T he Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr Nigel Lawson, tried to rebut speculation that he was preparing for an early general election, after announcing in his Autumn Statement that...

SILVER—TONGUED TORYISM H ere is azround rule for those wishing to understand British politics: never forget how odious the Conservatives can be. Tories tend to prefer doing...

ON TUESDAY the Archbishop of Canter- bury rebuked the Bishop of London for failing to respect the collective view of the Church of England's House of Bishops. If Dr Runcie means...

The U-turn Mrs Thatcher didn't need to make FERDINAND MOUNT Pilot is a work of substance. You can almost hear Bismarck's heavy boots thumping down the steps and feel the depth...

M ost people seem to have stopped worrying about it already. But it is worth asking what should be done about papers such as the News of the World after they do something...

Introducing Kangaroo's Paw, a wonderful new disease from Australia AUBERON WAUGH I Adelaide n seven days spent touring the wine areas of Australia's most beautiful and...

Aids is no longer the disease of a homosexual how it spreads and who is most in danger THE time when the average Spectator reader could think of the Aids epidemic as being...

Sam White weighs the French Prime Minister's chances after his indiscretions about Syria Paris THOSE who have been clamouring for the French Prime Minister to give a lucid...

Christopher Hitchens detects an accumulation of telling points against the President Washington IN The Dean's December, Saul Bellow's Albert Corde reviews the evidence of a...

The riots expected on Lord Mayor's Day did not occur. The City was not invaded; and though a few Socialists, many roughs, and great numbers of the criminal classes thronged to...

Brian Eads explores the reasons for the takeover of the South China Morning Post Hong Kong and Mr Rupert Murdoch were made for each other (The South China Morn- ing Post, 10...

Housing.and Planning Bill, 3 November John Patten (City of Oxford, Conserva- tive): The hon. member for Perry Bar [Jeff Rooker] referred to the important evidence of the...

William Hayter remembers Molotov, survivor from the most ruthless dictatorship in history SUPERFICIALLY, Molotov was some- what ridiculous. The Foreign Office nick- name for...

Stan Gebler Davies explains why British and Irish people are not foreign to each other Kinsale, Co. Cork THE solution to the Irish problem, accord- ing to Dr Johnson, was the...

an arrogant unwillingness to learn as the BBC's besetting sin THERE are times when the people who manage the BBC remind me of the Bour- bons: they have forgotten nothing and...

Harmony means screwing down the British and taxing books like boots CHRISTOPHER FILDES N igel Lawson's successor — even Nigel, if he stays on — can expect a place in history...

PRUDENT Passage is a City byway in the hinterland beyond Cheapside. It is also, now, the danger signal in a Lawson speech. When he gets to the passage on prudence — take no...

LETTER from a City house now making markets in Government stock: `We ought to let you know that, in accordance with what is becoming a widespread market practice, we are...

The qualms that beset an apprehensive disposition JOCK BRUCE-GARD YNE I am, as Chancellor Lawson told the watching millions on BBC television on Sunday (are there really...

Sir: I read the article 'Talking of Miche- langelo' with the greatest interest. It appeared in your 4 October issue. It was lucidly written, informative, and fair to both sides...

Sir: In the Diary of 1 November, P. Worsthorne remarks on the discrimina- tion against white teachers by Brent Coun- cil. The anti-white policy now includes tenants in the...

Sir: Sentences beginning with the words: `The two superpowers . . .' should always be treated with suspicion, but I will have to search long and hard to find one which beats...

about Frederick Ashton's simple ballet Symphonic Varia- tions (1 November). As a member of the original cast in 1946 I deplore her lack of homework. She states, 'In fact Ashton...

Sir: On a recent flight from Accra to Freetown, I noticed that my neighbour, a Ghanaian businessman, was attempting to read my Spectator over my shoulder. So I duly lent him a...

Sir: In response to Peregrine Worsthorne's last Diary entry in the Spectator of 25 October, may I suggest that all drivers over 60 be obliged to wear hats. It has been my...

