haps the truest remark contained in Mr It Macleod's curious pre-party conference urst last week was his observation that e can . . . hope that Mr Powell will go y, but he will...

In his lengthy and hair-splitting reply to Mr Heath's statement of Conservative policy towards Commonwealth immigrants, Mr Callaghan did attempt to make one substan- tive point....

Mr Harold Wilson and Mr Ian Smith con- verged on Gibraltar, where, aboard HMS 'Fear- less,' they were to take another 'last chance' to settle Great Britain's differences with...

As in recent years, the SPECTATOR is conducting a confidential poll of all those attending the Conservative party conference this week. Its purpose is to elicit the opinions of...

POLITICAL COMMENTARY AL BERON WAUGH Blackpool — Wednesday afternoon's debate on education brought the nearest thing to a defeat for the platform at a Conservative conference...

CZECHOSLOVAKIA JOCK BRUCE—GARDYNE So Mr Dubcek has returned once more from Moscow intact. What is more, we are assured that all talk of his imminent retirement is with- out...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Railwaymen's comments are curt on The standards of living at Merton. They say that the place Is a perfect disgrace And find much there to animadvert on. The...

MEXICO JEAN FRANCO Jean Franco is Frofessor of Latin-American Literature at the University of Essex and has just returned from a visit to Mexico. Mexican student...

AFRICA BRIAN CROZIER There will be no concessions in Africa, says Salazar's successor. The new Portuguese Premier, Dr Marcello Caetano, whom I inter- viewed once when he was...

GREECE HELEN VLACHOS In Greece today they are still doing sums with the votes cast on 29 September, playing the new political 'referendum game,' taking the staggering 92 per...

THE ECONOMY PETER JAY Peter Jay is economics editor of The Times.' The barrenness of modern British consensus politics is nowhere more clearly shown than in the repeated...

J. W. M. THOMPSON Politicians don't much favour historical allu- sions these days, presumably because they judge their audience to be unresponsive to them; and the fact that Mr...

PERSONAL COLUMN ARTHUR BARTON 'When afar and asunder, parted are those who are singing today,' the song goes on, as any old Harrovian can tell you, and any old Jarrovian too,...

From the 'Spectator', 10 October 1868—Mr. Dis- raeli's "word of power" to the electors of Buckinghamshire came forth this day week . . . and very powerful it was—in a verbal...

TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN The most remarkable piece of journalism last week was the comment of the Morning Star on the Greek plebiscite. The Greek plebiscite was, of course,...

TELEVISION STUART HOOD The debate some of us—television critics and others—had with Malcolm Muggeridge in The Question Why last Sunday turned on but did not, to my mind,...

THE LA WV R. A. CLINE At the present time the Court of Appeal in London feels very strongly about the freedom of the press. Not that the judges are anxious to extend that...

THE PRESS BILL GRUNDY A cat may look at the King, but the cats can't look at the Queen, at least according to Lord Devlin, a high luminary of the law. One is tempted to follow...

EDUCATION STUART MACLURE People used to write school stories. But not any more. Now they do what Dr Royston Lambert and his colleagues have done. They get a grant of £80,000...

THE MILITARY PHILOSOPHERS - 2 ANTHONY POWELL Anthony Powell's 'The Military Philosophers,' the ninth novel in his sequence, 'A Dance to the Music of Time,' is 10 be published...

J. ENOCH POWELL To arrive at McNamara's office after the long ascent through lower levels at the Pentagon was like emerging into the fresh air and day- light from a tunnel....

PETER FLEMING Bolivian Diary Ernesto `Che' Guevara trans- lated by Carlos P. Hansen and Andrew Sinclair (Jonathan Cape /Lorrimer 25s cloth, 12s . 6c1 paper) This diary covers...

NED SHERRIN The Beatles Hunter Davies (Heinemann 30s) John Lennon comes out of Hunter Davies's book very well. Paul Macartney comes out of it very well as well. George Harrison...

Stincking beare G. D. RAMSAY In the years 1620-42, some eighty thousand English people, about 2 per cent of the popula- tion, sailed across the Atlantic to find a new home,...

STUART HOOD ° On Trial Fidel Castro/Rgis Debray (Lorrimer 21s cloth, 9s 6d paper) Most of us, while we probably keep some sort of rough-and-ready balance-sheet of our lives,...

PHILIP HOPE-WALLACE It needs a moment or two to realise that this must have been an extraordinarily difficult book to write, to bring off, to make true. It's a long book but...

LORD BUTLER Lord Radcliffe is a very special man and this book gives some insight into his mind. But by its very nature it does not give a full or adequate picture of his...

ROBERT BIRLEY Apartheid: A Documentary Study of Modern South Africa Edgar H. Brookes (Routledge and Kegan Paul 28s hardback, 14s paper) Stephanie on Trial Albie Sachs (Harvill...

Vintage stuff BARRY COLE The Vice-Consul Marguerite Duras translated by Eileen Ellenbogen (Hamish Hamilton 30s) The Bucket Shop Keith Waterhouse (Michael Joseph 25s) The...

