stab i l ity The survival of Mr Wilson's Government does not in itself do much towards the resolution of the two principal problems which confront Parliament in the present...

We have requently warned those European Powers concerned to assert their independence Of the United States that there might well, at the end of the day, be a heavy price to pay...

Any satisfaction — or even euphoria, as there may be in some quarters — at the decision of the oil-producing nations to peg prices for the next three months should be held...

Sir: With one or two possible exceptions I think that your correspondents have failed to hit the nail succinctly on the head. Surely the most interesting fact about the...

Sir: Anyone who cares for the future of this country must surely agree with your correspondent Mr Gordon Marsden and others in calling for an end to the Heath regime. I have...

Sir: Although The Spectator is undoubtedly the most perceptive journal vis the contemporary political scene I am somewhat surprised at its failure to note the extent to which...

Sir: Immediately after the 1970 general election the Times published the following comment from me: "The brain-washers and opinionmakers have been rejected, discredited and...

Sir: If we are in danger of suffering a worse press censorship than that already imposed by the libel laws, I) notices, editorial twitch, and the rest of it, Mr Ivens of 'Aims...

Sir: Alter explaining many 01 the differences in the taxation system and economic policies of the states of the USA, Mr Mark Boleat asks: "How does America survive with all of...

Sir: Miss Madeleine Simms (March 9, 1974) tells us that the dictatorships of Eastern Europe are now restricting their abortion legislation in order to swell the ranks of their...

Sir: In the Spectator's review (February 16), of a book called The Anderson Papers, I read that "thirty years after Pearl Harbour, President Richard Nixon brought the United...

Sir: I note your correspondent in the issue of February 9 says he does not favour gold shares, which prompted me to look at his reasons, for local opinion has it they are a gift...

Sir: I am sorry to disagree with Dr Linklater (March 9) but a great deal of what he writes about foodstuffs is hard to swallow. Whilst it may be true that 'primitive' man owes...

Sir: I am thankful to Dr Bernard Dixon for the opportunity his letter (February 16) provides of going into the matter of Vietnam refoliation in more detail. First, Dr Dixon...

, or years I have been trying to find the time ri „to get started on my campaign for English r iome Rule. I think the hour has now struck. Id For far too long the guilt-ridden...

Stabilisation through subsidisation R.C. BeIlan R. C. BeIlan, Professor of Economics at the University of Manitoba, is on sabbatical leave In London researching the inflation...

With fourteen Liberals to bury me, How can I do a deal with Jeremy, Yet Levin's stern decrees record That Wilson is a naked fraud, While Patrick Cosgrave — yet more curious—...

The race for racism Qeoffrey Wagner he latest moves towards racism by Federal H at in America approach some parody by I f uxleY or Waugh. Unfortunately, they are }let. When two...

The patriotic refuge Rawle Knox The clergy are very much with us in Northern Ireland, and nowhere more than on the tellY. We had one the other evening declaring (rO t in so...

How pleasing is the contemplation of the lowly steps our almighty leader takes in seeking to conduct us to his heavenly mansion. In plain and apt parable, similitude and...

Medici n e The structure of dreams John Linklater A healthy man forcibly deprived of Sleep for 150 hours begins to suffer from hallucinations and becomes Psychotic. His brain...

Trib tribute Bill Grundy One bitterly cold night last week I bought a current copy of the International Herald Tribune in the refreshment room of Retford Station. (There's no...

Doubt and conviction Martin Sullivan The Word of God, says the Bible, is a sharp two-edged sword, the 'cutter,' dividing and separating, piercing even to the dividing of soul...

Morning drummer Peter Quince Putting the clock forward always makes the early-morning outburst of bird song more noticeable, for those of us at least who do not habitually...

Palate programme Pamela Vandyke Price At last, 1 told myself, Britain has sniffed out the right person. All those silent stomachs and pondering palates have decided that The...

George Axelrod on Gore, a novelette without parts He was born at the age of nineteen, springing, as it were, full-blown from the pages of Life magazine. The setting for the...

i °hn Calder .he Grain of Wheat Lord Longford i (Collins £4.00). N most extraordinary thing about Lord , Iv jleford's third volume of autobiography, ci l lieh brings his...

Peter Ackroyd The Sacred And Profane Love Machine Iris Murdoch (Chatto and Windus £2.50) Miss Murdoch's only concession to modernity is the title of her latest novel,...

Jonathan Raban The Private Future Martin Pawley (Thames and Hudson £2.75) It's a soft job, being a prophet. Unlike the present and the past, the future has a totali tarian...

Elizabeth Jenkins Windsor Castle In The History of the Nation A. L. Rowse (Weidenfeld and Nicholson £3.95) Or Rowse speaks in this book of the "informed imagination"; that is...

Robert Dougall Design for a Wilderness Philip Wabble (Pelham Books £2.25). The Companion Guide to the coast of NorthEast England John Seymour (Collins E2.95) I first met Phil...

Ripley's Game Patricia Highsmith (Heinemann £2.50) I found, chatting to her last week, that Patricia Highsmith is still vaguely annoyed when her books are reviewed along with...

Four quotes make one gallon Groucho Marx 1932 Benny Green I am not sure if the market can stand another dictionary of famous quotations, but at least the arrival on my desk...

Bookend Life must be a trifle trying for certain sections of the Diplomatic Corps. At a time when Britain and the Soviet Union are supposedly seeking a detente, the Foreign...

Christopher Hudson on 'going bananas' tsy the time this review appears, every reader of The Spectator will have heard of The Exorcist ('X' both Warners). There have been...

Down yonder Kenneth Hurren "They told me to take a streetcar named 'Desire' and change on to one called 'Cemetery' . . ." I had seen Tennessee Williams's play, A Streetcar...

Saturday at home Clive Gammon Saturday evenings I'm normally glad to concede the colour set to the children, requiring no more than the chance to pick up the news on the...

Rock dreams Duncan Fallowell Dear Diary, Is there no respite from the helter skelters? Parties, parties, attrition and death, even with a stamina which only succumbs in...

Business has been somewhat less than brisk for the revival of The Waltz of the Toreadors at the Haymarket, and I hear that the stars of the piece — Trevor Howard and Coral...

Vascetomy Rodney Milnes Significant though perforce generalised comparisons may be made between Gordon Crosse's The Story of Vasco, given its world premiere last week, and...

Manon let's go Robin Young Kenneth MacMillan's new dramatic ballet for the Royal, Manon,. is dramatically a non-starter. It begins, in fact, with a divertissement involving a...

Pre-budget talk Nicholas Davenport The Cambridge school of economics is back in power at the Treasury. This could be a dangerous intellectual infiltration if it were not for...

"We Irish have all the time in the world, it's the Americans who insist on early starts." Dan Moore, trainer of Inkslinger and L'Escargot breaking me in gently to the idea of a...

Christopher Selmes, the twentysix-year-old financier,, made a reputation as a stock market operator building up the miniconglomerate Drakes, which was taken over by London and...