Day of folly 'Day of Action' they called it. The general councillors of the Trades Union Congress, most of them general secretaries of their own trade unions, could not have...

Political commentary Denning's Other Law Ferdinand Mount One does one's best to introduce a note of variety. You will notice, one says, that this year only half the members...

Notebook The pilgrimage to work on the morning of the 'Day of Action' was like a carnival cavalcade in celebration of English unity in diversity. The atmosphere was calm, sunny...

Sweden's days of action Andrew Brown Gothenburg Mayday celebrations held in Sweden resemble less a political rally than a gigantic Anglican Sunday, in which everybody is...

Starving of the sacred cow Sam White Paris Even from so hostile a perch as Paris, it looks as though Mrs Thatcher will win her battle over the British contribution to the...

Who can reverse the landslide? Nicholas von Hoffman Washington George Bush may have found an underhand way to knock Ronald Reagan out of the Republican nomination and grab it...

Uganda: not to be governed Xan Smiley When is a coup not a coup? Answer: When the Ugandan president is confined to his house; when his closest ally, the Minister of Interior,...

The time map of Africa Patrick Marnham The following is an extract from Patrick Marnham's new book, Fantastic Invasion: Dispatches from Contemporary Africa, which is published...

Action, not words Leslie Chapman There are seven main ways in which government spending or government staffs can be reduced. 1. Lump sum cuts in staff or money. This is much...

The new pension industry - ------ Anthony Rudd One of the areas of the City on which the Wilson Committee's findings will be awaited with considerable interest covers the...

Keller auf Englisch ... Sir: Hans Keller's petulance at the expense of the editor, translator and publisher of Wagner's Brown Book respectively is more revealing of Hans...

The Guinness familv Sir: I am presently engaged upon a history of the Guinness family in all its branches and would be most grateful to any of your readers willing to share...

A juror remembers Sir: My Old Bailey jury service was very different from that of Karen Margolis (19 April); it was in the early Twenties and lasted two and a half weeks. The...

Mansfield and manners Sir: What a fierce fellow is your reviewer Jeffrey Meyers (10 May). In Katherine Mansfield he perceives 'a promiscuous young woman', dark, cruel and...

Gallicats Sir: What has become of the English blueand-white cat? This feline equivalent of the purple cow was once commonplace. John Aubrey could recall when 'the common...

... or in German Sir: Can I possibly persuade you, in the future, to publish Hans Keller in the original German? It would save my dear knife and me many hours of agonising over...

Letters Life at the Villa Mauresque Sir: The windy prose of Alastair Forbes needs determined concentration (26 April), but since I loved Willie Maugham, and associate the...

Books Who killed Kennedy? Nicolas Walter Conspiracy Anthony Summers (Gollancz £9.95; Fontana £1.95) Societies recover from most diseases, even if they always contract new...

Life and death Elisabeth Whipp The Role of Medicine Thomas McKeown (Blackwell £12; £3.95) Man Against Disease Muir Gray (Oxford £4.95; £2.25) Cancer and the Environment...

From nothing Ah w Anthony Storr Making Sense Geoffrey Sampson (Oxford Geoffrey Sampson is Reader in Linguistics at the Universitv of Lancaster. He is also a polemical writer...

Foreign Greeks Ruth Padel Myth and Society in Ancient Greece Jean-Pierre Vernant Trans. Janet Lloyd (Harvester £24) Greek politicians in exile traditionally go to Paris, like...

Gilbert Scott Gavin Stamp The Work of Sir Gilbert Scott David Cole (Architectural Press £25) Sir Gilbert Scott, the most Eminent Victorian architect, still seems larger than...

A major mind Hans Keller Gustav Mahler Deryck Cooke (Faber £4.95) Gustav Mahler: The Early Years Donald Mitchell (Faber £1 2.95) Nemo propheta in patria - and in this...

Bitsa Paul Ableman Russian Hide and Seek Kingsley Amis (Hutchinson £5.95) Well. the worst happened. The Russians finally swooped on our sceptred isle. drove the Queen to...

Arts Shades of grey Gillian Widdicombe Fidello English National Opera (London Coliseum) After his success with the English National's Salome and the Welsh Butterfly, it is...

Cinema Soft porn Peter Ackroyd American Gigolo ('Xi selected cinemas) There are lots of pale colours - greys, lilacs, beiges; understatement is fashionable this year, In a...

Television Reassuring Richard Ingrams Poor old Len Murray took a terrific hammering over his Day of Action, what with hacks interrupting his siesta as he sat by the swimming...

Football Cockney Final Wilfred De'Ath 'Well as you know West Ham are in the final. Who do you think will be playing them, after four draws out of Liverpool and Arsenal? I...

High life Country style Taki Whenever the subject of living in the country as opposed to living in the city came up, my old friend the seventh Earl of Lucan would get...

Low life Forgetfulness Jeffrey Bernard Last week was the extraordinary advertisement in The Times which read, 'Living without sex. Serious author, researching celibacy, would...