W hen Harold Wilson made much of his knowledge of football he let loose upon the world an association of ideas which has now returned to haunt his party. Football and the Labour...

Replacing the NHS Colin Welch F OT A PRISONER OF RIGHT': gullible as ever, I doze happily off again, fondly dreaming of that aged firebrand held in durance vile by reliable...

L ast week' s leading article in the New S tatesman was entitled 'Walrus and t he C arpenter'. It was an attack on the „, °v erritiient' s economic policy. One ,"ondered what...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: f15.50 RE1 5.50 £37.00 E49.00 7.75 E18.50 E24.50 One year: L3 I RE3 1.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable...

Coping with Shirley Auberon Waugh 11 the CBI's proposals for the creation of more jobs seem to me fatuous and most of them harmful, with the possible ex- ception of the one...

aYmond Carr I t is odd that persons like myself, who would regard a Socialist victory in Britain welcome little short of a national disaster, should eie° rne the victory of...

Christopher Hitchens Madrid J ust before he died in exile in 1939, the great Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote the following lines: Espaitolito que vienes Al mundo, to...

• • Nl cholas von Hoffman Washington Washington he miraculous aspect of American elec- P r t ,, tions is that they take so long and cost ;" Much but when they are done no...

Timothy Garton Ash Berlin G ranted, it is hard to say something new at the Wall. In Berlin the cliches fall as ineluctably as rain in County Mayo. For the last twenty years...

Murray Sayle T he corruptest society in the world? The only fair approach, clearly, would be to multiply the average bribe by the median number of deals per day, and both these...

A horrible and novel accident occur- red to the Midland Scotch express on Sunday. After the train left Normanton, the Pullman sleeping-car, with four passengers in it, was...

Andrew Brown Copenhagen Ab out 12 hours after the new Danish centre-right government's austerity programme had passed through parliament' by the narrowest possible margin, a...

Richard West Sudbury, Suffolk A P l aque on the Town Hall says: `To the sk, Citizens of Sudbury for their fellow- 07. und erstanding and hospitality. The 41 : e'er ' and men...

Roy Kerridge O utside the well-known Ade1phi Hotel in Liverpool are two stone faces, one on either side of the steps. Originally they must have resembled mysterious Celtic...

The Pubservebrod beast Paul Johnson T his week the advent of Channel Four (or ITV 2 as it ought to be called) increased by one third the amount of 'public service broadcasting'...

Sir: Perhaps you would allow me to com- ment briefly on Mr Stuart Proffitt's denun- ciation of my Oxford piece (Letters, 23 Oc- tober). First, Mr Proffitt accuses me of...

Sir: On page 13 of the Spectator of 23 Oc- tober there was a cartoon of Mr Gore Vidal holding a cane. On page 16 there was another cartoon, of Mr Auberon Waugh with his trousers...

of Anglo-Jewish history (23 October) cry out for a detailed reply. Alas, his inaccuracies, half-truths and sheer distortion would make any point- for-point response intolerably...

Once a terrorist Sir West's piece under the above t i tle ( 2 3 October) implies that it be con- . always a terrorist'. But there is at fact no such proverbial saying, so far...

Sir: I am writing a short memoir of Pro- fessor Derek Jackson OBE, FRS, DFC. I should be very grateful if any of your readers would be kind enough to send me reminiscences of...

Master Ridley's version Eric Christiansen C it Thomas More is easy to praise, but kJ not to understand. He was wise, witty, and learned. His Utopia is an astonishing fantasy,...

John Stewart Collis Yet Being Someone Other Laurens Van Der Post (Hogarth Press £8.95) I t Was the fear of every man lest he W h en make an end', said Ben Jonson W h en...

Christopher Booker The Private Eye Story Patrick Marnham (Andre Deutsch/Private Eye £7.95) arlier this year the offices of the satirical magazine Private Eye in Soho were...

Alastair Best The Official Sloane Ranger Handboo k Ann Barr and Peter York (Ebury Press £4.95) R eaders of Harpers and Queen will be familiar with the Sloane Ranger. Ever since...

James O'Higgins A new Geoffrey Household is an event. Rogue Justice is a tour de force. It can be read by itself, but to appreciate its fulness one should first read, or...

P. J. Kavanagh Beware of Pity Stefan Zweig (Jonathan Cape £7.95) T he title of this extraordinary novel puts up one's guard at first. Originally wri- ten in German and...

