Mr Callaghan is one of nature's optimists, as we all learned to our cost during his years at the Treasury. The optimism he expressed to the reassembled House of Commons on...

Learning to love the Tories AU BERON WAUGH Last week's Tory party conference provides an opportunity to reflect on something which is by no means apparent at other times of...

A Bonn diary Malcolm RUTHERFORD Bonn—Herr Willy Brandt's election as Federal Chancellor early next week has now seemed so near a certainty for so long that even the Christian...

What about the people ? GEORGE GALE We tend to be smugly proud of our two- party system. Indeed it works tolerably most of the time, and virtually all of the time if the...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS The Naked Ape Had taken shape, Furnished a cave And learnt to shave. Then the pride of all the ages Is shut up in cages, Finds there's nothing to do In the...

The mess Jim left behind MARTIN WALLACE Belfast—`Mr Callaghan, there has been further violence since you were last in Belfast. Was there any discussion of further measures...

The Tories on the Tories At Brighton last week the SPECTATOR in- vited those taking part in the Conservative party conference to complete a brief political questionnaire. This...

From the 'Spectator'. 16 October 1869— London Bridge is choked with the traffic on it, and the City Council has been considering and rejecting all manner of expensive proposals...

Swinging together CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS One of the most important and one of the most oddly overlooked of the sayings of Christ is that which forbids us to judge. It is not only...

The whiteleg BILL GRUNDY Last Saturday I presented myself, as is my wont, at 7 am at Broadcasting House, Man- chester, in preparation for a weekly magazin programme I do on...

J. W. M. THOMPSON Mr Heath made some hopeful remarks about arriving at a 'settlement' with Ian Smith the other day and, obviously, many Tories would dearly like to see amicable...

Marching through Iowa DENIS BROGAN Iowa —I am not, normally, much of a devotee of outdoor sports (still less a prac- titioner of them) and it has been a stroke of American...

QUENTIN BELL Tt is some consolation for his friends and for his public that Leonard Woolf was able to finish the fifth and last volume of his auto- biography, The Journey, Not...

ROBERT SKIDELSKY The Masters of Power Brian Crozier (Eyre and Spottiswoode 60s) Brian Crozier has written a diffuse, uneven, occasionally fascinating book about the modern...

TIBOR SZAMUELY Only One Year Svetlana Alliluyeva trans- lated by Paul Chavchavadze (Hutchinson 35s) `Lenin laid the foundation for a one-party system, for terror and the...

Slices of life CYRIL RAY The Women of Peasenhall R. J. White (Macmillan 21s) Cockleburr Robert Crawford (Constable 25s) Kill with Kindness Dell Shannon (Gollancz 25s) The Case...

C. HUGH LAWRENCE The Christian Centuries Vol II: The Middle Ages David Knowles and Dimitri Obolensky Orton Longman and Todd 70s) An admirer of Professor Knowles's writing .,...

JEAN FRANCO Latin America: A Cultural History German Arciniegas translated by Joan MacLean (Barrie and Rockliff /The Cresset Press 84s) Poemas Humanos: Human Poems Cesar...

MALCOLM MUGGERIDGE The Neophiliacs Christopher Booker (Collins 42s) Just about thirty years ago I was writing the last sentence of a book on the 'thirties: 'Fighting a war...

JOHN HIGGINS ere is a great deal of talk about love in atience (which has just joined the Sadler's Veils repertory at the Coliseum), and the eason surely is that the commodity...

Woman's world PENELOPE HOUSTON A Touch of Love (ABC, Fulham Road and Edgware Road, 'A') Winning (Casino, 'A') The Producers (Prince Charles' Theatre, 'A') The first shot of A...

Mixed motives BRYAN ROBERTSON Art in London is presenting an unusually healthy diversity of talent spread over a wide field: anyone who wants to keep abreast of events, all of...

Woolly balls HILARY SPURLING Henry VIII (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon) Henry VIII is an odd play. Why Shake- speare wrote it is a mystery. Whether he wrote...

The end of the affair NICHOLAS DAVENPORT There has been no bloodier battle since Bosworth. Like King Richard III Mr Robert Maxwell 'died' fighting to the last, reviling his...

Accident prone JOHN BULL I want to develop a point I alluded to last week—the position of some insurance company shares after their sharp fall in prices but before a rise in...

Sir: Many people in Scotland do not appear to be as happy about the Wheatley Report as Mr Thompson seems to think they ought to , be ('Spectator's notebook', 4 October). A...

Sir : Professor Wiggins's friend (4 October) who spoke to a man at London Transport was very fortunate to find someone so rea- sonable. The man I spoke to informed me bluntly...

From Gwynfor Evans, MP, Kenneth Williams, R. C. Saxby, Roger Calvert, Dorothy Usher, David Woolf, S. M. Stewart, the Rev Allan R. G. Hawkins, D. G. Davies, Stanley G. Woolfson....

Sir: I was particularly interested to read the article by A. E. Dyson (13 September) with its reference to our current moral malaise. He says, 'The roots go back as far as...

Sir: How wholeheartedly I agree with your correspondent, Mrs Pamela Matthews, when she writes sadly (Letters, 4 October) that the case for moral leadership by the Church of...

Law and ordure JOHN WELLS A Rubbish Collection Depot. Deserted dust- carts are parked behind a wire mesh fence, and on the pavement in the foreground there is a little heap of...

Sir: It would have been more to the point had Simon Raven (11 October) presented his son with a large package of contraceptives, before sending him off with fond father's...

Sir: In his review of Christopher Mayhew's hook (4 October), Mr Quintin Hogg pays tribute to the economic thinking of Lord Keynes regarding full employment, but denies praise to...

Sir: Neither the last sentence of Lytton Strachey's Queen Victoria (20 September) nor the sentence from Nicholas Nickleby chosen by Thede Palm (Letters, 11 October) can be...

PHILIDOR S. M. Joseph (1st prize, Brighton Society, 18951. White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 460 (Coombe - Tennant). Kt x P, threat...

No. 575: Musical chairs Set by E. 0. Parrott: As Philidor observed in the SPECTATOR some weeks ago, chess contains a strong theatrical—not to say operatic—element. Competitors...

Across 1 Prepare letter for the printer, keep it low (10) 6 He's spotted one in the ivy-bush (4) 10 Ram the legion has left behind (5) 11 Oliver goes east toward Kensington for...