T he Government ratified the Maas- tricht Treaty on the very day that the Exchange Rate Mechanism became a dead letter. Mr John Major, the Prime Minister, said: The events...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 WE TOLD YOU SO I t was not hard to predict, as we did two weeks ago,...

I remarked to a government minister the other day that the life of a journalist seems infinitely more agreeable than that of a politician. `Up to a point,' he said. 'But, when...

new wave of interest in Ealing films is not simply due to their artistic merit Riley: Get back! PC Dixon: Drop that and don't be a fool. Drop it I say! Riley: I'll drop you....

John Laughland reports on the loss of innocence in the love-affair between France and Germany AS THE ERM limped towards its end on Monday morning, the headline in the Spanish...

Anne Applebaum says that Bill Clinton is not conducting a policy in Bosnia but searching for his inner self Washington LIKE A modernist poem or a great work of art, Bill...

Madsen Pink says that the public sector is still bloated, and that the bureaucrats themselves must be sacrificed GOVERNMENT is living beyond our means to the tune of £50...

During the week, Russia and Germany have become engaged in the fiercest tar- iff war recorded in history. Russia began by placing on German goods an aug- mentation of 30 per...

Damian Thompson on the Archbishop of Canterbury's plans to close down many of his churches WHY IS the Archbishop of Canterbury so cheerful in the face of the worst financial...

persist.. . THE LAST TIME they tried to break into my car, a week ago, it was parked 60 yards from a police station. As it was not round a corner, you could get a clear view of...

THE other day I thought Mr Max Hast- ings, the editor-in-chief of the Telegraph newspapers, was straining at a gnat (while the camel looked after itself). His quibble, in The...

Isabel Wolff visits a training school for a disabled man's best friend `HOLD IT, Corrie. Hold. Hold it. That's it. Yes. Yes. H-o-l-d.' Corrie, a two-year-old Labrador, gently...

A world where crime pays, virtue is punished and the wicked flourish PAUL JOHNSON T he latest ploy used by Jehovah's Wit- nesses to get you into edifying conversation on your...

ALL THIS has come a godsend to our great banks. They are getting nowhere with their basic business, lending money — in the first half of this year. National West- minster had £2...

Now that the Franc Fort has submitted to its destiny and turned into Or Dur, I have learned of a new French proverb, the equivalent of 'All that glisters is not gold': Tout ce...

WE FOUND that out earlier. How furious we were — or rather, how angry our Trea- sury ministers were — with that horrid Hel- mut Schlesinger and his beastly Bundes- bank, which...

Ever closer union wider still and wider shall thy bands be set CHRISTOPHER FILDES T his really is open season for shooting my foxes. First Norman Lamont, then Jacques Attali,...

THE CRISIS, I must say, has had its moments. One of them came late on Sun- day, when, with time ticking out for a solu- tion, the Far Eastern markets about to wake up, and the...

HOW MANY people, starting with the Chancellor, now claim to have told you so! In this club, which was so exclusive for so long, all I can claim is to be a founder- member. When...

Sir: I have belatedly received your issue of 24 July with an article, 'What is Bosnia any- way?' by Noel Malcolm. I am indeed advis- ing Dr Karadzic in public relations, since...

misinformation is quickly sucked in to fill the void.' This is an accu- rate description of how the complex issues and facts of the Yugoslav conflict have been presented by the...

12 Months 6 Months UK 0 £77.00 0 £39.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £88.00 0 £44.00 USA Airspeed 0 US$125 0 USS63.00 USA Airmail 0 US$175 0 US$88 Rest of Airmail 0 £111.00 0 £55.50...

Sir: Every time that Max Hastings is given the hospitality of your diary slot (Diary, 31 July) he uses the space to tell us that he is `middle-class'. Why? Although I have never...

Sir: Unlike Sir Alec Guinness (Diary, 17 July) when I think of the Cunard liner Mau- retania no fond thoughts come into my head. But then Sir Alec didn't sleep in a crew cabin...

Sir: What nonsense Paul Johnson talks (And another thing, 31 July)! May another cradle Catholic from Lancashire of roughly Paul's age (I remember him at Oxford; blazing red hair...

Sir: Reading Anne Applebaum's explo- ration of the United Nations Os the UN really necessary?', 31 July) I had the impres- sion that, although I had never had any- thing to do...

Sir: The capacity for self-delusion in the human race was well illustrated in the Duke of Buccleuch's letter to The Spectator (Let- ters, 24 July). All wealth is derived from...

refers to 'minorities like women'. Why? So far as I know, women comprise exactly half the human popula- tion. Navin Sullivan 45 Abbots Gardens, London

All Gordon, no Bennett Julie Burchill AREN'T WE DUE A ROYALTY STATEMENT? by Giles Gordon Chatio & Windus, f16.99, pp. 352 T here are two ways of reading this book (if that's...

John Bayley CHEKHOV ON THE BRITISH STAGE edited by Patrick Miles CUP, £30, pp. 270 hatred of the modern stage receives a good deal of justification and support from this...

