M r Kinnock accused 16 left-wing Labour MPs of 'utter self-indulgence and utter self-indiscipline' after they had disrupted the House of Commons, causing the sitting to be...

Kinnock, the pink 'un J ust back from India, another country which no longer has an Opposition worthy of the name, I find myself looking at British politics with what one would...

On Tuesday, the ownership of the Specta- tor was acquired by John Fairfax Limited of Australia, publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age. Mr Algy Cluff, the...

so much time convincing us that we are lucky to be offered the chance, by 1986-7, to pay over £1,000 million pounds for it, not only encourages a scintilla of doubt to arise in...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £17.25 f17.25 f20.50 £26.50 One year: £34.50 £34.50 £41.00 £53.00 For special offer turn to p.37 Name Address US Subscriptions: $58.00...

M oustapha Saad, whose father was the first casualty of the Lebanese civil war in 1975, was seriously wounded on Monday in an explosion which wounded as many as 50 other people...

A hundred years ago this summer the rigreatest jockey of the age rode the winner of the Derby. Fred Archer's victory on Melton was a joy to punters, who had followed Archer as...

Travellers' tales Auberon Waugh I flew into freezing London on Tuesday .1 from a visit to Burma and God's own Kingdom of Thailand — the temperature in both Rangoon and Bangkok...

S ome time ago, two or three years perhaps, I took up walking in the middle of the night. As a smoker and a `small hours' writer I thought it might give my lungs more of a...

Dhiren Bhagat O 28 December, as reports of counting V came in from the constituencies, a reporter from the Indian Express went to see Charan Singh, the unofficial leader of the...

Christopher Hitchens Washington he grand ballroom at the Washington 1 Sheraton looks very like the Mecca Ballroom at the old Blackpool Winter Gardens. Except for the...

Roy MacGregor-Hastie Too late! Too late to save him. In vain, in vain they tried. His life was England's glory. His death was England's pride. Moo late! That was the burden of...

The Mandi has endeavoured to stop Sir H. Stewart's march to Shendy, and has failed. Relieved and probably ex- cited by the capture of Omdurman, the great fortified post opposite...

Nick Cater Khartoum T ike the Mandi's hordes that besieged Land then beheaded General Gordon 100 years ago this week, a ragged army today sits around Khartoum — thousands of...

Jo Grimond Bliss was it in that eve to be mididle-class But to be old was very heaven. L ast year was the year of the well-heeled and the geriatrics — those who are both rich...

DAVID HOWARTH: 'We Die Alone'. M. Gill, 8a Walton St., Walton on the Hill, Tadworth, Surrey. BOCHENSKI: 'Handbook on Communism' and `Case Studies on Human Rights and Fun-...

Winning without Botham Mihir Bose T he night the Calcutta Test ended an Indian journalist, who takes a keen interest in betting, offered odds of 16 to one against England...

Harold Lever riomment on sterling's recent precipi- tous decline continues to focus on superficial factors. The fall in oil prices, and prospects of further falls, are...

Playing the fool Paul Johnson D uring the recent so-called sterling crisis, the Tory government received the worst press, all things considered, since it took office in 1979....

broken en g a g e- ment does not reflect on the marria g e now proposed, which does seem the best thin g for both sides. They have had (in the modern style of en g a g ement)...

of its undisputed star play- er, Geor g e Ma g an of Mor g an Grenfell. Mr Ma g an it is who, with a nimble purchase of Dunlop preference shares (and what share could be Stod g...

Birmin g ham Tyre and Rubber — somethin g which escaped the memory of Tillin g 's chairman when he was stru gg lin g to ward BTR's attentions off. The Tillin g g eneral meetin g...

Sir: Paul Johnson's chief complaint (The press, 12 January) about the Times is that 'there is not enough humour in the paper . . . . It is true that the Times has Frank Johnson,...

Sir: Patrick Marnham in his review of Henry Porter's book Lies, Damned Lies and some Exclusives casts doubt on a story published in the Daily Telegraph of 7 January about...

Sir: Nicholas Coleridge's comments on Slough (Diary, 19 January) reminded me that in the 1950s that town was a most exciting place for a small boy to travel through. On coach...

Sir: The term 'Lacking Moral Fibre' (Let- ters, 19 January) was attached by the RAF to those aircrew who could no longer face operational flying. I came across it in documents I...

Keeping things together Sir: It is difficult to understand why an eldest son like Auberon Waugh repeatedly grumbles in your columns about primogen- iture. It is entirely due to...

Sir: There were several errors in Mary Kenny's review (Books, 12 January). Jorge O'Neill is the O'Neill of Clanaboy (from Clanaodhbuidhe or the Clan of Flaxen Hugh) and not The...

