W hatever may be thought about the Thatcher government, it undeniably possesses a remorseless quality. By the governmental standards the British public has become accustomed to...

Sir Geoffrey's little package Colin Welch Cir Geoffrey Howe's autumn economic statement was described by Mr Shore as `empty of hope and promise', as 'depress- ing' and...

y ears of experience have taught me that one should never venture an opinion, f avourable or unfavourable on events con- cerned in any way with Israel or the Jews,' writes Mr A....

iti f £ 4 1 9 4 700 5ai01 US subscription price: $65.00 (Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator) Subscription Manager, Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1 N 2LL....

Birds in their little nests Auberon Waugh T here are two good reasons for delaying any public expression of the rage and nausea which must be felt by nearly all...

aohdan Nahaylo A ter last Sunday ' s traditional display of Soviet military might in Red Square to mar k the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution, President Brezhnev...

David Gollob Saragossa I n the square outside the basilica, some people are already fighting for a front-row seat. A group of women from the Basque country make themselves...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington enachem Begin returns next week to a m United States which he may not re cognise politically. Almost out of self- defence, if not...

A very disagreeable incident has oc- curred at Gibraltar. Two refugees from Cuba, against whom nothing is alleged except treason, landed without passports, and were immediately...

Timothy Garton Ash Berlin W est German politics are suddenly moving as they have not moved for three decades. Last week's stormy con- ference of the Free Democratic Party...

Harold Pateshall Perth, Western Australia In 1974 the Australian Labour govern- ment under Gough Whitlam attracted widespread odium for co-operating with the Soviet government...

Andrew Brown Gothenburg S ocial workers in Stockholm are trained by studying case histories. One such, regularly used, is the story of 'Sara', whose baby was taken from her at...

Olivia O'Leary Dublin `Vez are all the same,' snapped a woman 1_ pushing her way into Mass last Sunday past the Prime Minister. `Yez should all be thrown in the Liffrey and...

Richard West Thetford, Norfolk T here is a gilt statue of Thomas Paine outside the Trust House Forte Bell Hotel (£35 a night). There is even a Thomas Paine Hotel (charging £25...

found this week on page 41.

banger: censors at work Paul Johnson p orrns of censorship abound in this coun- try. We saw one in action recently at the —oil y Mail, when a closed shop printing Tent_lon...

Love or violence Sir: In your leading article 'A sterile argument' (30 October) you have put your finger both on the weakness of the Church working party report, The Church and...

cannot be allowed to pass unchallenged. The report of the Church of England's working party on nuclear weapons, The Church and the Bomb, gives four very clear reasons for rul-...

Sir: , In a letter to you a few months ago, I arm attention to the generous but I think Misguided latitude you give Richard In- grains in his regular column for the expres- s...

Sir: May I follow up Mr Colin Welch's most interesting proposal for the NHS (6 November) by suggesting that a similar solution might be applied to education. Schools would be...

si r: „ I cannot understand why you published A n th ony Burgess's wholly untrue 6,g, r anhical sketch of myself: ... Hans w ` r t er, a highly respected critic who has at id...

Sir: I thank Alexander Chancellor for his kind reference to me in last week's Notebook but I must correct his version of what happened over my OBE award. This was never...

Sir: Mr Enoch Powell's conclusion, in his review of Beatrice Webb's diaries (23 Oc- tober), that she was a `reluctant socialist' because she was really `by instinct religious,...

The camera's eye Paul Overy The Artist as Photographer Marina Vaizey .(Sidgwick & Jackson £12.95) The Artists of my Life Brassai (Thames & Hudson £20) P hotography was not...

James Knox The English Vision David Watkin (John Murray £25) P eople who complain of reds under the beds sometimes forget that whites exist too. Dr Watkin is a white, who for...

Richard Shone Lucian Freud T he combination of this book's author, subject and publisher creates high ex- e cl ations. Here is one of the most subtle writer s on art...

Richard Calvocoressi Salvador Dali Dawn Ades (Thames & Hudson £7.95, £3.95) Q o much sensational nonsense has been written about Salvador Dali, not least by the artist...

Marc Jordan Canaletto J. G. Links (Phaidon £27.50) I t i s almost as if J. G. Links's Canaletto has two heroes. The unloveable Joseph s" mtth h British consul in Venice, is...

