It is reported that President Sadat of Egypt, having told the Russians to pack their bags and to leave Egypt, has invited Britain to become Egypt's principal supplier of arms....

The Government and the trade unions are showing signs of pulling back from the brink; and a good thing, too. Last week's passions have been succeeded by this week's...

All Westminster's a stage Hugh Macpherson One day last week one of our tribunes, who had been badly treated by the Press, remarked rather sourly that the trouble with the...

Reggie Maudling was very swift to deny some of the statements reported to have been made by Mr John Poulson at his continued bankruptcy hearing. I see the former Home...

After the military Ronan Fanning Few operations in the history of British arms have been at once so massive, so successful and yet so limited in military significance as the...

The Navy's not here Patrick Cosgrave Jane's Fighting Ships has long — and justly — been acclaimed as indispensable, and a masterpiece. There is another, and more important,...

Student leisure Antony Flew Michael Drake is Dean of the Social Sciences Faculty of the Open University. In the academic year 1969-70 he gave a lecture in a series organised...

Investigating the drug-makers Bernard Dixon Once again, I see, the pharmaceutical industry is to be investigated. This time, the Labour Party will do the investigating,...

PUZZLE ADMIRES those with a sense of humour in the face of adversity. He therefore commends the Tory Whips for sending out a notice to their members, during the demands for the...

J. I. M. Stewart on the last years of the Master Among Professor Edel's skills is that of playing, in a controlled way, the artless rambling chronicler, and it is in evidence...

Auberon Waugh Death of the Fox George Garnett (Barrie & Jenkins £2.75) Mr Garrett writes with admirable modesty to introduce his labour of the last twenty years to an English...

Derek Hudson Stanley Morison. Nicolas Barker (Macmillan £10) Politics and Script. Stanley Morison Edited and completed by Nicholas Barker (Clarendon Press £6) In his excellent...

The Image in Form Selected writings of Adrian Stokes, edited by Richard Wollheim (Penguin 60p) Adrian Stokes published his first book, The Quattro Cento, in 1932, and he has...

Douglas Dunn Extravagaria Pablo Neruda (Cape £3.50). Nef tali Beltran — better known by his pseudonym, Pablo Neruda — is now sixtyeight, with a recent birthday on July 12. His...

of Thackeray Gabriel Pearson The Exposure of Luxury: Radical Themes in Thackeray Barbara Hardy (Peter Owen £3.25) "The evidence of the biography and the evidence of the...

Bookbuyer The publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's work in the West is always surrounded by dramas which bring up all kinds of vivid issues, that some of us might prefer to...

Television New life for old books Benny Green Of all the benefits Logie Baird thought he was bestowing on the public of the future, the last one that could ever have occurred...

Joyful noise Rodney Mikes Both massive symphonic statements in the last week's Proms, Mahler's Eighth and Tippett's Third, aim high, Mahler with his setting of the last scene...

H. M. Tennent Ltd. is a firm which not so long ago dominated theatrical management in the West End of London, with most of our leading players under contract and up to a dozen...

O tw n o e d u o p, Christopher Hudson Henri-Pierre Roche is chiefly distinguished for having written in his seventies two autobiographical novels dealing very frankly with...

Tetley's crowd Robin Young Glen Tetley's Laborintus, premiered by the Royal Ballet last week, is preferable, at least, to his Field Figures: for a start it is twenty minutes...

Midsummer madness Duncan Fallowell Pink Fairies: What A Bunch of Sweeties (Polydor £2.00). I love this album. Those still under the misapprehension that rock music is just a...

Sir: In your highly responsible leading article (July 29) on the current crisis of nation, government and party, you suggest, and I am sure rightly, that Ministers may not...

Sir: Do political commentators like Hugh Macpherson have a collection of standard modules of speeches/articles numbered on tape, so that when an article like his on Enoch Powell...

