12 JANUARY 1974

Page 1

Peril after Faulkner

The Spectator

The resignation of Mr Brain Faulkner as leader of the Unionist Party in Ulster, though predicted, is deeply to be regretted. Whether he can now sustain his position as head of...

Page 3

War on porn

The Spectator

The extensive series of arrests carried out in London last week should remove any lingering doubts about the seriousness with which the Government takes its newly accepted task...

Liberal silence

The Spectator

It has not taken Mr Cyril Smith, the redoubtable Liberal member for Rochdale, long to !zlemonstrate to the press how wrong they were in deciding to cast him in the role of that...

Israel divided

The Spectator

With uncharacteristic lack of decisiveness, the Israeli electorate has piled up more problems for its own future by declining to give a clear mandate to any of the groups...

Page 4

Military coup?

The Spectator

Sir: So, according to Mr Cosgrave (December 22), who is voicing both his own belief and that of others, a group, perhaps, Britain is heading for a military dictatorship, or...

Sir: I do not know how serious Patrick Cosgrave or

The Spectator

his colleague are or were in suggesting (December 22) that the existing Parliament might be extended to avoid holding a general election; but if the Government were to introduce...

A year of Europe

The Spectator

Sir: The folly of EEC membership for us in the British Isles. I wish to congratulate The Spectator on its consistent opposition to Britain's membership of this quite unsuitable...

Museum charges

The Spectator

Sir: This is a sad day for the children of our country. Today we take away from already deprived and underprivileged children much of the wonderment which belongs only to...

Waugh memorial

The Spectator

Sir: Bookbuyer's piece on The Auberon Waugh Memorial Prize (December 22) which I was very glad to see — contained, as usual, a couple of his endearing errors. The name of my...

Herculean task

The Spectator

From: Lt. Commander Noel PaulleY Sir: It is doubtful if our country has been worse governed this century; Having debauched the currency an reduced its purchasing power to ah...

Students and politics

The Spectator

Sir: Although Mr Paul Bard (December 8) may suspect Dr B0Ys° 1 of a red-neck conspiracy again% students it is difficult to find h l r , reasons for believing that Dr BoYsh,,:;...

Page 5

Controlled inflation?

The Spectator

Sir: You were good enough, some Months ago, to print two or three letfr's of mine which argued that inflation and deflation can be controlled. at Will be varying the supply of...

Nediterranean winter

The Spectator

'Sir: I enjoy Mr Beverley Nichols's l a ) triusing column, but I think he has een misled about Mediterranean Weather (November 24). People looking for sun in winter should...

No hanging matter

The Spectator

,From: Major D. C. Hawley. Sir: While I hesitate to detract from Bill Grundy's admirable piece on the Lobby system (December 22) he might like to know that arson in Her...

Spiritual sanity

The Spectator

Sir: I should like to thank you for the front page article 'Christmas lamentations' (December 22). The Spiritual sanity of its message is absolutely to the point, and it is so...

Page 6

A Spectator's Notebook

The Spectator

The French have a saying that to govern is to foresee. By this standard we have no governors. Other essential qualities in any Cabinet are sensitive political antennae and...

Page 7

Political Commentary

The Spectator

The General Election Show I l atrick Cosgrave In the last week — and particularly since the announcement of a recall of Parliament, not to mention Lord Carrington's somewhat...

Page 8

Middle East Diplomacy

The Spectator

Ganging up against Israel Lionel Gelber Israel may have been taken by surprise when Arab states attacked her on the Day of Atonement, October 6, 1973, but in their behaviour,...

GULLIVER

The Spectator

Dtiri hi ly TrelVelS .111 the Orient, I observed tiat rici Mit of titosc well-eouttuetect Resions are conveyed, from Place ft, Pim& in small Csrls, called Ruk - Sliatts,pullott...

Page 9

Breaking the bank

The Spectator

It is reported that in the present economic troubles there has been a notable decline in bank robberies For this at least be thanks Bank-robbers lose their jobs. The reason is...

Page 10

Defence

The Spectator

Only the navy David W. Wragg Social service spending is the sacred cow of our society, demanding not only regula r increases but increases of such a high order that they can...

Page 11

Maplin

The Spectator

Welcome delay for re-think Russell Lewis In the present state of financial stringency the C overnment's decision last October to postP°rie the Maplin development for two years...

Page 12

Sir Denis Brogan

The Spectator

The death of Sir Denis Brogan deeply distressed all his friends and admirers in journalistic, academic and many other circles. A renowned expert on American and French history,...

Public ownership

The Spectator

Labour's new plans Michael Hatfield The reason why Labour's vaguely termed moderates have conspicuously failed to stand up and be counted, the cynical theory has it, is...

Page 13

Yachting

The Spectator

Boat Show blues Oliver Stewart For studying the commercial results of this Year's boat show the final figures must be awaited. Great feats were certainly performed in...

Westminster Corridors

The Spectator

"Parliament had doused its light, For the feast of Yu-ell, When Toniben came into sight Gathering winter fu-ell." Thus carolling moodily away, Puzzle remembered that Parliament...

