T he rumour that Colonel Gaddafi had fled Libya quickly proved false. He appeared on television and told Libyans: `Turn on the lights, dance in the streets . . . we have Allah...

AMERICA'S ATTACK ON THE ALLIANCE S the days since the American bomb- A ing of Libya pass, it seems to be more and more generally conceded that the attack is unlikely to...

ALTHOUGH everyone unites in horror at terrorism in general, all countries are selective in the terrorism which they really care about. Britain, for instance, harbours many Sikh...

After the raid is over, after the break of day FERDINAND MOUNT N ot for the first time, the Americans seem to have somewhat misunderstood us — almost as much as we have...

T here are broadly two groups of persons in Britain who are instinctively pro- American. The first are the upper classes and their hangers-on, whose parents or grandparents...

The Great Art Joke of the 20th century AUBERON WAUGH A ppalled as one constantly is by the leniency of the courts in dealing with crimes against property — our political...

John Mortimer searches for the symptoms of war fever among a people which loves Brideshead and Rumpole New York WE GOT into the stretch limo on Central Park South for the...

Charles Glass finds that objectives in Libya are easier to state that to achieve Tripoli ORDINARILY, on the day after the wife of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi made a statement to...

President Cleveland has sent a re- markable Message to Congress. He says the present unsatisfactory condition of the relations between labour and capital is largely due to the...

Stephen Robinson celebrates the coronation of the new king of Swaziland Mbabane MOST Swazis are too polite to raise the matter directly, but several locals have been unable to...

Richard Bassett on the crassness of Austrian attitudes towards Jews Vienna `WHAT after all does Times spelt back- wards read anyway?' the young girl with hair 'blonde as a...

The media: Paul Johnson on how liberalism sells the pass to terrorism LAST week was a great media victory for the terrorists. That should not surprise us. We are lucky enough...

Richard West I n Dumfries, once a stronghold of puri- tan Sabbath observance, you can now visit the shops and the pubs from morning till night on Sunday, as on a weekday. On...

Is that a fact? Ian Jack H ere's a queer thing. I bet you never knew that if Charlie Wilson's father and mother hadn't had a blazing row one night in 1951, then Charlie Wilson...

You put your arms round my neck. `My dear,' you said, `I am sure you will know me.' But you were reared in the house opposite in the same village many years ago. And you are...

Chuir thu do lamhan mu m'amhaich. `A ghraidh,' ars thusa, `tha mi cinnteach nach aithnich thu mi.' Ach thogadh to mu m'choinneamh anns an aon bhaile bliadhnachan air ais, 's...

Modern Jacobites Allan Massie L ord Rosebery, one of the more in - teresting of our prime ministers, ()ne e observed that 'every Scot is a Jacobite at heart' — a sweeping...

Civil servants as bankers Michael Fry During the 1970s they added up to the demand for devolution. Today the syllog- ism arrives at a more modest conclusion. Once upon a time...

THAT stylish stockbroker Donald Cobbett collected his occasional writings and pub- lished them under the title Nothing So Crude as a Tip. Nothing so crude in this column, either...

`POOR old Lloyd's,' said the underwriter, gesturing at the contraption of pipes and tubes which is the market's new home. `After 300 years. . . . We started off in a...

Ticking towards Big Bang with whose hand on the detonator? CHRISTOPHER FILDES I t seems only yesterday, that summer day when Cecil Parkinson and Nicholas Goodison joined hands...

for Mr Timothy Garton Ash, on whose every word printed on both sides of the Atlantic I regularly hang. Hang that is until pulled up sharply by unexpected Homeric hiccups in his...

Sir: Thank you for your article in praise of the church architect Stephen Dykes Bower (12 April). May I add to it that more of his superb work can be seen at Lancing Col" lege...

Sir: I know it must appear churlish to complain about the Spectator's coverage of our two books by Canetti: The Human Province reviewed by Paul Theroux last 30 November and...

Sir: Tax relief for the victims of the Nazis is not, as Mr Mount writes (`A11 capitalists nowadays', 22 March), 'a sentimental gim- mick'. Mr Lawson deserves full praise for...

Sir: Timothy Garton Ash has done us all a favour by spelling out the reality of the British nuclear dilemma (The trouble with Trident', 12 April). That dilemma is not Trident or...

Sir: Yoicks! Yoicks! A picture of Jere); Bernard in the 29 March issue of Spectator• Now we can drown in his eyes, while wondering how the decline and fall has progressed since...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for ; (Equivalent $US & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months 6 Months UKJEire ❑ £41.00 ❑...

