R esident Reagan announced unex- pectedly that he was to meet Mr Gor- bachev in Reykjavik for a preparatory summit to pave the way for the Soviet leader's visit to the United...

LABOUR SAVES THE TORIES T he Conservatives have the most amaz- ing luck. With three and a half million unemployed, a tired Government and an unpopular Prime Minister, they...

IN RECENT years, most British Govern- ment commentaries on the latest foreign Policy Moves from Washington have been marked by a pervasive dampness: damp in criticism, damp in...

The remarkable creation of the new fromage-coloured Labour Party FERDINAND MOUNT Blackpool r oserose is a rose is, I suppose, a rose, even when it is entwined with maidenhair...

I was particularly interested to watch Mr Caspar Weinberger warning Mr Kinnock on Panorama on Monday, because I had just spent a few days in the United States discovering...

The political hazard represented by special interest pressure groups AUBERON WAUGH 0 nly last week I commended a young minister in the Government, called Mr Peter Bottomley....

Since 1979 the rich have got richer. Andrew Gimson discusses Labour's proposals, intended to make them nearly as poor as the poor LAST Sunday Mr David Blunkett, a mem- ber of...

Bohdan Nahaylo finds the Soviet press nervous in dealing with the disease IT SOUNDS almost like a joke. What is the definition of the new Soviet policy of `openness'? A play...

Emma Gilbey listens to a presidential candidate with a direct line to God New York PAT Robertson has now let it be known he is prepared to run for the presidency. The...

of Austria's greatest flying ace, an Irish baron Vienna THE beaky profile was unmistakable, the self-deprecating charm irresistible. A num- ber of strands linking us with the...

IT is a speciality of sanitary reformers, who are among the most useful of the many intellectual nuisances in the world, to be deficient in the quality of humour. One of them,...

Michael Powell remembers the choreographer who died this week MICHAEL Powell, dictating a memoir of Robert Helpmann — dancer, mime, clown, wit, actor, choreographer, stage...

THE CURSE OF WOMEN Margaret FitzHerbert regrets that most feminists prefer equality to supremacy [Editor's Note: Margaret FitzHerbert wrote this article the week before her...

The press: Paul Johnson discusses the Labour Party's selective accreditation policy REMARKABLY little protest has been evoked by the decision of the Labour Party (in addition...

The very Motor Show of money with no new models CHRISTOPHER FILDES Washington h ehe ballroom of the Washington Sher- aton would house an Olympic swimming pool, or a greyhound...

A nasty little spot of turbulence JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE T he destroying effects of incentives to savings.' Did my eyes deceive me? Could this really be a senior member of a...

Sir: The old East Africa Standard in Nairo- bi, under the command of its then editor, Colonel Kenneth Bolton, was a great believer in the Daily Telegraph style book (Ronald...

Sir: I never dreamed that the Spectator would publish an article with so many errors as you did with Brian Inglis's out- burst (Tiltdown bird', 13 September) against the fossil...

Sir: The underlying misoneism which in- forms Christopher Booker's uninformed comments on my work at the Dorset County Museum (Diary, 13 September) simply demonstrates how...

Sir: Jock Bruce-Gardyne's article of 12 July has belatedly come to my attention. In it he says, 'According to the City Universi- ty Business School, what is known of Labour's...

Sir: I have read Miss Benazir Bhutto's interview with Edward Whitley (23 Aug- ust) in which she has made a very serious attack on my integrity as the Chief Justice of the...

Sir: In Low life of 20 September, Jeffrey Bernard wondered who qualified for aid from the Distressed Gentlefolks Associa- tion. In Herefordshire they reckon assistance should...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - At 20% off the Cover Price! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator .1 enclose my cheque for (Equivalent $US & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months 6...

Rather militant himself Alan Watkins HARD LABOUR by Robert Kilroy-Silk Chatto and Windus, f9.95 A back benchers of all parties go, Mr Kilroy-Silk was undoubtedly above par...

Eric Christiansen FAITH IN FAKES by Umberto Eco (translated by Hugh Bredin) Seeker & Warburg, £15 ART AND BEAUTY IN THE MIDDLE AGES By Umberto Eco (translated by Hugh...

Harry Eyres Hamish Hamilton, f14.95 T hese two accounts of travels round Europe — both referred to rather ques- tionably by their publishers as Grand Tours — are separated...