Fiona Maddocks REGGIE: THE LIFE OF REGINALD GOODALL by John Lucas Julia MacRae Books, £18.99, pp. 253 A bout a decade ago, a cellist friend used to claim that he only continued...

James Walton SKATER by Mark Swallow Macmillan, f14.99, pp. 207 I n 1990, Mark Swallow's Teaching Little Fang, the story of an Anglophile student in provincial China, was widely...

The central pillars know they have to give, Be seen to give, support — and this they do, Smugly unshiftable: out here we have A draughtier, more detached, irreverent view. They...

Patrick Skene Catling Y es, as every British schoolchild used to know, King Alfred is said to have burnt some cakes. Even at King Alfred School in London in my time, he wasn't...

Sarah Bradford WITNESS OF A CENTURY: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PRINCE ARTHUR, DUKE OF CONNAUGHT 1850-1942 by Noble Frankland Shepheard-Walwyn, f2295, pp. 475 P ri rince Arthur,...

Alasdair Palmer HANGING IN JUDGEMENT: RELIGION AND THE DEATH PENALTY IN ENGLAND FROM THE BLOODY CODE TO ABOLITION by Harry Potter SCM Press, £19.95, pp. 304 P arliamentary...

William Dalrymple NEVER AT HOME by Dom Moraes Viking/Penguin, India, Rs. 295, pp. 350 I f you have heard of Dom Moraes you are probably either an authority on obscure Indian...

Euan Cameron AGUIRRE: THE RECREATION OF A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY JOURNEY ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA by Stephen Minta Cape, £15.99, pp. 199 I n 16th-century Spain it was quite possible for...

David Ekserdjian THE LETTERS OF LUCIEN TO CAMILLE PISSARRO, 1883-1903 edited by Anne Thorold CUP, .f110, pp. 796 I n the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and even more...

Heritage Destroyed by CAT's claws Hugh Massingberd laments the fate of the Irish country house I ri Dublin recently I sought the opportu- nity to promote a book which I have...

Incorrect response Giles Auty R ecent years have seen a number of modest exhibitions of aboriginal art in commercial galleries in London. Now something much more ambitious has...

7VIE -1- " 1 " THE The Spectator index for July to December 1992 is still available. r Order Form Please send copies of the following indexes at £6 each (UK), £7 (overseas)...

Under the Stars (Greenwich) A Connecticut Yankee (Regent's Park) Beautiful Thing (Bush) Understudy study Sheridan Morley A t the start of Richard Crane's Under the Stars...

The Snapper (15', Plaza and others) Muddled potatoes Mark Amory `You're wha'?' said Jimmy Rabbitte Sr. He said it loudly. `You heard me,' said Sharon. T hese are the first...

Hairstyle hysteria Marcus Berkmann C onfusion reigns. Millions of pre- pubescent loins quiver with shock. Western civilisation may never recover. Yes, Take That, those...

None the wiser Martyn Harris H ardly anyone understands what has been happening in Bosnia. Even President Clinton, according to Diplomacy and Deceit (Channel Four, Monday,...

Bing, bong, bang Martin Gayford In a way Hampton's talents epitomise jazz itself, with its fusion of African and European musical elements. He is able to perform with inspired...

Blood, sweat and vodka Jeffrey Bernard T his flat of mine is slowly turning into an afternoon drinking club. God knows I love visitors and company now that I can't get out...

Promiscuous chip-eaters Taki 0 ne of the best books I read while doing graduate work at Pentonville Univer- sity nine years ago was Outrageous Fortune, a biography of the...

Deplorable youths Nigel Nicolson I n small country towns like Cranbrook in Kent or Bangor in North Wales the tide of vandalism and juvenile crime rises inex- orably. A...

NO ONE, above all a critic, likes to admit to being vulnerable to the vagaries of fash- ion. The particularity of our opinions is, to be vulgar, our livelihood; tastes may...

COMPETITION victtIMM OND s S , vu RE mAc COTCH WHISK.' Post-Marxist Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1790 you were invited to provide a song with Groucho Marx's famous words...

SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA Timman of Athens Raymond Keene FOR MANY YEARS Fide, the World Chess Federation, was based in Lucerne, Switzerland. In the past few months their...

write a poem (maximum 16 lines), in any mood or on any subject, which follows the rhythm and rhyme- and half-rhyme-scheme of Auden's early 'Song' which begins with the quatrain:...

I. 'O 111 O J rill A 11 " R der o s w E iiiiiiimaiartia 1111151‘121151111, E L a. A B hil MIMI a al" II I e o S T A Mal. LIE 0 11 In kil NNER rIT AR RIIIC a L...

i j GRAHAM'S -) PORT CROSSWORD W. & J. GRAHAM'S PORT r A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 23...

Bowled over Frank Keating APART FROM Graham Gooch's two heroic centuries of sandbag staunchness in the Test matches at Old Trafford and Trent Bridge, the most glistening three...

Q. My best friend is married to a man who is something of a tin-pot dictator in his own mini-domain. He requires her fullest atten- tion when he is at home, and as a result I...