The Government's decision — supposing Mr Varley holds to it — to advance no further Public money to Norton Villiers Triumph is to be welcomed as a small gesture that some...

From Lady Medawar Sir: Your editorial of July 26 describes people who work for 'birth prevention' as 'narrow, cramped and life-hating' who 'help to spread' . . . 'a moral...

Abortion Campaign and how it conducts its campaign feel your readers should know certain facts: a) NAC is not interested in truth. They spread fals.e information about James...

Sir: Lord Shinwell (August 2) state' incorrectly that Lloyd George's view 0 reparations was to "squeeze them (th, Germans) until the pips squeak." This notorious aspiration,...

Sir: Reginald Maudling's article o n 'Alternatives to Prison' (July, 20) was" sympathetic and timely commentorY on the current crisis in the prison population. The Home Offie'e...

of rubbish we've heard for the last nineteen years (Alternative to Prison,' July 26). Successive Home Secretarys (and he Was one of our very worst) during those years, haven't...

Sir: I agree with Mr Clifford Smyth that if HMG were to betray the Loyalists to the IRA "a new campaign surrounded by outside revolutionary forces and strengthened by success...

Sir: Your editorial on Scotland (July 26) Was despicable. Who would believe that 'currently fashionable devolutionary ideas" go back beyond Bonnie Prince...

Sir: May I endorse the sentiments expressed by Maurice Samuelson in The Spectator of July 26 ('Good place to be expelled from'), and add that it is surely most appropriate that...

Sir: From time to time you publish comments on public lending right of such ignorance that I wonder whether it would not bd a good idea for you to invite, say, Maureen Duffy or...

Sir: As an American, I find it good that such an essentially American entertainment as Darrow is warmly received in London, but Peter Cotes errs on three points in his comments...

.Sir: Mr Nelder (July 26) doesn't appear to have learnt how to read at the level required for an understanding of Dr Leavis's essay. The science that breeds the progress should,...

From Sir Patrick Nairne Sir But Samuel Palmer was not alone. 14 - ow can Jan Morris (August 2) have forgotten Turner — and in his 200th anniversary year? Patrick Nairne South...

Mr Powell and `Loyalism' Patrick Cosgrave On page 178 of this issue we carry an important article by Mr Glenn Barr, who was one of the most important figures in the Ulster...

of the SPectator since 1967, formally handed it over to its new proprietor, Mr Henry Keswick, and at t r ,he same time gave up the editorial chair. J uring Mr Creighton's...

"Now I am Chairman of the OAU, I shall expect to get the deference due To one who's reached the very top degree. The great Field Marshall al Haji Idi Amin Dada, head of Black...

Back to the dark ages? Alec DouglasHome Of all the colonial territories to which Britain conceded independence Nigeria seemed to be the most likely to succeed in maintaining...

Come back Ojukwu Frederick Forsyth General Yakubu Gowon, for nine year s dictator of Nigeria, fell from power last wee' to the same chorus of obsequiousness front British...

Grim prospects Godfrey Morrison Quite a week for Africa. General Gowon, leader of the most populous and powerful black African state, is ousted in a bloodless coup while...

Face realities, Mr Powell Glenn Barr Mr Enoch Powell is probably one of the most outstanding and brilliant English politicians of our time. His assessment of many national...

Bicentennial Geoffrey Bocca The United States Post Office has just issued a series of four bicentennial stamps calle d 'Contributors to the Cause.' One depicts a Negro...

Crossed fingers Malcolm Rutherford Helsinki The Summit Conference here took place on two levels: the public statements and the private deals. Never was this clearer than after...

To fortify himself for the scurrilous 'Inside World of Lady Antonia Fraser' story last week, Paul Callan had to take a bottle of champagne back to his office at the Daily Mirror...

