8 DECEMBER 1973

Page 1

Crisis in the Opposition

The Spectator

There can hardly be any doubt that Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is undergoing a serious crisis of authority. At the beginning of last week the leader of the party...

Page 4

The cost of acquittal

The Spectator

Sir: I would like to draw attention to the case of thirty-four year old Mr Geoffrey Ayling who in September of this year was acquitted at the Chichester Crown Court of a charge...

Scottish Nationalists

The Spectator

Sir: I agree with Mrs Ewing (Letters. December 1), though I think Mayo McDonald's personal merits as a candidate also has something to do with the Govan result. It might be...

Students and politics

The Spectator

Sir: Hurrah for the silent majority, the ordinary citizen and Rhodes Boyson (December 1)! A day of retribution is coming, says he, presumably when the ordinary citizen and long...

Fan letter

The Spectator

Sir: Your editorial of November 24 was the most brilliant political commentary I have ever read. But how the hell can we make Heath, Walker and company take any notice? I'm just...

Writers and payments

The Spectator

:Sir: From my point of view as an author, I naturally regret that Bookbuyer should have heard somehow and reported the Granada hardback division's dilatoriness in paying me for...

Page 5

Vivisection

The Spectator

From Dr C. E. Foister Sir: In his article on vivisection Dr Linklater made some encouraging references to Frame and we would be grateful for the opportunity to comment on these...

'Sex chats

The Spectator

Sir: John Linklater's article 'Dial a sex chat' is critical of this method of helping the young to understand and cope with their sexuality. The Family Planning Association has...

Abortion

The Spectator

Sir: Mr Kestelman (Letters, November 24) wants to know how a fertilised human egg-cell is properly describable as a person. If he, and others desiring the answer, will read the...

Page 6

Political Commentary.

The Spectator

Willie's next trick Patrick Cosgrave In deepest Ulster Mr Heath's withdrawal of his proconsul, Mr William Whitelaw, has given rise to acute concern, since political leaders of...

Page 7

A Spectator's Notebook

The Spectator

On being asked whether he had any favourite superstitions the late Sir Nal Coward replied, "Not many. But I do think that its terribly unlucky to sleep thirteen in a bed." I...

Page 8

Alternatives to Arab blackmail

The Spectator

Lord Robens Whatever may be the final outcome of the Arab/Israeli confrontation, there can be no doubt that life will never be the same again for the oil-importing countries of...

Page 10

Oil (2)

The Spectator

The fight for Drumbuie Naomi Mitchison The fight is on at the Drumbuie inquiry. Will Mowlem and Taylor Woodrow be allowed to build a particular type of platform for oil rigs,...

Greek Letter

The Spectator

Revolution in the night Joyce Rackham "Don't get alarmed, but we've had a revolution in the night," my Greek hostess announced as we met for a leusirely breakfast on that...

Page 11

France

The Spectator

The other face of Gaullisme Piers Dixon At the very moment that President Pompidou was sitting at Chequers recently in eager consultation with Mr Heath over a new Anglo-French...

Page 12

Westminster Corridors

The Spectator

Indeed, demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy and moon-struck madness. What is Puzzle to make of the spirit of the Commons these last days? If he had not a service to the diligent...

Lunar lunacy

The Spectator

What kind of lunar lunacy is this? Surely any attempt to change the leader of the Labour Party now would lead to even more bitterness and strife. Alas, there is a more sane...

Vulgar trick

The Spectator

These endeavours receive much support from the public prints. Daily Telegraph readers have been much surprised of late to find that robust Tory organ lament the fact like...

Page 13

On the Dilly (3)

The Spectator

The marginal person Mervyn Harris Mervyn Harris is a South African writer who is investigating various aspects of contemporary British Society. This is the last of three...

Religion

The Spectator

'A Son of Man' . Martin Sullivan 'Son of Man' is a Biblical phrase variously interpreted by scholars. I do not wish to open that rich vein of inquiry, but rather to look at...

Page 14

Science

The Spectator

Destroying the destroyers Bernard Dixon During the early 'sixties, the US Army was building up a formidable stockpile of chemical weapons — nerve gases and other deadly...

Juliette's Weekly Frolic

The Spectator

In 1962 The Spectator had yet to saddle itself with a racing correspondent — male or female — but that didn't prevent its doing justice, in the shape of a full-length...

