9 MARCH 1974

Page 1

Exit the squatter

The Spectator

The squatter in No. 10 Downing Street has at last departed. Nothing became his leadership of the nation so ill as the manner of his leaving it. And there is yet one further step...

Page 3

No egg on his face

The Spectator

Since I am writing before the general election actually takes place, I had better get the Predictions . . . out of the way, so that those Who buy the paper after Thursday can...

Page 4

No indecision

The Spectator

Sir: Politicians, newspapers and all TV channels seem to be unanimous in asserting that the electoral decision is Indecisive. It seems to me that this assertion is false; that...

Unseen trade

The Spectator

Sir: There is one intriguing aspect of the balance of trade figures which is never mentioned and which might, conceivably, make all the difference to the 'deficit' announced...

The guilty

The Spectator

Sir Mr Ralph Harris's article on 'guilty men' in your issue of February 23 was very much to the point. But why does he include Patrick Hutber amongst his group of journalists...

Loyalties

The Spectator

Sir: Mr Enoch Powell rightly places loyalty to national and Conservative principles before blind loyalty to a leader who has done so much, and is doing more, to undermine...

VD irresponsibility

The Spectator

Sir: John Linklater (February 23) does well to castigate irresponsible venereal disease propagandists and to draw attention to the seriousness of untreated infections. It is...

Scientology

The Spectator

Sir: As a member of the Scientologi cal growth industry, Mrs Wakley (February 9) naturally wishes to refute all criticisms, yet in view Of the vas t , disparity between...

Page 5

Disclaimer

The Spectator

Sir: Over the last few months the name Peter Thompson has been associated In'Ith s tatements made by the Church Sc ientology and I believe it is 7 4 , 110 min that I am not the...

( A lternatives to animals • John Linklater (February 9) described the

The Spectator

prospect of a medical course, run by the Open University, and s uggested that Open University 1:lethod lent itself to pre-clinical, or post graduate medical training. • lhe...

Mycotoxicosis

The Spectator

Sir: I have been asked by Dr J. Rose, FRS, the Director of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, to organise a conference on mycotoxicosis. I hope that it will take place...

Savings savagery

The Spectator

Sir: At sixty-five most persons suffer a sudden, cruel cut, sometimes to a third or a quarter of their old earned income. The tax treatment of their savings in comes is hence of...

Jury experiences

The Spectator

Sir: I am writing to you on behalf of Giles Gordon and myself concerning the book we are jointly editing on Jury Service for Wildwood House. We feel sure that among your...

Abortion deaths

The Spectator

Sir: Miss E. Rhys - Williams believes that the Abortion Act should be restricted to protect women against themselves, as abortion is really very dangerous, though most doctors...

London schools

The Spectator

Sir: The article by Dr Thodes Boysen (February 9) on the shortcomings and failures of education in London stresses the need for reform. Three reforms appear to be urgent: first...

Page 6

The frightening scenario

The Spectator

Patrick Cosgrave For nearly two years now I have been saying that the Conservative Party could not win an election under the leadership of Mr Heath. What amazes me about the...

Page 7

A Spectator's Notebook

The Spectator

M any are the explanations for the Liberal vote in the general election, but my favourite comes from a Tory lady in the North. "It was th e BBC again," she explained. "They'd do...

Page 8

Multi-million-dollar graft to rig the crisis

The Spectator

Barry Rubin The true story behind the current 'energy crisis' is a scandal which might dwarf the Watergate affair. Much of the shortage has been manipulated by energy...

Page 9

rotherhood of man

The Spectator

dlen Clement Attlee rationed bread Rat starving Indians might be fed, hour gave general applause °this self-sacrificing cause, ° W how unwelcome their surprise black...

Censorship

The Spectator

Pariah of the election Michael Ivens When. as director of Aims of Industry, I decided to place four large advertisements in the press attacking the extreme left in the trade...

Page 10

Eleven up to heaven

The Spectator

Rawle Knox LondonderrY "Unionists May Hold Whip Hand," declared Belfast's News Letter, the morning after the count — not balance, mind you, whip hand: Westminster has been...

Page 11

Westminster Corridors

The Spectator

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice. We look upon the man who gives it as offering an affront to our understanding and treating us like children...

