L abour's lead moved up *to 24.5 per cent over the Conservatives, and Mrs Thatcher's rating was the lowest recorded by Gallup for any Prime Minister since 1938. The Prime...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 STILL AN EVIL EMPIRE 0 nce again, an ancient European peo- ple is trying to...

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The Thatcher problem: displacement not replacement NOEL MALCOLM O Gods! Who is't can say 'I am at the worst'? I am worse than e'er I was . . . And worse I may be yet; the...

T he problem of judges never having been to prison is one for which I can see no immediate solution except making six months in the slammer, preferably for a crime of which they...

On the anniversary of Gallipoli, Ferdinand Mount re - examines a fatally misjudged campaign This was the last great battle fought on the Gallipoli peninsula and, in terms of...

James Bowman on how pornographers demand public support in America Washington ARE you an artist? Or at least a member of what is inevitably being called 'the Artistic...

Communist rule has devastated the country houses of Poland. Radek Sikorski intends to rebuild one Dwor Chobielin, Poland I'M not sure to what an expatriate English- man...

Michael Heath

Nicholas Farrell meets a victim of Peru's Maoist terrorists THE campaign by Sendero Luminoso ('shining path'), Peru's Maoist terrorist organisation, to wreck the country's...

This is the seventh in our Lent series on English spiritual writers. CHESTERTON is not generally thought of as a spiritual writer; indeed he is often regarded as a bluff...

Sousa Jamba finds that dancing is a matter of cultural imperialism, not self-expression EVER since I was a little boy I have liked dancing. I remember the elders getting so...

Ruth Rees on the rudeness of Conservative MPs A YEAR ago, I first noticed the phe- nomenon. Everybody I talked to friends, acquaintances, taxi-drivers, hair- dressers — turned...

Not in my back yard WITH the advent of privatising the power industry, much closer thought than before has had to be given to what on earth to do with nuclear waste short of...

John Casey discovers a strange echo of the paschal Mass in The Merchant of Venice THERE is a point during the Roman Catholic service for Holy Saturday when the deacon, having...

The press: Paul Johnson on an important judicial ruling in the Lords ANYONE interested in the rights of jour- nalists, and the wrongs of journalistic triumphalism, should read...

The Wim Kok effect, or why John Major must steer clear of Chancellor's Itch CHRISTOPHER FILDES N ow that John Major has to spend all his weekends going to meetings of finance...

Sir: A more skewed reading of my book, Unauthorised Action, Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid, than Philip Ziegler's in The Spectator (10 March) would be hard to imagine. My book...

object' to my describing sleeping rough as being a `voluntary activity' (Cardboard village', 10 March). Thomas Quinn joins in accusing me of a 'major inaccuracy' (Letters, 7...

Sir: While I expected Harry Phibbs (`Gard- board village', 10 March) to provide a libertarian analysis of the homeless who live on the streets of London, suggesting that they...

Sir: We have all heard the stereotype cast upon students: lazy, loutish and left-wing. Both students (of which I am one) and the general public can accept or reject this popular...

Sir: It is really very naughty of two Welsh contributors to perpetrate subtle linguistic japes at the expense of your genial readers on the wrong side of Offa's Dyke (Letters,...

Sir: As a novelist and critic partly depen- dent on public lending right income, I deplore the new policy of Cambridgeshire libraries. In future, they will buy almost no...

issue with Paul Johnson (The media, 3 March) on his comparison between the television licence fee and the poll tax. The television licence fee is more like the now obsolete...

Sir: Have any other of your readers noticed the likeness between 'The Suits' and Gil- bert and George, and is this intentional? Barbara Dorf 11 Pembridge Villas, London W11

Sir: Your dictionary of Cant (31 March) referred to the introduction of a compul- sory national dog registration scheme as an example of an abuse of the term 'self- financing'....

Sir: Nowhere has Mr Wallace (Letters, 7 April) responded to the facts in my Specta- tor article which demonstrated that he exaggerated his parachuting exploits. I am suggesting...

In pursuit of money and power James Buchan BARBARIANS AT THE GATE: THE FALL OF RJR NABISCO by Brian Burrough and John Helyar Cape, £15.95, pp.480 T he battle for control of...

Since Edna got thinner and thinner and died last winter Lil's had two passions: the golden-haired boy next door and giant jigsaws. In her front room three galleons under full...

