A Spectator's Notebook

While we must all deplore the slide towards a Communist dictatorship in Portugal, we should think twice before jumping to similar conclu sions about the forward march of Communism in Italy. The Italian Communists are a very Special breed. They don't like what's happening in Portugal much more than we do. They want Italy to stay in the Common Market. They even hint that they might like her to stay in NATO. And at home, they show about as much enthusiasm for extending public ownership as does Mr Roy Jenkins in Britain. Of course, if they ever achieve power, they may decide to cling on to it at all costs and forget all their pledges of loyalty to the democratic system. But they have, at least, already shown that they can govern a major city more efficiently, and With far less corruption, than their chief political rivals, the Christian Democrats.

In Bologna, a city they have ruled for nearly thirty years, the Communists have provided an administrative background, against which private enterprise can prosper much more successfully than it can, for example, in the shambles which is Rome. Bologna is also a model of urban conservation. That is why few tears are being shed by lovers of Venice at the news that the Communists have come to power in the 'serenissima.' There was little love lost between the city's former Christian Democrat administration and the people most directly engaged in the daunting task of saving the world's most beautiful city from pollution, depopulation, and submergence under the waters of the lagoon. The new mayor, who is in fact a Socialist, but backed by a Communist majority, has declared that Venice cannot wait any longer and that all its problems must be resolved in the lifetime of his administration.

It will be a miracle if anything like this happens. But Lord Norwich, the Chairman of Britain's Venice in Peril Fund, sees no reason Why the new left-wing administration shouldn't do a good job. He points out correctly that one of the best mayors Venice has had since the War was a Communist.

An optimistic time

A problem for any Venice administration is that it has responsibility not only for the old city but also for the monstrous mainland industrial suburbs of Mestre and Marghera, which are Pouring toxic waste into the lagoon, and confribute to the erosion of Venice's churches and palaces. There are plans for a third industrial zone which, if carried out, could mean, literally, the death of Venice. The stand Which the Communists take on this will be a major test of their resolve. Still, there is more Optimism now among the conservationists than there has been for some time. One reason, says Lord Norwich, is that the Italian government finally seems serious about spending £200 million they set aside two years ago for the task of saving Venice. And UNESCO, which has been waiting with growing impatience in the wings for the Italians to act before launching an international 'Save Venice' appeal, has now decided to go ahead with a five-year rescue plan. Until lately, it was touch and go whether UNESCO might not decide to close down its office in Venice out of frustration at Italian stalling and bureaucratic incompetence. Still, Whatever criticisms one makes of the Italians, it's worth remembering that they spend a good deal more on conservation than we do and have a heritage to maintain of perfectly staggering proportions.

Meanwhile, in Venice, Britain is continuing to do its bit. The Venice in Peril Fund, although not the richest of the various private bodies engaged in the task of restoring Venetian buildings, has contrived to get hold of some of the most prestigious projects. After successfully restoring the Loggietta by St Mark's Square, it will start work this autumn on restoring the entrance to the Doges' Palace. An unnamed private individual has donated £50,000 to this work. It is heartening in these times of economic stress to know that there is still someone around with sufficient confidence to spend his money on such a cause.

Unfrocked

However, many people are feeling the pinch, or at least believe they should appear to be feeling it. As a result many of our compatriots who own houses in Tuscany — and they are almost innumerable — have decided that, in deference to our national economic crisis they should take their holidays this year in more austere places such as Scotland or Wales. Consequent.. ly, many Tuscan farmhouses have been available for letting this summer. Elsewhere in this issue there is an article about the effects of hot weather on the English character, but reports of the same problem have been reaching us from Italy. One Tuscan farmhouse has been let to a group of English clergymen of the up-to-date variety — the sort who wear open-neck shirts, sandals and grey woollen socks. The local Italian couple, who are responsible for looking after the house, were shocked to find these holy men prancing around the building with no clothes on at all — not even sandals. What is happening to our society?

Farm problems

Of course, as we have said, the hot weather is mainly to blame. Apart from its effect on people, the heat has dramatically changed the English countryside, which is looking as burnt and parched as any Mediterranean landscape. Many of the cows are looking thin and despondent, more like Indian cows than British ones, as they search among the weeds for blades of yellow grass. The air of desolation is enhanced in places by rows of dead or dying elm trees. It's all very hard on the farmers. I learn from Dorset that the harvest is down about 25 per cent on last year and that the cows are having to be fed largely on concentrated foods.

Given the problems that farmers already have to put up with, the Government has chosen a singularly inappropriate time to embark on its long-promised reform of ending the system of tied cottages. The one sort of farm worker who has to live on the farm is the cowman, and cowmen are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Discouraged by the difficulties they already have, many farmers are already selling their herds, and there are fears of a shortage of liquid milk next winter. Unless farmers can be certain to have vacant cottages to offer to cowmen, many more are likely to decide that dairy farming is just not worth the effort. Apart from that, it is hard on local councils to be asked to rehouse farm workers in certain cases when no money is being made available for this and when they are also being asked to apply stringent economies in all fields.

It isn't even as if there was a serious social problem in urgent need of a solution. Normally, when hardship cases arise, sensible solutions are found by sympathetic farmers and local councils for the rehousing of retired farm workers. It is another example of the Government's obsession with fulfilling the pledges made in its election manifesto, even if circumstances cannot justify it.

On the move

The Spectator has always opposed the desecration of Bloomsbury, so we are grateful to the Minister for the Arts, Mr Hugh Jenkins, for his decision to build the new British Library on the Somers Town site next to St Pancras Station. Even from a practical point of view, it never seemed a good idea to build the new library as an extension of the British Museum. Aesthetically and environmentally,. it would have been unforgivable.

Nevertheless, we must spare some sympathy for the Library authorities when we think of the dreadful inconvenience of having to move. We speak with authority, for workmen have already arrived at The Spectator's Bloomsbury site at 99 Gower Street and begun to demolish the back extension (something, incidentally, eminently worth demolishing). Soon they will be reaching the front of the building to begin renovation work, and we will have to be on our way. We still are not absolutely certain where our new offices will be, but we hope they will not be too far away in Doughty Street — a street which has all of Gower Street's architectural charm without the disadvantage of being a main thoroughfare for buses and heavy lorries.

Until all the problems are sorted out, we may have to spend some time in temporary accommodation. We hope this will cause no inconvenience to anybody other than ourselves. In the meantime, we would be grateful if you could go on addressing your letters to 99 Gower Street, for they will be certain to reach us. Another advantage of going to Doughty Street, if we do in fact go there, is that it will bring us closer to our newspaper colleagues, The Sunday Times and the Times will be just round the corner. Still, we will be sad to leave a bulding which The Spectator has occupied for over 45 years, and where much has happened. The Gower Street premises are used to changes. Before The Spectator came here, it reputedly was used for a while as a brothel. I doubt if it will have such interesting occupants again.

Privatim et secretim

We like our affairs to be private, And guarded from curious eyes, Yet we are prepared to connive at The spreading of gossip and lies.

Gossip columns increase circulation; No matter if people get hurt. It advances the weal of the nation Expressly to churn out the dirt.

But why should they just court disaster, Disclosing the Cabinet files, To enable the critics to plaster Black mud that both clings and defiles.

The memoirs of a very cross man, Unpublished, it's said, would cause loss; But, if published, they certainly can Make other men equally cross.

When it's something that we want to hide; Our privacy can't be invaded. Things that others would wish put aside; Secrecy, dark and degraded.

So it clearly depends on the case, If 'private' or 'secret' apply; But the grave is the only safe place To hide from the nosey who pry. Basil Charles