Peter Levi A Right to Song:The Life of John Clore Edward Storey (Methuen £14.95) F ifty years ago John Clare was a poet o f obscure and mysterious attraction, lase William...

Francis King The Masque of St Eadmundsburg Humphrey R. Morrison (Blond & Briggs £7.95) C ince, in its passage from classical L./to mediaeval times, the Latin word universitas...

David Austin Love All? Michael Heath's cartoons from the Guardian (Blond & Briggs £1.95) M ichael Heath's book is about sex, b ut his is not the cheerful, vulgar world ol the...

Graham Hough T he Shadow and the Light: A Defence of Daniel Dunglas Home, the Medium Elizabeth Jenkins (Hamish Hamilton f12.95) rs Browning thought him weak and 14 S l u d ge...

Official aesthetics Gavin Stamp T he Royal Fine Art Commission was created in 1924 'to inquire into such questions of public amenity or artistic im- portance as may be...

John McEwen n his introduction to the booklet adver- tising the Royal Academy Trust Appeal, Sir Hugh Casson writes that even more remarkable perhaps than the Academy's...

David Wakefield T he most interesting exhibition by far to be seen on Bond Street at the moment is Souvenirs of the Grand Tour at Wilden- stein's (20 October to 1 December)....

Fruit and nut Mark Amory Nuts (Whitehall) Coming Clean (Bush) N uts has had a triumphal progress. Starting on off-off-Broadway, it reached Broadway without alteration or re-...

Hand in glove Richard Ingrams T he kindly press reception accorded to the debut of Channel 4 brings home once again the unhealthy relationship which now exists between TV...

Death heads Peter Ackroyd Angel ( A AA', selected cinemas) S in ce Angel is set in Northern Ireland, cr e , a readY-made atmosphere has been k n —t ed for it. We all know, or...

At odds Taki I feel like the pugilist who, after bel knocked out early in the first round w a asked by an insensitive hack what had Sa lt wrong, and offered the laconic but...

Too much Jeffrey Bernard T here hasn't been a lot to laugh about this past week. After 30 years I'm back to 9st, the featherweight limit, and what's more I now need middle...

Rats or beavers Patrick Marnham T he 300 rats of Trowbridge have disap- peared into a time-warp almost as large as the Salang Pass Tunnel in Afghanistan. Sometime last week,...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for advertisement copy aimed to sell some very ordinary article at a very high price to the millionaires' market. I once watched a...

No. 1244: Up Down Under! Set by Jaspistos: Although in a referendum the Australians have chosen a tune (`Ad- vance, Australia Fair') for a new national anthem, they haven't...

Andrew Whiteley T he large number of entries — 94 — for (or the biennial world team championship olympiad) in Lucerne, desirable though I I ! is, creates problems; particularly...

cl orb ,a, i. 's t 04ANTENA,....TAL 'LI '11 - A CE R Jsr D 2 11 1 77 NI R . I.C N■NL' l ir i. '''s E • D I E T i S ItURALL PIN A ?VI I' A li E - ■,1 I C STAITIAP...

0 Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. opened on 29 November. Entries to: Crossword 583, The A P r ize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution...

T he Prime Minister of Israel, Mr Begin, told a commission of inquiry in Jerusalem that he was not consulted about the sending of Phalangist militiamen into two Beirut refugee...

MURDER TRIALS — particularly monographs on Victorian cases. Jonathan Goodman, 43 Eal- ing Village, London W5 2LZ. BROWNING by G. K. Chesterton (English Men of Letters series)....

Answer How does each question lead to the answer? Name . Address: Company (if eligible for special prize) Important: Please keep this answer form, as you will need to keep a...

now until the Christmas issue ( )18 December win ' C arry a clue. n tach clue is made up of three separate 12eve stinns, designed (except where stated) to r;" the same answer;...

Treasure Hunt Set by Christopher Booker T his issue of The Spectator has the sixth clue in the Great Spec - _ tator Treasure Hunt. The Treasure Hunt will last for six m ore...

E ach set of three questions leads to a place somewhere in the British Isles. Remember the three questions all have the same answer. 1) It gave birth to the founder of the...