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PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK
The SpectatorReagan's Last Stand D ear Editor and Readers,' Lord Rothschild wrote to the Daily Telegraph: `Since at least 1980 up to the present time there have been innuendoes in the press...
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UNLETTERED
The SpectatorIT MAY depend on the definition of `important', but Lord Rothschild's denial that he had ever been a Soviet agent was the first time an important letter appeared in the Daily...
ROGER COOPER
The SpectatorFOR more than a year Roger Cooper, who has written many pieces for the Spectator about the Middle East, has been impris- oned, without being charged, in Teheran. On Monday of...
THE SPECTATOR
The SpectatorWRIGHT: THE WRONG FIGHT A s the Wright case continues in the Australian courts, sympathy for the British Government has grown. The initial surge of pleasure at the discomfiture...
PRESIDENT ROD
The SpectatorAFTER a hotly contested election, Dr Rod Hackney, the advocate of community architecture, has secured the presidency of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He deserves...
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POLITICS'
The SpectatorThe destabilising influence of exploding slurry FERDINAND MOUNT T he time has come to address ourselves to Mr Denis Healey and the Affair of the Exploding Slurry. The Labour...
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DIARY
The SpectatorPETER LEVI with a front-page photograph the bizarre but charming opening ceremony of the Swan Theatre at Stratford. Mr Frederick Koch, who is American, gave two million pounds...
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ANOTHER VOICE
The SpectatorThe immense implications of not giving Lisa three bears for Christmas AUBERON WAUGH C hristmas in Grub Street means more than writing hysterical, fatuous and unin- formed...
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THE POOR OF LONDON
The SpectatorAlexandra Artley explores the streets of King's Cross and discovers what poverty means for the homeless and for families living in bed-and-breakfast hotels HIGH frivolity,...
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REVOLT AGAINST THE REPUBLIC
The SpectatorJohn Ralston Saul sees in the violence in Paris more than student disturbance Paris REASSURANCE is what most people want in the wake of disorder and violence. It would...
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NICARAGUAN BOMBSHELLS
The SpectatorAmbrose Evans-Pritchard reports on the fighting between the Sandinistas, the Contras and Honduras Managua THE day of 'La Purisima' was celebrated on Sunday. For the religious...
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AFRIKANERS ON THEIR KNEES
The SpectatorRichard West witnesses divisions in the religion of South Africa's rulers Stellenbosch THE Afrikaans Sunday paper Rapport devoted most of its first two pages to the, for them,...
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THE SPECTATOR POLL
The SpectatorWHAT THINK THEY OF CHRIST? Successful people go to church more often, but what do they believe in? Andrew Gimson reports MOST of the British believe in God, but only one in...
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THE SAMPLE
The SpectatorTHE 151 respondents were drawn from the City, business and industry, the trade unions, press and television, the universities, the law, medicine, the arts, the Civil Service and...
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School Meals: A Healthy Diet, 3 December 1986 Lord Leatherland:
The SpectatorMy Lords, may I ask the Minister [Baroness Hooper] whether she recalls that this Question uses the expression 'junk food'? Can she tell us what junk food is, so that I may tell...
01 FREE SPEECH
The SpectatorEuropean Community (Research and Development), 3 December 1986 Alan Howarth (Stratford on Avon, Conservative): The history of agricul- ture alternates between feast and famine....
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PAPER MONEY OVER CRACKS
The SpectatorNicholas Budgen finds a new and inflationary mood in the Tory Party IN HIS evidence before the Treasury Select Committee the Chancellor demons- trated the inconsistencies of...
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KILLING WITH KINDNESS
The SpectatorDr Thomas Stuttaford examines the fatal treatment of George V and its implications today A FEW years ago the wife of a well-known author tried to enlist my support for her...
One hundred years ago
The SpectatorIRISH beggars are still eminently com- plimentary . . . . A most assuming vag- rant of this type is Micheal L—, whose witty sayings, which rise incessantly and spontaneously to...
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PLURALISM FOR THE HELL OF IT
The SpectatorProfile. - David Graham, the television entrepreneur behind The New Enlightenment FEW viewers of the polemical series The New Enlightenment, currently propound- ing the ideas...
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THE SPECTATOR
The SpectatorSUBSCRIBE TODAY - Save 15% on the Cover Price! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for £ (Equivalent SUS & Eurocheques accepted) RATES 12...
