As is usual after the revelation of some scandal in public life, hysteria has broken out among commentators and politicians following the convictions of Mr Smith and Mr...

e jubila tion which has so far attended teeneral Spinola's coup in Portugal should be eiltiPered with a little cautious realism, for it is the that the fall of Dr Caetano may...

"We did what we believed was right when we voted for the Act. But I have seen it go wrong. I did not vote for 100,000 abortions a year in the private sector. I did not vote for...

From Mrs Margaret Pryce Sir: As a woman, I have even more to say about Jan Morris than Mr Abse (April 27), and not so much from moral indignation as from a sense of pity. How...

Sir: Graham Jones's piece, "Give an Act a bad name" (April 27) has hit the nail on the head. This is no time for the Tories to falter before the nation's myopic attitude towards...

Sir: Although not agreeing entirely with Mr Enoch Powell's economic philosophy, one nevertheless respected him because of his attacks on the conventional wisdom in the economic...

Sir: Mr Humphry Berkeley's motives p su ra p i p se o w rt o in rt g hy the an a d lt o e n rn e a h ti o v p e es vo di te a..tn a p h r s e will be supported by men and W° 1...

and wilest film biographies. I wonder 100 n uld be interested in an mo o Ru word m script' for a life of Ken 1.ed SSell? It would be totally and ihlY fictitious. Michael...

' I h 1, s ould like to be allowed i t to . I llent on a matter which s 've of political importance, which cut of recent letters and articles ir i , ne in he London...

Sr: I have just seen Denis Donoghue's elaborately misleading review of The Faber Book of Irish Verse (April 6). Since he contravenes his usual critical decorum by introducing my...

Sir: According to Mr Reginald Prentice, Education Secretary, the introduction of Comprehensive Schools and the abolition of the eleven plus examination will prevent the...

Sir: On behalf of those defended, supposedly, by your editorial of April 20, I must deplore your own unthinking reaction to the NUS conference. To reply to its intellectual...

Sir: Is it not high time that those in the former Tory administration who were responsible for the egregious blunder of museum and gallery admission charges should make it clear...

Sir: John Linklater damages his excellent campaign against the permissive society by linking it to unproved and absurd evolutionistic myths (April 27). For example, he appears...

Patrick Cosgrave Stimulated most recently, I think, by the ever mischievous Mr Callaghan, there has been a lot of talk going around to the effect that we may expect Mr Wilson...

Swallowing the pill Michael Harrington The relationship between Mr Powell and the Tory Party is passionate and bitter. It is passionate because Mr Powell is a dedicated Tory,...

This Week I Sid read titat Some. Pees ons o xylapfily as - r e cte,ct,kave stolen. -v-alusge &tures tor Political Ends. Can tkere, sikch Barbarian who cle not hicrur tke, trsie...

The axeman cometh David W.Wragg Not the least of the uncertainties which have accompanied the arrival in office of the Wil son administration must be the future of Britain's...

Making South Africa whole Roy Macnab The result of the general election was hardly a surprise. The National Party which has been in power since defeating General Smuts's...

Over 50 million people were killed in the Second World War—the equivalent of Britain's total population today. Next Wednesday the final hour of Thames Television's series The...

The ecology threat Latest opinion polls in France do not hold much hope for Rene Dumont the seventyyear-old ecologist who is standing for president on a zero-growth,...

The reluctant Fandidate in . Scarlet e, damn you — smile!" said one of my n h ei ghbours about a month ago. And I seem to aye been doing just that ever since. N i t was Michael...

Nothing, it seems, has more surprised the hapless electorate of these islands than the signs of discord between our Prime Minister and his lieutenants that are being manifest....

Getting the boot Philip Kleinman The ostensible reason for my dismissal as editor of Adweek last month was that, in the words of the managing director of Mercury House...

S ave the direct grant schools I lk Bruce Lockhart "rarnmar Schools ought to be a bolished. They take boys and girls fro m perfectly g ood working ?ass homes and fill them with...

Forewarned or foreskinned John Linklater We live in a strange world in which individual freedom of choice is being ruthlessly nibbled away. The news that a vociferous pressure...

Christ knows Martin Sullivan Christians at their baptism are enjoined to follow the example of their Saviour Christ and be made like Him. There are, however, certain gaps in...

Burton Tayloring Bill Grundy I have always liked the Fleet Street story of the famous wine writer who was the world's biggest bore. Like the Ancient Mariner he would stop one...

On March 5 the settlement of a libel action brought against The Spectator and Tony Palmer was announced in the High Court. Mr Robert Alexander, for the plaintiffs, George...

[In America] Men make money by looking after themselves, not by looking after the public. If you take that line in Russia you will soon get rich. But when this fact comes to the...

, fl us Heaney 1 87 .eePin g Lord, David Jones, (Faber and r ,E2.95) enot ' L lee Ping Lord is David Jones's fourth full °L'i Work, or "writing". It carries, as an t i . li t i...

Peter Ackroyd The Athenian Widow Robert Harling (Chatto and Windus £2.50) Oktoberfest Frank De Felitta (Collins £2.25) ABCD David Slavitt (Hamish Hamilton, £2.40) The Athenian...

Robert Blake Alexander I, Tsar of War, and Peace Alan Palmer (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.95) The grandson of Catherine the Great has always appeared as an ambiguous and...

Antony Flew Moues Responsibility for Nature J. A. Passmore (Duckworth £5.95) L ike almost everyone else who writes about c onservation and the environment John P assmore...

Rhodes Boyson The Origins of the 'Cultural Revolution: I: Contradictions among the People 1956-57 Roderick MacFar q uhar (Oxford University Press £5.50) There was a time in...

I mentioned recently how predominant female authors had become in the world of crime fiction but, of course, there have been dominant women around for quite a long time and...

Children's books Benny Green Most mornings around seven o'clock my alarm clock goes. It is a very unusual alarm clock; it operates by child-power and instead of a clanging...

It is now no secret that Smith's Trade News, (Bookend, April 20) has been sold to IPC an d that from May 4 it will be incorporated into one of their own magazines CTN (standing...

RICHARD LYNN Richard Lynn is Professor of Psychology at the New University of Ulster. In this book he follows the rise from "back-street" opeiation to viable business through...

Warring women Clive Gammon I've had nothing to say about The Suffragettes (BBC2) since the series started. The reason for this is that last week was the first occasion I...

The manifold arts enterprises supported from public funds had a worryingly traumatic weekend. All received a stern note from the Arts Council to the effect that if they didn't...

Forgivable Rodney Mihies At first sight, and second too for that matter, the eponymous hero of La clemenza di Tito is an in sufferable prig. Mozart's opera was hurriedly...

Nicholas Davenport Only central bankers could be stupid enough to cut off their noses to spite their gold faces. Of their total world reserves of $ 1 82,536 million ($175,095...

No sensible Conservative would, as a matter of principle or policy, favour Labour's scheme to nationalise North Sea oil: an essential part of Conservatism, after all, is the...