The GoVernment would be well-advised to take more seriously than the Lord Chancellor has done Mr Harold Wilson's demand for a Royal Commission into corruption in central and...

From the Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford. Sir: Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper's presidential address to the Joint Asso,ciation of Classical Teachers, printed...

publication in your is sLI ' : of July 14 of Professor Hugh Trev c h ' Roper's Presidential Address to . t ", Joint Association of Classi c ' Teachers? In printing the text of...

From Dr J. P. T. Link later Sir: When I read the letter by Mr Brian, the Principal of The chotherapy Centre in Uppper Berke', J j Street (June 30) I listed his errors tr...

S ir: Mrs 13. Hughes (Letters, July 14) Seen.% surprised that Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, men of " extraordinary intelligence" should have beep t(,rn into "...

Sir: Should Mr Spring's contention (July 14) be valid: that there is a link between The Clockwork Orange and the various case histories of irrational • adolescent violence,...

that it is hard, if not impossible, to prove a direct causal connection between the film A Clockwork Orange and any particular act of violence. But surely the cage against the...

Sir: As a very ordinary British senior citizen who has lived his life through the era of so-called cheap food (ac companied by incentive-killing, nearpenal taxation!) may I make...

Sir: When will the little Englanders like Mr J. Booker (Letters, July 21) realise that this country would not be able to make ends meet outside the Common Market! Its all very...

Sir: I had hoped not to bother myself or you with further discussion of Miss Woolfson's (and now Mr Loncar's) paranoiac delusion (July 14) that Israelis need to strengthen their...

Sir: It is refreshing to see Father Hastings' report treated with the common sense of your leader (July 21). It has been noticed that many of the allegations have appeared in...

Sir: Mr Wilson has repeated his criticism — what he has said in Parliament regarding Caetano's visit — in an Independent Television interview on Tuesday evening (July 10). He...

A snicker of amusement went through Spanish political society last week and the week before at what was judged to be a typically hysterical British reaction to the Times report...

The myth of the '1922' Patrick Cosgrave more than one occasion in recent weeks uLlsquiet has been expressed in Tory back Ch circles about both the effectiveness of "le...

The Liverpool example Eric Heffer The recent successes of the Liberals in Liverpool have mystified many political commentators. Some have put it down to the marketing...

Beside the seaside Oliver Stewart One of those increasingly common struggles between environmentalists and developers has been going on in the small seaside resort where I...

Our man Peter .Ackroyd, asked along by Patrick Cormack, Peter Archer, Hugh Dykes and Greville Janner, MPs all, to the Palace of Westminster last week, reports: It wa,s an...

the law kdouis Claiborne r u , Yers, lawyers everywhere, and not a lawni Tan in sight. To a member of the Bar, one "le most awful by-products of Watergate is e r evelation of...

Catch 22 for ex-prisoners Jim Daly Society continues to behave ir rationally in its treatment of former prisoners. We spend vast amounts on retribution and very little on...

the signature binding? u e Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is 1 9 ' 1 1 ; in force supported by the p r ,"' r egulations and most general l e : c titioners will have studied at cr ;'...

Doorsteps on my plate Pamela Vandyke Price The public school system may not always have triumphed conspicuously on field, pitch, course or even the green baize of the council...

Prestige races like the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes invariably present problems for punters of my persuasion. You want the class horse to win, for the sake of the...

Water of life Denis Wood It appears that less water from the skies is descending (at least, at the time of writing), and it may be that a present deficiency will soon become a...

Benny Green Af - ter years of shilly-shallying, Penguin appear to be embarked at last On the very necessary reduction of the vast Wodehouse oeuvre into the conveniently...

Richard Luckett on the way of the Kurds Young men may go east for a variety of reasons; James Elroy Flecker was probably original, however, in going because he couldn't go. The...

Herbert Dingle Ideas and Opinions Albert Einstein (Souvenir Press e3.00) This book is described as " an attempt to gather together, so far as is possible, in one volume the...

Geoffrey Furlong The New Diplomacy and its Apparatus (Plume Press/Ward Lock £2.95) In a disarming introduction to this rather diffuse book, the author expresses the hope that...

Tony Palmer The Lion of England Margaret Butler (Mac' millan £2.75). The Salamander Morris West (Heinemann £2.25). Lent Term Elizabeth Sutherland (Constable £2.20). Ah! The...

There is often a great deal more similarity than appears on the surface between the private detective hero la Raymond Chandler, and' the secret agent or spy. Of course, many spy...

Paperbacks pissorted Penguins were dropped in n ,,YPus's burrow this week, and ""s ancient hydromorph looked Ze,rri over with a friendly if desr t , ` 1- Ing eye. For in...

Bookend The interesting thing about published lists of names is often the names that are missing. It was intriguing in the case of MPs who signed (or did not sign) the Early...

Christopher Hudson on the innocence of CostaGavras The cinema is the best medium there is for conducting a political argument because the most partisan narrative can be given...

Gone with the last chord Duncan Fallowell Thought I should write about Slade, the country's most popular group at the moment. Not so much about smashed-up Bentleys outside...

Comings and goings Kenneth Hurren !Cannot say that my eagerness to visit Australia has been perceptibly encouraged by The .Removalists, a play by David Wil liamson which has...

The lady and the duchess Clive Gawp God protect us from the pretentious, especially those ladies on last week's One Pair of Eyes (BBC-2) who have such inflated ideas of their...

Waspe 1 am sad to learn — I hope erroneously, but I fear not — that National Theatre associate director Michael Blakemore is taking an extended 'leave of absence to undertake...

Panic at the bank Nicholas Davenport Sometimes in this column I have to interpret the City to Whitehall and sometimes Whitehall to the City, but when both are behaving in an...

Ladies Pride again John Bull One particularly successful piece of advice that I gave last January was the recommendation to buy Ladies Pride Outerwear. The shares moved up...

Buying Hargreaves Nephew Wilde I found myself getting rather neurotic last week. Every night I had vivid dreams about impending financial crises, each one ending With me...

No doubt it is my mean and nasty mind, but when I open my Sunday papers and see that the Prime Minister is telling the readers of the Sunday Express that the economic outlook is...

Special uses for life assurance John Gaselee A number of financial problems can be solved, in one way or another, by the ri ght form of life assurance. For instance, due to...

The self-employed — partners, prinO, pals, etc — are not properly catefe.; for in state pension schemes. They vo be able to look only to the basic stint pension at retirement...

The term 'health insurance' covets a variety of different types of contract, and it is important to pick the right type of protection for your needs, bearing in mind the varying...

Both growth and income bonds from insurance compa.lies have been very popular, in view of the high net yields which can be offered to investors. There is little doubt that an...

The case for the with-profits policy Garnett Hazell The life assurance industry is expanding rapidly. New companies have reinforced the old to provide an even wider choice of...