A Jew leaves Russia Zinovy Zinik SHCHARANSKY: HERO OF OUR TIME by Martin Gilbert S hcharansky had hardly finished cross- ing the Glienicke Bridge when a fierce discussion was...

It's circa 1900 and five women have gathered here in semi-darkness, prepared to prophesy their own extinction. The water shimmies down a pebbled wall, a fountain hesitates....

Eric Christiansen THE HISTORY OF THE COUNTRYSIDE by Oliver Rackham J. M. Dent, £16.95 F or a long time, most Britons either made a living out of the countryside or avoided it....

John Horder I for one certainly won't read Roald Dahl's latest masterpiece, Dirty Beasts, (Puffin, £2.50) over and over again. Yet it has its charms. Roald Dahl is like some...

John Jolliffe JOHN SINGER SARGENT: HIS PORTRAIT by Stanley Olson Macmillan, £16.95 S argent was born in Florence in 1856. His parents, who came from Philadelphia, had settled...

Patrick Skene Catling EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN by James Baldwin Michael Joseph, f8.95 J ames . Baldwin's latest polemic scolding, If you let it, could make you feel guilty...

Renford Bambrough ACASTOS: TWO PLATONIC DIALOGUES by Iris Murdoch Chatto & Windus, £8.95 Nose" T om Stoppard says that he writes dia' logue because it is the only respectable...

A. L. Rowse I t is noteworthy that in every generation there are people who think they have discovered some new poem or play of Shakespeare's. The wish is father to the...

We rarely write letters to editors, but, Sir, our friend is dead. He was words, and You, the Editor of his being, You, who decreed his decade of dumbness, his death of ingrown...

I first heard of the calamitous fire at Hampton Court while carving a bunch of grapes in my workshop in upstate New York. I put my chisel down to listen. The American radio...

The Stuff ('15', selected cinemas) On the junk heap Peter Ackroyd I n the interminable 'interval' which takes up so much of the programme in the modern cinema, there are...

John Napper (Thos Agnew & Sons till 16 May) Albert Irvin (Gimpel Fils till 10 May) A contrast of styles Giles Auty L ast week two exhibitions opened which could hardly have...

Three Sisters (Bloomsbury) A memorable experience Christopher Edwards M ike Alfreds has established himself as one of the best ensemble directors in the country. His...

Folk music Peter Phillips S tainer's Crucifixion of 1887 is an un- a ccountable relic. Although a very average Production of high Victorian thought, re- plete with such...

Two toadies Alexander Chancellor I t is still mildly shocking to me that the BBC should not enjoy a monopoly of the coverage of major royal events. They are designed for the...

Laugh-a- Taki 0New York n the day it was announced that the head frog had refused permission to his two-time rescuers to overfly frogland, I asked the owner of Mortimer's to...

Something in the air Jeffrey Bernard T he other day I spent the afternoon in dalhance with a woman who actuallY smelled of mothballs. I have to admit atth° at they keep me...

C'est la vie Alice Thomas Ellis I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today in a filthy mood before I had even swung the legs over the side. It is the weekend — with not just...

New directions Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1417 you were in- vited to write a poem beginning with the first line or two lines of a well-known poem but thereafter proceeding...

You are invited to supply extracts from th e diary either of a Sloane Ranger or a Young Fogey (maximum 150 words). Entries ' `Competition No. 1420' by 9 May. The WP winner of...

Home pride Raymond Keene P ursuing the theme of London's great chess tradition it is worth pointing out some of the remarkable events which have graced the capital over the...

of £10 (or a copy of C hambers Dictionary, value £12 . 95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) will be awarded for the first three correct solutions opened on 12 May....

. PAREOS T`CL C 0 / U N 'T E 4 R 't , A‘S 1 S 'A T U ILCORNUANE T1111 0 WI Ert 14 E 9 GI 1C ArL LA T VITLIFIIEL'I'RAIMCAR ORMANT E NI 04141 I VI R ' 6 0 R 0 U R E ' s r U ll...

THE great Bordeaux vintage roadshow is back. Yes, folks, 1985 was another 'very good' vintage (let's leave it at that con- servative estimate for the moment, though don't be...

THIS is a Scottish issue so we must have Scottish aliment to the fore. We all know that Scotland produces the best meat, fish, r aspberries and of course whisky, they are also...

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