'I see the best man won.' M r Nigel Lawson was reported to be considering means-testing various pension- ers' benefits. This alarmed the rest of the Government, and Mr Lawson...

1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 OUR AND POLAND h e Labour Party's reaction to Mrs Thatcher's visit to Poland is instructive. It demonstrates yet again the ambivalence of the...

Tuning in to the Hurd programme NOEL MALCOLM P olitical excitements come thick and fast these days in the House of Commons. No sooner had Mr Lawson sat down after his grilling...

CHARLES MOORE I n Belfast last week, I met the leading figures of the North Down Conservative Association. The association already has 3 00 members and they are perfectly se-...

The health of British children is increasingly at risk from the restoration of standards in school meals Nearly a decade after the removal of a national nutritional standard...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard watched Dukakis as he learnt his fate Boston PEACE, prosperity, and experience pre- vailed. It is as simple as that. Democratic prospects rested on...

THE s p EcrivoR SUBSCRIBE TODAY — Save 15% on the Cover Price! RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK CI £49.50 D £26.00 Europe (airmail) D £60.50 D £31.00 USA Airspeed 0 US $99...

Mrs Thatcher triumphed in Warsaw, but Timothy Garton Ash argues that her visit must be followed up Warsaw LET IT be said at once: Mrs Thatcher did an excellent job in Poland....

Gerda Cohen talks to the ultra-orthodox Jews who can break the Israeli government Jerusalem IT IS a deep-scented night. The cicadas are pulsing away like mad; and the God-...

Stephen Handelman on Mr Gorbachev's disastrous campaign against strong drink Moscow 'TO drink drunke is an ordinary matter with them every day in the weeke,' Dr Giles Fletcher,...

The Government tries to stop house price rises with one hand, while it drives them up with the other, argues Richard Ehrman THE Government wants to see house prices stagnate...

Outsiders: a profile of John Heath - Stubbs, a poet who never compromised AN outsider? One of the best — one of the few poets to emerge from the often- derided Forties,...

Television: Paul Johnson thinks the new White Paper strikes a popular note THE CHANGES proposed by the Gov- ernment's White Paper on broadcasting are likely to prove popular...

THE Budget for savings and ownership — it's four months ahead, but the headlines write themselves already' — must be the best chance yet for Esops. These fabulous entities...

I DO wish that John Banham would disconnect the telephone answering machine at the Confederation of British Industry. He has been director-general there for a year and more,...

PETER Cooke has retired early from the Bank of England, leaving a monument all around the world. His financial diplomacy brought the agreement which established common standards...

Ups and downs of a stock which isn't for widows, orphans or pensioners CHRISTOPHER FILDES I knew Nigel Lawson was coming out fighting when he chose to confront Sir Robin Day...

FROM the clam-infested shores of Bran- ford, Connecticut, I reported to you in July that the Treasury Secretary, James Baker, had turned on an election winning boom for his old...

Sir: I do not hesitate to intervene in a row which has broken out in your columns concerning the conduct of the Daily Tele- graph. I have a certain standing in this matter since...

Sir: In his eagerness to refute me, Profes- sor Flew has failed to notice what I actually wrote. I suggested that in the very unlikely event of there being a number of well...

Sir: Richard Munday (`Gunning for free- dom', 15 October) should state clearly whether he is in favour of guns of all kinds being freely available over the counter to anyone of...

Sir: While not wanting to be in the least churlish about Nigella Lawson's flattering review of Leith's Restaurant (22 October), may I point out one understandable mis- take. I...

Sir: Nick Garland (`The birth of Bazza', 29 October) isn't sure if he invented Barry McKenzie, or not. He did — mostly. Nick and I lived near each other in 1963/4. I saw a...

Sir: Frank Dunne is in such a rush to put me right on modernism (Letters, 29 Octo- ber) that he cannot stay to read even what Auberon Waugh says I said about it. Waugh says I...

Sir: I have just received a letter from a Ms Susan Piper who describes herself as Marketing Director of an outfit called 'Leadership Skills Training'. This is the gist of it:...

Sir: Felicity Wood's letter (15 October) on the Kariba dam wall saga reminded me of a piece in the Zimbabwe Herald which fol- lowed Rowlinson Carter's 13 August Diary report....

concise and handsomely bound in soft, navy blue leather, it offers all the facts, figures and numbers that are absolutely essential. Listings of top wine merchants by Auberon...

NIRAD C. CHAUDHURI D UE to my age, I take a more direct and personal view of the first world war than anyone I usually talk to. And as I passed through both the world wars the...

THE ten million and a quarter adult males who now take part in the election for the American Presidency, decided on Tuesday for Mr Harrison, the Re- publican candidate. Of the...

BOOK OF CROSSWORDS The Spectator enjoys a high reputation for its crosswords, which attract a large weekly postbag. This collection of 100 puzzles fea- tures the work of their...

Another naughty Swift? Colin Welch THE COMPLETE BARRY MCKENZIE by Barry Humphries illustrated by Nicholas Garland Methuen, .£5.95,.pp.144 H ere at last is the whole saga of...

