A Spectator's Notebook , t as delighted to see the Labour

platform efeated on the Common Market resolution Sheffield. Some of the phrases in that rbesolution could, and indeed should, be uttered eoy_everyone of whatever party who values the rzistitutional liberties of this country and who 1371ises that these liberties reside in and are Theserved by a sovereign House of Commons. e IVIarketeers are the defeatists, the aP„PAeasers, the Cliveden set of the present day

" Politically they remain in the ascendant,

epse men of a small 'c' or small conservative liberal to, n of mind would do well to pause, of the excitable and parrot-like denunciations v Re trade unions and of Labour militants, and reeflect that, not for the first time, a truer et of liberty and a greater understand"' ca (or instinct for) our own historical Droc the ?Sses coming from those who voted for aim Brightside motion than from th c'st anYwhere else, to judge at any rate from r;,e official positions of the Conservative and fpa

etched rties, and to judge also from the

wwi speech by Edward Short, a man qu °se political eminence I am totally inadeate to comprehend.

Nlitically inept

avc3r Margaret Thatcher. She is one of my ourite politicians, and has been ever since see banned free school milk for the over th"-Year-olds (or whatever), for I have taken he` view for some years that milk is not e goe,saarilY good for children, and free milk is ()d only for the dairy farmers who get paid to u i foo,, ce t. What she has lken doing, storing ho„u is extremely sensible; and every prudent ' "SNife in the country should, and doubtless sh, ',mg the same. The Consumers Association pe-tild know better than to start alarming aetc.Ple unnecessarily about food in tins efiorating; but what was far worse than wtei.s. gratuitous advice was the moralising re,Ich, accompanied it. Having said that, it 41ns to add that Margaret Thatcher, while trioght te stockpile food, was very foolish indeed sea,,Wr,Lite about her larder and give advice, '"ule in itself, to the elderly to follow her ho'°„r the milk-snatcher to become the foodita:.tier at a time when she has declared her

m of running for the leadership of the "servative Party, and. when she was being pretty impressive in the Commons, shows precisely the same political ineptitude as Sir Keith Joseph displayed; and is likely to have the same political consequence. The best political judgement in the Tory Party at the moment seems to be that of Edward Heath, who is Saying nothing at all, or, if he is saying something, is saying it so dully that nobody pays attention.

Falklands oil

Mr Neville French, newly appointed Governor of the Falklands, has an unexpected problem in his small empire: oil. Year after year, Argentina and Chile have presented their conflicting claims to these British Islands at the United Nations; year after year the British delegation has demolished them; and year after year the General Assembly has tried to get round the Charter principle of self-determination. For the Falkland Islanders (2,000 odd of them) are firmly in favour of staying British — or Scottish. They are almost all Scottish and English sheep farmers. Now that there is oil off the Falklands it is only too clear that anyone who ever set foot there: the French, Spanish and Americans, as well as Argentina and Chile, will be pressing the most unlikely claims. Ironically, the only fuel used on the Falklands is peat bog; winds run too high and salty for trees and it rains for eight months of the year. I foresee even stormier days ahead for them,

Great Britain III

'Union Jack' Hayward, as the son of Charles Hayward of Firth Cleveland and one of the founders of Freeport in the Bahamas, and not least as a low tax resident of those islands, is not only rich but a controversial man who rarely finds that any philanthropy in which he engages is accepted at its face. Instead it is liable to be scrutinised by the media – television in particular for the self-seeking, ulterior or mean motive. Further profit, honour -or even the assuaging of a guilty conscience by an overflow of patriotism are not unexpectedly inferred.

But it was Hayward who brought Great Britain, the first iron ship, now being slowly refitted at Bristol, at great expense from the Falkland Islands. He backed Chay Blyth and twelve young paratroopers by paying for Great Britain Ii in last year's round-the-world race. Now, I have been told, he has undertaken to provide yet another £100,000 to build a new yacht for myth and his crew, to be called Great Britain M. There is neither profit nor residual value for Jack Hayward in this beneficence, since it has been his habit to give the yacht to its skipper or to a youth organisation. He certainly does not need the encouragement or acknowledgement of those in authority, though he might well be rewarded by a period of silence on the part of those with. a ready sneer for patriotism and life-enhancing bounty.

Common cause

When Senator Henry 'Scoop' Jackson was last in London he, the most intellectually powerful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the next American Presidential election, fell to reminiscing about the causes by which he had made his name. Foremost among these was the

Congressional veto of Dr Kissinger's RussoAmerican Trade Bill. The idea here was that, unless the Russians were more liberal in their attitude to Jews who wished to leave the Soviet Union for Israel, the US would not offer the USSR 'most favoured nation' trading treatment. Senator Jackson freely confessed that his stand on this matter was greatly influenced by an article by a former literary editor of The Spectator, Robert Conquest, the distinguished historian of Soviet affairs.

This is not the first time that Bob Conquest's views and power of argument have had some effect in American politics. When Americans relaxed after the Cuba crisis, there was an inclination to attribute its peaceful resolution to the forbearance of the late Mr Krushchev. Conquest destroyed that happy and fellow-travelling idea with a Spectator leader on the true implications of the crisis. Buy it, dear reader, frcnt our Back Numbers Department.