T hirty-one weeks after the miners' strike started, the law of contract was at last invoked by two Nottinghamshire miners, members of the South Yorkshire NUM, who obtained from...

Whole new ball game Blackpool A s part of its covert campaign to imitate the skill of the Conservatives at self- presentation, the Labour Party this year has constructed an...

D r Garret Fitzgerald said, after the capture of seven tons of arms which tile IRA was shipping from America to Ireland: 'There are still people in the United States who,...

M r Gromyko has seen it all before. Foreign Minister for 27 years, he has been through more American presidents than Richard Burton wives, he is experi- enced, realistic,...

prospects for the Conservative Confer- 1 ence have been clouded by motion number 342, from Newham North-West, which reads: 'This Conference rejects utterly the conception of a...

A t a time when Islamic ideas on penolo- gy are going out of fashion in the Sudan, where the government has recently discontinued the practice of amputating the hands and feet...

? The mystery of mini-mastermind : McQuone deepened (do mysteries Nier get shallower?) when he transferred his allegiances from the Sun to the Daily Star. It appears that his...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: E17.25 £17.25 £20.50 £26.50 One year: £34.50 £34.50 £41.00 £53.00 ......... . Y . niversi t Nab* * ... 1 . 11 "e- 1 ;4 . 41 — a . . •...

The shadow of Glenys Auberon Waugh A whole new generation of Socialist activists is currently working up from the grass roots through local councils and into Parliament...

T o Blackpool, more than to most places, it is better to travel hopefully, or even resignedly, than to arrive. Thus one rather welcomes a train that dawdles, stops every- where...

Reagan Country Christopher Hitchens Los Angeles 410 eagan Country' say the bumper INstickers and the placards, and it is true that California still has a warm after- glow of...

The good old days Nicholas von Hoffman O nce upon a time in the United States, the autumn of a presidential election Year was undisturbed. George Washington never made a...

Sam White Paris rr he French Communist Party's with- drawal from its alliance with the Socialists has been carried out in a remark- ably orderly fashion with nothing like the...

Robert Haupt Sydney Sydney G ulliver was captured while sleeping. Getting the net over Mr Kerry Packer was an equally dangerous task, requiring s kill, daring and the resources...

Lord Salisbury has made his speech, and has nailed his colours to the mast. He will not surrender whatever hap- pens. He assumed throughout his speech, which was marked by an...

Vera Buchanan Rome W hen the Church of England finds a heretic in its midst it solves the problem by making the chap a bishop and leaves it to God to show his displeasure in...

:The Bishop of Durham has. . . given the impression (quite wrongly) that he does not believe in the Resurrection, whereas his doubts concern the Empty Tomb.' Norman St John...

Treasure Hunt Last week we announced that The Spectator was launching an extremely dif- ficult reader competition, continuing the tradition of recent years. The competi- tion...

Simon Blow rr he summer colony of Newport, Rhode Island, became a focus of international attention with the hearing of the von Billow trial two years ago. At that time Claus...

Ursula Buchan W hat's it going to do today?' I asked my fellow judge, as we shook hands, rough palm rasping against rough palm. 'The barograph has been steady since...

The lying image Paul Johnson T he visual image, as has often been pointed out in this column, can be made to lie as effectively as words — more SO, in fact. TV is potentially...

C tome along, companies, hurry to ..—,Guernsey, where the Zoo is still look- in g for sponsors for its animals (City and Suburban, 25 Au g ust). The Zoo's director, James...

T he pound, certainly, will not look after itself. Governments which forget that tend to learn it again, the hard way. But it does not follow that the pound would be any safer...

H ow pleasing to find, amon g the City bustle of Cannon Street, a country idyll — the offices of the Dairy Produce Quota Tribunal for England and Wales. This body has just been...

Tempting snake D on't put our money in the Snake, Mr Lawsington, don't put our money in the Snake: The exchanges are overheated and the dealin g 's mighty tough, But admit- ting...

The show goes on Jock Bruce-Gardyne T he dogs bark, and the caravan moves on. The annual general meeting of Bankers to the World, Inc, Washington DC seems to have been a...

Sir: I was surprised to read in Anthony Mockler's otherwise excellent article ('The "Little Man" ', 15 September) that Presi- dent Giscard d'Estaing was one of the Heads of...

Sir: Few could disagree with Gavin Stamp's appreciation of the plastic qual- ities of the architecture of Hawksmoor, Soane and Lutyens (8 September); an architecture 'not rigid...

Sir: Quite apart from the inaccuracies in Richard West's recollection of the story I told him about the late Nye Bevan ('Close- knit parasites', 1 September) — he couldn't even...

Sir: Moles are so destructive of carefully and expensively tended lawns, no death, in my view, can be too painful or prolonged (Letters, 29 September). I suggest, there- fore,...

Sir: Peregrine Worsthorne complains • (Diary, 22 September) that he finds women journalists who write about public affairs `absurdly aggrieved' and `ridiculous- ly optimistic'...

he has devised a simple and effective method Ot dealing with moles. He waits patiently in his deckchair with his gun, and when he thinks the moment right, he blasts the little...

'Subterfuge' Sir: Paul Johnson, in his recommended solution to the grave moral problem of . deceitful journalism (The press, 18 Au- gust), displays a very New-Statesmanlike...

Sir: How can Kay Dick profess admiration and affection for the excellent Miss Pyrn , when she cannot even be bothered to read the book which you give her to keep and pay her to...