Said Castro to Kinnock Colin Welch I f I were elected leader of the Labour Party I would be oppressed by an over- whelming sense of inadequacy and unsuita- bility. Is poor Mr...

Who was to blame? Charles Glass The War for Lebanon 1970-1983 Itamar Rabinovich (Cornell University Press £19.95) Israel's Lebanon War Ze'ev Schiff and Ehud Ya'ari (Allen &...

Ferdinand Mount Foreign Affairs Alison Lurie (Michael Joseph £8.95) Slow Learner Thomas Pynchon (Cape £8.50) V linnie Miner is small, neat, fastidious V and 54 years old. She...

A neighbour complains the local fox tears open The plastic bags the Council have supplied To help the poor old dustmen by compelling People to take their muck to their front...

Francis King Brett: From Bloomsbury to Mexico Sean Hignett (Hodder & Stoughton £14.95) Two Flamboyant Fathers Nicolette Devas (Hamish Hamilton £4.95) D aughter of that...

Allan Massie Anton Chekhov: Selected Letters Edited by Lillian Hellman (Picador £7.95) T he principal character in the greatest Russian fiction is Russia itself, the immensity...

They lack the strength to bury the dead, Even the ones who need so little space. Too weak to shiver, children die of cold. God moves, unmoved, in mysterious ways. These have not...

Timothy Garton Ash Albanian Assignment David Smiley (Chatto/Hogarth £12.95) The Great Betrayal: The Untold Story of Kim Philby's Biggest Coup Nicholas Bethell (Hodder £9.95)...

Elizabeth Jennings W hen Michael Schmidt's poetry first came out it cau g ht the attention of poetry readers by the maturity, almost the sophistication of his power over...

Happy the young man who disregards The siren who conceals herself in words, Stopping his ears but seizing on the flesh Which will serve his intelligence the best: What seas must...

The sound of music Peter Ackroyd Amadeus ('PG', selected cinemas) M ilos Forman's film opens with calls for 'Mozart! Mozart!' but what we actually see are two comic servants,...

Reassessment Peter Phillips The effects of serious musicology have 1 never been greatly appreciated by concert-goers. A piece of music becomes familiar, in that form we come...

Half-cock Alistair Hicks The Second International Contemporary Art Fair (Olympia, 17-20 January) V e're in the wrong game,' one elec- trician said to the other as they raced...

Recycled Christopher Edwards Waste (RSC: The Pit) "'This is a very worthwhile revival from 1 John Barton and the RSC. Who these days knows anything about the writings of...

Purring Alexander Chancellor A t the public inauguration of President Reagan on Monday (there had been a `private' inauguration the day before, watched, like the public one,...

Fur flying Alice Thomas Ellis A friend whom I hadn't seen since the summer popped in the other day sporting a new moustache and I said, `Good heavens, what have you got on...

Unholy writ Jeffrey Bernard L ast Monday the bailiffs called again as I knew they would. They served me with a bankruptcy order for the sum of £564.50 down to a company called...

A walk P. J. Kavanagh T oo many parties, too many funerals the turn of the year fre q uently has too many of both — and I woke up in a ra g e. I am not sure against whom, or a...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a li g ht-hearted love poem with the metre and rhyme-scheme of one of the choruses in Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon. I thou g ht...

No. 1356: Pop Valentine Set by Jaspistos: A Valentine poem please (maximum 16 lines) from one teena g er to another in the appropriate jar g on. Entries to 'Competition No....

N 4 G P 5 0 U a T EII I 13 ,---..--. I BA K SRGROP ER A BL %DTP I NERE 5 PAER LE DI RI RI O BI TALNIErAMA I NS , F) ETR A vi DI E l l I b WIOICI;11CR I P AT P L ANT IT A'...

Great Alexander Raymond Keene A player who has been storming into prominence of late is the Soviet Grandmaster, Alexander Beliaysky. Last summer he distinguished himself by...

THE SPECTATOR for twelve months and receive free LOURDES A MODERN PILGRIMAGE by PATRICK MARNHAM Open to non-subscribers or to those who want to take out a gift...

Prize: £10 (or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 edition, value £11.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first correct solution opened on 11 February....

0 00" I 'v A - 7o / 46 , \ Imperative cooking: the Indian disaster 'There is said to have been a revolution in British cooking in the home. A whole generation, perhaps two,...

ANTHONY TROLLOPE: 'Castle Richmond' and 'Nine Balatka.' Sir Desmond Pond, Wel- combe, Bridford, Exeter EX6 7JA. R. J. HOLLINGDALE: 'Nietzsche: The Man and His Philosophy'....