Recant! Recant!' I n the week of local elections in which Conservatives were said to be trailing 20 percentage points behind the Labour Party and were expected to lose up to 400...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 THE SUCCESS OF POLL TAX M rs Thatcher's operation on local government has...

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When too many minders may spoil the message NOEL MALCOLM T he news that several senior advertis- ing executives are to act as 'minders' to government ministers will be greeted...

A.N. WILSON I t was in this column that I was made crown prince of the Young Fogeys by Alan Watkins — what? nearly ten years ago. Not so young and not so fogey now. It makes me...

The only salvation is to dump Thatcher and restore the rates AUBERON WAUGH W hen I suspended my service to Spectator readers four months ago, I had the impression that mine...

Damian Thompson on the styles of worship favoured by the Royal Family, and the reluctance of the future head of the Church to attend his local one If you want to know about...

OUR $325 BILLION? Michael Milken is only part of a much bigger financial scandal, argues James Bowman Washington WHERE are we to seek for the truth about Michael Milken, who...

Peter Kemp returns to the province of Kosovo, four decades on TO SERBS there were not Fifteen Deci- sive Battles of the World, but only one: Kosovo, where in 1389 the Ottoman...

Anne Applebaum reveals the dangers of privatisation in Poland and Hungary Warsaw IN THE impeccable lounge of the Budapest trade centre, a pleasant lady named Eva places...

of fishing and walking in the Catskills Livingston Manor, New York SOMETIMES in the evening, when I'd fished the Willowemoc river in New York State for hours without catching...

Graham Lord, returning after 30 years to Mozambique, finds that only the sun and stars have not changed for the worse WHEN MOZAMBIQUE was named the most miserable country on...

Michael Heath

ON Friday, April 25th, a special jury gave Mr Sala, the veteran journalist, a verdict for £5 in his slander action against Mr Furniss, the caricaturist. In an "after-supper...

Sandra Barwick draws the real lessons from the Court of Appeal's argument with Tom King 'THANKS very much, justice has been done' cried John McCann as he heard the Court of...

Harry Phibbs reports on English societies which continue to support the ailing communist cause POLITICAL changes in Eastern Europe are being viewed with dismay by the...

Rory Knight Bruce is savaged in style by a stately rottweiler FOR almost a week now I have taken an exceptional interest in the registration of dogs. Its defeat, albeit...

The media: Paul Johnson deplores attempts to censor opinions on sex and race BENITO Mussolini was a Marxist, once highly commended by Lenin, and the fascism he founded was...

28 April) believes that the pro-life movement considers that the destruction of the human embryo results in the destruction of human babies, i.e. hu- man life. A little of their...

Sir: I was profoundly grateful to Ferdinand Mount for his most generous and kind references to my history of the Gallipoli campaign (Churchill capsized, 14 April) in his...

Sir: Professor Winston is quite right. I was indeed wrong-footed when my article querying the value of human embryo re- search appeared on the same day as the exciting news of...

Sir: Anthony Howard's telephone difficul- ties (Diary, 31 March) remind me of my early days in Lagos where the combination of delightful pidgin and literal interpreta- tion...

Sir: Your attack on Mr Norman Tebbit' (Leading article, 28 April) was an utter disgrace. To attribute to such a disting- uished parliamentarian — and such a very brave man — the...

Sir: May I briefly comment on the remarks about Austria contained in Mr Paul John- son's article `Should we try Nazis?' (The media, 31 March) because they need some clarifying...

reality (Letters, 28 April). Most black men I met in Pentonville would much rather rape Paul Johnson than Ms Koenig. Taki 123 East 71st Street, New York, USA

Sir: Paul Johnson tells us (The press, 21 April) that `a woman would prefer to be raped by a man of her own race'. Well I hadn't thought about the subject in quite those terms...

Sir: My modest persona being naturally More precious to me than my little book, I could hardly help noticing that of the two facts cited as a basis for observations about me,...

No possible doubt whatever Eric Christiansen LUTHER: MAN BETWEEN GOD AND THE DEVIL by Heiko A. Oberman, translated by Eileen Walliser-Schwartzbart Yale University Press,...

