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There has been a lot of noise and fury signifying nothing very much about the collapse of Rolls-Royce and the subse- quent actions of the Government. It is clear to us all that...

All in the hands of three men HUGH MACPHERSON That most merry of monarchs Edward VII once remarked, 'We are all socialists now'. If, indeed, he had swapped his crown for a...

Categoric guidance for this is to hand in the Comptroller and Auditor-General's report, where Sir Bruce deals with the assurances given by the Department of Education and...

In all this, it will be interesting (and possibly fruitful) to study carefully answers to the eight questions Mr Ernle Money (who defeated Sir Dingle Foot at the general elec-...

The answer to the Cublington-Foulness argument is available to those who can be bothered to look. They should note, first, that the Ministry of the Environment refused to give...

I am glad to learn that Moyra Fraser—Mrs Roger Lubbock—whom I used to idolise years ago in such revues as Airs on a Shoe- string, is to play Madam Dubonnet in Ken Russell's film...

In this highly interesting passage, Sir Bruce Fraser continues: 'I therefore asked the Council on what authority it had entered in- to commitments in respect of expenditure on...

Miss Jennie Lee, nowadays Lady Lee of Asheridge, earned herself a great reputation for the amount of state largesse (or taxpayers' cash) given to the arts during her time as...

Mr Whitlock's half-hour holidays SALLY VINCENT One of our more endearingly enduring parliamentary traditions is a sort of late- night thirty minute theatre production called...

The Labour party and its future By 'a Conservative' Whatever unease may be felt at the Government's conduct of the Rolls-Royce question, it is desirable for Conservatives to...

Wednesday 3 February: In the Sunday Tele- graph secrets case all the defendants, Brian Roberts, Jonathan Aitken and Col Douglas Cairns were acquitted of breaking the Official...

Consensus and the price of the Bill ERIC S. HEFFER, MP In the present political climate in Britain the consensus politician is like a fish out of water. That is not to say...

Taylor talks STAN GEBLER DAVIES 'If they want to murder one another, then why don't we get out and let the bleeders get on with it?' is not . an uncommon attitude among...

The case against HARRY G. JOHNSON \The generation of a widespread belief that Britain must get into the Common Market to win economic and political salvation is the greatest...

Lamentations among the Faithful MERCURIUS OXONIENSIS GOOD BROTHER LONDINIENSIS, God be praised, the effigies of our patron, the god Mercurius, is this day being restored to...

Necessity. and Invention TONY PALMER Strange goings-on at London's Royal Albert Hall raise some sharp questions about the role of private censorship in the public domain. The...

Gabriel Pearson and Christopher Booker New novels reviewed by Auberon Waugh John Kenyon on Parliamentary history With these volumes* the official History of Parliament,...

The problem of human aggression can hardly be described as a new one. The story of Cain and Abel was, after all, the first recorded consequence of the Fall. But in recent years,...

Consuming Passions is a book to be read fasting. Perhaps I should have suffered less from mental flatulence if I had read no more than a chapter at a time before meals, but as...

have closed on February 1st will be held open until the Friday following the end of the postal strike.

A Very Loving Couple Hunter Davies (Weidenfeld and Nicholson £1.50) With greater cunning than I ever knew .I possessed I did not mention that the copy- right on Margaret...

The most obvious fact about Elective Affin , ities is that it corresponds to nothing in Eng- lish literature. Some impossible cross between D. H. Lawrence and Jane Austen...

with an intro- duction by Joseph O'Malley, and re- viewed last week, is published by the Cambridge University Press (not the OUP as stated).

The Coming 'Crisis of Western Sociology A. W. Gouldner (Heinemann £3.75) As usual sociology is in a mess. There has not been a decade in the past century in which the...

will be dealt with after the strike ends. The offer meanwhile re- mains 'open.

Sir: Though now a suburban Tory, I found that David McLellan's re- view of Althusser's Reading 'Capi- tal' (23 January) brought back memories of my student Marxism of twenty...

Sir: Sir lain Monereiffe, in his review of. Professor Ross's new book How to Pronounce It (26 December), suggests that 'balcony'. when correctly pronounced, does not rhyme with...

No prize is offered this week. The solution will appear in next week's issue. Across 1 Frankly, it's a sign of the times (8) 5 There's a lad at the centre, what a commo- tion!...

LITERARY EDITOR Chomsky's 'proofs' Sir: Your reviewer (6 February) does not do justice to the connec- tion between Chomsky's linguistics and politics. Chomsky be- lieves that...

10 Denim 11 Nightjars 12 Scuttles 13 Beasts 15 Fain 16 Able 17 Elgar 20 Casts 21 Avon 22 Crow 24 Indoor 26 Mene- laus 29 Intricate 30 Tudor 31 Ends 32 Grass widow. Down 1 Lodes...

• ARTS • LETTERS • MONEY• LEISURE TELEVISION In praise of colour PATRICK SKENE CATLING Colour television is often more vividly beautiful than the reality it represents. I...

Hang it all EVAN ANTHONY We have a fading daguerreotype of Harry Fragson hanging in our loo. Don't assume that the location of the pic- ture has anything to do with its...