Press

The Spectator

Memories of Hugh Bill Grundy The first, and indeed the only, time I appeared on a television programme with Hugh Cudlipp, we preceded it with dinner in a penthouse somewhere...

Page 16

J.I.M. Stewart on the slow growth of a country house

The Spectator

E. M. Forster published only a single novel after the First World War, and died at a great age in 1970. Howards End (1910) had been a notable success, and the reputation...

Page 17

The dutiful and the crammed

The Spectator

George Axelrod As Ever, Scott - Fitz edited by M. J. Bruce°li. (Woburn Press £4.25) The jacket copy for As Ever, Scott - Fitz, or 'Letters between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his...

Page 18

Tomorrow and tomorrows

The Spectator

Peter Ackroyd Sadness Donald Barthelme (Jonathan Cape £2.50) Hail To The Chief Ed McBain (Hamish Hamilton £2.00) Vermilion Sands J, G. Ballard (Jonathan Cape £2.25) The only...

Page 19

Renaissance spectacle

The Spectator

A.L. Rowse Splendour at Court. Renaissance Spectacle and Illusion Roy Strong (Weidenfeld and Nicholson. 0.95.) We already owe a great deal to Dr Roy Strong for his discoveries...

Page 20

The statue lives

The Spectator

Robert Blake The Eldest Brother, The Marquess Wellesley 1760-1842 Iris Butler (Hodder and Stoughton £5.95) Richard Wellesley, Earl of Mornington, first and last Marquess...

Page 22

Nettle in the bouquet

The Spectator

Charles Marowitz Olivier edited by Logan Gourlay (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £3.25) Logan Gourlay in his book Olivier presents himself more in the guise of an impresario than...

Page 24

Before the dam burst

The Spectator

Larry Adler Nixon's Road To Watergate Frank Mankiewicz (Hutchinson £3.75) Watergate: The Full Inside Story McCrystal, Chester, Aris and Shawcross (Andre Deutsch £2.95) It...

Page 25

Renoir and bêtes noires

The Spectator

David Holbrook Woman as Sex Object edited by Thomas Hess. and Linda Nochlin (Allen Lane £6.00) Although this book is about erotic art, it could also make a good subject for a...

Page 26

New vistas

The Spectator

Colin Wilson The Mind Possessed. William Sargan t (Heinemann £3.25) In 1924, the River Neva in Leningrad flooded , and the water swept into the laboratory of the 'psychologist...

Page 27

Talking of books

The Spectator

Historians at play Benny Green The anomalies of Edwardianism continue to exercise the minds of an age which is more extravagant only in its method of dealing out death and...

Bookbuyer's

The Spectator

Bookend The splitting of the NUJ's book and magazine branch into two autonomous halves marks another significant step forward in the union's invasion of publishing privacy. Up...

Page 28

Christopher Hudson on colours without colours

The Spectator

I read the other day . — where, I can't for the life of me remember — about a Canadian teacher who decided to carry out an experiment. A parade of some kind was being...

Theatre

The Spectator

Greenwich Greek Kenneth Hurren As one who has neither read the Nikos Kazantzakis novel, Zorba the Greek, nor seen the celebrated motion-picture based upon it (though I know...

Page 29

Opera

The Spectator

Don to rights Rodney Milnes, The first revival of an adventurous opera production is always fascinating. John Copley's semi-abstract Don Giovanni was given a rowdy reception...

Television

The Spectator

Power games Clive Gammon Mixing easily with the powerful, Hugh Cudlipp (Cudlipp and Be Damned, BBC 1) might reasonably regard himself as having been as powerful as any of them...

Will Waspe

The Spectator

Many strange things appear in the arts pages of the Times (not least the reviews), but none has been stranger than the reproduction across two columns last week of a full-length...

Page 31

The oil shock to the Market

The Spectator

Nicholas Davenport The sensational fall in equity shares during the last account of the Stock Exchange — if we take the lowest figure of the FT 'thirty' index last week it...

Page 33

Skinflint's City Diary

The Spectator

My view, which is worth as much as anyone else's, is that the news and phone-in London commercial radio channel is not as bad as its critics and enemies would like. My one-time...

Page 34

Portfolio

The Spectator

Selling Out Nephew Wilde Back in May, 1972, when the FT index stood at 543.6 readers may remember that with a legacy of E10,000 from my late Aunt Maud I began investing in...