Sir: We are a group of British, Canadian and Zambian young men (all engineers — British trained) who have come together and help the drought-stricken people of this part of...

Sir: Auberon Waugh's temperate and perceptive plea for more nuclear power (Another voice, 29 September) reminds me of a recent remark by Dr Hans Blix, director-general of the...

Sir: 'What gives a peculiar horror to modern war,' says Richard West in his review of William Shawcross's book The Quality of Mercy (29 September), 'is that countries like Nazi...

Sir: As the author of a forthcoming biogra- phy of Satyajit Ray, may I make two factual comments on Peter Ackroyd's sensitive appreciation (Films, 22 Septem- ber) of Ray's...

Sir: Without entering into the dispute between Peter Levi and A.L. Rowse over the merits of The Contemporary Shakespeare as a modern version. I certain- ly support Dr Rowse's...

Sir: The contributions of your columnist Paul Johnson regularly move me to wish that I was as certain about anything as he is about everything (a reaction possibly shared by...

Otherwise in England? Ferdinand Mount Laurence Stone and Jeanne C. Fawtier Stone An Open Elite? England 1540-1880 (Oxford £24) F ew self-made men are quite as self- made as...

Sarah Bradford Bardot: a Personal Biography Glenys Roberts (Sigwick & Jackson £9.95) O nce upon a time there was a good little girl called Brigitte Bardot who lived with her...

David Ekserdjian The Art of the Forger Christopher Wright (Gordon Fraser £7.95) C hristopher Wright's photograph on the .....,back cover of The Art of the Forger reveals him...

Euan Cameron Saint-Germain-des-Pres Paul Webster and Nicholas Powell (Constable £9.95) W hat remains of Saint-Germain-des- Pr6s today? Not the quartier, of Co arse, where the...

Brian Masters The Spencers of Althorp Georgina Battiscombe (Constable £12.95) rr his handsomely produced and elegant - ly written book will be of interest to those who, not...

Harriet Waugh Stars and Bars William Boyd (Hamish Hamilton £8.50) S tars and Bars is William Boyd's Amer- ican novel. The title evokes both the stars and stripes of the...

Christopher Hawtree L eslie N0 S A t e n p n h a e n n (Weidenfeld & Nicolson £16.50) 'M oreover,the Spectator has really a good deal of critical feeling. I always like to be...

In association with Uoyds Bank The Spectator is launching a competition on October 27 to find the best young journalists and writers in schools and universities. Winning article...

Mary Hope Kruger's Alp Christopher Hope (Heinemann £8.95) The Wall of the Plague Andre Brink (Faber & Faber £9.95) Short of Glory Alan Judd (Hodder & Stoughton £8.95) A fter...

Cosy? Christopher Edwards Loot (Lyric, Shaftsbury Avenue) I n 1964, when Joe O rt on's Loot was vai!" ten, the priceless box-office %Or ° 'sick and 'filth' had already been...

Alienated Rodney Milnes Tannhiiuser (Covent Garden) Madam Butterfly (Coliseum) w hat is one to do about Tannhauser, other than quietly forget it? The fact that, unlike the...

Means and ends Alistair Hicks Wyndham Lewis: The Twenties (Anthony d'Offay till 12 October) Henry Moore: Drawings 1979-1983 from the Henry Moore Foundation (Marlborough Fine...

Master's voice? Peter Ackroyd The Bostonians (PG', Curzon) S omeone ought to write a book about the films which have been manufac - tured out of novels; perhaps someone has....

Confused Taki M y mind is playing tricks on me again. No sooner did I get off the wagon last week than my friend Johnson Somerset (now with a handle in front of his name)...

Bright star Peter Levi H ow television chatters away in its corner if someone forgets to turn if off. It is a brave little fellow, but one Cannot get a word in edgeways. It...

Heavenly Jeffrey Bernard L ast Sunday the Fisherman's Pub in Speightstown was closed. I was very disappointed. Outside on the beach, sitting under the tree where the fishermen...

Revelations P. J. Kavanagh I t cannot be revealed too often that the 'conveniences offered by the purveyors of such thin g s are for their convenience, not for ours. For us...

Collapse Raymond Keene Tn Game 3 of the world championship final Kasparov • experienced difficulties defendin g a g ainst the champion's 1 e4. Then in Game 6 Kasparov was, as...

of letters VTR (any or all) from primary answers: (Ac) 15 afrit, 24 lander, 38 serai, 39 travail, 41 torque: (On) 9 having, 15 raddle, 21 quair, 26 veld, 32 chequer, 33 portent,...

No. 1341: In-rhymes Set by Jaspistos: You are invited to write 12 lines of blank verse about food or drink. None of the lines should end-rhyme with another, but each line...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a verse translation, as strict or free as they pleased, of Goethe's poem 'Hypochonder'. The title, which you didn't have to...

Prize: flO (or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 edition, value £10.95 — ring the word 'Chambers Dictionary' above) and a bottle of Graham's Late Bottled Vintage 1978 Port,...

Rotten screws Then there are those bulbous varnished wood affairs reminiscent of Russian dolls with a steel worm sitting into what is technically known as a female screw-...

LIFE AND LETTERS June 1946 required. Michael De-la-Noy, 165 Goucester Avenue, London NW1. THE PENGUIN BOOK OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD and 'The Penguin Book of the Natural World'. D....