Politics Old world charm Brighiton At the end of the TUC's 'breaking the. law' debate, Mr Mick McGahev spoke. 'Unlike the last speaker,' he said, l want to talk about trade...

Heath-Walker Readcrs of a competitive cast of mind, or anxious to lay hands on £1.)000, will find this Note of no interest. An organisation called Roots, which stands for...

Poor genitive New genitival constructions have the power to shock: there is that much to be said for them. When at the TUC conference Ray Buckton uttered the phrase, of which...

Notes obert Maxwell's latest stunt suggested .a real million-pound question: What the miners and the Coal Board talk about when they finally do start talking'? The strike has...

Saving faces B ut all is not lost - which is to sav that to ht Still could be. Mr Scargill will claim t have Won an overwhelmingg victorN there ir the strike ends: in that...

Bring back Latin The disappointing moderation of the Vatican's document on liberation theology, issued earlier this week, is indicated by the almost inaudible response it has...

Another voice Toilets in the temple Auberon Waugh Nobodv has vet drawn a parallel hetween the behaviour of the trade union movement, as its usefulness and general appeal...

Diary N ot being an academic, or a celebrated novelist, or even a politician, I have Seldom got invited to any of those international conferences organised by American...

Mitterrand recoils Sam White PariS Having for a time outsmarted the opposition President Mitterrand has now succeeded in outsmarting himself. He has moved a long way...

Siebenburgen besieged Richard Bassett Transylvania ItIwould ~ ' ransylvanta WOukl be hard to find a more 1 Picturesque part of Eastern Europe than II nylvalia, even more...

Another Cyprus A. S. Faiz It is the recourse to bigotry. so cunningly used by Christopher Hitchens ( Aphrodite's airport'. 25 August) to advance a case - rather than the case...

Fleet Street's blind eye Dhiren Bhagat Southall If you rely on newspapers bor news you are unlikely to have heard this story. Over a month ago, the editor of a SFikh paper in...

Cricket Foreign powers Alan Gibson was not so depressed by the West Indies defeat as most critics seem to have been. fter all, the second, third and fifth Tests Were good...

Gorgeous Weston Gerda Cohen A hrcathle',s IiP d atcrnoon at Westonsupier-\lare. ebhing with the tired paticnt pr unnicr- Onto a wet, crimped wtildcrncvs ot mud A\wav on the...

Cit. vac. Wclcome September. as the noral V cast of thousands returns to a teo porarily dcpopulatcd City 'Theres' nO° porarl I~~o a mechant body here,' salid a scion1 ot a ugr...

Pound's psittacosis It is encouraging to learn, as a new Ifoothall scason starts, that parrots as a class are not sick. They survive. squawking and smelling, to commit...

Waggery A s a matter of fact. we have. Bache. the ANew York securities house. has set up a new stockbroking firm with some brokers from James Capel. Schroders has followed...

City and Dock Exchange W hat we need is a National Stocks Labour Scheme. This would provide stability of employment for the deserving rich. The stockbroking and stock jobbing...

The sandwich-board man Jock Bruce-Gardyne W ith the trade unions' annual display of fraternal frightfulness beside the Sea behind us, it back to work in carnest. Mr Peter...

Anecdotes {| Sir: I am editing the Oxford Book Of Military Anecdotes, one of those books which will eventually annoy all its readers by omitting each of their favourite stories...

Fitzgerald's past Sir: How come that your experienced contributor, Richard West, writing from Dublin, could get so many things wrong'? He has really run off the rails in his'...

Letters No squire Sir: We were interested to read Peregrine Worsthorne's thoughts (Diary, 25 August) on ways in which Wivenhoe residents might contain some of the nuisances...

Peking and China Sir: Without wanting to be pedantic, I should like to say that Geoffrey Wheat, croft seems to me essentially right about the Peking 'Beijing' issue despite...

Local bores Sir: Peter Levi could not be more mistaken in his belief that 'local news is the only interesting and deeply penetrating kind' (Television, 25 August). Regional...

De mortuis Sir: It is true that, before publishing the faults of famous people, writers often wait for them to die (Letters. 21 July). But this is surely not so much for fear...

South Yofkshife Sir: As Richard West admires the wishes of Tykes to preserve their sense of local identity (Arthur's seat', 25 August), I was dismayed that he kept referring to...

Centrepiece Betj eman' s paradise Colin Welch A bove the tiny sloping churchyard of St A Enodoc the Cornish wcather changelessly changes or often, in the manner of the old...

Books The Flying Doctor Fcrdinand Mount A F uture Ihat M ill W\ork I ).1I id ( )v. Ic] ( )0\N.s c hi'li ithal inc li casv ridc L Ittl\1. \W rice othcr politicians makc...

Nice new world Patrick Skene Catling The 2024 Report: a Concise History of the Future, 1974-2024 Norman Macrae (Sidgwick & Jackson f9.95) Futurologists have a vested interest...

Colditz revisited Alistair Horne Lean, Wind. Lean: a Few Ilimes Rememhered Dald.s~ Woillier (Collins '2.95)) Ih a-c to deciare an interest: I have known the author for many...

Job updated Francis King The Only Prob)lem Muriel Spark (B3odlcy Head £7.95) he 'only problem' of Muriel Spark's new novel is the problem of hum.an Suffering If (Ile believes...

Dark on dark Peregrine Horden About Rothko D)orc Ashton (OUI' £15) The painter Mark Rothko cotnnittcd T suicidc in 1 970. HIts posthumouselves nlaV OWC Iess to the paintings...

Rogue males Kathy O'Shaughnessy The Private World of Georgette Hever Jane Aiken Hodge (B3od1e'v Head i1(.95) G corgette Heyer's novels are usually found in the obscure,...

Arts A return to order Gavin Stamp A letter recently appeared in the Times Afrom Professor Colin St John Wilson denying a claim made by Mr Quinlan Terry, the architect, that...

Theatre Domestic Christopher Edwards Hamlet (Stratford) Ohio Impromptu, Catastrophe, What Where (Donmar Warehouse) Of all the productions of Hamlet I have seen this is the...

Opera Unfinished? Rodney Milnes Turandot (Covent Garden) The Flying Dutchman (Coliseum) n terms of staging, Puccini's last opera has been one of the most grotesquely...

Edinburgh Festival Round-up Alasdair Steven The Edinburgh Festival has been something of an unexpected success. The fact that it almost degenerated into a political football...

High life Dynasty Taki hcir story could have miade everY Tl-lollywood hack weep with CenVV It is set against all the glamour the lattcr part ( the 20th century can muster....

Postscript Worthy pioneer! P. J. Kavanagh Recently mentioning some exasperation at the breaking of a scythe (now, happily, restored) I was surprised to receive many kind...

Low life Wasted Jeffrey Bernard t here was a strange sort of a progression last Monday which was fairly typical of the wasted summer of 1984. My wasted Sulnmer anyway. In the...

N,-z!V-P% - j Hyper growth 4 Supermarkets project a particular kind of mystique - the mystique of inflation. They set out to stun with superlatives, the biggest, the cheapest,...