• ary d VirgrEMENUMNOMIUMMINIONNEMIX In the British confrontation with Iceland over North Sea _ fishing there are strategic, economic and legal.considerations at issue; and in...

One of Hawksmoor's unjustly disregarded London churches, St George's-in-the-East, acquired an unjust celebrity as the recruiting centre for free-booters off to fight in Angola....

The Liberal dilemma Patrick Cosgrave The general political significance of Mr Jeremy Thorpe's troubles has been missed. It does not lie in the personal embarrassment he has...

Ej While left-wing journals—doubtless innocently—have been helping assassination squads to identify CIA agents throughout the world, attention has been diverted from what the...

The pain and the pity Auberon Waugh The RSPCA's decision to condemn foxhunting did not go down well in West Somerset. Mr Jack Hosegood, joint master of the Exmoor Foxhounds,...

Richard West The fear of red intervention in black Africa is not the novelty that one might imagine from recent statements on the Angola crisis. As readers of 'Evelyn Waugh's...

Samuel Macpherson Edinburgh Events move fast in interesting times, and these are certainly interesting times in Scotland. A few months ago, the great argument was between...

John Grigg Mrs Thatcher, now entering her second year as Conservative leader, has a firm hold on the Party in Parliament and in the constituencies. But does she look like...

Amit Roy Mrs Thatcher must regret the day when she promised to appear on the BBC television programme for Asian viewers, Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan, dressed in a "peacock blue...

Jack Waterman The big brewers are notorious for advertising endlessly their deep sense of social responsibility. Their posters proclaim a huge concern for what they call the...

Alan Brien Nothing causes more manly, paternal. tolerant amusement among pragmatic conservatives than the statement "we are all guilty". The phrase k enough in itself to...

Jim Higgins Glasgow Working in a car factory is not very pleasant—computerised production lines, repetitive work in noisy and unpleasant conditions frequently add , up to a...

Nicholas Davenport The final argument which should kill the promotion of the incredible "EIL" (Equity Investment Limited)—alas! I had no space for it last week—is the...

A laurel for Hardy Roy Fuller The Genius of Thomas Hardy edited by Margaret Drabble (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £5.50) The Hardy industry continues to flourish, the editor...

Hugh Lloyd Jones The Olympic Games: 80 Years of People, Events and Records. Edited by Lord Killanin and John Rodda (Barrie and Jenkins, £7.50). The Olympic Games: The First...

Gillian Freeman Tube of Plenty—the Evolution of American Television Erik Barnouw (Oxford University Press, £8.50) The first time I saw a television was in Maidenhead in 1944....

Duncan Fallowell A Proper Man Jonathan Lynn (Heinemann £3.50) Big Fleas and Little Fleas Terence de Vere White (Gollancz E3.50) When an ex-member of the Cambridge Footlights...

Paul Foot Rupert Murdoch: A business biography Simon Regan (Angus and Robertson, £3.80) The key to the success of Rupert Murdoch, newspaper proprietor and tycoon, appears on...

Noel Barber Operation Menace Arthur Marder (Oxford University Press, £7.50) Ever since the Second World War, Churchill has been castigated for the pathetic attempt in September...

Gambart, Prince of the Victorian Art World Jeremy Maas (Barrie and Jenkins, £8.50) At first sight it would appear that Mr Maas has hit e ivon the easiest and most rewarding of...

Peter Ackroyd The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes (Jonathan Cape. £2.50) M. Barthes, for all his great reputation, is the great bowdleriser of French criticism, a writer...

Benny Green Whistler James Laver (White Lion £5.25) When James Laver published his Whistler in 1930, it marked the opening of a new stage in Whistlerian interpretation, where...

Gerrit Henry New York Apart from E. L. Doctorow's best-seller, Ragtime, the major cultural events of the autumn season—which runs from September, when New Yorkers are returning...

Little shocker Rodney Milnes Tosca (London Coliseum) Benvenuto Cellini and Cavalleria Rusticana and I Pagliaccl (Royal Opera House) - Tosca, that shabby little shocker, is no...

Vintage Visconti Kenneth Robinson Conversation Piece Director: Luchino Visconti Stars: Burt Lancaster, Helmut Berger, Silvano Mangano, Claudia Marsani, Stefano Patrizi 'X'...

Town cottages Jeffrey Bernard he Man Alive (BBC 2) report on homosexuals and police persecution was an extremely serious affair in which selfconfessed 'gays' were confronted...

Elizabeth Dunn There are moments—uncharitable moments, no doubt—when one cannot help feeling that the National Consumer Council is something of an offence against the Trade...