12 AUGUST 1972

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Political Commentary

The Spectator

Off on the summer holidays Hugh Macpherson It is quite appropriate that this Parliament should finish with a hellish inferno of noise as workmen swarm round Palace Yard...

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A Spectator's Notebook

The Spectator

New means worse. This occurred to me When taking a taxi through the Covent Garden area a day or two ago. Some of the low market buildings are very pleasant and should not be...

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The American scene

The Spectator

Vice-Presidents Denis Brogan I have been contemplating the current American presidential election with a very mixed kind of interest. I first began to study this great...

The London scene

The Spectator

Yanks in town Minette Marrin Taxi drivers, pub owners, and souvenir salesmen all agree — Americans are meaner than before, and they have started counting their change. 1972...

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Corridors . .

The Spectator

PUZZLE SOMETIMES wonders which eight MPs he would take with him to a desert island — always, of course, excepting the Speaker and the Official Solicitor. For a start' he would...

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REVIEW F BOOKS

The Spectator

Reviews by Myles Raven, F. S. L. Lyons, Tony Palmer, Maurice Zinkin and Auberon Waugh Shirley Robin Letwin on the case for and against Cicero Shackleton Bailey's Cicero* has...

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Having it both ways

The Spectator

Auberon Waugh Hermaphrodeity Alan Friedman (Cape £2.95) The Ewings John O'Hare (Hodder and Stoughton £2.25) Publishers are coming round to the view that what the reading public...

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Cricket on the hearth

The Spectator

Myles Raven Fingleton on Cricket Jack Fingleton (Collins £2.75) Jack Fingleton is a political and sporting journalist, and he was, in his time, a professionitl cricketer of the...

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Death of a civilisation

The Spectator

F. S. L. Lyons The Anglo - Irish Terence de Vere White (Gollancz £4.00) During the truce — the real truce of 1921, not the sad parody of 1972 — Lloyd George remarked that...

Way out in the west

The Spectator

Tony Palmer In the Future Now Michael Davie (Hamish Hamilton £3.00) This is a dangerous book, not just because it is occasionally inaccurate but more importantly because it is...

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Television

The Spectator

Rents and roads Clive Gammon An instructive contrast on Monday evening, with World in Action (ITV) clashing with Panorama (BBC 1) in more senses than one, in the former, the...

Cinema

The Spectator

Below the belt Christopher Hudson After spaghetti Westerns come blackass thrillers, so called because their dialogue has a coprophiliac monotony even Luther would have found...

Superstar in camera

The Spectator

Henry Adler Funny things happened on the way to Golgotha. I can rebut the sneers •of those (ungraced by the enthusiasm of the archbishops and Harold Hobson) who do not seem to...

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History

The Spectator

Truth into art Benny Green The recent unveiling of Richard Attenborough's cinematic Churchill portrait has not been without its excitements. On the day after the premiere, the...

Will Waspe

The Spectator

Not everything has been roses for Robert Stigwood with his very hot property, Jesus Christ Superstar. A fair amount of the global profit has gone into lawyers' fees in bringing...

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The war

The Spectator

Poor little bastards of Vietnam Marina Warner Contraceptives are available free in the PX stores of the US army, but it only needs one glance at the cots in the ramshackle...

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Juliette's Weekly Frolic

The Spectator

At Nawbury last year Noel Murless turned out four winners, netted £8,000 plus and now has some intriguing prospects in store for his three-year-old colts, Redundant, The Admiral...

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Jews and Arabs

The Spectator

Sir: One of the most disgusting features in Mr David M. Jacobs's remarks — to use his own style — is his way of answering facts with misleading and unfounded generalisations....

Deep red?

The Spectator

Sir: Could your correspondent Mr K. T. Moore of Ilford (August 5) please explain his reasons for describing Willy Brandt — who, as Lord Mayor of West Berlin, showed immense...

Government &unions

The Spectator

Sir: The Government has now taken emergency powers to ensure that essential services and supplies are maintained whilst the dock strike lasts. But what do these emergency powers...

National crisis

The Spectator

Sir: Your leader Mr Heath's national crisis' (July 29) proposes remedies which Mr Heath is as likely to take as he is to give his yacht to Oxfam. You rightly say that the public...

Social therapy

The Spectator

Sir: One does not have to be a psychotherapist to detect the note of criticism in Jef Smith's reference to the meeting called by social workers to explore the place of...

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Striking oil

The Spectator

Sir: In June I borrowed from the library a detective story, French Strikes On, written twenty years ago by the late Freeman Wills Crofts. I assumed the title to be purely...

First-class mind

The Spectator

Sir: Simply for the record, I correct a mistake of your (by me unheard of) reviewer (Christopher Hudson, July 22): the editor of the Cornish anthology in question was anxious...

Many apologies

The Spectator

Sir: In a recent letter about ILEA, Which you recently published, I made a factual error about Mr Peter Newsam, the Deputy Educa tion Officer of ILEA. Mr Peter Newsam took a...

Russian dissent

The Spectator

Sir: I think that a true broad generalisation can be derived from Tibor Szamuely's exemplarily lucid review of the liberalist-intellectual position in Russia, (July 22). It is...

Sir: I am not quite clear what Mr Tibor Szamuely

The Spectator

is trying to say in his article, 'The future of Soviet dissent' (July 221. On the one hand, he says that the Soviet dissenters are the intelligentsia, the ' elite' of Russia,...

Defending Canute

The Spectator

Sir: Many a man is remembered for little more than a single deed; but was such a deed ever so frequently misrepresented? And was the reputation of such a man ever so...

After direct rule

The Spectator

Sir: You may recall that I was distinctly unenthusiastic about your Direct Rule campaign some months ago. Events have proved me right and Ulster is even worse off without...

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Country life

The Spectator

Gooseberry fool Peter Quince Ever since our cat grew too old and lethargic to patrol the garden with her natural ferocity, the place has come more and more to resemble an...

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MONEY AND THE CITY

The Spectator

The phoney peace Nicholas Davenport When the boys at Westminster break up for their summer holidays there is always a sigh of relief in Throgmorton Street. The stock markets...

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Skinflint's City Diary

The Spectator

In The Spectator of July 15 I suggested that new Embassies might be built as British Commercial Centres on the outskirts of capital cities. These centres would be permanent...

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Account gamble

The Spectator

Good prospects John Bull I am sure that if a Gallup Poll were taken to see which housewives had the most sleepless nights it would show them to be the spouses of stock market...

Portfolio

The Spectator

Hitting the gold trail Nephew Wilde My broker, Wotherspool and 1 had a brief reconciliation last week_ In order to bring myself up to date With the present climate of a...

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WELFARE STATE

The Spectator

Mental health What are psychiatrists doing? Anthony Clare Recently I attended the recording of a televised debate, to be shown on BBC 2 this autumn, in which the American...

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Society

The Spectator

The stand-by call-out hang-up Jef Smith First let me explain the terminology. Most social services departments work office hours. Between 5 o'clock on Friday and 9 o'clock on...

Socialities

The Spectator

Free milk Custos Are all poor families receiving their tight to free welfare milk? A report received by Custos this week gives cause for concern. All children under five in...

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Science

The Spectator

A step forward Bernard Dixon John Maddox, editor of that august organ of science Nature, did something remarkable last week. He published a research report by a group of...