The recent spectacle of the Attorney-General, Sir Peter Rawlinson, arguing before the Lord Chief Justice and two other judges in the Queen's Bench Division, that it was in the...

One of the most striking features of the post-war world has been the way in which the death penalty has been done away with as a punishment. Whenever a legislature has abolished...

Last year of Rhodesian sanctions Patrick Cosgrave The Conservative dilemma over Rhodesia is no less acute because the problem of resolving it has been put off for another...

First, the unqualified praise. When, a few Weeks ago, I tiptoed into being Political C orrespondent to this paper, aware of the fact that my enthusiasm was not n ecessarily a...

HANDS, not least those of the Foreign Secretary himself, have been thrown up in delight at the arrival of Lord Balniel at the Foreign Office. Work there is Balniel's first love....

During the early days of Mr Heath's administration, I talked with most of his principal colleagues, and, naturally enough, the conversation would turn to the Common Market and...

More Nixon, most Democrats Denis Brogan There is a general lesson to be drawn from the recent debacle of the official D emocratic candidate. There will never again, I suggest,...

The priestess question Edward Norman Last week the General Synod of the Church of England formally received a 'consultative document' on the ordination of women to the...

Freedom of screech Robert Conquest I don't know about Stirling, but I lately came across a truly dreadful example, from another Scottish university, of the way in which...

Messmerising the Pacific Molly Mortimer M. Messmer's pronouncements on the New Hebrides condominium bode not well for Anglo-French co-operation in Africa. As Minister for...

Nicholas Davenport The business prospect for stock-jobbers and brokers in the enlarged trading floor of the new Stock Exchange which the Queen opened last week is pretty grim....

Warming to Valor John Bull At the time of the motor show there is usually more market interest in motor shares. Just as this is seasonal interest so I believe the coming...

Move into car hire Nephew Wilde My broker Wotherspool's one trip to the East was during the Australian mining boom. His firm, at great expense, sent hem there to get a...

It is part of the business of the City to maintain appearances and to profess a conventional respectability, which makes it surprising that the editor of the Financial Times...

John Vaizey One for Sorrow, Two for Joy — Ten Years of 'New Society' edited by Paul Barker (Allen and Unwin £4.75) Social Sciences as Sorcery Stanislav Andreski (Andre Deutsch...

Gillian Freeman The Profession of Violence: The Rise and Fall of the Kray Twins John Pearson (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £3.00) The raison d'etre of this book appears to ber the...

Hermione Hobhouse Some Architectural Writers of the Nineteenth Century Nikolaus Pevsner (Oxford £8.50) "In what style of architecture shall you build your house?" . . . " Sir,...

Robert Moss Small Earthquake in Chile Alistair Horne (Macmillan £3.95) We are going to be deluged with books on Allende's Chile, which is perfectly right and proper, since (at...

Bookbuyer In the vexed matter of a trade union to represent the publishing industry, it looks as if the National Union of Journalists and Clive Jenkins's Association of...

Maurice Collis Nancy: The Life of Lady Astor Christopher Sykes (Collins 0.95) This is a long book of over 200,000 words, which is more than twice as long as the average...

Kingsley Amis * In choosing your wine, whether from a supplier's price-list or in a restaurant, the Obvious temptation is to go for a name You recognise. You would not recognise...

Pamela Vandyke Price Readers who eagerly anticipate the sort of waspish comments on this vintage of wine and cookery books that brings torrents of protesting letters to the...

Eating around George Gale I am an undiscriminating, if not exactly promiscuous, eater. By this I mean that I tend to eat whatever happens to be around and available. My root...

Good eating in night clubs Anthony Shields Good eating in what? The raised eyebrow is understandable. People who go to night clubs don't usually eat in them, and I don't...

Before the whisky we drink reaches the bottle, glass or oesophagus, it has already provided a source of investment that is difficult to surpass. Those who have in the past...

Sir: The more I learn about Fanfare for Europe the more I don't know whether to laugh or to cry! First we have Lords Goodman and Mancroft assuring us that these cultural,...

From Mrs S. Robin Letwin Sir: We should all be grateful to the high-minded Sunday Times for letting Denis Healey bring us such good news this week. He has gone to China and...

Sir: Terry Pitt, like all good Transport House men, thinks it improper to talk about militants in the unions. Never mind. One shouldn't expect the workers and their apologists...

Sir: "We utterly reject the philosophy of compulsory wage control." So the Conservative Party proudly announced in its 'A Better Tomorrow.' It was a view generally ascribed to...

Sir: Why G. L. Bayliss in Canada (Letters, September 9) should expect English firms td send him books on credit is a mystery. No Australian firm would. The days when book buyers...

Sir: Such is the vanity of human wishes that even Mr David Astor (Letters, October 14) after his diatribe against my most recent article in The Spectator (October 7), may still...

Sir: I deplore PC's reference (November 4) to " the shameless gutlessness of the West German government in the face of the latest hijacking spree." On the contrary, the West...

Sir: Skinflint was not alone in being late discovering my book The Catt Concept. It has left almost no trace in England, the country at which the message was directed. The US,...

Sir: For more than a decade there has existed a political climate in which it is considered unwise, if not immoral, to speak the truth, an atmosphere in which a politician who...

barrel-shaped Aberdeen terrier, I have long had a soft spot for Black and White Whisky Saturday. Ascot is unexpectedly good at these promotional junketings for the winter sport...

From Lt-Col A. N. Skinner Sir: I think the limit has been reached by your book reviewer — Auberon Waugh. On October 28 he reviewed a book by S. Raven, and quoted, quite...

From Miss M. M. Hill Sir: 'Another Spectator' (Notebook, November 11) may be too young to have personal knowledge of the 'forties but appears to have been careless over his...

Long night's journey Kenneth Hurren It is asking a lot of modern audiences seeing Macbeth, I have always thought, that they should believe in the witches and their...

Echoes of the present Christopher Hudson When a technically skilled director gets ideas above his station, the results vary from the embarrassing to the disastrous. Claude...

American memory Clive Gammon The only time I ever hated the US and everything about it was in 1944 when I was a sixth-former at Swansea Grammar School. I was not politically...

Eamonn Andrews's This is Your Life show might be worth catching next month when Warren (Alf Garnett) Mitchell's 'life ' is transmitted. Among those paying their respects is...

Stripping assets Robin Young The Royal Ballet have had quite a welter of innovations and revivals since last I wrote, In the touring New .Group's programmes Vyvyan Lorrayne...

Up memory) lane Duncan Fallowell If you hadn't noticed (and of course you had) the nostalgia freaks are at it again, making sorties into the recent past for anything cute,...

After the mania Benny Green On an evening in 1963, while eating with friends in the Granada Studios restaurant in Manchester, the man next to me said that, seeing as how I was...

Crippling the cripples Jennifer Hawley This series of events began on October 8, 1971. I was dancing in a friend's house and was kicked on my right calf. The following...

Shoddy research Bernard Dixon One of the nice things about science, which is particularly uplifting for rankand-file scientists doing humdrum research, is the widespread...