I n his fourth Budget as Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Howe raised tax allowances to take some account of inflation; put 5p on a packet of cigarettes; 10p on a bottle of wine; 30p on...

The end of the Wets? Ferdinand Mount rrhere is a tradition,' Sir Geoffrey's 1 script began, 'that the Budget should be composed rather along the lines of a novel by Proust'....

A diet of thin gruel Tony Rudd ir Geoffrey Howe's latest Budget con- tinues his prescription for this country's e conomic ills by a diet of thin gruel and the in termittent...

T he idea of a memorial in Central Lon- don to the two million victims of the Yalta Agreement was first mooted in the pages of the Spectator in 1976. Last weekend, it became a...

Auberon Waugh I do not know why David Owen is invariably described as 'Doctor Owen' in the n ewspapers. So far as I can see, he is not and never has been a Doctor of Medicine...

Tom Bethell Washington A recent episode in Washington made news only briefly, but looked at in more detail it reveals quite a bit about the political and philosophical...

C hristopher Hitchens Nicosia I have always hated journalists who begin their reports with the stale and usually in- accurate phrase: 'Bullets whistle round me h I write.' But...

Fred Bridgland C enhor Joao Webba, representative of the Angolan Coffee Board in London, has inherited another role since the death of Agostinho Neto, Angola's first President....

Andrew Brown Banjul, Senegambia T he queue of quietly melting tourists does not move forwards for minutes at a time. One man is gill wearing a black leather overcoat from...

A telegram from Rome announces that the Pope is about to bestow a cardinal's hat on Dr MacCabe, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, in recognition of the efforts he has made ,...

Timothy Garton Ash L ast month The Times treated us to an exclusive interview with Mieczyslaw R akowski, deputy prime minister of Poland. Mr Rakowski is the best-known advocate...

Aleksa Djilas T he University of London has appealed for money to establish a Fellowship for Post - graduate students from Yugoslavia at the School of Slavonic and East European...

The irony of politics William Rees-Mogg D ab Butler was the most lovable politi- cian of his generation. Of those who did not become Prime Minister his work was the most...

Richard West H aving recently made a tour of England, to write a book, I had somehow hoped to find something more cheerful in Scotland, where I had come to report the Glasgow...

Roy Kerridge J do not often go to the pictures, but last year I set a new record by going twice. The first time was in Southall, where I saw an Indian film, Suraj, a gorgeous...

The glare of global disgust Paul Johnson r When Labour MPs start rtanting about `bloodstained kfu g errands' we can be sure that humbu g is in the air and one longs for a G....

Sir: I realise that the Spectator is proud of its muscular right-wing approach to politics, but do you now need to tell blatant lies to reinforce your readers' prejudices? In...

Sir: A. N. Wilson must have had very bad indigestion indeed to rant away so against the teaching of the Catholic Church in reviewing Paul Johnson's book on the Pope (6 March)....

Art and industry Sir: 1 am really very sorry that Stephen Bayley interprets criticism as viciousness (Letters, 6 March). He also misinterprets me. In my article (27 February),...

Sir: John McEwen's interesting account (20 February) of the two artists Ben Nicholson and Sir Cedric Morris necessarily left opt any mention of a third, namely the enor- mously...

Sir: I trust you will allow a hitherto anonymous, polytechnocratic mole to poke, his subversive snout above the surface 0 1 the Fleet Street lawn where the peacocks parade their...

Sir: 1 consider Eric Christiansen's review of R. J. Knecht's book, Francis I, unworthy of the Spectator (6 March). Here is a book, which has been long in the making, written by...

A hen in the sunshine A. N. Wilson The Letters of Alfred Lord Tennyson I (18 21 - 1850) Edited by Cecil Y. Lang and Edgar F. Shannon Jr (Clarendon Press Oxford £17.50) 6 B reak...

Alastair Forbes T his little collection of nouvelles Floren- tines plus ou moms a clef, is, like its delightful and distinguished author, some- thing of a curiosity. Its...

Julian Jebb The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume IV, ( 19 31-'35) Edited by Anne Olivier Bell (Hogarth Press £15) T hree years ago on the Campus of Berkeley University in...

Elizabeth Jenkins T his is a book full of interest for lovers of Jane Austen. The idea that she lived a cramping and deprived existence has been exploded long since; Lord David...

Michael Wharton Mr Mayor: the Office of First Citizen W. P. Johns (Robert Hale £8.50) F ew readers of the Spectator, I should think, are likely to become mayors, ev en Lord...

BRITISH CIVIL AIRCRAFT 1919-1959 by A. J. Jackson, 'The Brabazon Story' by Lord Brabazon, 'Slide Rule' by Nevil Shute, 'All Over the Place' by Compton Mackenzie, 'Singapore; The...

Allan Maclean C taying with friends used to entail filling L.3in a column in the Visitors' Book titled Remarks, which could embarrass both departing visitor and host. Visitors'...

Francis King I n literature, the fashionably dangerous subject of the Georgian era was incest, of the Victorian, fornication, and of the first half of the 20th century,...

Elizabeth Jenkins is the author of Dr Gully, Elizabeth the Great and The Tortoise and the Hare. Her many other books include a biography of Jane Austen. Lettice Cooper's latest...

Lettice Cooper We continue the occasional series in which contributors write oftr book which has been important to them. This week Lettice Cooper considers The Pillars of the...

Terminal condition John McEwen I t is well known that the Queen has a wicked sense of humour, so when she declared that the Barbican Centre for Arts and Conferences must...

Tactful passion Mark Amory In Praise of Love (King's Head) Another Country (Queen's) Real Time (ICA) . I n Praise of Love was written at the height of his powers by the...

Powers that be Richard Ingrams I n 1932 Malcolm Muggeridge . was 1111 . Moscow as a journalist on the Man - chester Guardian witnessing for himself the real nature of...

Old times Peter Ackroyd On Golden Pond ('A', selected cinemas) 6 D o not let me hear of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly.' And what else is there to say after...

Romantic notions Taki Gstaad 1_1 ere I am among the ski-bums, interna- tional layabouts, oil-rich Arabs and greedy jewellers, tearing down the pistes after long liquid...

Big fish Jeffrey Bernard y spent last weekend at Taki's palatial I Oxfordshire residence and last night I had cocktails and dinner with lan Botham in the Caprice and yet they...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a poem in praise of some natural phenomenon traditionally regarded as unpleasant. Come; and strong within us Stir the vikings'...

No. 1209: Backwoodsmanship Set by Jaspistos: The Lords' debates have featured many loony passages during the last two centuries. You are invited to supply an imaginary extract...

C APER ' SPUR a a L DOSE T AR I EL O R P I NECAS T E L TTN I C EASEL EME I N T THERMO_rM E TER S 4 TC R APE ROGET...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 29 March. Entries to: Crossword 548, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. 4 5 6 7 8...

Survivors Jonathan Tisdall W ith a plethora of top-class tournaments taking place all over the globe, the recently concluded West European Zonal in Marbella, Spain, is of...