Jim and Eric and Shirley The state of the nation cannot be said to be good, but the state of the Labour party is a great deal worse. Mr Callaghan presides over it much the way...

Political commentary Mr Prior lays up short Ferdinand Mount The old pro is faced with a shot of some 190 yards into the wind. The green is guarded by a swampy stream and...

Notebook NhS Thatcher's unstinting support for the Arnericans in their confrontation with the Russians is a jov to behold. What has President Carter done to deserve it? Answer:...

The Pope's crusade Peter Hebblethwaite Rome In one of the innumerable hasty biographies of Pope John Paul II an anonymous Vatican official is quoted as saying: 'Let there be...

'Our' £1,000 million: the Italian compromise ---- Peter Nichols Rome By sheer, almost gross, coincidence, I was turning the pages of a comment on Britain's Cool betrayal of...

Rhodesia: options for bloodshed Xan Smiley Most of the chief performers in the Rhodesian melodrama have already clearly breached the stage rules written at Lancaster House by...

Making dangerous friends Andrew Stephen Islamabad Last Sunday night President Carter's National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, could be seen on television throughout...

War clouds with no silver lining Nicholas von Hoffman Washington 'Thank you, Canada,' say the signs on buildings. On the telly they play snatches of 'Oh, Canada' in the...

Holland and its German princes Alastair Forbes Waiting, with a copy of The Times on my lap, for the curtain of Geneva's grand thcitre to go uLp on a top-notch performance by a...

Living with St Mungo Roy Kerridge One of my favourite saints is St Kentigern, known to his Scottish friends as Mungo the Well Beloved and to the Welsh as St Cynderin. Like St...

The fantasies of 'Robin' Scargill Ct Bw Christopher Booker Reading the other day through the definitive scholarly history of the Robin Hood legend (Rymes of Robyn Hood by R.B....

Codes of conduct Sir: Mr Hedgcock's concern (Letters, 2 February) for your theatre critic's travel plans can surely remain a rhetorical one, for anyone contemplating a first...

Wright on target Sir: I refer to Richard West's article on the achievement of Tito (26 January). Shortly before he went to Trieste on military service in 1950 a member of the...

Enough said Sir: David Gilmour (Letters, 19 January) is right. My information was out of date, and he is not now Information Officer, more correctly Assistant Director of...

Letters All: Unions and the law Sir: In 'Unequal before the law' (2 February), Professor J. A. G. Griffith informs us that there is no such thing as equality before the law...

Books Spymasters and spy-monsters Christopher Booker Smiley's People John Le Carr6 (Hodder £5.95) In recent months, thanks to the happy coincidence of Andrew Boyle's...

Shock troops Paul Johnson Breaking Ranks: A Political Memoir Norman Podhoretz (Weidenfeld £7.95) On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946-61 Mary McCarthy (Weidenfeld...

The Darwin programme Horace Freeland Judson The Darwinian Revolution Michael Ruse (Chicago £12) Charles Darwin and the Problem of Creation Neal C. Gillespie (Chicago...

Resurrections I Paul Ableman The Silent Areas Elaine Feinstein (Hutch- inson £5.95) A collection of short stories poses special problems for the reviewer. Does he treat it...

Ancient and modern Peter Jenkins The Greeks (RSC, Aldwych) John Barton's aim is to retell the story of Agamemnon to a modern audience. Out of seven plays by Euripedes, one...

Art Earthy John McEwen Josef Herman, a retrospective of whose paintings and drawings can be seen at the Camden Arts Centre till 2 March, is 69 years old and has been painting...

Cinema Making fun Peter Ackroyd A Different Story ('AA') The Big Fix ('A') Only in the cinema does romance adopt a predictable form. Strangers meet and are, at first,...

Television Head down Richard Ingrams After many months of bickering among trade unionists the BBC's Newsnight programme is finally with us and viewers such as there are may...

Rugby Straightforward Alan Watkins The only piece of advice Sir (as he now is) Ian Gilmour gave me when he was proprietor of the Spectator, and I its political correspondent,...

High life On the box Taki New York The David Susskind Show has been the longest-running talk show ever since that catastrophic day when the tube became an integral part of...

Postscript Country at war Patrick Marnham The news of the death of Dr Edith Summerskill was greeted on the farm with appropriate sobriety. Old George had never met the lady...

Low life Lone ranger Jeffrey Bernard On 20 January last, there appeared on the 'Look' pages of the Sunda3y Times an article by Penelope 'The Pumpkin Eater' Mortinier which...