric Christiansen rr wenty years ago, Mr Knecht of Birm- ingham began writing the history of King Francis 1 of France. Mr Knecht was a lecturer in French history at the...

P. J. Kavanagh Religion and the One Frederick Copleston (Search Press £10.50) Religion and the One Frederick Copleston (Search Press £10.50) O ne would not think highly of a man...

Kathleen Raine A Life: Collected Poems A. L. Rowse (William Blackwood, Edinburgh £9.95) D r A. L. Rowse, distinguished scholar, notable Oxford personality, often em- battled...

MRS OLIPHANT, Annals of a Publishing House, (Blackwood), Vols 1 and 2. Milne, 2, The Crofts, Corbridge, Northumberland. GD. CON. FOLIO SOCIETY TITLES. Burns, 15 Lilley Drive,...

A. L. Rowse Evangelist of Race: The Germanic vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain G. G. Field (Columbia University Press £14.50) I have always wanted to know about Houston...

David Williams oing through the index of this intermittently delightful book is like going through the index to Debrett or the Almanach de Gotha. (I am not a deep stu- dent of...

Kathy O'Shaughnessy Novels teach the youthful mind 1 NI to sigh after happiness that never ex- isted° wrote Oliver Goldsmith reprovingly. In the late 18th-century bored young...

Emotional weight Rodney Milnes The Bartered Bride (WNO, Cardiff) Commedia (NOC, Sadler's Wells) T he Bartered Bride (1866) pre-dates The Mastersingers by two years, though it...

World-weary? Jann Parry 1\jureyev is back with the Royal Ballet, 1 20 years to the day since he first danc- ed with the company after defecting to the West. He is just on 44 —...

Tour de farce Mark Amory Noises Off (Lyric, Hammersmith) Edward H (Round House) The Housekeeper (Apollo) N oises Off is the funniest play in London, entirely suitable for...

Soft history Peter Ackroyd Reds ('AA', selected cinemas) T his is a film about John Reed.. John who? Well John Reed was an American journalist who combined statistics with...

Duncan FaHowell The Number of the Beast (Bush) T hanks to a Bicentennial Fellowship at the New York Theatre Studio, Snoo Wilson has been able to revise his play about Aleister...

Flawed Richard Ingrams L ike Barry Norman, Robert Robinso n does too much television for his own good. (He should perhaps bear in mind „ a wise saying of the late Maurice...

Going Dutch John McEwen D utch art is to the fore of the contem- porary London scene just now with large exhibitions by two of Holland's most highly considered practitioners:...

Primrose path Taki New York M y second wife's second boyfriend was a left-leaning lawyer by the name of Francois Moreuil. Like most left-leaning people Francois liked the...

True colours Jeffrey Bernard D eaders of this column will, I hope, be .1\relieved to hear that I have decided not to apply for the editorship of the New Statesman. Like most...

To enable competitors to economise on postage, entries for one or more weeks of the competition and crossword may be posted together under one cover addressed 'Competition...

Jaspistos reports: Competitiors were asked for an extract from an imaginary Encyclo- paedia of Useless Knowledge. 'Recently,' complained Ellen Brigwell in a postscript to her...

No. 1208: Marriage lines Set by Jaspistos: You are invited to write a poem (maximum 16 lines) offering advice to a young person about to get married. Entries to 'Competition...

1110 ito1111 11 1111r 1 OME N 0 19 11 113P 1 LWOW' OPE UP Inallinfil EMU leir mi nakill ill o ki li n 11 111113 61 tinn M I 1113 11 13/ 1111 112 CM MI II le BMW', Wtat1 11...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 22 March. Entries to: Crossword 547, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London %WIN 211.. to...

Bete grise Andrew Whiteley K arpov is not just world champion. He is also by far the most successful chess- Player in the world. This dual claim could not be made by any of...