Michael Horovitz LET'S JOIN HANDS AND CONTACT THE LIVING by John Fordham Elm Tree Books, f6.95 I f you want to dismay a modem jazz fan, ask him or her to imagine London...

Patrick Skene Catling RITES: A GUATEMALAN BOYHOOD by Victor Perera Deutsch, f8.95 G uatemala is the most spectacularly beautiful country in Central America. It is also...

This, then, is the meat of the cowboy cult, Herefords. I edge gingerly past raised Heads, their quick curiosity annulled At once by the imperative to feed. Generations like...

Francis King GABRIEL'S LAMENT by Paul Bailey Cape, 19.95 I n Alan Bennett's entertaining new play Kafka's Dick, one of the characters re- marks that 'The only son who ever...

Andrew Robinson TALKATIVE MAN by R. K. Narayan Heinemann, £8.95 T hey call me Talkati affectionately shorten it to TM: I have earned this title, I suppose, because I cannot...

The Sistine Chapel Talking of Michelangelo Juliet Reynolds Venturing through the portals of the Sistine Chapel these days, jostled and deafened as always by the milling...

Georgia on their minds Peter Ackroyd I t is difficult to explain a film which itself makes a point of not explaining anything. It was preceded by Street of Crocodiles, a...

Kafka's Dick (Royal Court) Bennett's Kafka Kathy O'Shaughnessy P osthumous fame is something of a liability. In the wake of the funeral come biographies, the dead man's life...

Otello (Cannon Films) Quite pretty frocks Rodney Manes E ven in the face of fierce competition, I think the single most depressing thing about Zeffirelli's film of some of...

Avigdor Arikha (Marlborough Fine Art till 29 October) Celia Paul (Bernard Jacobson till 11 October) William Macllraith (Connaught Brown 01111 October) Mark Harris (Juda-Rowan...

A long way from Long Bow Wendy Cope 0 n Wednesday evening I accidentally switched on a party political broadcast. I think it is safe to assume that nobody, except the MPs...

The bounder Taki A s everyone who has ever heard of the Pampas knows, Louis Basualdo is the Argentinian polo professional who eloped with Lord Cowdray's teenage daughter back...

Up hill, down dale Jeffrey Bernard I t is difficult to concentrate with the sword of Damocles — once sheathed in West End Central police station — hanging over me, but I...

Over- Alice Thomas Ellis I believe we must spend the next five years finding ways of reallocating resources within the industry so that we market the product better overall...

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defeat in the parliamen- tary elections last March promised to transform French society. They have in- deed done so but not quite in the way they originally intended. Elected on...

The end of the tunnel Elisabeth Luard T he view at the thick end of Madame T'acher's tunnel, due to debouch into the flat and fertile fields of Picardy some time towards the...

Sombre ennemi qui nous combats et nous resserres, laisse-moi, dans le peu de jours que je Miens, vouer ma faiblesse et ma force a la lumiere: et que je sois change en eclair a...

Dark enemy, you who brace us in the fight, let me, in the few days still left to spend, devote my strength and weakness to the light and so be changed to lightning in the end....

Waiting for something to happen John Ralston Saul or ris must still be the centre of the world; if not, why would people be coming from everywhere to blow it up? One of the...

Agreeable Alsace Ausonius W ine writers tend to play safe with epithets — fruity, fresh, crisp, rounded, blackcurranty (if it's cabernet), buttery (if it's chardonnay):...

ONCE there were no shops in Britain selling proper cooking equipment and the faithful had to turn their annual holiday in France into an expedition to buy Sabatier knives,...

Lost ploys Raymond Keene R Leningrad eaders of this article will have the advantage over me of knowing the result of Wednesday's 21st game, where Karpov enjoys the plus of...

I love to hate Jaspistos I n Coinpetition No. 1440, you were invited to supply verses airing a prejudice or celebrating a pet aversion. Opera, spinach, half-rhymes, queues,...

N Y 5 P A 5 R1,.rs .. . . P IET NS,"TALMENT U N D R, U SA11 ICE AN. T' 5 E R II O, I S TrE I K! 0 N E Al yil EI PT _EAC LUSI'ON 'b E,SIE R V E N i I3 L T L 0 111 - T li I P S...

Extracts, please, from the diary of a supersensitive lady who imagines that she is being 'sexually harassed' in the office. Maximum 150 words. Entries to 'Competi- tion No....

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of I10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the...