hree men were shot dead by two soldiers in Belfast as they attempted an armed robbery at a bookmaker's shop in the Falls Road. It later emerged that one of their number, the...

SPECTATOR The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 DELPHIC ON DEMOCRACY he conduct of British policy towards T...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY — Save 10% on the Cover Price! RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK CI £66.00 0 £33.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £77.00 0 £38.50 USA Airspeed 0 US $99 0 $49.50 Rest of...

Mr Brooke: too clever by half, but not quite clever enough NOEL MALCOLM r Peter Brooke, the Northern Ire- land Secretary, belongs with Lord Whitelaw in one of the most select...

n the offices of the Budapest Fifth District, a gloomy block on Engels Square, I witnessed what is probably the first victory of an out-and-out dissident in a totally free...

IN THE BELLY.. .' As the Government at last legislates the new power to create and destroy life 'WARNING!!!', it says, in big red letters on the back of the box of a computer...

Christopher Lockwood witnesses the prudent reticence of the boat people on their return Hong Kong IN early December photographers, lenses bristling like ordnance, could zoom...

Noel Malcolm looks back on Noel Malcolm looks back on efforts by Westerners to expose the Ceausescu regime WHEN I first went to Rumania in 1981, to begin research for a book...

Michael Heath

Norman Davies on the conflicting views of what 'Russia' really is SOME still call it 'Russia'. Some call it 'the Soviet Union' or `the USSR'. Some, to be safe or because they...

A year after Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death, Jane Kelly finds herself facing the wrath of Islam IF THERE is one thing worse than getting no message on your answering...

Christopher Howse investigates claims that one group of Christians is throwing another onto the street AT NOON the melancholy Slavonic chant of the 10.30 liturgy still rose...

Dominic Lawson meets Lord Rees-Mogg, whose charm covers up his inconsistency IF YOU look in through the window of the antiquarian booksellers, Pickering & Chat- to, No. 17...

Earthquake hazard reduction SINCE 1977 the United States has had a national programme for reducing the hazard of earthquakes. However, the particular desolation of the Loma...

it is time to regulate the literary world's pursuit of wealth THE literary world is not driven by such mercenary motives as the City but it seems to he heading in that...

Shiva Naipaul was one of the most gifted and accomplished writers of our time. After his death in August 1985 at the age of 40, The Spectator set up a fund to establish an...

The markets wake with a headache from inflated expectations CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he New Year's hangover has got through, after an extended binge in which the market-makers...

I AM encouraged to hope that John Major means to abandon the most perverse fea- ture of Nigel Lawson's reign. He always messed up the National Hunt meeting at Cheltenham by...

I THOUGHT it was a bad sign when John Major was so nice to everyone at the Neddy meeting. Indeed, it was a bad sign that Neddy should meet at all. I had hoped that it had been...

ALL will be well, though. Where it mat- ters, the Treasury is getting things right. This week sees a far-reaching initiative from the Permanent Secretary, Sir Peter Middleton....

THE markets' fall this week, snuffed out such hopes as remained for the old City broking house of Scrimgeour. Taken over by Citicorp of New York in what should have been a...

Time to try a short, sharp shock JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE I am afraid it does not look as though the Treasury's annual weekend retreat at Chevening unearthed the philosopher's stone...

Black v. Knight Sir: In his 13 January Spectator Diary, Charles Moore seemed to consider the publication of the Sunday Telegraph's 7 January sketch of Andrew Knight the primary...

people, especially relations whose confidence one enjoys. Is this because it is possible to derive a feeling of superiority from doing so or is it to bolster a sense of...

recent conduct to justify severe censure, and although journalists may prefer to treat the matter lightly — in some cases for reasons of professional prudence — I suspect that...

Sir: Whether Simon Blow's bitterness ('Tennants for a season', 13 January) over his treatment by his Tennant relations is justified or not is of no consequence. Equally, it is...

Sir: Conor Cruise O'Brien writes of Enoch Powell: (Books, 16 December) I take him to be a racist in the . . . sense of a person who does not like to have to associ- ate, on a...

Sir: In your issue of 23/30 December 1989 you carry a letter headed 'Muslim threats'. This is signed by 13 signatories, of whom I am one, and gives the impression I am a member...

Sir: In a piece called 'Blessings and blasts' (6 January) I quoted from a poem by George Herbert. But I did not say 'it would be impossible, I hope, to introduce that poem to...

Sir: Alan Watkins' personal allergies are surely not worthy of a generous half- column in The Spectator (Diary, 16 De- cember) unless they were ordained to be the opportunity...

Sir: David Hancock asked (Letters, 23/30 December), 'What is the highest propor- tion of Spectator subscribers in any one building?' (Out of six flats in his building, three...

Cold comfort hacienda Raymond Carr THE FAMILY OF PASCUAL DUARTE by Camilo Jose Cela I ntellectuals enjoy in Spain what must seem, to British eyes, an exaggerated prestige. The...

