`This is the dirtiest election campaign I can remember.' A senior British diplomat in Iran, Mr Edward Chaplin, was beaten up and abducted while driving with his family in a...

ON MONDAY, the Independent had a great success. It published the prospectus of a specialist company, Saltire Insurance. If it can build on this, it will gain huge advertising...

TALKING MORALS W hen he became leader of the Labour Party, Mr Neil Kinnock spoke of the overriding need to win. This need was so pressing, he said, that it must take prece-...

The need for a lack of style in politics FE RDINAND MOUNT T he only poster to be stuck on our lamp-posts so far says 'LOST — small neutered ginger tom cat'. This may of course...

JUDY STEEL T he beginning of canvassing. I choose the large village of St Boswells, regarded as a Tory stronghold although the truth is that it returns a Liberal vote of 50 per...

A refuge from the Yorkshire Brezhnev and his Manchurian henchman AUBERON WAUGH B ored and disgusted by the general election here, I have taken refuge in the election which has...

THE POWER OF ENGLAND'S EVITA Women politicians can make the television work for them in a dangerous way. Alexandra Artley watches the cameras watching Mrs Thatcher UNTIL...

THE TORIES PULL AHEAD Our opinion poll reveals in the race for Cambridge THE Spectator's choice of Cambridge as one of the most interesting parliamentary seats to watch in...

out by the Harris Research Centre between 30 May and 1 June. Interviews were conducted with 832 voters in the Cambridge city consti- tuency. Of these 49 per cent are male, 51...

1 Freaks (i) Which two living people have stood for Parliament most often? (ii) What unique distinction in post-war politics is shared by Tony Benn and the Sinn Fein member...

MR Gladstone made on Thursday a journey through Wales to Swansea, which his followers hope will excite enthusiasm though the country. He was received at the different stations...

BROWNED OFF BY SCANDAL Richard West on reactions to the divorce of the Tory MP for Winchester Winchester OUR ancient capital has not enjoyed such juicy scandal since Thomas...

HOW I AM GOING TO VOTE A selection of reasons for action — or inaction - on polling day John Aspinall: I will certainly vote Con- servative as I always have. I would particu-...

THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA Michael Trend speculates on David Owen's Conservative future if the Alliance fails next week THE first of the Alliance's daily press conferences in...

TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER WRITER Andrew Gimson talks to the chief propagandists of the Sun and the Mirror Holborn Circus/Wapping TO WHAT extent newspapers persuade voters to...

QUAINT, BOSSY OR EDGY The press: Paul Johnson finds party clues in the campaign news conferences THE morning press conferences give one the best glimpse into the varying...

Bohdan Nahaylo reports how Gorbachev is turning a stunt to political advantage THE sheer audacity of Mathias Rust's penetration of the Soviet Union's elabo- rate air defences...

Charles Glass reports the Lebanese reaction to the death of a Prime Minister Beirut THE rumour preceded the news by only a few minutes. `Have you heard?' a friend asked, as he...

Nicholas Garland compares Bernhard Goetz's shootings to his own moment of violence HEARING the story of Bernhard Goetz shooting down four muggers on the New York subway, my...

Win a trip for two to Geneva Guess the number of seats won by each of the major parties at the coming election — and you could win two first-class seats to Geneva on Swissair....

Gondolas for seven and a giant photo-call JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE rs Margaret Thatcher is not one of nature's summiteers. Harold Macmillan relished the theatricality of these grand...

The Tories' necessary clever man finds his natural habitat CHRISTOPHER FILDES S ays the Chancellor of the Exchequer: You see me in my natural habitat neither City nor...

Sir: Edgar Palamountain (Letters, 30 May) who usually advocates the cause of wider share ownership is misguided in his de- fence of rights issues. As a small shareholder I have...

Sir: A.L.Rowse is being less than fair to Yorkshire in his article 'The beastliest in the realm' (23 May). Yorkshire has come in for a lot of stick lately, but undeserved...

Sir: I am glad to know that I am not the only victim of the inefficiency and arro- gance of British Telecom (Letters, 30 May). My telephone was out of order for a month during...

will appear on 20 June

Sir: I made clear to your reporter (Tolling the pundits', 30 May), not once but twice, that my prediction (Conservatives first but short of 326, Labour second) did not entail...

