TWO themes dominate political argument in Britain today. The first—with which we have become familiar over the years—is that of economic survival. The second —the...

The Shah of Persia has warned that his country may be facing a 'Vietnam situation' and has been purchasing arms in enormous quantities. It is not yet clear who the other...

No let-up in Ireland John Grigg What has been happening recently in Ireland, north and south, shows that the IRA is Still as great a threat as ever to individual life and the...

Lord Thomson of Fleet was much more than an important newspaper proprietor: he is to be numbered among the greatest of them all. British journalism—and thereby the nation—is...

Richard West Last week's Commons debate on devolution caused even more boredom in Scotland than it did in Westminster, where the Government's tenure of office now seems to...

Arianna Stassinopoulos Bayreuth Now I can tell my grandchildren that, yes dear, I was there when the desecration took place. It looked pretty ominous even on paper: to...

Philip Vander Elst Intellectually these are exciting times for Political commentators, on both sides of the Channel. In the last year alone we have seen the publication of two...

Daniel Farson Dogs are the latest victims of our national hypochondria. All of a sudden, after years of amiable friendship, they are declared a menace. The campaign against...

Antonia Martin To wake up one morning and find that you have become a bad insurance risk induces a curious feeling of having strayed inadvertently beyond the bounds of...

Elisabeth Dunn It will not have escaped the attention of the most cursory observer that the asbestos industry is very worried about its 'image'. From the extensive press and...

The gold question mark Nicholas Davenport The next annual meeting of the IMF is in October, which is too late to stop the next IM F auction of gold, which is on 15...

Oh Antonio Jeffrey Bernard It's fascinating to watch people fall by the wayside. To see a newcomer to racing getting hooked, then stumbling, then crashing, is like watching a...

Sir: An unfortunate misprint in the last sentence of my article on Pope Paul's quarrel with Archbishop Lefebvre may have confused some of your readers. What 1 intended to say...

Sir: 'Notebook' (Spectator, 7 August) asks why the 6 p.m. news summary on Radio 2 on Saturday 31 July contained no reference to Mrs Thatcher's speech. If the author of...

coverage (31 July) of the article on Powellism by Douglas Schoen and myself in New Society? The article (whose evidence is greatly amplified in Schoen's Enoch Powell and the...

Barry Cole 18a Great Percy Street, London WC1

Sir: I am amazed that an historian of the repute and achievement of Mr Robert Skidelsky should (in his review of the MortonThompson correspondence, 31 July) suggest that 'No...

Sir: I am trying to establish a modest little niche for myself in English literature. MY claim is that between hardback covers and all commissioned by established publishers...

Powell MP has still not declared his interests on the MPs' register. He apparently is the only one , which prompts one to ask, 'Is there one law, for Mr Powell and one for...

and practice' (31 July) interesting but found your reference to Mayor Drapeau's ./6/ie grandeur unfortunate. This would mean Of anything) that M. Drapeau was trying to make...

The sword is mightier Olivia Manning Francois Mauriac: A Study of the Writer and the Man Robert Speaight (Chatto and Windus £6.75) Malraux: Life and Work edited by Martine de...

Peter Conrad The Wizard from Vienna Vincent Buranelli (Peter Owen £5.25) Mindpower Nona Coxhead (Heinemann £3.90) The Seeing Eye, The Seeing I Renee Haynes (Hutchinson...

Quentin Bell The World 100 Years Ago Michael WYnn Jones (Macmillan £4.95) T, he Victorians Sir Charles Petrie (White Lion £4.50) Public Purity, Private Shame: Victorian...

The aim of this balanced study is to follow the development of the movements, organisations and groups that actively seek revolutionary changes in British society over a period...

Nick Totton Furia! Jose-Luis Villalaga (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £3.50) Victims Eugene McCabe (Victor Gollancz £3.20) Behind the Net Curtains Allan Turpin (Hamish Hamilton...

Benny Green Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Jane Morris: Their Correspondence edited hY John Bryson and Janet Camp Troxell (Oxford University Press £7.50) Exactly how illicit was...

James Hughes-Onslow The Wives of Downing Street Kirsty McLeod (Collins £4.95) While her husband, suffering from madness and gout, was still Prime Minister, Lady Chatham was...

A compendium of do-it-yourself, tried and true practices for the farm, garden and household A mine of practical instruction on everything from growing and storing fruit and...

MICHAEL LEA PM A N A funny, philosophical account of his struggle to turn a weed-strewn allotment in Brixton into a flourishing vegetable garden. Readers of The Times Diary...

BOYCE RICHARDSON A moving account of the Cree Indians' battle to preserve their way of life, threatened by the Q ue b e c government's plans to build hydroelectric dams which...

GILBERT MA RTINEA U Translated by Frances Partridge Describes the expedition which, 19 years after Napoleon's death in exile, was sent to St Helena to bring back his mortal...

ANYTHING on Philately, Postal History, Oxford History of England. Oxford Anthology of English Literature, Kilverfs Diary. Spectator Box 710. ANNALS OF THE PARISH by John Galt....

Alan Brien Beer and Skittles Richard Boston (Collins £3.50) Warning us of some of the miseries likely to counterbalance the splendours of pub-life , Richard Boston notes:...

The concrete reality Helen Smith The first part of this essay on the architecture of Denys Lasdun appeared last week. The exhibition of Denys Lasdun's architecture referred to...

Holiday time Kenneth Hurren Crocodiles in Cream (Mermaid) M. Perrichon's Travels (Chichester) Agamemnon (Greenwich) The reviewing troupe around the theatres last week had an...

Human clay John McEwen The current run of Arts Council shows at the Serpentine (till 22 August) and the Hayward (till 30 August) demonstrates yet again that choosing art by...

Spitting image I an Cameron The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea ( Carlton, X certificate) is a total disaster. It ! s the sort of movie that uses the notion that IS a...

Thin old stuff Richard Ingrams Turning on my television set after the lapse of many years I was surprised how little things seemed to have changed. There was What's My Line ?...