It seems almost frivolous, in the midst of our domestic difficulties, to advert again to something that has happened within the Common Market. But the French decision to float...

be read, and indeed more likely to be printed, if they are brief and to the point. Shallow deep down Sir: Terry Pitt's review of Dick' Taverne's book, The Future of the Left...

forms it can give a lot of pleasure, and I think that Mr Pitt's pseudo-review of Mr Taverne's book is a superb example, worthy of commendation or perhaps a special prize from...

Sir: It is becoming increasingly obvious that the people of Scotland will be faced with a dilemma in 1974. A three-day working week may mean a tightening of the belt in the...

Sir: Your leader onMr Brian Faulkner's defeat at the hands of the Ulster Unionist Party (January 12) displays a total lack of understanding of the feelings of the mass of loyal...

Grand Council meeting Brian Faulkner warned that if the principles of friendship and co-operation were rejected then Ireland as a whole would be condemned to strife without...

Sir: In his interesting piece 'The General Election Show,' (January 12) there are at least three reasons why Patrick Cosgrave fails to give a gala performance. 1. ". . . the...

Sir: The question has been posed to M il e now a number of times: "Is Mr 1 4 e at ., ,, intent on ruining the UK econonlY.t Ridiculous as this may appear at fir s be sight there...

Sir: The incisive wit and perception of Your correspondent Anthony Gibbs of Peaslake has once more been displayed in his letter published in January 12 issue. May I, however,...

As a headmaster, I agree with Dr Rhodes Boyson ( January 12) that there is a problem of dealing effectiv lY with violent and refractory c hildren in schools. There are, h...

Sir: I see it says in the new Labour Party campaign document that Labour's intention is to "improve the environment in which our people live and work and spend their leisure."...

Sir: Your columnist Peter Quince mentions muddy fields in his article of January 12. Whether it is a quirk of memory I know not, but I do not remember fields being as boggy as...

Sir: I feel I must challenge Mr Cecil King on at least one major point of his highly entertaining notes (January 12). Surely the example of Mr Macmillan's "night of the long...

Sir: It's a sad thing to see Cecil King writing (and you printing) that fatuous old incantation that "men are in business for profit" (Notebook, January 12). It is hardly ever...

Sir: Bustards nesting at Hampton Court? Surely not. Mr King (January 19) must be haunted by the memory of his Daily Mirror colleagues. Charles Williams 10 Cottesmore Court,...

Sir: I was most sorry to see that in your issue of January 12 under 'The Wages of Sin ' you had allowed to be printed that hoary old chestnut — "Five centuries later it cannot...

Sir: Inevitable misprints apart, exactitude is almost everything. Mr Benny Green in his review on January 5 of Professor Daiches's Robert Louis Stevenson and His World, refers...

Sir: It does not need any reminding that this country is now caught up by a most serious confrontation between miners and government. The Government has decided to impose...

The Tories' crisis of will Patrick Cosgrave Every Tory heart must have been riven over the last fortnight, and for three reasons, each one of which reflects a Tory reaction,...

Over the period of four and a half years that have elapsed since the Irish troubles began, any action by Her Majesty ' s Government has been dangerously slow. In this...

Who wants 40 million tourists? George Young Scarcely a week goes by without one reading of the unhappy consequences brought about by a fast growing tourist industry in some...

The future of capitalism Tim Congdon In Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, published in 1942, Schumpeter said that the condemnation of capitalism was "a requirement of the...

India's 'unknown' war George Patterson The Nagas are to India what the Irish are to the United Kingdom. They are a proud, independent, stubborn, brave and attractive people...

Casualties of war Geoffrey Wagner An occasion to turn out a cupboard the other day turned into an afternoon of acute nostal gia. Forgotten names and faces — some famous, most...

We're waiting and ready, oh Ted. If you think you're so far in the red, The question once more you must pop To voters you've caught on the hop; For, if to the country you go,...