Richard Cobb WE THE PEOPLE: THE REVOLUTION OF '89 WITNESSED IN WARSAW, BUDAPEST, BERLIN AND PRAGUE by Timothy Garton Ash Granta Books, £4.99, pp.I56 hat gives strength to...

Mark Archer ROBERT GRAVES: THE YEARS WITH LAURA 1926-40 by Richard Perceval Graves Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £25, pp.380 A s soon as Laura Riding had thrown herself from the...

Michael Bentley ETHICS AND FOREIGN POLICY by George Walden Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20, pp. 176 S ince his lamented departure from Higher Education in 1987, Mr George Walden...

Anita Brookner THREE TIMES TABLE by Sara Maitland Chatto & Windus, £12.95, pp.216 T here is irresistible appeal in the three- generations-of-women story. The reasons for its...

endless wither of the other world Has he wandered away? Kaga no Chiyo (1703-1775) Translated from the Japanese by Graeme Wilson

Dawn breaks; or is it bird-calls Illuminating night? Look, from the cries of pheasants Grow layerings of light Till, one by one, the mountain rice-flats Listen to be white.

Peter Levi THE DREAM SONGS by John Berryman Faber, £17.50, pp.427 COLLECTED POEMS 1937-1971 by John Berryman Faber, 07.50 pp. 348 T hese two hefty and distinguished volumes are...

Alan Angell THE STORYTELLER by Mario Vargas Llosa Faber, £12.99, pp.246 M ario Vargas Llosa does not make life easy for a reviewer. Is The Storyteller a novel, or another...

I have a limpback vade-mecum with me now, Bought for old shillings off a market stall At Whit, in a pepper-faced granite town, Oyster grey, like the unwashable fly-leaf scrawl....

the nouveau book review Robert O'Brien C ritics moan of the 'decline' of the novel; novelists obstinately contradict them. Nobody has perceived the true nature of what is...

Exhibitions Ana Corbero (Albemarle, till 28 April) Luke Elwes (Rebecca Hossack, till 12 May) John Hoyland: Prints 1968-1989 (Austin/Desmond, till 26 April) William Roberts...

A baleful air Peter Phillips T he problem with touring the States at this time of year, in these post-Chernobyl days, is the total unpredictability of the weather. It is...

Volpone (Almeida) Frankie Howerd (Lyric, Hammersmith) Venetian carnival Christopher Edwards T he excellent season at the Almeida continues with this fine revival of Ben...

Unsentimental education Hilary Mantel T he word is out among film people that Krzysztof Kieslowski (I wish I knew what his friends call him) is the greatest ever Polish film...

Dud peat Ursula Buchan L ately, gardeners have been made to look rather foolish. We used to preside over little green oxygen-expelling oases of peace and tranquillity,...

Stride giants Martin Gayford T he jazz pianist, like Clark Kent, has two quite separate identities. For the most part, these days, he is the most mild- mannered of performers...

Goodbye to all that Taki actually happened, and that Andreas Papandreou and his socialist band had taken a drubbing at the polls. The only thing I regret is that my father is...

Lucky dip Wendy Cope I knew there'd be trouble but it wouldn't be permanent,' said Adam. The trouble occurred when he told his parents that he was gay. Though his father had...

Dressing down Zenga Longmore veg stalls, she instantly brightened up. This seedy drama repeated itself in every clothes shop we entered. It was interesting to note the...

Worse luck Jeffrey Bernard W ell, we didn't win anything last weekend. The horse I backed in the Grand National, Ghofar, finished all right, but well down the field, and the...

The Four Seasons at the Inn on the Park TO OFFER up my visit to the Four Seasons as an apology to Bruno Loubet may seem to be something along the lines of pulling a fast one,...

12 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY COMPETITION ct uVAS REGA L I2 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY Only connect Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1620 you were in- vited to supply a short account...

C & A Raymond Keene I t is an unusual pleasure to discover two books appearing more or less simul- taneously on those two immortals of the game and great personal rivals Jose...

According to A. N. Wilson (a correspon- dent tells me) Henry James once wrote the words, 'The bark of Chicago disturbs the siesta', which he suggested would be a good...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word `Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

suggested by YEW (symbol of death). Winners: E.L. Jackson, London SE9 (£20); E.A. Side, Gloucester; A. Bryson Gerrard, Abingdon. E ,S TATE N E RIN I G NI IN 5 DIO AROLE T , U...