long last, after two and a half years of r in which two million Commonwealth liens have died, the House of Commons begun to signify its discontent with a licy which could be...

Youth and the swinging seventies AUBERON WAUGH Tuesday of next week is the last day on which voters can claim to be included in the 1970 electoral register. Until then, the...

French farms, German harvest CRABRO The good fairy who presides over the cradle of every newborn Frenchman endows him with splendid gifts: a burning sense of na- tional...

Dirty work at very crossroads GEORGE GALE r the past week and more the appropriate iplinary people of the University of have been considering the cases of the ty - odd known...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS To be or not to be—that is the question, But is there not perhaps a third suggestion? Might is not prove a more convenient crack To take the thing and then...

The party of conscience MURRAY KEMPTON New York — President Nixon replied on Monday to the first direct questions the journalists have had a chance to ask him about the My...

Britannia rules the coastal waters DESMOND WETTERN Time and again, in recent months, Govern- ment spokesmen have sought to counter critics of the present defence policy by...

W. M. THOMPSON This year's Reith Lectures don't seem to have attracted much attention. Perhaps in this rather austere formula one has to talk provocative tosh, as Dr Edmund...

MARINA LEARMONT The majority of people in Britain would agree that the idea of the welfare state is a noble one, which however needs to be made more efficient; in the debate on...

Bacteria win JOHN ROWAN WILSON The chemists are in full retreat these days. One by one their panaceas are being re- jected. First it was cyclamates, then DDT; now it is...

Over there LESLIE ADRIAN Are British consumers less excitable than American consumers, or do they simply have less to get excited about? This month's Which? talks the hind leg...

Up in arms BILL GRUNDY The Association of Broadcasting Staffs recently held an open meeting (i.e., one which interested non-members could attend if they wished). The first...

Anderson's complaint*--Act Two NIGEL LAWSON In last Saturday's Times there appeareri most curious letter over the signature of Mr Neville Blond, the chairman of the English...

JOEL HURSTFIELD In my last years at school I used to dream of going to a university to take a degree in English. I was awakened from this dream of academe by two harsh facts....

From the 'Spectator,' 11 December 1869 — The first Council of the Vatican, which is said by moderate critics to have been convoked in order that it may be not only the last as...

JOHN FLETCHER , r). without Walls W. H. Auden (Faber 200 { ; den's Poetry Justin Replogle (Methuen ,Ith 35s, paper 16s) y Elder Edda translated by Paul B. Tay- and W. H. Auden...

C. HUGH LAWRENCE Charles of Orleans, Prince and Poet E McLeod (Chatto and Windus 63s) Charles of Orleans and Francois Villon a the two major poets of late mediae% France....

CHARLES WILSON Orange and Stuart: 1641-1672 Peter Geyl (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 65s) In the English mind, the connection between the Houses of Orange and Stuart most commonly...

DAVID PRYCE-JONES The Dead Sea Scrolls 1947-1969 Edmun Wilson (W. H. Allen 35s) On the night of 14 May, 1967, Edmu Wilson was among the crowd in the ne Jerusalem stadium...

MICHAEL BORRIE Old Testament Miniatures: A Mediae% Picture Book introduction and legends by S C. Cockerell (Phaidon £14) The Gothic Cathedral Wim Swaan (Ele Books £10) Flemish...

FRANCIS WATSON Chinese Masters of the Seventeenth Century Victoria Contag (Lund Humphries 6 gns) The Clouds and the Rain Edited by Michel Beurdeley (Hammond Hammond/Office du...

PATRICK ANDERSON The Eighteenth Century: The Age 0 Enlightenment edited by Alfred Cobban (Thames and Hudson 8 gns; up to 31 Decem- ber 6 gns) The Princes H. D. Molesworth...

Burland, photographs by W, Forman (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 63s) It could be salutary for us to have lying about on coffee-tables already so burdened with 'white man's' culture,...

L. D. ETTLINGER Civilisation: A Personal View Kenneth Clark (sac and. John Murray 4 gns) The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci in the Collection of Her 'Majesty the_ Queen at...

OLIVER WARNER he Big Ship: Brunel's 'Great Eastern'—A ciorial History Patrick Beaver (Hugh velyn 75s) fighting Ships Richard Hough (Michael ° oseph 84s) reat Regiments Vezio...

JOHN HIGGINS It was only last year that Pierre Boulez launched his attack on opera, declaring it to be a musty old wardrobe kept going by bor- ing, fustian institutions called...

Goodbye Baby and Amen David Bailey and Peter Evans (Conde Nast/Collins 95s). A photographic record and rather fulsome paean devoted to the 'sixties, which invites immediate and...

Short work HILARY SPURLING Who's Who of Flapland and Strip-Tease Ambiance) Leonardo's Last Supper and Noonday Demons (Open Space) HIS, Hers and Theirs (Apollo) The Ambiance...

MICHAEL NYMAN New ensembles seem to surface so fre- quently these days that many people would deny that the stream of musical life in this country is stagnant. But the new...

Le style Gouda CLEMENT CRISP If the Dutch must award any 'National' title to their ballet, I would far rather it were bestowed on the vital and thrilling Neder- lands Dans...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT No one can accuse the new bureaucracy of not pulling its weight in paper. The White Paper on Public Expenditure (Cmd. 4234) runs to eighty-one pages. It is...

JOHN BULL A few days ago Lloyds of London elected its first lady members. It would be nice to think that this was an act of enlightened feminism. It was nothing of the sort. It...

Sir : Our scientific propagandists have a serious case to put. It is more likely to carry conviction if they avoid the sophisms and sciolisms of Mr de Bono (29 November)....

Sir: The article (8 November) entitled `White Paper blues' by Nicholas Davenpo n has just been drawn to my attention. 1 must write to express my dismay at some of the Statements...

Sir: The wish, expressed in my recent lea to you (23 August) re the us's problems Vietnam is answered in great part by George Gale's 'The Road to Pinkville' November). His...

Sir: I hope you have received a huge number of protests at your publication of a caricature of the Queen 115 November), and if so, that you will, as the Rev A. Simpson suggests...

Sir: I read with interest Leslie Adrian's article (11 October) on 'Bread spread', Particularly the last paragraph on the date of the tradition of the Christmas card. Mr Adrian...

Sir: With the general election not many months away, I have no doubt several of your readers are toying with the idea of standing as Independent candidates in suit- able...

Sir: For Mr Bruce-Gardyne's benefit (6 December) may I quote the definition of the word `assurance'—`a promise making a thing certain; an engagement, pledge or guarantee'...

Mr Spectator: Pray be so kind, dear Sir, as to convey the humble thanks of the clerks of this coll. to your Master Mercurius for his valiant defence of us against that naughty...

`Satan' at bay JOHN WELLS Following the recent display of public con- cern about the so-called 'oil murders', in which, during the past two and a half years, a number of...

PHILIDOR S. Loyd (New York, 1892). White to play and mate in two moves. Solution next week. Solution to No. 468 (Loshinsky): Kt-B2. threat Kt-Q6 mate. A 1 . s . KxP; 2...

No. 583: Figures of fun Mr Denis Healey has been nominated for a European award to the 'most humorous statesman of the year'. Competitors are in- vited to draft the opening...

1 Two cardinal points lead to the truth of austerity (8) 5 Medico taking to water calls for a terrible, sacrifice (6) 9 Transfer you can't give back, chilling thought (8) It)...