The untimely death of Mr Hugh Delargy, chairman of t.he House of Commons Committee of Selection—which itself chooses members of the parliamentary committees charged with the...

Mr Denis Healey hogged the headlines. He began by warning that living standards were likely to fall by between one and two Per cent. Then he attacked a previously Obscure group,...

John Grigg Crisis, as well as spring, is in the air. People are asking what will happen if, in spite of another pay deal with the unions, and in spite (or because) of Mr...

scandalous act of self-interest on the part of Members of Parliament is receiving too little attention, too little public criticism, and from all appearances will soon be...

Swallows and Amazons Auberon Waugh Living as I do in the depths of the country I find that my knowledge of life around one comes about entirely from the newspapers. Sometimes...

Geoffrey Wagner New York 'flits constant cliff-hanging fiscal crisis New York has hit hardest, of all its city agencies, at higher education, This is listed as lowest Priority...

John Horgan Dublin Historians delving into the recently-released Cabinet files for the 'twenties and 'thirties in what was then the Irish Free State have found fascinating...

Ludovic Kennedy That within the next ten or fifteen years Scotland will once again become a sovereign nation, as she has been for 750 of the last thousand years, I have not the...

Jim Higgins Buxton is a rather sad little town. It retains the features of its former glory, but greyer and slightly frayed around the edges—a place where the pension queue is...

Michael Wale The Rolling Stones this month return to Britain to play for the first time for three Years in concert. There is also a new album, Black and Blue, from the group who...

James Hughes-Onslow Last week 500 delegates from all over the world came to London for a five-day conference—to discuss the art of holding conferences. The excuse for this...

Jeffrey Bernard I remember when it became alright to like football. It was when the posh papers began to use writers instead of sports reporters. Cricket was already accepted...

'Extensive' Elisabeth Dunn The language of estate agents is a miracle of semantics and self-delusion involving, shall we say, a somewhat oblique approach to reality. Not that...

The case for the bulls Nicholas Davenport Writing before the announcement of the new pay deal I must be guarded, but instinct tells me that the bulls who trade in the City...

Only just been drawn to Professor Devletoglou's letter (10 April.) One must almost admire the Professor's remarkable ability to get everything wrong. He Says that I `helped...

ever difficult to understand why the Americans sent an army of 600,000 men to defend an unpopular right-wing regime against the Communists'. The `domino theory' may be...

in suggesting that he intends to construct a second Cuba in this country. In Cuba, all large-scale industry is stateowned. Stuart has only proposed that at most one quarter of...

Sir: Since Hugo Page's letter (24 April) is the first I have read or heard of 'Conservative Action for Electoral Reform', it seems this group has been inclined to hide its light...

Sir: Is it not more ironic to Ian Bradley that the nervous voices, fearful of reciprocal action, should come from the right ? Why should we be so worried about tariff barriers...

in Nature on 'Balls of fire' as you called it (24 April), or spontaneous combustion to use its proper name. But equal credit is due to the Spectator in taking up the subject for...

fear that it may be introduced by animals being smuggled into the country by people returning from abroad or visitors, why not use dogs at the customs? If dogs can sniff out...

preface to my study of The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery that I expected that my questioning of traditional British assumptions about the influence of sea-power would...

been those who were not professiona l theologians. I look forward to seeing Michael Grant's new book, and Len Abse must have aroused the interest of many to whom the most human...

Showing the flag John Terrame Britain's imperial Century 1815-1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion Ronald Hyam (Batsford £10.00) Captain Shakespear: A Portrait H.V.F. W i...

Penelope Houston The Rise and Fall of British Documentary Elizabeth Sussex (University of California Press £6.50) Documentary has always been a dour, sobering, power-hungry...

Nick Totton MY Belief Hermann Hesse (Jonathan Cape £6.50) These selected essays and reviews are important for students of Hesse, and interesting to all of us legitimate or...

Bryan Robertson Vorticism and Abstract Art in the First Machine Age. Volume I: Origins and Development Richard Cork (Gordon Fraser £29) In the last ten years, a handful of...

Benny Green Found, Lost, Found J. B. Priestley (Heinemann E2.90) There is a simplicity of design about J. B. Priestley's new novel which smacks of sheer Cheek . Had he not been...

Duncan Fallowell Light Years James Salter (The Bodley Head E3.50) Light Years is what is known as an impressionist novel. That means the prose is pellucid and the net result...

No ghosts Jeffrey Bernard Second Start Bobby Beasley (W. H. Allen £4.95) Good Horses Make Good Jockeys Richard Pitman (Pelham Books £3.75) Most jockeys nowadays end up by...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft Racehorses of 1975 (Portway Press £12.50) Timeform Computer Timefigures of 1975 (Portway Press £5.00) Ruff's Guide to the Turf (Mirror Group Books £7.00)...

Fending off Charley's Aunt John Spurling The twenty years since the so-called Theatre Revolution of 1956 have been the most fertile period in the whole history of the British...

Steel pastries John McEwen Before he turned to steel in 1960 Caro was a modeller, that most intuitive of sculptural t echniques, a constant search through addition and...

Persian mode John Bridcut Sending Magna Carta to remind the States that we had our Watergate seven centuries ago is in its way just as propagandist as the World of Islam...

Drag race Kenneth Hurren Cycle Sluts (Broadway, Kilburn) La Grande Eugene (Round House) The Zykovs by Maxim Gorky; Royal Shakespeare Company (Aldwych) Miss Julie by August...

Sore throat Ian Cameron L ike most other American films about Politics, All the President's Men (at many c inemas, `AA' Certificate) is not. really a Political film. It is...

Musical chairs Jeffrey Bernard I think perhaps the camera should remain almost static when they televise concerts. It's not exactly the most fascinating thing in the world to...