Page 12

Militants at the 'Telegraph'

The Spectator

Bill Grundy Change and decay are all around I see, as the gloomy religious gentleman said. In times like these, when the only certainty is uncertainty, the natural thing to do...

Fusion and fission

The Spectator

Philip Kleinman If advertising agencies are exciting companies to work for — and even those admen who don't particularly care for their trade agree that they are — it is...

Page 13

A little of what You fancy

The Spectator

John Linklater No wild animal or primitive man living under strictly natural conditions ever becomes obese. In the course of evolution, natural selection of the fittest gave...

Sons and sins

The Spectator

Martin Sullivan Many years ago I remember reading an interesting observation on that remarkable trilogy of stories in St Luke's gospel (Chapter XV), the lost sheep, the lost...

Page 14

Badger's wood

The Spectator

Peter Quince Although the winter has been exceptionally mild (we have seen scarcely a particle of snow) it has also been unusually windy. At one time, at the beginning of the...

Ever so tasteful

The Spectator

Pamela Vandyke Price One should be a fraction prudent before lashing around with the nasty cracks (a verb that the sap among those likely to assault our comfort at any inst...

Page 15

Richard Luckett on

The Spectator

a Fischer of truth Ernst Fischer is known in this country for his books on aesthetics and his two anthologies, Marx in his Own Words and Lenin in his Own Words. In Austria, his...

Page 16

Manner from heaven

The Spectator

Peter Ackroyd The Eyes Of The Interred Miguel Angel. Asturias translated by Gregory Rabassa (Jonathan Cape E5.00.) A big book brings out the worst in the best of us. And there...

All Souls and others

The Spectator

A.L. Rowse Collisions, Essays and Reviews. David Cal l° (Quartet Books £1.50) What strikes one first about this collection of reprinted articles is the contemporary olie he .:...

Page 17

Skilful satyr

The Spectator

Geoffrey Elton The Rump Parliament 1648-1653 Blair Worden (Cambridge University Press £8.40) The wave of precise historical scholarship, devoted to an exhaustive use of the...

Page 18

Shifting sands

The Spectator

Llew Gardner The Rise and Fall of the League of Natiora George Scott (Hutchinson £4.80) The United Nations ideal, for all the rhetoric , Design Council flags and trendy...

Page 19

Life with the stars

The Spectator

Duncan Fallowell Monsieur Butterfly — The Story of Puccini Stanley Jackson (W. H. Allen £3.50) Puccini was lucky. He made it just before opera changed from being the most...

Page 20

The unknown novelist

The Spectator

Benny Green The only books I am talking about this week are the other kind, the books which are never published, whose contents change from night to night, and which after a...

Bookbuyer's

The Spectator

Bookend The sudden news last week that Penguin are to discontinue their schools publishing programme made one of the year's sadder bits of reading. It also bore some contrast...

Page 21

Home thoughts from abroad

The Spectator

Nicholas Davenport Having put my electoral affairs in order by giving a proxy vote to nly son to exercise — and having departed for the tourist dollar area, where the pound...

Juliette 's Weekly Frolic

The Spectator

I may throw the pounds around in print, but privately my gambling stakes and wins, are pathetically small. It was, therefore, most satisfying that the only non-voting inhabitant...

Page 22

Skinflint's City Diary

The Spectator

The three-day week has been generally thought to be leading to an excessive squeeze on the liquidity of the smaller manufacturing company. On further reflection this does not...

Page 24

The theatre's phoney crisis

The Spectator

Will Waspe The absence of a Theatre column from The Spectator this week will not surprise readers, for there was nothing much doing in the London theatre last week. Canny...

Lance goes in

The Spectator

Christopher Hudson A film which has had more than one press showing in London during the last month is Big Lance ('X' general release). Lance is a six-foot black policeman in a...

Page 25

A versatile and varied land

The Spectator

Roger Thomas On the north Pembrokeshire coast there is an old whitewashed cot t age, barely visible amid luxuriant hedgerows and the tall grass of a hill which sweeps down to...

Page 29

The best bargain in Britain Clive Gammon There's a man

The Spectator

who looks after my bit of fishing in Carmarthenshire and has curious theories about the T °wY. I'd forded the river one evening somewhat precariously: the water came within an...