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WHOSE NEWS ON SUNDAY?
The Spectatorthat a new title without editorial personality will fail THE most valuable quality a newspaper can possess is a clear editorial identity, which readers and advertisers...
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CITY AND SUBURBAN
The SpectatorYomping to market from New Court to a cosy Rookery Nook CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he wail of pipes through the ancestral courts of the Rothschilds signalled the departure of their...
Mug, J., dissents
The SpectatorARGUING with Sir Martin Jacomb is a mug's game. Chancery barrister turned merchant banker, chairman of Barclays' investment bank, first choice to head the Securities and...
Augustus in Brussels
The SpectatorTHOSE who would think it a seasonal gesture not to tax the Christmas message should say so on a card to Lord Cockfield, in Brussels. As European Commissioner for Internal...
Shares for none
The SpectatorIT IS a sad sign of such times that a respected City editor has told his staff that he proposes to forbid them to own any shares directly, and to extend the ban to their wives...
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THE ECONOMY
The SpectatorThe good ship Europa heads into the icepack JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE I mportant decisions,' as the Prime Minister sensibly reminded us at the end of last weekend's London...
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LETTERS Nazi salutes
The SpectatorSir: For 40 years I have been attending the Frankfurt Book Fair in the company of about 1,000 British publishers each year. I see them at the Fair, I see them at parties, I see...
Sir: How apt that Frank Johnson should write, 'Most Britons
The Spectatorwho visit Germany give a Nazi salute, and do a Hitler imper- sonation, at one time or other during the trip'. How many who served in the BAOR especially during those dog days of...
Multi-racial Australia
The SpectatorSir: Richard West in his report 'Black and white down under' (22 November) asserts that there was a revival of the so-called `White Australia' policy in 1975, when `hundreds of...
Anti-terrorism
The SpectatorSir: I am grateful to Dr David Carlton (`Libya, yes — Iran, no', 22 November) for his generous comment on the revised edition of my book Terrorism and the Liberal State....
Shuckburgh and James
The SpectatorSir: Mr Rhodes James's acquaintances now seem to be "earing things' (Frank Johnson, Diary, 29 November). There has been no `acrimonious private correspondence' be- tween him and...
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Ghanaian readers
The SpectatorSir: As a Ghanaian and a regular Spectator reader, I take exception to M. Fraser- Allen's letter 'Flight of fancy' in your 15 November issue. What is this letter intended to...
No mean host
The SpectatorSir: Christopher Silvester's letter (6 De- cember) refers to Frank Johnson's 'legen- dary social vice of meanness'. This is a disgraceful smear. From long and enjoy- able...
Safety in the Tunnel
The SpectatorSir: Congratulations to Ian Waller on his excellent article on the Channel Tunnel (Tire down below', 22 November). As he rightly emphasises there is a real danger that crucially...
Greene on Rothschild
The SpectatorSir: I wonder if Mr Graham Greene can shed any light on the proceedings in Australia? Near the end of Brighton Rock, Ida Arnold . . sang softly to herself over the stout — "One...
Insider trading
The SpectatorSir: Christopher Fildes is wrong to suggest (City and Suburban, 28 November) that insider traders steal from their employers. Those who are defrauded are the other individuals...
Sir: Ian Waller shows a scant disregard [sic] for facts
The Spectatorin discussing the Channel Tunnel. The design of the Channel Tunnel and the shuttle service starts off from an inhenrently safe tunnel, track, signalling and power supply...
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BOOKS
The SpectatorStemming the tide ANTI-RACISM: AN ASSAULT ON EDUCATION AND VALUE edited by Frank Palmer Sherwood Press, f9.95 I am often oppressed by the suspicion that no one responsible...
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My coffee-table is full of plates
The SpectatorDavid Ekserdjian CCW hat is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or con- versations?" ' The art book, with its inevit- able double-act of plates and text,...
Sibard's Well
The SpectatorMy house, named for the Saxon spring, Stands by the sour farmyard, the long- Dry lip that once was Sibard's Well Buried beneath a winding-stone To stop the cattle falling in;...
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Who is the victor now?
The SpectatorAndrew Lownie CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE by Barrie Penrose and Simon Freeman Grafton, £14.95 T he enduring popular image of Anthony Blunt probably relies heavily on the press...
