This issue of the SPECTATOR contains an important article on the Common Market negotiations which has been specially written by a senior Conservative whose views on the subject...

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It has taken just under twelve months for the Heath administration to establish firmly, and for all to see, where it is most likely to lose the support of the electorate at the...

„ POLITICAL COMMENTARY HUGH MACPHERSON 4 ■-1 initirvik - on.6=x4 1 mil -.---_--.6.--- .111111 11 111111111 1 1101 111 1 11 11. 1 11FI P IM F ! 11I III I IIII III...

A definition of 'Bookbang' could be: how to take knocks for trying to encourage book sales. Most of the television and press people, liverish as first-night theatre critics,...

Aquarius, one of the few television series devoted to the arts in London to be planning to put out an entire programme from Paris in a week or two's time, has found a re- newed...

By all accounts it would seem that Britain has already been more than usually prompt with aid to the refugees and cholera vic- tims of East Pakistan. At the moment it is the...

The curious thing about Richard Crossman's remark that the Duke of Edinburgh's tele- vision interview in the States on the subject of the Royal finances was 'vulgar, unjust and...

Among the distressing statistics which Northern Ireland has produced in the last three years of troubles is that it has the high- est unsolved murder rate of any Western...

One illiterate couple at the entrance viewed the Bookbang banners with suspicion. 'I don't know what it is,' said the girl, 'but it must be pornographic.' Lord Longford, who was...

If Humphrey Burton is now on good terms with the ITA, he'must be less well regarded by a German film production company called Intertel, for whom he was recently making a film...

The Good, the Bad and the Burns SALLY VINCENT New York New Yorkers are proud people. At first peep of an English accent they recognise a true foreigner (which says something...

The case for the Queen ROBERT BLAKE When the Duke of Edinburgh referred recently to the criticisms of a 'distinguished Privy Councillor' he had cause, like Clive, to be...

A SENIOR CONSERVATIVE `1 will not be a Peel to split the Conser- vative party', said Arthur Balfour, and Bald- win repeated his words years later, with equal point. They both...

Weightlifters JOHN ROWAN WILSON I believe it was Mark Twain who said he found no difficulty in giving up smoking: he'd done it a dozen times. It's rather the same with losing...

Wednesday 2 June: Delegates , from the Com- monwealth sugar-producing countries were pre- pared to support Mr Rippon's sugar agreement with the EEC. Gold reserves were at their...

Why not buy? HEATHER STUBBS There are 7 million households renting ac- commodation in England and Wales at the moment. According to a recent survey com- missioned by the...

Grumbles about Hell JOHN VAIZEY Even now, we still have the capacity to sur- prise ourselves. I was racked by doubt about whether or not to accept an invitation to give a...

REVIEWaBOOKS Eric Stokes on Imperialism Reviews by David Knowles, John Jones, Michael Bentley, Enoch Powell, Francis Watson and Auberon Waugh Kenneth Minogue on modern...

The World of Late Antiquity Peter Brown (Thames and Hudson £2.00) The World of Late Antiquity Peter Brown (Thames and Hudson £2.00) Late Antiquity, the name given to the age...

Dostoievsky Richard. Peace (cup £3.60) • One of the best things about Mr Peace's book is his translations. He is a brave man. Where even Magarshack (the scrupulous Penguin...

Isis in the Graeco-Roman World R. E. Witt (Thames and Hudson £3.75) Whoever wishes to understand the impact of monotheistic Christianity in the Gracco- Roman world ought to...

Thirty-four years have elapsed since the publication of G. M. Trevelyan's slightly soapy biography of Sir Edward Grey. The demand for a new life, however, derives not so much...

An extremely good week for novels, and one which must confound those who talk so glibly about the novel's decline. Being published in June, none of these authors is likely to...

Splendours of the East edited by Mortimer Wheeler (Paul Hamlyn £2.95) Just 2,300 years ago the young Alexander was celebrating his prodigious triumph in the vast Palace of...

of text George Lichtheim has served up a snack on imperial- ism cafeteria style. Those who partook of the rich repast contained in his Marxism: An Historical and Critical Study...

If you are unable to obtain a book re- viewed in these columns, we shall be happy to arrange for a copy to be sent to you. Write to The Sales Manager, The Spectator, 99 Gower...

10 Grant 11 Vestigial 12 Entirety 13 Hannah 15 Grip 16 Pair 17 Rhoda 20 Leers 21 Echo 22 Deep 24 Elaine 26 VictorO 29 Greenwich 30 Relay 31 Dust 32 Suppresses • Down: 1 Vague 2...

Charles Seaton reports: On the analogy of the schoolboy recently who, refusing a caning for an allegedly improper essay, found the prospect of an acting career opening up before...

No. 1485 DAEDALUS A prize of £3 will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 21 June. Address solutions: Crossword 1485, The Spectator, 99 Gower Street, London WCIE...

No. 654: Omnium gatherum Competitors are invited to incorporate the titles of eight current West End films in a piece of verse which shall not be wholly inconsequent. Limit,...

