The art of politics—at least in opposition —is as much concerned with choosing the right issues as it is with choosing the right policies. By this criterion, above all, the...

Peasants' revolt, 1970 A UBERON WAUGH The widespread disparagement that has greeted the adoption by farmers of tactics more usually associated with Vietnam demonstrators and...

Force de tour CRABRO President Nixon, we are told, was a regular trouper over Mr Wilson's visit to Washing- ton last week. A politician to the fingertips, he knows the...

Ruritanian foot JOHN GRAHAM Washington—The latest manifestation of the conspiracy theory of history is the political interpretation of musical evenings at the White House....

Bubble, bubble MARTIN WALLACE Belfast—Last Saturday evening, around nine o'clock, a bomb thrown from a passing car blew a hole in the foot-thick wall of a former police...

From the 'Spectator', 5 February 1870—We shall, we imagine, soon see a great many foreign loans on the Stock Exchange. The country is full of money seeking investment, and...

A fair return for Mr Chips RHODES BOYSON This week's meeting of the - Burnham Com- mittee takes place in the knowledge that teacher militancy is steadily increasing. The...

The demo-mobsters GEORGE GALE Such characteristic children of our time as Peter Hain, chairman of the Stop the Seventy Tour, and Louis Eaks, chairman of the Young Liberals,...

STRIX Hard-pressed though farmers are, I doubt if any of them grudge their workers the rise in the minimum wage rate which came into force (in an oddly unbureaucratic phrase)...

Pride of place SIMON RAVEN There was an old woman who lived in a shoe..:: Well, not quite. In fact she lived in a small and cosy flat. So far from having too many children,...

Levy blues BILL GRUNDY I am sure that, for all his well-known meta- physical bent, when Sir Isaac Newton was formulating his three famous laws of motion he thought only of...

Abortion again JOHN ROWAN WILSON The Abortion Bill for which Mr Bryant Godman Irvine, MP, hopes to win a second reading next week is an attempt to restrict the termination of...

Home, sweet home DENIS BROGAN It is now a fortnight since I arrived back in my native land, and I have by now become `acclimated', as the Americans put it, after five months'...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Would not it be by far astuter To fix the matches by computer? You needn't have a bat or ball. You needn't play the game at all, But hire a sound-tracked,...

CAROLA OMAN When somebody ventured to comment on the extraordinary misalliance made by the Marquis de Talleyrand, the old diplomatist composedly mentioned that 'The times were...

ANTHONY BURGESS The Works of Thomas Campion edited by Walter R. Davis (Faber 70s) Thomas Campion, says Professor Davis (who brings us the first new edition of his works in...

LUDOVIC KENNEDY The German Navy in World War II Edward P. von de Porten (Arthur Barker 42s) Fiasco: The Break-out of the German Battle- ships John Deane Potter (Heinemann 42s)...

Martin SEYMOUR-SMITH Modern Writers and Other Essays Stuart Hampshire (Chatto and Windus 35s) A Soul in the Quad Kathleen Nott (Rout- ledge 63s) G.K.Chesterton: A Selection...

Ladies' day Maurice CAPITANCHIK Lovers and Fathers Cressida Lindsay (Blond 30s) The Search for Rita Barry Cole (Methuen 28s) La Bambolona Alba de Cespedes translated by Isabel...

CHRISTOPHER LLOYD No Purchase, No Pay Alexander Winston (Eyre and Spottiswood 40s) Poor Sir Henry! A caricature of Morgan's alcoholic face stares down at us at the bus stop in...

CLARENCE BROWN The Law of Love and the Law of Violence Leo Tolstoy, translated by Mary Koutouzow Tolstoy. With a Foreword by Baroness Budberg (Anthony Blond 25s) Like...

OLIVER WARNER Marc Isambard Brunel Paul Clements (Longmans 60s) That engaging pair, Marc Isambard Brunel and his son Isambard Kingdom, have both found appreciative current...

FRANCIS WATSON It is something of an accident that has brought to the Victoria and Albert Museum concurrent exhibitions of Chinese and of Japanese art provided by two lately...

Veni, vidi vicit HILARY SPURLING Come As You Are (New) Three Comedies by Bernard Shaw (Fortune) Richard II and Edward II (Piccadilly) Anyone young and fit and anxious to warm...

Ringmasters JOHN HIGGINS It takes a small period of adjustment to move from Die Walkiire to The Valkyrie. Those who learnt their opera after the war have been brought up on...

Bolting dolls PENELOPE HOUSTON The Girls (Paris-Pullman, 'X') Marooned (Odeon, Leicester Square, 'U') It is a pity that the voice of feminist argu- ment should so often rise...

MICHAEL NYMAN Confronted by the sombre ceremonial ring- a-ding-dings of the bicentenary, one feels specially obliged to negotiate fresh terms with Beethoven. There is no doubt...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT The photograph of our Prime Minister and President Nixon closeted together in a White House room under a picture of George Washington suggested two gnomes of...

JOHN BULL I am beginning to think that Mr Don Ryder, chairman of Reed Group, which is bidding for IPC. has called the city's bluff. International Publishing Corporation, it has...

Sir: At the risk of being dubbed `Powellite' I cannot let Mr Abdul Hamid Ghazi's letter (31 January) go without comment. In the first place the title he gives himself as...

From Constantine FitzGibbon, G. W. Young, Edith J. M. Farrer, R. G. W. Rick- cord, Jacob Gewirtz, H. J. MacMoolson, Oliver Sutton, David Torvell, Beverley J. Pyke, Diarmid...

Sir: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. With the best intentions in the world George Gale (24 January) has fallen hook and sinker for the Arab line. His basic premise is...

Sir: It must relieve the 'sadness' of your correspondent Mr John Smith (Letters, 31 January) to realise that, in spite of 'the bitter partisan spirit of your leader' and a wide-...

Sir: It was good to read J. W. M. Thompson's comments on the Church's obsession with modernisation (Spectator's notebook,' 24 January). My contacts with folk in the Churches...

Sir: Mr Stephen Milligan (Letters, 31 Janu- ary) displays all the worst aspects of the arrogant, hot-handed altruism which has always been current in so much of the Con-...

Sir: It is easy for Mr Braham from Menorca (Letters, 17 January) to enjoy Central European Time because it is bene- fiting him, but he may not have realised that the...

Sir: My friend Auberon Waugh (31 Janu- ary) rather missed the point Barry Cox and I made in our Sunday Telegraph article questioning the degree of independence he would have...

Sir: Mr C. P. Brogan's observations (Letters, 31 January) on Glasgow in particular and Scotland ih general might carry more weight if he knew enough about the country to get his...

Sir: May I through your columns inform readers that I am editing for the Penguin Classics a selection of modern verse transla- tions from the Greek Anthology, and would be happy...

Mummers and poppers JOHN WELLS Pop critic and hooligan Tiny Chalmer and serious music critic Jack Bilge are usually on opposite sides of the fence. Here, in a specially...

No. 591: Heart-throb It has recently been reported that Dr Chris- tian Barnard is to star in a romantic musical film, to be made in South Africa and featur- ing a heart...

PHILIDOR F. R. Neukomm (Deutsche Schachbliitter, 1921). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 476 (Baksi 3QBblq/1N1Pn1 PR/ 4k1 p1/4P1R I / K...

Across I It's not surprising to see him indulging in horse-play (4, 6) 6 Fish with sauce (4) 10 Bells ring out round the north but it's puni- tive (5) 11 Performer inspired by...