The Queen's speech from the throne in the House of Lords outlined a programme of Tory reform which will be widely welcomed; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, speaking to the...

The vote in the House of Commons in favour of the principle of acceding to the Treaty of Rome can be construed, and will be by some so construed, as a demonstration of that...

Hugh Macpherson Nothing concentrates the constitutional mind at Westminster more effectively than the prospect of a major defeat on the floor of the Commons. That is what the...

It was at one and the same time both s addening and heartening to read Sir Max Aitken in last Saturday's Daily Express declaring that "with Mr Heath's drive and determination "...

Long Kesh John Graham Belfast There is at least one similarity between the British Army efforts in Northern Ireland and the Vietnam fiasco: the British are stuck with the...

Balancing act Kuldip Nayar New Delki Outside Mrs Indira Gandhi's residence, a traffic island has been barricaded to make room for the people's rallies. These rallies have...

Aram Bakshian, Jr Washington The recent furore over Senator Edward Kennedy's meddling in the unhappy Ulster situation has received far more attention overseas than here in...

In defence of universities Rhodes Boyson Edward Short, MP, wrote an article in Education and Training quite recently recommending that universities should open their doors to...

Montgomery Hyde on cold war diplomacy When Averell Harriman set out for Moscow with Lord Beaverbrook on P resident Roosevelt's instructions in 1941 tO discuss Russia's supply...

Auberon Waugh Onward Virgin Soldiers Leslie Thomas (Michael Joseph £2) What, I wonder, are the ethics of writing a violently unpleasant review at considerable length about a...

G. R. Elton The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society A. L. Rowse (Macmillan £3.50) Sixteen years ago Dr Rowse published the second volume of his trilogy on the age...

James Blish The Occult Colin Wilson (Hodder and Stoughton £4.50) The number of new books, reprints, magazine articles and TV hours devoted to witchcraft, black magic and other...

Nicholas Richardson The Warsaw Document Adam Hall (Heinemann £2.00) The Blind Side Francis Clifford (Hodder and Stoughton £1.50) Somewhere in England Reg GadneY (Heinemann...

That Ne'er Shall Meet Again: Rossetti , Millais, Hunt. G. H. Fleming (Michae l Joseph £6) "The rings under the eyes," wrote Octave Mirbeau, " . . are unique in the whole history...

Best Bacon Sheldon Williams. "Nothing really happened in the arts after 1930. If somebody offered me a Bacon, I would rather have a painting by Munch," said the dealer, his...

Show of shows Kenneth Hurren The Casino du Liban, which is about fifteen miles out of Beirut on a hill overlooking the Bay of Jounieh, has had the sole gaming concession in...

Irish airs Rodney Milnes There was an extra air of fantasy at this year's Wexford festival, what with locals and visitors togging up to go to the opera while not that many...

Nearly new To Palmer The Grissom Gang ('X' Carlton, Haymarket) is what you might call a modern cops-and-robbers, except that it is set in the prohibition era. Small-time...

Viva Verdi! Hugh Macpherson To listen on successive evenings to a goodly part of The Force of Destiny at the Coliseum, followed by Covent Garden's justly renowned Falstaff is...

Right direction Robin Young No one programme in a place like the Royal Opera House could vindicate anybody's appointment as artistic director. By the same token, I hold them...

While Alexei Kosygin was allowing himself to be dolled up in Red Indian feathers last week, his fellow Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, was doing his best to add a more seemly...

Sir: Now that the last sentences of the great debate lie spent amongst their predecessors, it is Pertinent to ask one question about the speeches Made. Why was nobody at...

Sir: Mr Ernst Wistrich, of the European Movement, informs us (Letters, October 30) of the important fact that he came to this country from Poland, not as a refugee, but to...

knowing it to be against the will of the people the Government, aided and abetted by Parliament, has declared its intention of perpetrating an abuse iof power of a magnitude...

Sir: Your leading article 'Direct Rule Now' (October 30) gave excellent reasons for direct rule of Northern Ireland by Westminster. I am sorry that your argument was not...

but I stand by my opinions and specifically reject ' direct rule' as politically impracticable. So long as Northern Ireland remains a semi-detached part of the UK, the IRA...

Sir Dr J. Rowan Wilson seems to have a chip on his shoulder about GPs. In fact the latter, by vetting patients for sick certificates and for the two-to-three months waiting list...

From Dr F. H. Hansford-Miller Sir: At a time when soldiers and civilians are being killed in Northern Ireland, and on the morrow of an historic decision by Parliament to join...

From Dr J. L. Insley Sir: Carefully not being snide, Mr I.. Clarke's (October 16) " official " death rate is still more than my official notifications of kwashiorkor for 1969....

From Lieut-Col H. R. Petty (Retd.) Sir: Your leading article "Siding with India" is one-sided and mischievous. You seem to ignore the fact that India, by encouraging rebellion...

Sir In, his review of An Accidental Man (October 23) Auberon Waugh writes that this work " marks Miss Murdoch's debut as a humorist." May I suggest that he reads Under the Net....

Sir: I could have foretold that Auberon Waugh would belittle J. B. Priestley whenever he had occasion to mention him: he is that sort of person. However, as an admirer of both...

Sir: Mr Anthony Lejeune in his article on EEC (October 30) with all the benefit of hindsight advises Mt Wilson that his best course of action would have been to call for a...

Sir: We do, of course, applaud the opening paragraph of Skinflint's City Diary (October 9) but We must point out that when the drY rot work was originally carried out we did our...

Wall Street blues Nicholas Davenport What on earth has happened to Wall Street? After the few heady days in August when President Nixon announced his new protectionism and...

Not so long ago the prospect of a Saturday at the races involved a Friday night of sleepless excitement, precariously dependent on the English climate, as even my powers of...

Poor, brave Sir Max Aitken has fallen in with the wishes of trimming politicians in the matter of the EEC and forgotten what Samuel Johnson said about people who change their...

My own belief is that if only somebodY were to discover a pair of Shakespeare's underpants, or a photograph of his bedroom the morning after the night before, the Baconian...

"The first thing I was entered at was snaring rats, which gave me the greatest enjoyment. There was a very fine show of this vermin and my father promised to give me a penny for...