! ta li"' used to speak of 'useful fools'. He meant those i•eluded people in the West, not dedicated and unsenlabental Communists but bien pensant well-wishers, who r v .e such...

Dancing in the Athenaeum Ferdinand Mount 'I would be inclined to leave it [Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act] alone as it is. . . in the end you may draw up a different...

years ago Alec Home, who was then 4 d lui leader of the Tory Party, suggested that ts li Lk entploy e d people might do worse than "'e jobs as domestic servants — butlers, l w...

Dare to be free Auberon Waugh I was not there at the time and so don't know how many Lords remained awake to hear Lord Wells-Pestell, the sixtyeight-year-old Home Office...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington I t Carter has left his Capitol City as the A in gs of old fled the outbreak of the plague. h . t the beginning of the month, he took ,! I nself...

Anthony Mockler The Ethiopians will never give up Eritrea. They have always considered it (unlike the southern Galla lands and the Somali conquests) an integral part of their...

Richard West „ . . 1. ° listen to Andrew Young, one might Lila* hirn the first American ever to visit or ta, lk about Africa. As a corrective to this a n r Pression I went back...

Christopher Booker Up to this point, it is clear that Alexander Solzhenitsyn has laid claim on the attention of mankind primarily as a critic of the Soviet system of government...

(Smith and Elder.) Dr Williams has no interest in one of the sanitaria over another. It is his business, as a London physician, to send his patients to the most likely spot for...

MarY Morgan Un employment is not what it was: otherl w .lse how could the government skip so 10 1 4 over the sadness of the dole? People u° not starve, communities are not...

Vernon Bogdanor Over the last decade and a half, many familiar educational landmarks have disappeared with startling rapidity, to be replaced by structures whose purpose is...

Muddling on Nicholas Davenport have lately been tryin g to ar g ue that the investment institutions in the City, havin g been out of the e q uity market for some bull are now...

Sir: May I con g ratulate Peter Bauer and John Wood on their excellent article on employment ( 1 July ) ? In spite of recent history, Keynesianism still has a number of adher e...

Sir: Richard In g rams ( 8 July) ur g es Melvyn pe Bra gg and me to watch the repeats of the Tortelier master classes. Neither Melvyn nor I have any real artistic sense, he...

Sir: I like old In g rams and enjoy his television reviews. Most of the time I am q uite content that he should g et on with his j ob while I g et on with mine. But he can't be...

a) I don't consider the Wordsworths to be 'ordinary plain down-to-earth workingclass folk', nor do I consider them to be prematurely middle-aged patricians like old Ingrams. I...

Sir: Victoria Schofield's article 'The trial of Bhutto' (15 July) gives the impression of being a one-sided exposé of a person who does not even conceal her bias. In the verY...

Sir: I have been commissioned by g arrli t Hamilton to write a biography of Ger a ! Hamilton (1888-1970), author, traveller, political intriguer, the original ‘T r „ Norris' of...

Tom Harper Contempt is only one device by means of Which the law is used to constrain the individual's right to say what he wants to say, orally or in writing, about the things...

Hubert Picarda Counsel: 114y Lord, there is no English case in point, but there is an American authority. . Judge: 'No thank youl' The judge in question was approaching...

Still living in that dawn George Gale 1968 and After: Inside the Revolution Tariq All (Blond & Briggs £5.25) Tariq Ali, to meet, is an engaging fellow, intelligent, amusing...

Robert Skide!sky Bretton Woods: The Birth of a Monetary SYstem Armand Van Dormael (Macmillan £12) This is the first account of the creation of the International Monetary Fund...

Derek Marlowe De Sade: A Critical Biography Ronald Hayman (Constable £6.95) On 18 October 1763 a young French girl was offered forty-eight livres to put herself in the hands of...

Bryan Robertson Jasper Johns Michael Crichton (Thames & Hudson £15.00) At forty-eight, Johns is one of the most compulsively watchable of American artists. Back in the...

Auberon Waugh Woman x Two: How to Cope with a Double I-Ife Mary Kenny (S idgwick & Jaclzon Mary Kenny, as the wrapper announces, is married to the Spectator's distinguished...

Paul Ableman The Bad Sister Emma Tennant (Gollancz £4.95) 'Tony's mother was sitting in the flat, on the sofa where Tony and I sit as far apart as Martians . . ' Do Martians...

From structure to surface John McEwen Stephen Buckley's new paintings (Knoedler till 3 August) are his most agreeable to date. Only two of the works in the Show, 'Shingles 2'...

Pop science Ted Whitehead Warlords of Atlantis (Warner West End) 2001: A Space Odyssey (ABC, Shaftesbury Avenue) Two films this week illustrate the absurdity of the debate...

Kaleidoscopic Jan Murray Frenzy and fragmentation were the key notes of three major dance seasons taking place in London during July. At the Coliseum, Rudolf Nureyev whipped...

Fantastic Richard Ingrams Some months ago I received an invitation f rom Granada Television to take part in a new programme in which selected wits WOuld be asked to give...

Lyric tennis Brigid Brophy The trouble with going to Wimbledon is that you miss so much of the tennis. It's thought to be television that has brought in the crowds. As a...

Potter's art Benny Green He did his work with the greatest ease; never took more pains than was necessary; while others were fagging themselves to death, was as cool and...

Honest Joe Jeffrey Bernard This year's King George VI and Qneen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, run at Ascot this Saturday, promises to be an even better contest than it was last...