When I designed to address you on the Business of Money and Advancement of Gain, in short on the whole Issue of Trade and Industry, I was immediately put in mind of the words of...

t e'w of us can have such cause to be grateful for i\ l e miracles of television as the former ational Hunt jockey Brough Scott, now a rt leniber of ITV's team of racing...

I am sorry to learn of the Post Office's record E200 million losses — I really can't afford them — but they do not seem to have deterred Mr Eric Deakins MP in his tireless...

Fabulous unsettlement in the Blue Mountains Duncan FaHowell 'Queen of the Hill Stations' Ooty is, has been, long before the BBC came and shot it, nest of curios carried in and...

'Named' Lectures like the Herbert Spencer and the Romanes can be a grievous headache to those responsible for arranging them. It is almost always difficult to find suitable...

Terry Pitt Cabinet Studies edited by Valentine Herman and James Alt (Macmillan 610.00) What a joy it is to read about the Callinet in a study which does not mention Richard...

Arianna Stassinopoulos Paul Hindemith The Man Behind the Music Geoffrey Skelton (Gollancz 66.00) There is an irresistible urge among the-great --and not so great — to theorise...

Robert Skidelsky The Socialist Challenge Stuart Holland (Quartet Books £5.95) In the early 'seventies it became apparent that the Labour Party was having a new idea. This was...

Elaine Stritch Hefner Frank Brady (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.25) According to Frank Brady, the fourth issue of Playboy was edited in a four-room apartment on Chicago's near...

Heroics Peter Ackroyd But the Dead are Many Frank Hardy (Bodley Head £3.75) You Can't Get There From Here Walter Hegarty (Davis Poynter £3.00) Here is a creature which had...

Olivia Manning Sanditon Jane Austen and Another Lady (Peter Davies £3.50) How provoking for Miss Austen to have her name writ large on this rather dull novel while the chief...

Snap! goes the easel Benny Green I have often tried to picture the scene at the breakfast table of a highly successful portrait painter of the mid-Victorian era on the day the...

'Let my children go!' Rhodes Boyson, MP Reality is as far removed from the life of this country as ever. A week which saw the Commons locked in debate on the new pay...

The sex-change hoax John Linklater The transvestite male is usually satisfied by wearing female clothing at intervals, whilst maintaining a clear inner concept of his own male...

Falling sales Robert Ashley I've said. it before and I'll say it again: the newspaper industry is in 'a bad way. Just how bad is shown by the latest Audit Bureau of •...

Transfiguration Martin Sullivan August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration and a word about the occasion is in season. The report of it, given in the first three Gospels,...

Horse sense Denis Wood There was an interesting article lately in Veterinary Practice by R. H. Smythe on the history of the farrier's craft. Mr Smythe suggests that little has...

Whores' d'oeuvre (cent) lain Scarlet You know, one really does have to hand it to the French. Just a few weeks after the ladies of Lyons deserted the streets and took to the...

Not listening when the bell tolls Kenneth Hurren Otherwise Engaged by Simon Gray (Queen's Theatre) Murder at the Vicarage, adapted by Mole Charles and Barbara Toy from the...

Temptation and exploitation Kenneth Robinson The Tempter Director: Damian° Damiani Stars: Glenda Jackson, Claudio Cassinelli, Lisa Harrow 'AA' ABC Bloomsbury and Cinecenta...

Samsova and others Robin Young The New London Ballet's own assessment of their strength (it is printed in their programme for the current season at Sadler's Wells) is that it...

Not so cosy Rodney Milnes During the past season there have been four productions of Cosi fun tutte on offer, three of them new. Each pointed to different qualities in this,...

Nicholas Davenport Egalitarianism was once regarded as a stimulant for the Labour Party; it has now become its neurosis. Every step it takes towards socialism is justified as...

Question of the century Bernard llollowood What will happen if the monetarists have their way and the Government stops printing money? For years the money supply has increased...

The mixed economy Britain is supposed to have should mean the allowing of private and nationalised enterprises to co-exist. The fostering of British Caledonian by previous...