Christopher Hawtree The First Clerihews E. C. Bentley and collaborators (O.U.P. £6.95) T o h f e inv e ntor Trent s Loasf Last Case devel o ped and a autho r s e ns of failure...

Sara Maitland A lan Sillitoe is, of course, a major novelist. His latest novel reads as though the weight of this responsibility was pressing down on him hard, crushing him...

John Martin Robinson The Last Country Houses Clive Aslet (Yale University Press ft 5 ) I n conjunction with the publication of Clive Aslet's book, an exhibition on...

Profitable investigations Rodney Milnes p re conceptions were signally disap- k Pointed at Wexford this year. We all „, rie w in advance that Alfano's Sakuntala "as going to...

Arms and the clan Mark Amory Major Barbara (Lyttelton) Woza Albert (Bloomsbury) Mr Fothergill's Murder (Duke of York's) M ajor Barbara is another Shaw Pia ) ; that confirms...

Rough trade Peter Ackroyd The Loveless ('X', selected cinemas) A n organisation known as 'Pioneer Films' appears in the opening credits, and a voice at the beginning of the...

Singular John McEwen 'Victor Willing left this, country in his V twenties as one of the brightest artistic lights of his generation, and returned in the mid-Seventies after...

Nonstarter for 4 Richard Ingrams I have never been quite sure what purpose the new Channel 4 is meant to serve, apart from creating more jobs, which nowadays is used as an...

Title role Taki U nlike the good Marx, Groueh°' who never forgot a face except when he wished to make an exception, I ata capable of remembering people's fa ce n s i Even when...

Off colour Jeffrey Bernard 've known Aubrey since we were teen- I a g ers but I never realised until last week that he's a paranoid hypochondriac. Like most of us he's worried...

No love for Papa Patrick Marnham I t is well-known that the Pope is a busy man with many problems. Some days he has to settle the Falklands War. Other mor- nin g s there are...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked to write an epitaph on someone who had a peculiarly modern sort of occupation. There was a healthy number of entries, including one by...

No. 1243: What happened? Set by Jaspistos: A recent Daily Telegraph featured two striking headlines on the same page: `VAGUE' VICAR QUITS AFTER COM- PLAINTS and MAYORESS STRIPS...

Raymond Keene T his autumn the annual Master Game has been replaced by the inaugural TV World C ap, a co - production by the BBC lict German TV, with much the strongest l...

A Prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution oPened on 22 November. Entries to: Crossword 582, The Spec- tator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 211– I...

tions are Shakespearian characters (12A: Marriage of Heaven and Hell). Winner: Mrs Lilian Williams, Bryngwyn, Newborough, Anglesey, Gwynedd. A I APIPS . li roirgi N 1111 11...

Glaciation Italo Calvino I ce? Yes? I'll just go into the kitchen for a moment and get the ice. And immediate- ly the word 'ice' expands between her and me, separates us, or...

Spectator Wine Club Auberon Waugh F or Christmas drinking, I have chosen a bottle of mature and, in my opinion, magnificent old Burgundy which tastes ex- actly as the best...

7 Park Street, Bristol BSI 5NG Telephone: 0272 214141 UNIT PRICE INC ORDER VALUE PRODUCT SIZE VAT NO. UNIT Nuits St Georges 12BTS £101.40 CASE La Ronciere 1969 6BTS £50.70 1/2...

M embers of the National Union of 61 Mineworkers voted, by a majority of Per cent, against a recommendation from their president, Mr Arthur Scargill, to strike for pay...

INNOCENCE. AND DESIGN by Richard Waughburton. Gavin Stamp, I St Chad's Street, Argyle Square, London WCI. THE MARIA GONDS OF BASTAR DISTRICT (India) by W. V. Grigson, published...

Treasure Hunt Set by Christopher Booker T his issue of The Spectator has the fifth clue in the Great SPC C. tator Treasure Hunt. The Treasure Hunt will last for seve° more...

ach set of three questions leads to a 1i place somewhere in the British Isles. Remember the three questions all have the same answer. 1) A household word — along with Ex- eter,...

Answer How does each question lead to the answer? Name . Address: Company (if eligible for special prize) Important: Please keep this answer form, as you will need to keep a...

- 1Q ach issue of The Spectator from now until the Christmas issue (18 December) will carry a clue. • Each clue is made up of three separate questions, designed (except...