Dr Jekyll and Mrs Hyde CHRISTOPHER HUDSON The story might be said to tell how Myron Breckinridge (Rex Reed) cures himself of homosexuality to find true happiness with a...

Playing pictures DUNCAN FALLOWELL King Crimson: Lizard (Island £2.15). King Crimson are a cult group, which is a pity since it divides people for and against and denies the...

Arrabaloney KENNETH HURREN Even in an age uniquely tolerant of the cultural charlatan, most of the calamities you'll find in reputable playhouses can be said to have the meek...

Sir : Skinflint's deep insight is just this once at fault in suggesting that the Confederation of British Indus- try may want to propose stop- ping Post Office Saving Bank with-...

Sir: It is pleasing to see that the SPECTATOR has inherited Adam Smith's felicitous style in discours- ing on economic matters. Rather more questionable is the inheri- tance of...

Sir: Although somewhat removed from his normal City topics, Skin- flint's comment (30 January) on London garden railings deserves every support. One of the dreariest and...

Sir: Mr John Lowe's questions (`Pure tobacco', Letters, 30 January) may be answered as follows: 1. Paragraph 3.9 of the report (p. 38) states that chemicals such as nitrates,...

(albeit not by name) in his deeply felt 'Personal Column' (23 January) in a way that might have led an un- suspecting reader to believe that it is possible for an editor of the...

Sir: It concerns me that correspond dents and for that matter column- ists write about Mr Walker's De- partment for the Environment as if it were exclusively concerned with...

Sir: Sally Vincent's forthright opinions about workers and the working conditions in the Press Gallery have certainly provided those of us who report the goings- on in the House...

Letters from Kingsley Ands, Nigel Lawson, H. D. F. Creighton, Sir Robert Barlow, Dame Harriette Chick and others, The right of reply Sir: Mr Roberts is so steeped in...

Sir: Some of Mr Nicholas Daven- port's views about nationalised in- dustries are so childishly inane that he ought to keep them to him- self. As any marketing man would tell...

Sir: The review of Dr Dodd's book The Founder of Christianity was most penetrating. Who could better review such an essay in biblical history than the Regius Professor of Modern...

cover contents of your last week's issue (23 Janu- ary) which I find revolting and infinitely distressing. My family has taken the SPEC- TATOR for about forty years and this...

rubbish'. What a pity that such a good historian should take such an unhistorical view! Any fair-minded reading of the New Testament as a whole must see that many things...

Sir: I apologise for my delay, due to sickness and other preoccup- ations, in replying to the Peter Reddaway and George Katkov cor- respondence. At the risk of being again...

this letter earlier. As it is, however, I have had opportunity to formulate care- fully my thoughts and weigh my words. I have been a reader of the SPECTATOR for many years and...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT What a week! A sensational failure 'down under' followed by a sensational failure up north. The Stock Exchange reeled under the 'double blow. While everyone...

The best advice to ease Decimalisation Day bother I have heard is to imagine that on D Day you have travelled on holiday to another country. You are using a new cur- rency and...

Visiting Lloyds on the day of the collapse of Rolls-Royce I heard that their Insurance brokers had received a cheque for £600,000 Insurance premium the day before. Another £1.2m...

Lord Robens (whose face reminded Ber- nard Levin in his Taper days here that he must buy a cod's head for his cat on the way home, has now been appointed Chair- man of Vickers...

Go-go boss (let's call him Rowland) on the telephone to young side-kick (call him John) running an associate company of his burgeoning conglomerate. 'Hullo, John, how's our...

J . H. Vavasseur, I suppose, describes itself a s a mini-conglomerate, which. I hate— though what one hates one takes seriously. kuu by a clever fellow called Jeremy Pinck- l...

Although not a wild success financially, last week's three selections all turned in encouraging performances and fast-finish- ing Carbury's Pride seems well worth following next...

The collapse of Rolls-Royce, due in part to an unwise commitment to the aa211 project, left in its wake a severe fall in the price of the shares of Alfred Herbert Limited....

Mr Young plunged in with bold and imaginative ideas, all cash-consuming. He dropped models, rationalised production and tied up with the American Ingersoll Com- Pany in an...

If you happen to be a tiger, there's only one place to head for: Nepal. There, - the protec- tive hand of King Mahendra II has been placed over Panthera tigris tigris, and deep...

BENNY GREEN There is at the moment the slightly overripe aroma of a Town Hall masterstroke wafting across London, and not for the first time in our island story, it has its...

Spectator Cheque enclosed 0 Please supply the Spectator for one year 0 two years 0 three years 0 MI MN NM MIN - NM MINI The Spectator, 99 Gower Street, London W.C.1 NAME...

There have been some signs of domestic maintenance work in our village rookery lately. I am always pleased to see this hint that the end of winter is approaching, although the...

An annual prize of £500 will be awarded by the SPECTATOR to whoever In the opinion of the judges, submits the best piece of original, unpublished, new writing of not less than...

be: Short story category: Kingsley Amis, novelist, poet and essayist, the film of whose book Take a Girl Like You is currently on general release. Descriptive reporting: Brian...

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