ASHLEY BROWN In our time James is being as thoroughly studied as Shakespeare and Chaucer were in the recent past, and some readers who have admired him all along are perhaps...

The Author's Empty Purse and the Rise of the Literary Agent James Hepburn (out , 25s). The complaints of authors through the ages are carefully examined and often found...

Across 1 Instrument with nautical breadth discovered in the wood (8) 5 Discreet addition to the crown (6) 9 About that - ambassador, send him down a division (8) 10...

PAUL GRINKE The Fine Art Society, that quintessentially Ed- wardian emporium of the arts in New Bond Street, has reasserted the triumphal position it held at the turn of the...

MUSI C MICHAEL NYMAN Walking home from the Fugs' concert, organ- ised by the Middle Earth at the Round House last week, I was shocked by the 4 a.m. silence —by its awesome...

CINEMA No mean tot PENELOPE HOUSTON The Dress (Academy Two, 'X') Woman of the Snow (Academy Two, 'A') A Man Named John (Essoldo, Chelsea, `U') Was it someone's comment on...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT Since I protested against the absurdly high level o f equity shares on the London stock exchange three weeks ago there has been a useful correc- tion—the...

FINANCE IMF WILLIAM JANEWAY Washington—The underlying theme of the 1968 Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund was stated explicitly and succinctly, before the...

CHRISTOPHER FILDES The league of those who don't think mergers are marvellous is now headed by the AEI shop- stewards, Mr J. G. Cuckney and me. Mr Cuck- ney is our newest...

BUSINESS VIEWPOINT DAVID DAMANT David Damant is a panne, in Investment Research. What sort of scientists do we need in British industry? We have the Dainton, Swann and...

CUSTOS The stock market is suffering from indigestion. Four firms of brokers have now been told by the Stock Exchange Council to get their books up to date and ready to be...

PORTFOLIO JOHN BULL Exactly one year ago I allotted myself £5,000 in cash and set about investing it. The result is that I now have a portfolio worth some £6,500, before...

LETTERS From: Patrick Wall, MP, Alan Smith, Professor R. Trevor-Roper, Commander Robin Bousfield, RN, P. G. Foster, J. G. Warry, T. W. Hutchison, - Ewart Milne, James...

Sir: Mr Raven's recent onslaught on the character of Odysseus (27 September) was anticipated, in gentler• fashion, by Pindar. In his seventh Nemean Ode he remarked that Odysseus...

Sir: The quality which I found distasteful in Harold Nicolson's Diary was the pervasive assumption that he and his friends were a cul- tural elite, raised above the 'vulgar'...

Nicolson was like' seems to me of minor importance compared with what he wrote—and I do not mean what he Avrote in his Diaries. There is a tendency nowadays to cash in on...

that 'for nearly 3,000 years the character of Odysseus has enjoyed the undiminished respect both of learned men and of the public at large.' The Attic dramatists were by no...

Sir: In his article (20 September) Anthony King puts the proposition that the two main political parties are ceasing to be bodies that advocate alternative policies and are...

Sir: I do not think your readers should place too much importance on the assessment of the Nigerian situation by Mr Peter Enahoro (27 September). Enahoro is a...

prospect of two million people dying from arms and starvation by the end of the year. Even if the war officially ended tomorrow, guerrilla action could prolong the agony...

Sir: I was away when Sir Roy Harrod's review of my book appeared (13 September). Since the one specific objection he makes in- volves a point of much practical importance, I...

the 'Letters' column of your news- paper with great interest—sometimes, even with great concern. Certain claims have been bandied about concerning the position of the non-Ibos...

Sir : Permit me to reply to Mr Angus Buchanan, who writes of my 'inanities' in my support of Biafra, and suggests that someone so high- minded and idealistic should rather take...

AFTERTHOUGHT JOHN WELLS Once again at Blackpool this week the public relations industry has been whipping itself into a seething furore of savagely masochistic introspection:...

Sir: I am sorry to have offended Mr R. L. Travers (Letters, 4 October) by my use of the word 'disingenuous,' but to anyone un- acquainted with the Onan story his summary of it...

Sir: The Government's policy of encouraging mergers and, through sEr, of reducing staff, has resulted in the redundancy and forced resigna- tion of many an older man. On 2...

Sir: There may only have been one Homer, but he was not the editor of the Oxford Classical Text which A. Q. Morton's computer con- sulted (Letters, 27 September); and verse...

ten words chosen from the openin g lines of a well-known play and asked to construct round them part of the script for a play, musical, pan- tomime or fi lm—and with almost no...

PHILIDOR 'Black White 10 men 8 men H. V. Tuxen (1st Prize, Magazinet, 1940). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 407 (Grant): B – Q 4, no...

COMPETITION Competitors are invited to use the followin g ten words, in the order g iven, to construct part of the script for either a play, musical, pantomime or film ; up to...