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Gardening books, serious and otherwise
The SpectatorMary Keen S ir Roy Strong is the Director of the V & A and his special subject is the Renaiss- ance. He jogs in Herefordshire at weekends. Robin Lane Fox, just as versa- tile...
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Children's Books for Christmas
The SpectatorJuliet Townsend As co-proprietor of a bookshop, I cannot recommend too highly the attitude to Christmas present giving shown by one of our customers. She enters the shop each...
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Elegy for Thelonius
The Spectator`No doctor has put his finger on what is wrong with him, and he has had every medical test under the sun. He's not unhappy, and his mind works very well. He's withdrawn, that's...
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ARTS
The SpectatorMusee d'Orsay An amazing museum full of holes Bruce B ernard T he façade of the Musee d'Orsay, formerly the most elegant railway station in Paris or perhaps anywhere, smiled a...
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Theatre
The SpectatorBrighton Beach Memoirs (Aldwych) A Mouthful of Birds (Royal Court) Multiple focus Christopher Edwards T his is a transfer of the National Theatre's first class production of...
Exhibitions
The SpectatorEdward Wolfe (Odette Gilbert till 10 January 1987) Italian and Flemish Paintings and Sculpture, French and Spanish Paintings (Colnaghi's till 23 December) Lyricism lost...
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SPECIATOR
The SpectatorSEASIDE LITHOGRAPHS ALAN POWERS Alan Powers' "Views of the South Coast", eight lithographs of the Kent and Sussex seaside commissioned specially by the Spectator, and...
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Cinema
The SpectatorEat the Peach (`PO', selected cinemas) Do they dare? Peter Ackroyd T here was the vague sound of shillelagh somewhere in the opening chords and, despite some scenes of modern...
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Opera
The SpectatorCarmen (ENO, Coliseum) Carmen (Scottish Opera, Newcastle) Carmina variegata Rodney Milnes I f proof were needed of the unquench- able vitality of Carmen, then seeing these...
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Gardens
The SpectatorDoing the flowers Ursula Buchan C hristmas is the, season of anxiety. In our house the vexed question of whether we think Father Christmas physically cap- able of carrying a...
Television
The SpectatorBoiled to an epic Wendy Cope B ack in the Sixties, when one of my flatmates applied for a job with an adver- tising agency, she was asked to make a list of all the uses she...
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High life
The SpectatorBucks for blinners Taki never thought I'd live long enough to see Anthony Haden-Guest throw a grand party for. . . 2,000 of his closest friends, but not only did I see it, I...
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Low life
The SpectatorDangerous ladies Jeffrey Bernard T hose foolish young men, members of the Dangerous Sports Club, who jump off the Clifton Suspension Bridge on the end of elastic ropes and who...
Home life
The SpectatorPatronising patterns Alice Thomas Ellis S ometimes life seems so short it's barely worth putting one's name in the telephone book and other times it seems to be going on for...
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t.)W -44-41g1VrAir
The SpectatorNovelties in port LATE October in the Douro: mist rises from the water and covers it in an eider- down of cloud reaching halfway up the steep sides of the valley, until the...
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THERE'S something rather engaging ab- out a chef who cites
The SpectatorMrs Beeton as, if not muse exactly, then inspiration. As far as most foreigners are concerned, English food, notwithstanding the eminent Victo- rians in the kitchen, means...
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COMPETITION
The SpectatorVice verse Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1450 you were asked for a poem in praise of one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Judging by the size of the entry, Pride successfully roused...
Solution to 785: Eye-catching
The Spectator0 ah 1 moniammaimarm OndlnlanARDOERM hi el glaallarliMliPe . rin, Emma F . nos enean I rinErgri 13 0 KM pun , on T d H 0 a On E rprvorrErime op,. E I NG e0 u II -0...
CROSSWORD
The SpectatorA first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first...
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No. 1453: Surprise, surprise
The SpectatorMrs Thatcher, no longer in active politics, has written a book on a most unexpected subject. Title, please, and newspaper or magazine review (maximum 150 words). Entries to...
CHESS
The SpectatorTriple gold Raymond Keene A fter the exertions of the world cham- pionship one might have expected Kaspar- ov to ease up during the Dubai Olympics. With a team consisting of...