Hare brained Sir: David Hare (Why I shall vote Labour', 23 May) has quite a number of reasons for voting for a collectivist party. Most are pretty silly, but I would like to...

shit like Hare, at a time like this, heaven alone knows! One meets people like him all over the world who sneer at patriotism and courage and decency and who would run a mile...

Rarely pure and never simple Ludovic Kennedy STALKER: THE SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH by Peter Taylor Faber, f4.95 T he eponymous subject of this book was, until March of this...

Anita Brookner HLUEBEARD'S EGG by Margaret Atwood Cape, £10.95 THE GARDEN OF THE VILLA MOLLINI by Rose Tremain Hamish Hamilton, £9.95 C anadian women writers seem to be...

go home again Jeremy Lewis THE GOLDEN ORIOLE: CHILDHOOD, FAMILY AND FRIENDS IN INDIA by Raleigh Trevelyan Secker & Warburg, £16.95 A s a child who was brought up in India...

bear William Waldegrave SAM PATCH: A BALLAD OF A JUMPING MAN by William Getz Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £10.95 have always been a sucker for bears in books. Baloo and Ernest...

Harriet Waugh STRAY by A. N. Wilson Walker Books, £8.95 V isit any bookshop and look at the Cat, Dog and Horse Section. Man's best friends are big business. Although many of...

Waugh on 23 May, is Talking to Strange Men, published by Hutchinson at £10.95.

Anthony Daniels THE RED DEAN by Robert Hughes Churchman Publishing, f17.95 W hen my father was courting my mother, he used to read her Engels' Anti - Duhring, Nevertheless, she...

Michael Horovitz COLLECTED POEMS by Adrian Henri Allison & Busby, f12.95, £6.95 MELTING INTO THE FOREGROUND by Roger McGough Viking, £6.95 GARGLING WITH JELLY by Brian...

What is my name? My name is Sleep-all-night Oblivious of the battering wind, the moon With its shrill flood of silver. The house rattles; I rattle too, but sleep; or wake, and...

Robert Silver BLUNDERING INTO DISASTER: SURVIVING THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE NUCLEAR AGE by Robert McNamara Bloomsbury, £12.95 n 1962, Robert McNamara was Presi- dent Kennedy's...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - Save 15% on the Cover Price! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for £ (Equivalent $US & Eurocheques accepted) RATES 12...

Photography Ansel Adams (Barbican, till 19 July) Pictorial virtues Francis Hodgson T hree years after his death, Ansel Adams is in no obscurity. His prints are the most...

My Sister in This House (Hampstead) Blood sisters Christopher Edwards W endy Kesselman's play is based upon the same notorious French murder case of 1933 that inspired Jean...

Awaiting developments Rodney Whines G lyndebourne's new Traviata has been scurvily and I think a little unfairly received by the press. Anyone could see what might or might...

May mysteries Giles Auty A fortnight ago, watching rain pound my garden for the fifth consecutive day, I was struck by a minor mystery. How is it that gnats, whose...

That's Life (15', Cannon Shaftesbury Avenue) Mortal glue Hilary Mantel Et crating Hollywood for self- indulgence is — as people say nowadays like slagging off the Pope for...

Missing answers Wendy Cope E veryone's fed up with it,' said Lynne, as she cut my hair. 'They're chang- ing channels to avoid it. They're renting videos. Nobody's watching...

Tailor unmade Taki A supervisor — not a screw — wearing a white medical jacket, showed the newcom- ers how to work the machine, handed us some jackets, and told us the quota...

Front-line bulletin Alice Thomas Ellis I may have said this before and if I haven't it is probable that somebody else has, s o if you think you're going to be bored just skip...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £13.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first...

Lost worlds Raymond Keene S urprising things have gone astray from the annals of chess. The great Akiba Rubinstein beat Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine the first time he...

Ta to to Jaspistos I N Competition No. 1474 you were invited to supply a thank-you letter to a thank-you letter and also the reply to it. Someone once told me that truly...

t THERE seems to be an enormous amount of asparagus in the markets this year, of every size and very reasonably priced for once. I particularly like the thin little ones called...

The labels of manufacturers (of shampoo and toothpaste especially) are prone to describe their products in extravagant and pseudo-scientific language. You are invited to provide...

the names of w lnus Winners: J. W. Leonard, Sutton Courtenay, Oxon (£20); J. A. Adamson, Uttoxeter; C. Taylor, Northwich. 0 I N T R L L F o 111 A N 0 T EM 0 MEUEIRS*OHN t....