At a time when the Chancellor of the Exchequer has more money to dispose of than any of his predecessors, ever, the decision of the Government to press ahead with its hasty and...

Corruption and the police Feta Fordham A disturbing aspect of the Times case is that it has hardly stirred a ripple on the muddy waters of the London underworld. Any...

Was Burton Shakespeare's ghost? Macdonald Hastings Doctor Samuel Johnson declared that Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy was the only book which ever took him out of bed...

A. S. Byatt Aubrey on Education Edited by J. E. Stephens (Routledge £2.75) Aubrey began to write the Idea of Education in 1669 and worked on it for the next twenty years. It...

Philip Whitehead The Mirror in the Corner Peter Black (Hutchinson E2.90) It is no disparagement of Peter Black to say he approaches ITV with the greatest equanimity. He has...

Gillian Freeman O ld Age, Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Patrick O'Brian (Andre Deutsch and Weidenfeld £4.50). Rupert Brooke and James Dean and JFK Were snared. If there is...

Weidenfeld and Nicolson seem on the face of it to be about to have a very good year. In their Spring list they have new novels from Margaret Drabble. Richard Condon and Andrew...

Sir: Under the heading of ' Old Age' your distinguished weekly on July 12, 1963, published a letter from me signed with my initials S.M. The result was quite astonishing and...

From Dr C. B. Goodhart Sir: The IRA evidently does not lack money to buy arms and explosives for use in Ulster. Probably some of it comes from America, often perhaps subscribed...

be as disturbing for the Americans as Ireland is for us. Ian Harvey 43A Lonsdale Road, London W11

Sir: Has it not struck Sir Thomas Preston (Letters, March 11) that, as British representative at Ekaterinburg in 1918, his conduct in "being in contact with the Czechs" and the...

Sir: The conclusion of your editorial (March 4), 'Physician, heal thyself,' reaches levels in the use of double standards which have been rare even in your present anti-Market...

From Councillor Mrs Peggy White Sir: I feel that the somewhat smug article written by Alfred Morris, MP (February 26) deserves comment; whilst the bulk of local authorities have...

Sir: With reference to Auberon Waugh's review of The Book of Daniel, the Rosenbergs were, in fact, completely innocent for the Americans at that time did not possess an...

From Dorothy Hollingsworth and Professor E. J. Rolfe Sir: We were disturbed to read in a journal of the standing of The Spectator an article Secret Foods — January 29) on food...

Theatre New in London: Puppet Theatre '72, London's first festival f professional puppet theatre, opened this week and continues till March 30, with performances by various...

Like it is Tony Palmer For evidence of one of the many contributions of television to our ex pectancy from life, I suggest you pay a visit to the Ritz Cinema in London where...

Bottomless going proved Casbah's undoing at Sandown, but the large and vocal crowd were made of sterner stuff and, warmed by an appropriate royal victory in the first, the...

Seebohm in the city Bill Freeman The Local Authority Social Service Act 1970 was warmly welcomed by both political parties during its passage through Parliament. It was an...

Cruise hazards John Rowan Wilson Among the more exotic travel innovations of our time are the cut-price packaged Mediterranean cruises. These bear little relationship to the...

A unique therapeutic community J ulian Goodburn Paddington Day Hospital is a unique tellthera Peutic community. It opened almost years ago and has functioned continuously ever...

Participation in planning Katharine Kenyon T he story I am about to tell concerns a county which has been operating "public participation in planning" very thorough13r. There...