Belizean blunder T lhe Washing on cWircspoidelnit ol the TS dIJ'd Tinm.'s, Mirv Stepihen lay, reported last week that the British gover-nient plans to witihdraw our ,800...

Political commentary The Nye straitjacket Charles Moore Brighton If it is applause you want for your speech at the Labour conference, there are a number of cues from which...

Notebook II is alsvays discOnCertinlg ItIC way Labour delcgatcs like to llse Il c single word '(Confercncc, wilhout IthC dcfinite articlc, to describc 111hir a1nnLial party...

Another voice Turbulent priests Auberon Waugh It seems unlikely that I was alone in being upset by the angry, almost intemperate, tone of a letter in the Titnes last Saturday...

The people's stock market -I Nicholas von Hoffman Was~hingaloti, WLI ~all Street's golde buI DIII Colnilines hlis W Alpine si roll. 1The beast has becn trekking Upwards for...

Hot autumn? Timothy Garton Ash Like rival football teams, the West German peace movement and government have plunged into the autumn season. So long as an agreement in Geneva...

The Great Speckled Bird Roy Kerridge (levelatnd, I(mlrs~ee Oii a hot, muggy ahterinoon in Tlen0 essec, just over a week ago, tour Stooped figures cCould be seeC walkilug in a...

News of the other World !!!!!r Richard West M oodhiridi.eW .Su ffb/k The News of the Wo-rld has revealed trhat a LJFO (Unidentifed Iying Object) has come to earth near...

Abortion and Ireland I Sir: There is another way of looking at the Irish anti-abortion referendum besides that suggested by Olivia O'l. eary in her article 'Pyrrhic victory'...

Negritude Sir: I trust I am not alone in judging Mr Bridgland's failure to tell us which black African countries offer clandestine transit facilities to Unita inadequate and...

Sir: Is it not desirable, whcn Weighing the I merits of post-harvest burllinlg against the nuisance and possible dangers which it causes, to distinguish between stubble, which...

Men of straw Sir: Please allow further admonition for Torn Thatcher (Letters, 7 September) and fuel for Messrs G. F. Palmer and P. J. Kavantagh (24 September). Has he...

Letters Peregrines Sir: How misinformed your critic John Jolliffe is in his review of Su Ingle's book, Secrets of the Coast (24 September), when he writes of the peregrine...

Sir: Olivia O'Leary (17 Septcmber) suggests Ihat aborlion UK style would please the North ('they WoulN fecel at homne'). Buit David Steel's 1967 Act 7 (1) reads, 'This Act does...

Centrepiece The same old thing Colin Welch Brighton C' old you please call up my car? Yes, the blue one at the back - the Rolls.' An elegant lady stood on the pavement...

Books Africa, mysterious land Richard West West African Passage Margery Perham (Peter Owen £12) Behind God's Back Negley Farson (Zenith £2.95) The publication of West...

Good beer Christopher Hawtree Waterland Graham Swift (William Heinemann £7.95) Greene King Richard Wilson (The Bodley Head and Jonathan Cape £12.50) Perhaps the most...

Turgenev Kathy O'Shaughnessy Turgenev's Letters Selected, edited and translated by A. V. Knowles (Athlone Press E16) In 1861 Tolstoy visited Turgeniev, who showed him his...

Brilliant novel Harriet Waugh Act of Darkness Francis King (H-lutchinson £8.50) Francis King is one of our less prolific novelists and it is easy, because of the pauses in...

On the Continent Duncan Fallowell The Impossible Europeans Luigi Barzini (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £12.50) This is a collection of semi-political observations and generalities...

Art Restorative John McEwen Paula Remo: Paintines 1982-83 (Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, till 23 October) Stephen McKenna: retrospective of paintings and drawings 1969-83 and...

Theatre Essential Giles Gordon One FIew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Ne"w Inn, Ealing) The Country Girl (Apollo) Snoopy (Duchess) The Hard Shoulder (Aldwych) Tlie New Inn, Ealing...

Television Sentimentalist Richard Ingrams It seems only yesterday that we were all glued to our tellies waiting to see if Wedgwood Benn could defeat Denis Healey for the...

Postscript Situation normal P.J. Kavanagh Watching (on TV) England play Denmiark at football - a match in which we began with timidity and never progressed beyond desperation...

High life Lifelines Taki sOr impulsiveness, recklessness and selfdestruction Brigitte Bardot was never a match for Ava Gardner. The life of the American star was and is more...