On January I this country creeps, unwillingly, like a snail, into Europe. Neither the supporters nor the opponents of the Continental Policy have yet fully grasped the profound...

Honours of the year Patrick Cosgrave I have said a lot of unkind and unfriendly things about him over the last year — and The Spectator has said them even more emphatically —...

PUZZLE HEARS THAT Mr John Selwyn Gummer, that bright, new, young Tory Party vice-chairman, recently meditated shaving off his trendy beard. But then he looked at the...

Were it not so potentially disastrous, our European entry would be pure farce. France says it is determined to force its forty-ton lorries on to our road, and we officially...

A man of courage and candour Denis Broghn Thanks to the vigilance of my wife, I was one of the first British commentators on the American scene to see the name of Harry S....

Risks and opportunities of joining Russell Lewis How can a Conservative of free market convictions possibly support the policy of entering the Common Market and what on earth...

Strategy and chances of quitting Lionel Gelber Britain joins the 'European Community while opinion polls suggest that a huge segment of the British people 'recoils from so...

"That insidious and crafty animal, vulgarly called a statesman or politician,'' said Adam Smith in passing, and no one contradicted him. For everyone knows that the politician...

Auberon Waugh A Transatlantic Tunnel Hurrah! Harry Harrison (Faber £1.90) Having no interest in science and very little curiosity about the future I have never supposed there...

Ronald Blythe Pieces of Land. Kevin Crossley-Holland (Gollancz £3.75) Beside the Seaside Anthony Smith (Allen and Unwin £3.75) When the centre cannot hold, move out to the...

Norman Stone Europe in the Eighteenth Century, Aristocracy and the Bourgeois Challenge George Rude (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.50) The Weidenfeld series, History of...

Tony Palmer The Name above the Title Frank Capra (W. H. Allen, £4.50) • Underworld USA Colin McArthur (Secker and Warburg £2.20) Frank Capra's is a giant book about giant...

Bookbuyer A As usual there has been little agreement this Christmas between the general public and the book reviewers of the national newspapers who have obediently contributed...

Christmas carolling Christopher Hudson Christmas and musicals go together: they both have a tradition of orchestrating our emotions for profit. And as satisfaction of the...

Dark reflections Clive Gammon In the dark pre-dawn of the year, one is entitled to some liverish reflections and I do not intend to deny myself the opportunity. So let us...

Verdi good indeed Rodney Milnes Opera on'television is of great importance to those who believe that music-theatre has something to offer to a larger audience than the...

Two to miss Kenneth Hurren I doubt whether there is anything very useful to say about the juvenilia that presently infests the theatre. Reviews of the annual assortment of...

Song book Benny Green In all the furore of the last few weeks of the year, that strange period of summation when literary editors and their contributors attempt to finalise...

What we're really made of Pamela Vandyke Price Quite apart from the seasonal accentuation of all one's frailties, there are several moments around the winter solstice when,...

The Yorkshire branch of an anti-EEC g roup called British Business for World Markets thou g ht it would be a g ood idea to put one of their dissentin g advertisements in the...

Sir, I was disturbed to read in Socialities ' (December 23) that the Law Society is considering the withdrawal of their voluntary ccheme whereby half an hour of a solicitor's...

Sir, Your. Notebook's mean complaint about the A7ollo programme makes me furious. God knows our generation has produced little enough for future ages to remember us by, but what...

Sir: Thank you for drawing attention to the plight of Leopold Trepper (December 16). Our committee, which was formed to press for the release of Trepper from Poland has its...

Sir: In your article ' Ireland, can there be peace? (December 2) you argue that " . . control of Ulster must remain for a considerable time being in Whitehall." You fail,...

Sir: Quite obviously the writer of your recent leader 'Against the Juggernauts' did not stop to think before putting pen to paper. If he had done so he might have balanced his...

Sir: In your leading article of December 9 on the European Security Conference you write: "It is worth recalling that one of the Russian excuses for the invasion of...

Racecourses, like churahes, open their doors to an army of non-believers at Christmas time. An excess of drink, food and families on December 25 and your average telly-bound...

Sir, Mr Robert Briggs in his letter (December 2) commenting on the harsh sentence imposed on a girl for abducting a baby for fifteen minutes speaks of "legal menace" (of the...

Nicholas Davenport Once a week the Financial Times gives a list of 'leaders and laggards ' for the year on the Stock Exchange. It is remarkable to find that the outstanding...

The first premium bond prize is to be increased to £75,000 I was glad to see. It has always struck me that football pools perform a useful anti-inflationary function by...

The tattered topee Nephew Wilde As I have discovered, if you wish to find where the spirit of Christmas is in the City, pay a lunchtime visit to one of its numerous wine bars....

Firth and Brown's year John Bull This account share recommendation column has been running under a year so I can avoid a review until next April. I think in the main, however,...

The case of Julie's incapacity Henry Hodge J's current state is that she is almost totally blind, apart from some crude light perception. She is severely defective, unable to...

Good news for house buyers? Ian McD. Wright It has come to pass at last! After years in which solicitors have been the whipping boys of the press and television because of...

Pasteur and aetiology Bernard Dixon One hundred and fifty years ago this week, one of my heroes was horn. Louis Pasteur, the son of a tanner, was to make a staggering impact...