Page 14

Education

The Spectator

Law and order in the schools Rhodes Boyson The attentive observer of our social and educational scene have noted the coincidence 01 timing between the suicide of Tina Wilson...

Page 15

Religion

The Spectator

Voice from the past Martin Sullivan "I have in my dining room a good contemporary portrait of Donne, the poet and Dean of St Paul's from 1621 to 1631. It is not the face of an...

Medicine

The Spectator

Terminal tact John Linklater A hundred years ago when medicine was taught largely by apprenticeship and when the functions of the body were still • being imperfectly...

Page 16

The Good Life

The Spectator

Sung, though not honoured Pamela Vandyke Price During the darker of my school days I would try and hope that the grown-up world wasn't whollY dominated by f . . fools and ih ....

Page 17

Country Life

The Spectator

Cold comfort Peter Quince It is always a relief when a spell of damp, muddy weather suddenly gives way to days of hard frost and clear skies. The most tolerant of us grow...

Page 18

REVIEW OF BOOKS

The Spectator

Richard Luckett on the aesthete who became a saint In one of his Godly Discourses Spit - en Kierkegaard explores Christ's injunction to "consider the lilies of the field." The...

Page 19

Salad days

The Spectator

Peter A ckr oyd O li a.Ys Eva Figes (Faber and Faber £2.25) Mirror Harriet Waugh (Weidenfeld Nicholson £2.50) Lae Death of Attila Cecelia Holland (Hodder ti Stoughton £2.50)...

Page 20

Amateur history

The Spectator

A.L.Rowse Queen Katherine Parr Anthony Martienssen (Secker and Warburg 0.75) It is a symptom of the time that reading — and writing — history is so popular. And, indeed, what...

The national health

The Spectator

William Sargant Ritual in Industrial Society. A Sociolog ic analysis of ritualism in modern Engl a % Robert Bocock. (George Allen and VIV I-. £4.00). This may or may not be a...

Page 21

Graves of academe

The Spectator

Angus Wilson 'Wild Thyme, Winter Lightning Anne Mulkeen (Hamish Hamilton £3.00) Miss Mulkeen's book is subtitled 'The Symbolic Novels of L. P. Hartley '. It is, as the...

Around the world

The Spectator

Kay Dick Sir Horace Rumbold: Porkait of a Diplomat Martin Gilbert (Heinemann £8.00) Horace Monta g ue Rumbold, ninth Baronet (1869-1941), the subject of Martin Gilbert's...

Page 22

Our favourite German

The Spectator

Patrick Cosgrave Rommel Charles Douglas-Home (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £2.95) Rommel, Field Marshal Auchinleck wrote, was neither a magician nor a bogeyman. In the same message...

Page 23

Shorter Notice

The Spectator

Who's Who in Africa John Dickie and Allan Rake (African Development £9.00). nbelievably, with this title, there is no name Index; there is no index at all. Contents are a list...

Talking of books

The Spectator

A few bad eggs 8 enny Green „lam certainly not the first reader, and I doubt m ve rY much if I will be the last, to discover that great difficulty about getting to grips with...

Bookbuyer's

The Spectator

Bookend A new year generally brings new publishers and this one is no exception. Two promising imprints launch themselves this month, both blessed with solid financial backing...

Page 24

48 REVIEW

The Spectator

OF THE ARTS Kenneth Hurren on melodramatising Sherlock Holmes This is no place to look, I had best confess at the outset, for the unerring exposure of any irregularities...

Cinema

The Spectator

Big eaters Christopher Hudso Since that famous occasion tea years ago in Tom Jones when a girl bit into an apple and looked hungrily across the table at Albert Finney there...

Page 25

Te l evis io n Alf's return Clive Gammon _ Al Garnett's more outré

The Spectator

racial I nsults are an important part of his c harm: they reflect in little what is t t li e . least remarked of his character his vaulting imagination. if.ednesday night's...

Ballet

The Spectator

One alone Robin Young At the turn of the year the ballet critic is likely to succumb to fits of jealousy against his colleagues in other departments. It is especially galling...

W il l Wasp e It is generally rumoured that Peter Gilmore, the

The Spectator

star of BBCTV's The Onedirt Line, wants to bow out of the series after the current batch of episodes is wrapped up this month. Waspe sympathises, but hopes Gilmore knows...

Page 27

MONEY AND THE CITY

The Spectator

Oil and monopoly power tichololas Davenport S ocialists who would rightly d enounce businessmen for using Monopoly power to advance prices and profits are naturally loathe to...

Juliette's weekly frolic

The Spectator

It would be nice to pretend I'd spent the past fortnight in the Kentucky grasslands surveying the ups and downs of Secretariat's stud career or perhaps on a lightning run round...

Page 28

Skinflint's City Diary

The Spectator

I see that my friend Kenneth Fleet, the brilliant City Editor of the Daily Telegraph, has been saying some very unwise things indeed about City reform. Going even so far as to...