The Gospel according to Scargill A fter a two-day debate in the House of Commons, recalled at the request of the leader of the Opposition, the Govern- ment's policy on the Gulf...

I t would be nice to imagine that while the president of the Bundesbank was jour- neying towards Munich, suddenly there shone round about him a light from heaven, and he fell to...

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Mrs Thatcher's improbable internationalism NOEL MALCOLM W hat has the United Nations Security Council got to do with the colossal accu- mulation of American forces in Saudi...

I have never wanted to go to the Last Night of the Proms on the grounds that it would be terribly embarrassing. In the Albert Hall last week, to watch Bruckner's Fifth, I was...

The Silesians have been caught between east and west for centuries. Ian Buruma talks to the Poles who want to be Germans I have loved you faithfully and sworn my sacred oath to...

Dominic Lawson questions the Czechoslovak President about capitalism and Germany Prague WHEN Mrs Thatcher flies into what is now called the Czech and Slovak Federal Re-...

CONSULTATION An opportunity for junior ministers to refine and fortify their prejudices in advance of television

Charles Glass finds that his interview with a member of the Kuwaiti resistance was not as exclusive as he had hoped The Saudi-Kuwaiti border THE concept, like so many in this...

THE Boulangist disclosures have pro- duced a whole crop of duels. On Satur- day, M. Rochefort fought with M. Thiebaud under conditions which, in any country but France, would...

John Simpson on the behaviour of some refugees from Kuwait Baghdad THERE is a new censor at Iraqi television in charge of Western television reports now. He is an educated man...

Peter Godwin is manhandled by the soldiers of President Houphouet-Boigny Abidjan FIRST you drive over the moat. Well, it's not a proper moat really; it doesn't go all the way...

Michael Heath

How to save yourself 51 trips to the library . . . or over 00 on The Spectator If you're forced to share The Spectator with fellow students, then you'll know how difficult it...

Anthony Daniels on the 'natural' remedies that end in death NATURE knows best: old illusions die hard. We even call nature Mother, in the hope that a universe implacably...

William Dalrymple travels to the Hebrides in search of second sight STROND lies exposed on the long, grey, barren coastline of southern Harris, in the Outer Hebrides. It isn't...

Once again, The Spectator is offering its readers the definitive Pocket Diary, offering all the facts and figures that are essential to any Spectator reader, bound in soft black...

persist... I'M beginning to wonder whether I still speak modern English, or whether, approaching middle age, the language of my youth and education has become an archaic and...

there's no busybodies like showbusybodies SUCCESS in showbiz is a heady cordial. The shrill cries of excited teenagers, the chorused demands of a great concert hall for a...

I HAVE a fellow feeling for the brave dons from London University who are setting out to compile an oral history of the jobbing system. Its records are in memor- ies, not on...

THE bad news is the inflation rate — racing into double figures with no need for a photo-finish. The instructive news is that inflation has now got its nose in front of pay. The...

WHAT is the difference between a nimby and a pinic? A nimby is negative, saying 'Not in my back yard', and a pinic is positive, saying 'Provided it's not in Cir- encester.'...

THE name to note in this week's reshuffle at National Westminster is Derek Wanless. At 42 he is to head UK financial services, which make most of the group's money. My man on...

A jar and the crack in Dublin help to derail Delors's wagon CHRISTOPHER FILDES h e Permanent Secretary of the Treas- ury, Sir Peter Middleton, is a sociable man, but a busy...

was uncharac- 'Red sky at night, sheep are alight.' teristically paranoid. The point, one would have thought, was simple enough but let me offer him an analogy he should under-...

Sir: Mr Andrew Alexander's opinion that someone of foreign origin is unlikely to have the same feeling as we do for our history and institutions, reported and con- demned by Mr...

Sir: During the past 30 years or so our relationship with France has deteriorated to such an extent that at any other time in our history we would have been at war. Currently in...

Sir: Hildry Mantel paints a picture ol `Gulfman' which is obviously based on her 'four years' expatriate life in Jeddah'. Unfortunately, it has little to do with the Gulf, which...

Pity the peers Sir: Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd points to some of the difficulties experi- enced by our aristocracy ('Ladies in their own tights. . .', 18 August). The...

Sir: Articles in The Spectator on the case for or against monetary union (Sir Keith Joseph, 28 July, Samuel Brittan, 21 July, etc) give the impression that the debate falls into...

Sir: Your report last week (innocents abroad', 8 September) draws attention to the influx of Eritrean refugee children and quotes Mary Dines, from the organisation Rights and...

Sir: Perhaps I can assist Marcus Berkmann (Pop music, 11 August). As a student again, after a gap of eight years, I listen 'once more to the records that used to reverberate...

Sir: Robert Fox, in his article (Peace dividend postponed', 4 August), bases some of his conclusions on inaccurate information about the Nato tank fleets currently operating in...

Sir: I happen to be an avid admirer of Jeffrey Bernard's 'Low life', but any pro- fessor who would authorise a PhD thesis on his work (Letters, 11 August) should be committed...

Sir: Candida Crewe tells us ('Knocking on heaven's door', 1 September) that Jeho- vah's Witnesses are 'sincere, kind, gentle, law-abiding and happy'. That she also finds these...