Robert Silver THE BATTLE OF FRANCE 1940 by Philip Warner Simon & Schuster, £16, pp. 249 T he fall of France in 1940 has a telling fascination for connoisseurs of the collapse...

were shy and made love by degrees. By kiss and invitation we learnt how Our love was growing. You know few of these Tokens and little gifts, the gaze of eye To eye, the hand...

John Zametica ICEBREAKER: WHO STARTED THE SECOND WORLD WAR? by Viktor Suvorov, translated by Thomas B. Beattie Hamish Hamilton, ,(16.99, pp.364 I magine that you are Stalin....

Michael Horovitz WHEN DREAMS ARE IN THE DUST by Ken Colyer Ken Colyer Trust, £13, pp. 264 T his autobiography of Ken Colyer ( 1 928-88), undisputed `Guv'nor' of tradi- tional...

Richard Ingrams TOM DRIBERG by Francis Wheen Chatto, f18, pp.452 A t the age of 19 Tom Driberg visited Italy with his mother. At Portofino he climbed the lighthouse where he...

I never pictured you in white until the day you waved goodbye, framed in the window with a leaving smile, caught in the net curtain like a bride. Don Rodgers

Molly Keane WALLED GARDENS: SCENES FROM AN ANGLO-IRISH CHILDHOOD by Annabel Davis-Goff Barrie & Jenkins, £14.95, pp.272 I nherited houses and their estates be- come almost...

Yeats belongs to the nation, nay, to mankind! The Irish sell more shamrocks with his fame. Scholars of all shades grub the world to find facts that mean money in the Eng. Lit....

Byron Rogers BEYOND THE FRINGE. . .AND BEYOND by Ronald Bergan Virgin, £12.95, pp. 320 G iggling, unlike sexual intercourse which came a little later, began in 1960. There...

Opera How to make friends Rodney Milnes La Cenerentola (Covent Garden) T his is going to be a difficult one. As is now well known amongst the chattering classes, three weeks...

John Ward: a Retrospective (Thos. Agnew, till 24 May) John Ward: Recent Work (Maas Gallery, till 11 May) An educated hand Giles Auty H ow rare it is on one's critical rounds...

The Seventies strike back Marcus Berkmann L ike any business dominated by ageing marketing men in satin tour jackets, pop music is fond of its jargon. My favourite has always...

The School for Scandal (Olivier) The Awakening (Hampstead) Genial malice Christopher Edwards H ow do the English prefer their wit: cynical and worldly a la Wycherley and...

All together, lads . . . Martin Cropper A t the end of the day', said the young man in the suit, 'we've just got to go out there and play our game.' Eight hours later, now in...

Ladies first Taki ellesley College is an expensive, Waspish place of learning for young women, but one which has obviously failed the 150 morons who signed a petition to...

The eerie English Zenga Longmore I t is surprising the people one meets when wheeling a baby through Brixton. Only last week in Electric Avenue, Oma- lara, now nine months...

Home improvements Jeffrey Bernard I am not quite sure what has come over me. This is a far cry from the attic in Covent Garden. There is a glass coffee table here and I have...

Manila Bay; Napoleon's victory at Lutzen; Belle Helene was produced in 1864, leaving a trail of dishes in its wake: tournedos resting on artichoke hearts filled with sauce bear-...

12 YEAlt OLD SCOTCH WHISKY 12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY After Henry Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1623 you were in- vited to incorporate into a poem or piece of prose the words...

Lupercalia Raymond Keene O ne of the pleasures of the category 11 City of London Grandmaster Tourna- ment sponsored jointly by the Corporation and City solicitors Watson,...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

—Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller.' De la Mare's famous first line could easily lead to a rather different story featuring a rather different sort of traveller....

F T I AI El NIT Orbrk .1_ K ASCON 'El A M N O U s T(E u V. E I�LI ELI E T.LEI ul T A D Y I A R A N T 1 .. E VI B C I E A I. A p T . A C T C I 0 A LI I L11 3 1,A, o m i A s u...

Culture clash Frank Keating I t was, at last, a heartening rugby union season. The England XV swankily played two really grand games, but Scotland, heroically, the grandest....