One of the qualities which greatly endears our Parliament men to Puzzle is the astounding agility with which the creatures can stand upon their heads. Never has that agility...

Putting babies on the market Robert Holman Robert Holman, a lecturer in the Department of Social Administration at the University of Glasgow, discusses here some of the urgent...

The doctor and the computer John Linklater Newspaper headlines last week drew attention to the perplexity of an elderly retired coastguard wh° got into the grip of the...

Nearer to God Martin Sullivan When I was young, bishops and headmasters (if they werein holy orders), were sometimes given to use chapel sermons as opportunities to administer...

This happy brew Peter Quince I well remember one scorching August day of my childhood when I was travelling with my father along a remote Pennine valley. There came a moment...

A biscuit called Marie Pamela Vandyke Price This is a list-making season. The mere act of arranging items in rows is calming and, albeit misleadingly, suggestive of...

Doing the honours Bill Grundy Last Thursday there was a press lOnch in the River Room of the Savoy Hotel. It was for the Presentation of Granada TV's annual What the Papers Say...

There are some novels which are not masterpieces, and have never come near to chang ing the world, which nevertheless deserve to be kept in circulation long after their initial...

Peter A ckroyd o Pie Will Always Be Kind Wilfred Sheed iw eidenfeld and Nicholson £2.75) reci. At Gunter's Pamela Haines (Heinemann 2 .25) 1 ,n The Springtime Of The Year Susan...

Quentin Bell The Purple Heart Throbs, the Sub-Literature of Love Rachel Anderson (Hodder and Stoughton £2.95) One falls upon this book with horrid delight, a relish which is...

Edward Norman Built as a City: God and the Urban Worid ' Today David Sheppard (Hodder and Stoug h ' ton £3.25) The publishers of the Bishop of Woolwich n5 b . ook describe it...

Lucia Santa Cruz Chile's Marxist Experiment Robert Moss (David and Charles £3.75) A great deal has been said about the lessons to be learnt from the results of the 'Chilean...

Colin Wilson Revolutionary Suicide Huey P. Newton (Wildwood House £1.95) This is a disturbing and rather fascinating book, but hardly for the reasons the author intended. Huey...

Thin red lines henny Green T he masochistic delight of the British in t o nding their own blimpish past may make a liday for publishers and historians, but it s ornetimes begs...

Bookend You have to hand it to the American editors of the new Encyclopaedia Britannica. It takes courage to descend on London's Savoy Hotel in the middle of a national...

In a single day recently (point out the authors of The Future of Broadcasting in a report presented to the Social Morality Council published last week by Eyre Methuen at 75p)...

Old things ))} Kenneth Hurren I am not, on the whole, fanaticallY attracted by monologuists, but I'll make a ready exception of ROY Dotrice and his show, Brief Lives , which...

fifteen love Clilistopher Hudson Jeremy ('A' ABC 1) is one of those c harming films about first love With which the American film industry interleaves its unending i...

Goodbye Tom, hello Biba Duncan Fallowell Said the Vulgravine of Tatt to the Bogus of Kitsch, "I do hope it survives long enough to restore the flamingoes to the roof garden....

The obsessed Evan Anthony Candlelight could possibly enhance the work of some artists, but better the brushers of teeth be deluded into thinking they have come to the aid of...

Waspe You would look in vain in the art columns of the posh Sunday papers for a note on Menachem Gueffen's exhibition at the O'Hana Gallery. (Sometimes our art critics can be...

Nicholas Davenport Those of us who look at charts have noticed a curious movement in the FT 'thirty' index of industrial shares. It has been establishing a new base around 330...

For some reason that I have never grasped, the alternative to inflation is said to involve the deliberate creation of unemployment, presumably to reduce demand and thus lower...

Cleaned out of every penny and not even one of those useful nonrunners to cushion the blow. Just punishment no doubt for spending Saturday on my backside with only the...