Lucy Hughes-Hallett SOHO SQUARE edited by Ian Hamilton Bloomsbury, £12.95, pp.287 I an Hamilton has written a book about literary magazines and edited one with distinction....

John Jolliffe LETTERS OF LOVE edited by Julia Voznesenskaya Quartet, f10.95, pp.120 asn't everything been said about the Gulag?' asks Julia Voznesenskaya almost apologetically...

Michael Horovitz HANK WANGFORD, VOLUME III: THE MIDDLE YEARS as told to Dr Sam Hutt Pan, £7.99, pp.176 A ftv completing his studies in the late Sixties Sam Hutt was a hippie...

Anne Somerset MARY TUDOR: A LIFE by David Loades Basil Blackwell, £19.95, pp.410 T he Mary Tudor of Protestant folklore is a fearsome creature. To John Knox, she was 'that...

The six o'clock punter bumlaps a stool, widower-bashes the barman's ear, steps down to mess with a fruit machine. A knight in neat armour appeals to history. Snowdrop lamps...

Anita Brookner THE PEOPLE AND UNCOLLECTED STORIES by Bernard Malamud Challo & Windus, £12.95, pp.269 H ere is a dilemma: a man who urgent- ly wants to be a writer, is indeed...

Michael M. Thomas MY TURN: THE MEMOIRS OF NANCY REAGAN by Nancy Reagan with William Novak Weidenfeld & Nicolson,115.95, pp-384 W ith this book, the propensity of the House of...

Over the railway bridge we found the stream With a tractor tyre, pram wheels and odds and ends. I bagged the bits to make a go-cart from While Jonathan heaved the tyre out, two...

from Reagan: American Icon, by Robert Metzger (Bucknell University, $45, $29.95, pp. 144) THIS is the catalogue for an exhibition of pictures and posters of Ronald Reagan, who...

Exhibitions Martin Fuller: Recent Paintings (Austin/Desmond, Bloomsbury, till 1 February) Country heavens, urban hells Giles Auty S lowly those who make up the world of...

Returning to the charge Tanya Harrod T here are some services which a proud and civilised nation should provide free,' writes Sir David Wilson in The British Museum: Purpose...

Otello (Covent Garden) Faust (Coliseum) Lightning conductors Rodney Milnes T he fear that lightning would never strike twice — or thrice, since this was the third Carlos...

Haunted by the past Hilary Mantel T he swimming pool is palm-fringed and a dazzling blue; on a sunshine-coloured air-bed there bobs a film star, biceps glistening, eyes...

Scenes From An Execution (Almeida) Seven Lears (Royal Court) Venetian virago Christopher Edwards T wo productions of the work of Howard Barker have opened in London. The...

Streets apart Wendy Cope I t was great,' said James. 'Bang. Bang.' He was down on one knee, firing an imaginary gun across the room. His mother looked unhappy. James is seven...

Risky investments Robin Holloway F rom winged Pegasus to jaded hack, writers must accustom themselves to the `frigid tranquillity' with which their efforts are likely to be...

Hospital bets Jeffrey Bernard T he hospital staff have been trying to work out how I can put on some weight. They say that I am quite literally suffering from malnutrition. I...

My new best friend Taki New York Had I read a letter from Michael Foot that appeared in last week's Sunday Tele- graph concerning the evils of 'triumphant Murdochism in all...

Getting windy Zenga Longmore T hose of you who are thinking of moving to the top floor of a tower block, heed my advice: think again. Dwell deeply upon the doom-laden tale I...

the execution of my duty I have been endangering my health. While I admit that illness prevented my filling this space a fortnight ago, I have to confess that the description of...

Good taste surprisingly cheap Auberon Waugh The pinot blanc of Alsace, which is pretty near the chardonnay grape in every respect but taste, produces a wonderfully colourless...

Spectator Wine Club, c/o Summerlee Wines Limited, 64 High Street, Earl's Barton, Northants, NN6 OJG. Tel. (0604) 810488 White 1, Pinot Blanc d'Alsace 1988 Price No. Value...

-Estonia Unboun Raymond Keene interrupt the coverage of England's premier Grandmaster tournament, the category 14 at Hastings, to bring news of a remarkable triumph by the...

Cliché time Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1608 you were in- vited to write a description of a play, film or sporting event in ripe journalese, incor- porating at least six...

(Suggested by E. 0. Parrott) A Burns night is well established. Let us envisage in the future nights devoted to the celebration of other poets (Chaucer? Dowson? Ki- pling?...

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...

rr nommonmnnnmmonamonmn . v. ............ a E IEREINF IMF P E 0 krgrepom mab mcnono7 P PE ARNEMEME6 mixonnocamo : il LiTNEMBEEn p r °LEE omega 1 g S POURBEEEOLO 1...