'There was increased concern about cor- ruption in the Metropolitan Police. A former Chief Constable of the Dorset force, who led Operation Countryman's in- quiry into London...

Naught for Labour comfort Stephen Fay A billboard on the Town Hall in Isling- ton, placed there by order of our recently elected left-wing council underneath the pole from...

T here may be those who will feel that they have read enough of the Falklands war, of its origins and its aftermath, to be going on with; that the debate should now Perhaps be...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 IRL17.75 £18.50 £24.50 One year: £31.00 11205.50 £37.00 £49.00 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the...

Bohdan Nahaylo T he rift between the United States and Europe over the Siberia-West Europe gas pipeline is threatening the Western alliance with yet another crisis. The Euro-...

Nicholas von Hoffman M r Yitzhak Shamir, the Israeli Foreign Minister, left his meeting with Presi- dent Reagan with the humble mien and con- trite swagger of an old-time...

Andrew Brown Gothenburg I t might be tempting to describe a Swedish politician as a 'super-patriarch, with a mandate he can only have received from God himself, whose...

Christopher Hitchens St George's, Grenada I n 1973, an obscure British peer named Lord Brownlow apparently made an ef- fort to convert a stretch of La Sagesse Beach to his own...

Richard West A n unconsciously funny passage in Betty Friedan's new book* describes how she and fellow American feminists atten- ding a recent UN conference on women 'were...

Roy Kerridge A large yellow noticeboard greets the visitor to Londonderry. Expecting a Message of welcome, I was disconcerted to read instead that information on Murders and...

The House of Lords had a curious lit- tle discussion yesterday week on the utility of pouring oil on troubled waters, a discussion which had no reference to Lord Salisbury's...

prayed to be virt- uous but not yet, the Church of England always seems to be saying one thing and doing another. No different from any parliamentary body, the General Synod of...

Alastair Best A n interest in London's natural history takes one to strange and romantic places, like Perry Oaks Sewage Farm where waders probe the ooze as jet airliners...

Figuring it out Paul Johnson T he first half of 1982 was good for Mrs Thatcher and excellent for Fleet Street. Right up to the end of July, in fact, newspapers were enjoying...

A black hole Tony Rudd I s a catastrophe shortly to overwhelm large sections of British manufacturing industry? This is a question which some fund managers are now asking...

Sir: 'Foiling Foyles' (17 July) names only six London bookshops 'run by people who actually care for books'. For over 20 years I have received perfect service (and accurate...

Sir: I don't know what the disputes at Dillons Bookshop were about (Richard West, 17 July), but I do know that they were not in favour of sociology against history books. (`Out...

Sir: The anopheles mosquito is, indeed, responsible for a good deal of woe as the vector of malaria. It is not, however, as your reviewer Richard West mistakenly asserts (10...

Sir: In 1980, the Anti-Slavery Society published its own report, Child Labour in Thailand, on the working conditions of school-age children in that country. Both your...

Toxteth preconceived Sir: David Taylor (`Summer in Toxteth', 17 July) elected to highlight summer life in Toxteth. He described closing down sales, the Merseyside skyline...

Sir: I must protest at Taki's rude dismissal of 'modern art' (17 July). Young Taki, as he admits, took an interest in modern art in the hope that it would make him a quick buck....

Sir: A rare sight indeed: one of the gilded bureaucrats of our Foreign and Com- monwealth Office — the most overpaid and overstaffed in the West — actually 'breaks cover' and...

Sir: Being away — Gibraltar! — I missed seeing the issue of 19 June: in Patrick Marn- ham's article from Costa Rica he refers to their formal paseo but then goes on to add,...

The cult of T. S. Eliot Peter Ackroyd S. Eliot has been for 60 years a 1 paradoxical and elusive figure. His is the central poetic achievement of the 20th century: if one does...

Gavin Ewart Choiseul and Talleyrand Charles Johnston (The Bodley Head £5.25) CharlCharl es Johnston now has four recent es of verse to his credit — Poems and Journeys (1979),...

A. N. Wilson W e still have riots from time to time in the poorer districts of London. And it is left to the liberal intelligence of Lord Scarman to devise euphemistic reasons...

Peter Quennell Byron Frederic Raphael (Thames & Hud- son £8.95) A though Byron's portrait has always occupied a large and brightly il- luminated niche in the history of...

Peter Kemp H istory is on our side. We will bury you', Kruschev warned the West in ovember 1956, just after he had crushed t he Hungarian Revolution. Whether his t YPically...

MICHAEL GALLET: 'Parisian Domestic Ar- chitecture of the 18th Century', Barrie & Jenkins, London. Box No: 245MG. THE PICNIC BASKET by Edward Spears. Michael Ivens, 40 Doughty...

Barbara Trapido T he nicest thing about John Barth's Sabbatical is the personality of its two heroes, Fenn and Susan, who sparkle from its pages, bringing their informed wit to...

David Williams T homas Hardy wrote his first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady and offered it to Chapman and Hall. There it was read by Fred Chapman's long-serving reader George...

T. S. Eliot. Peter Quennell's Customs and Characters will be published this autumn. David Williams will soon publish a life of George Borrow. A biography of George Henry Lewes...

Naomi Mitchison Barbara Hepworth: A Memoir Margaret Gardiner (Salamander Press £6, £3.95) T his small book throws a brilliant spot- light not only on Barbara Hepworth and her...

Old favourites, new-style Jann Parry T he Paris Opera Ballet, which has re- turned to London after 28 years, has proved itself over the past two weeks to be a wonderful dance...

Confrontations John McEwen L eon Golub is 60 this year and best des- cribed, perhaps, as the grand old man of political painting in the USA. He made his English artistic debut...

Mediocre smash Mark Amory The Mousetrap (St Martin's) Salonika (Royal Court Upstairs) I n a week of arrivals from Stratford already reviewed here, I thought I would look in...

Grease spots Peter Ackroyd Grease 2 ('A', selected cinemas) G rease 2 opens with a great many people dancing in an hysterical fashion, arms and legs akimbo. Of course if you...

Uninformative Richard Ingrams F or some months, or it may be years, Granada's World in Action has been in the doldrums, churning out a number of dreary and irrelevant...

The first festival Duncan FaIlowell T here are more video machines in Great Britain, per head of population, than anywhere else in the world, and now in honour of the puberty...

Room to improve Jeffrey Bernard S ince Angela Levin of the Observ: ( r i Magazine has studiously avoid ed writing of my one and only favourite roont, preferring as she does...

Let fly Taki F or the umpteenth time I have had an altercation while flying. This one was on the flight from London to Athens, as frustrating a journey, I find, as coitus...

No. 1230: Bird song Set by Jaspistos: Many a poet has en- thusiastically addressed a bird. You are in- vited to supply part of an ode (maximum 16 lines) in which a bird is...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for an imaginary dialogue between an English queen and an intruder into the royal bedchamber. Someone in Private Eye accepted my...

Final shocks Raymond Keene T he Las Palmas Interzonal produced many surprises, not least the total failure of Timman and Psakhis. A week ago, it also seemed that Smyslov had...

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A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 23 August. Entries to: Crossword 569, The Spectator, 56 Doughty S reet, London WC1N 2LL. 6 7 16...