These foolish things KENNETH HURREN it had occurred to me in advance that Old Times, Harold Pinter's new play, was probably an overdue tribute to his most loyal admirer, Mr...

Empty seats ROBIN YOUNG With four ballet com- panies performing in London last week, it seemed that the supply of dance entertainment might outstrip the de- mand for it....

Film magazines CHRISTOPHER HUDSON There is a widespread confusion about the roles of the critic and the reviewer. Many people, including writ- ers of a recent series of...

Maw the merrier RODNEY MILNES How many operas did Mozart write before the ones we all know about? How many composers have tink- ered, more or less sub- stantially, with their...

Stage and screen EVAN ANTHONY What could be more `contemporary' than an evening at the Institute of Contemporary Arts looking at Edward Kienholz's 'tableaux', then watching a...

From John Biggs,Davison, mr, Oliver Herbert, Professor Hugh Berrington, and others The great debate Sir: Whatever one's attitude to the Common Market, the only safe assumption...

set out on pages 199 et seq in Whitaker's Almanack 1971; that England and Wales have more mouths per square mile to feed than any EEC country, and hund- reds more than New...

and judged in four separate stages— through preliminary discussion: at the negotiating table; by the people and Parliament; and in the history books. The decision of whether or...

the same nervous questioning as we do before they formed the Market? If so, have their fears proved well-founded or ill-founded? After fourteen years' experience do any of the...

Sir: Stella FitzThomas Hagan was wrong in saying (5 June) that in my letter (22 May) I was confusing absolutism in the political sense with absolutism in the philosophi- cal...

form the extreme left and the extreme right? The electoral eunuchs who would keep Britain out of Europe are quite right in insisting that the alternative to ening in is simply...

Centre, I wish to support the con- tention of Mr Philip Goodhart, the Tory MP for Beckenham, that the unique circumstances attaching to the Common Market issue point to the need...

Sir: Anthony Lejeune's fine plea in defence of rationalism (5 June), unfortunately provides an example itself of the 'deliberate vagueness of expression' which the author so...

Sir: Mr Freeling's statement (5 June) that Mr Hare 'has to learn English' is even truer than he seems to realise. The actual figure of the detective . . . has laid out in the...

Sir: There is nothing solecistic, or peculiarly Balliol, about the use of solecism to. describe social gaffes like the drinking of soup at lunch- eon. Reference to Fowler's...

Sir: Auberon Waugh begins his review of Philip Norman's novel (5 June) by complaining because the dust-jacket has a picture of the author, Apparently Mr Waugh dis- likes Mr...

Sir: Dr Cosgrave's graceless treat- ment of his earlier mistakes comes as no surprise. A comparison of the relevant text of the Nuffield book with his own version, shows that it...

my book, Plumridge (5 June), and of my personal appearance. I am very sorry that I am so plain. I must point out, however, that the coat I wear in the dustjacket photograph is...

Sir: How sadly familiar was Simon Raven's description (29 May) of the earbashing he received from those whom Australians would scornfully dismiss as 'whingeing Poms'. In the...

Epsom at a blistering twenty feet per hour failed to temper the excitement of my first Derby. Four Oaks and a handful of Corona- tion Cups on half-term holidays now seemed poor...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT In a lifetime spent in the financial world I have never known an affair so bizarre and so outrageous as the rise and fall of los (Investors Overseas...

Malversation, I think, is the word to describe what occasionally occurs in the security companies which have grown rich guarding other people's money on its way to the banks....

Let's hope the Prime Minister doesn't make society priest Nicholas Stacey a bishop just yet. The moment there's disaster anywhere he's on the Jack de Manio show (the nac must...

Dr Frankel has the misfortune of inheriting Staveley Industries Limited which are in a sorry mess, who had before as Chairman Mr Aubrey Jones the conservative politician and...

Mr Richard Crossman has set up a useful advertising competition in the New Statesman prospecting for a 'new kind of advertising, an awareness of the need for im- proving or...

nuA-Caledonian•are giving their air hostesses commission on the sale of drinks and very nice too, as I found when I flew with them on Monday. Like British Railways they don't...

People in gastronomic print (not always the same as those who really cook well) tend, I note, to 'happen to have by them' all kinds of things that, even in the chaos of what one...

At this time of year I become a sort of bucolic lodging-house keeper: it comes of living in a house which has endured the ravages of several centuries, and has many a crevice...

li BENNY GREEN Speaking as a confirmed browser, 1 have to admit deep concern at the way the number of London's bookshops is steadily shrinking. Nor do bald statistics reveal...

TONY PALMER Kinc Weekly is a magazine devoted to news and views from the film world. In so far as its tone accurately mimics the gossipy bit- chiness of the movie industry, the...

(2) Literary lunch CHARLOTTE HOUGH I dialled the number and heard the voice come on the other end with mixed feel- ings. 'You won't know who I am,' I said for a start. I was...

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