Sir: Having read William Dalrymple's account of Abu-Zeid's death with revul- sion ('Killing an Arab, 1 September), I think it would have been no more than appropriate if he had...

An heroic androgyne Jan Morris THE GOLDEN WARRIOR: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF LAWRENCE OF ARABIA by Lawrence James Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £19.50, pp.432 C onsider, yet again,...

Michael Stenton THE RAPE OF SERBIA: THE BRITISH ROLE IN TITO'S GRAB FOR POWER 1943-44 by Michael Lees Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $29.95, pp.384 Y ugoslavia has as many ethnic...

Peter Levi AS IT WAS: PLEASURES, LANDSCAPES AND JUSTICE by Sybille Bedford Sinclair-Stevenson, £19.95, pp.260 h is is not so much the crown as the foundation of a career of...

Patrick Skene Catling KATHLEEN AND FRANK by Christopher Isherwood Methuen, £17.99, pp.363 C hristopher Isherwood (1904-1986) by the age of five was already an egocentric...

Elizabeth Berridge THE INN AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD by Alice Thomas Ellis Viking, £12.99, pp. 184 D reading Christmas? Come to the edge of the world,' tempts Eric, himself an...

Don Cupitt FREEDOM IN EXILE: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA OF TIBET Hodder & Stoughton, £16.95, pp.308 I n the summer of 1950 reports began to reach Lhasa...

Laurence Lerner SELECTED LETTERS OF I. A. RICHARDS edited by John Constable Clarendon Press, £30, pp.272 61 never dared be radical when young', said Robert Frost once, 'for...

Anita Brookner BRAZZAVILLE BEACH by William Boyd Sinclair-Stevenson, £13.95, pp. 314 0 n the face of it a story which com- bines chimpanzees and mathematical variants could not...

Christopher Hawtree KINGSLEY AMIS IN LIFE AND LETTERS edited by Dale Salwak Macmillan, £17.95, pp.203 K ingsley Amis's memoirs have been delighting a libel lawyer during recent...

I see I've got Mrs Bun the baker's wife, And Master Bun who was once a bun in her oven, And Mr Chips the carpenter, and one Of his young shavings, and Mr Boot the cobbler, And...

unappeasable contingency D. J. Taylor THE DWARVES OF DEATH by Jonathan Coe Fourth Estate, £12.95, pp.198 0 n the strength of his literary journal- ism and the three novels...

Exhibitions Natural joys Giles Auty F or many years past I have observed that amateur artists seem to gain more obvious pleasure from their work than do their professional...

Stage wars Christopher Edwards R ichard Nelson amused everyone last year with Some Americans Abroad, includ- ing the earnest, culture-hungry Anglophile Americans he so...

Memphis Belle ('12',Warner West End) One for the boys Hilary Mantel T hese are the days of the blue funk and the dried egg, of the holy medal, the cigarette behind the ear;...

In the French style Peter Phillips I t fell out that many evenings on my late summer holiday were spent listening to France Musique, the French radio equiva- lent of our Radio...

The honey of poison-flowers Ursula Buchan r aining an exuberant spaniel puppy is not quite the same thing as training a clematis or rose. Clumbers are not clim- bers. Slapping...

Tea caddies sans frontieres Alistair McAlpine T he summer has been busier than usual for the art market. Contrary to expecta- tion, trade has been good for dealers who stayed...

The freak factor Wendy Cope h is week's Screen One offering, Frankenstein's Baby by Emma Tennant (BBC1, 9.20 p.m., Sunday), was about a pregnant man. I didn't much like the...

Court gangsters Taki P ete Athens Sampras, the newly crowned US Open tennis champ, is of Spartan descent, a fact that surely helped him make mincemeat out of the ghastly...

Squiffy at square leg Jeffrey Bernard W e said goodbye to the cricket sea- son last week when The Spectator played the Coach and Horses at the Oval. It was a miracle that we...

Good vibes Zenga Longmore somewhat bizarre event is taking A place here in the heart of Brixton. The hippies next door have turned — not nice exactly, but — well, it's...

From the interesting to the supreme Auberon Waugh Next, a thoroughly mature minor claret which has already passed the ten-year test. Old fashioned people in England who did...

Spectator Wine Club, do Nethergate Wines (inc Redpath & Thackray), 11/13 High Street, Clare, Suffolk C010 8NY. Telephone: Clare (0787) 277244 1. Les Demoiselles Collides 1989,...

Gentlemen of Japan Raymond Keene n the past few years Sumo wrestling has become widely popular as a spectator sport in the West. Now Japan is exporting a more esoteric,...

Rus and urbs Jaspistos cOVAS REGA 12 YEAR ROLD SCOTCH WHISKY I n Competition No. 1642 you were asked for a letter to a friend, in prose or verse, from someone in the country...

My friend A.N.Wilson has perfected a new journalistic technique — interviewing celebrities over 80 and eliciting interesting confessions, even indiscretions. You are invited to...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

the three others clued without overall defini- tion.(19, 22 and 12) are seven-letter words having their first two letters the same as their last two. Winners: J. W. Leonard,...

Two grand, good men Frank Keating I DON'T really know why, but it seemed somehow appropriate that Sir Len Hutton died on the very same day as Geoffrey Green's memorial service...