Francis King STE VIE SMITH by Frances Spalding Faber, £15, pp.33I S tevie Smith was one of those writers who leave living to their readers. From the age of three she made...

VIEWS FROM ABROAD THE SPECTATOR BOOK OF TRAVEL WRITING Foreword by Colin Thubron The pleasures of travel are often best en- joyed at a distance, distilled in the pages of...

Anne Chisholm PRIME TIME by Joan Collins Century, £11.95, pp.356 W ell, Joan Collins has written a book. That is, it has all the superficial attributes of a book; pages with...

Stephen Spender COLLECTED POEMS by Philip Larkin Faber, £16.95, pp.352 H ere are all the poems Philip Larkin wrote, including the juvenilia — placed together in the last...

Jock Bruce-Gardyne REFLECT ON THINGS PAST: THE MEMOIRS OF LORD CARRINGTON Collins, £17.50, pp.400 C arringtons are not lightly to be tam- pered with: least of all by members...

For ever absent while I live And constant in a silence No news will ever break, There by the margin of a lake Rests a boxed oblivion I would speak to, that will not speak. And...

Brian Martin THE DURRELL-MILLER LETTERS, 1935-80 edited by Ian S. MacNiven Faber, £17.50, pp.560 A LITERATE PASSION: LETTERS OF ANAIS NIN AND HENRY MILLER, 1932 - 53 edited...

Write your own success story . . . The Spectator Young Writer Awards protide a unique opportunity - not only to have your writing talent recognised, hut to be launched on a...

library . . . or almost £30 on The Spectator If you're forced to share The Spectator with fellow students, then you'll know how difficult it can be to track a copy down. Now...

Edward Whitley hen the monk in charge of the cellars at Hautvillers Abbey began fer- menting wine twice, the second time in a bottle strong enough not to explode, he...

Now the game is up Digby Anderson s always at this season, the cookery columnists are busy suggesting more read- ers try cooking game. This alarming possi- bility is openly...

When wine stoops to folly Harry Eyres I must begin by declaring a moral pre- judice. The purchase of wine purely as an investment is a perversion of the natural order and...

And where is the flock wallpaper now? Deyan Sudj ic W alk into the Cafe Italien des Amis du Vin in Charlotte Street, past the dusty pink doors, the cream walls lined with...

Best cookery books The richest pickings for the kitchen Nigella Lawson I f you cook, you have probably got all the cookery books you need. At the most that will be two or...

THIS boy's . • shirt with the St Michael label costs about £16.90 at Marks & Spencer in Paris — and only £10.00 in London. Main reason for that discrepancy: France charges...

Exhibitions 1 Quieter voices Giles Auty Mary Newcomb (Crane Kalman, till 26 November) Elizabeth Blackadder (Mercury Gallery, till 19 November) Margaret Thomas (Sally Hunter...

Dutch and Flemish Painting in Norfolk (Norwich Castle Museum, till 20 November) Going Dutch John Henshall R eaders of a naturally cynical disposi- tion may well utter a...

It's sweeter with a tweeter Marcus Berkmann I have always loved those newspaper features which list the most stressful things that can happen to you, starting with death,...

David Hockney's 'Mulholland Drive: the Road to the Studio' was inadvertently printed the wrong way round. Our apologies.

A Walk in the Woods (Comedy) The Heart of a Dog (Half Moon) The class of Guinness Christopher Edwards A lec Guinness is the reason for a visit to this cosy boulevard...

Potted philosophy Ursula Buchan 11 over the country gardeners are grafting tomatoes, growing terrestrial orchids and discussing the merits of water- retaining polyacrylamides....

Switching Channels ('PG', Odeon Leicester Square) London Film Festival (National Film Theatre) Unlikely bimbo Hilary Mantel S witching Channels could probably be described...

Designer grit Wendy Cope A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that there was some French and Italian soft porn on The Media Show (Channel 4). A few days later I got told off by...

The company they keep Taki B New York y the time you read this I hope the man with the moustaches for eyebrows will be back where he belongs, in the state Which for the last...

Bolt holes Jeffrey Bernard I should never have gone to Barbados for the first time ten years ago. Since that time I have become increasingly obsessed with the sun, sea, rivers...

Wall to wall Alice Thomas Ellis W e got carried away by the carpet. Not as in 'magic' — although on Thursday evening I wished we had — but more by the Stakhanovite...

Two day chess Raymond Keene hess will return to TV early next year in the shape of seven 45–minute program- mes on Thames. The tournament which provided the games to be...

Giggling through Jaspistos n Competition No. 1548 you were asked to supply a passage from 'the new sort of travel book', which describes hardships and ordeals with insouciant...

Ab MU ME N - 1 I R Ld r il C VARTHE IE% OIEFINIY USMUNDA ° HALFACRWNFIAE ' V SIBETERLETbH0 0 N PA P arC 6 A II11140IPAI . F NE . ITNICIAL +Lis I 11111 S E ONGEy a...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 for the first three correct solutions opened on 28 November. Entries to: Crossword 884, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street,...

There is a popular belief in the Middle East that Shakespeare was an Arab. An extract, please (maximum 150 words) from a doc- toral thesis arguing this point of view. Entries to...