Sir: Every week I try and catch The Spectator for its fantastic wit in the public library (fifteen pence after all is three bob of anybody's money). But what can an Out' person...

Sir: In an otherwise typically perceptive article on the future of Soviet dissent (July 15),. Tibor Szamuely claims that Andrei Amalrik, one of the most intelligent as well as...

the delusion that I was, to quote his words, "in Soviet Russia, in November 1917, fighting with the Red Army." He is even kind enough to commiserate with me on having entered my...

Sir: I recommend all anti-marketeers to read and circulate Mr D. V. L. Rovve's pro-Market letter (July 29): no better anti-market propaganda exists. He tells us that the Market...

Sir: "The countries in the Common Market should know that in the event of Labour winning a general election, this country will pull out." Your leading article of July 15 makes...

Sir: I understand that much of the Labour Party's thinking emanates from Methodist chapels, and I therefore venture to suggest as a proper subject for a sermon the parable of...

Sir: Many may be surprised by Sir Con O'Neill's reported statement (Notebook, July 15) that he is "convinced that the British want out" of Ulster. As far as I can assess it the...

Sir: "I would suggest that the Continual exchange of recriminations serves no useful purpose ", Writes Sir John Glubb (July 15) after failing to take his own advice. As I...

attitude adopted by the Egyptian government will lead to the realisation that, after all, Israel would be more useful as an ally than as a political scapegoat. The State of...

Sir: May I add a point or two to Mr Gadd's letter on easier murder? (July 15). The suggestion that the British people are turning with reduced compunction to the destruction of...

Sir: Last year sick claims fell by 17 per cent. I wonder if we are I fully aware of the significance of the fact that this matches the one per cent unemployment rise last. year...

From Mrs Joyce Mew Sir: Mr Dixon's truculent attitude (July 15) rather takes away from the high scientific tone.. However, truculence is one thing, misrepresentation quite...

Sir: I am naturally delighted by Bookbuyer's prediction (July 15) that the Abinger Edition of E. M. Forster will be "impeccably edited." But if anybody has been " prim " over...

Sir: In your issue of July I, Veronica Orme's rather dismal article about restaurant cooking has been given a rather inaccurate title — 'When Greasy Joan doth keel the pot.' The...

Sir: The lambasting of Sir Basil Spence, OM by Graham Greene, CH (July 15) appeared a petty case of 'the pot calling the kettle black.' Having, over the years, read a lot of...

The alcoholised ice lolly Pamela Vandyke Price Gastronomically, the British tend to rush to extremes. A combination of asceticism and excess that would have bewildered a...

The future of gold Nicholas Davenport It was observed last week that the price of gold on the free market jumped to its highest ever — $68f per ounce. It has risen nearly 50...

Young groover John Bentley, the take-over and break-up merchant, and Chairman of Barclays Securities, is having a little temporary difficulty with the National Film Finance...

Glynwed's growth appeal John Bull Selecting a share for a specific account is a dicey business made twice as difficult in an uncertain market. When there is a definite...

Away from the home front Nephew Wilde In the midst of last week's argeybargey of industrial unrest I felt the national newspaper printers all did us a service. How nice it was...

Those fighting to save the sport of kings from the ravages of the advertiser and his billboards, would not be at all pleased if the offending firms retreated from the...

Housing Homeless single people Frank Field The numbers of both young and old single homeless people have increased dramatically over the last few years. With growing...

Help for the aged Jef Smith Last week I went on an old people's outing. It didn't actually rain, it's true, but when at the end of the afternoon I reported to the hotel where...

• • . and disabled C ust os One of the most important pieces of social legislation during this Parliament has been the attendance allowances for severely disabled people. At the...

When Mr Enoch Powell was Minister of Health he developed the interesting hypothesis that the demand for medical care was for practical purposes infinite. Attempts to improve the...

Cruise ships Carol Wright Britons, those salty rulers of the waves, do not seem quite so eager to come to close quarters with that watery element when they go on cruises....