Sir: The writer of the piece on the Bishop of London (Profile, 25 October) is seemingly unaware of the fact that for many years the Gay Movement has had its HQ in St Botolph's...

Sir: Paul Barker's statement that Mr Sel- bourne 'got no support from the AUT' (The savaging of Selbourne', 8 November) is untrue. He asked for and was given support in his...

Coincidentally, I have just received a manuscript called Umbrellas — their ups and downs, written by Brenda Stacey; a history of the umbrella since its invention by the Chinese...

Sir: While the review conference of the Helsinki Accords is under way in Vienna, hundreds of Romanian political and reli- gious prisoners languish in jail in flagrant violation...

Sir: Rather misleading. What Peregrine Worsthorne says (Diary, 1 November). About the length of sentences. As written by various journalists. Because full stops don't always...

Sunbeams of insight Colin Welch A WALK WITH A WHITE BUSHMAN by Laurens van der Post Chatto & Windus, £12.95 I t is easy to make fun of Sir Laurens. It might even be...

out in the cold John Zametica ARMED TRUCE: THE BEGINNINGS OF THE COLD WAR 1945-46 by Hugh Thomas Hamish Hamilton, fly P inpointing the beginnings of the Cold War is an...

Philip Glazebrook JOHN STEWART COLLIS: A MEMOIR by Richard Ingrams Chatty & Windus, £10.95 T he form that Richard Ingrams has chosen for this short book about the writer John...

Paul Barker THE MARKET FOR GLORY by Simon Jenkins Faber & Faber, f9.95 THE END OF THE STREET by Linda Melvern Methuen, f9.95 T he one new national paper that fails to get a...

Sally Vincent LOW LIFE by Jeffrey Bernard Duckworth, £9.95 D uckworth has anthologised him and John Osborne's done the eulogy which leaves only two bits of news for anyone...

Patrick Skene Catling HIS WAY: THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY by Kitty Kelley Bantam, f12.95 H ell hath no fury like a biographer scorned. Kitty scratches hard but this immense,...

Harriet Waugh STILL LIFE WITH PISTOL by Roger Ormerod Constable, f7.95 BLACK ICE by Colin Dunne Seeker & Warburg, £9.95 JEMIMA SHORE'S FIRST CASE AND OTHER STORIES by...

Between forgetting one hypochondria And registering the next, there comes An interval of an hour or two called Health, When the world leaps into clarity and enter A yacht, for...

Juliet Townsend A report on the children's books shortlisted for the Smarties prize. H ow often I have watched in bemused admiration the judging of the Best in Show at Crufts....

Shall we make legends of our silly selves? The lies invented by the semi-great, By Yeats for example, cut no ice; After a few years the truth shows through And where is folly or...

I an Judge does a number of interesting and rather bold things to Cav and Pag in his new production for the ENO. First, he marries the two pieces, turning them into one opera...

Ginger and Fred ('15', selected cinemas) Come dancing Peter Ackroyd T he film opens with that dream of romance and elegance which is embodied in the happily elastic shapes of...

The past preserved Peter Levi A part from the evermore idiotic in- strusions of Mr Tebbit nothing has hap- pened on this front but the gentle purr of self-congratulation as...

Francois Boucher (Grand Palais, Paris till 5 January 1987) Too much sauce David Wakefield T he current exhibition at the Grand Palais is the latest in a series devoted to the...

First lady Taki f Margaret Papandreou, the American- born wife of Greece's numero uno bullshit- ter, did not exist, Truman Capote would have invented her. The tiny terror knew...

End ©f an era Jeffrey Bernard T here is far too much nonsense written about alcohol abuse but nobody seems to :give a damn about the abuse of alcoholics. 'Successive...

Organising Alfred Alice Thomas Ellis O ne of the advantages of having grown-up children is that they tend to listen to you and take note of your tan- trums. The eldest son...

Living to eat Sheila Hutchins I t was Brillat-Savarin, often a rather silly old gentleman, who said that those to whom nature 'has refused an aptitude for the pleasures of...

Swimming London Nigella Lawson T he reason the French are so much better restaurateurs than we is not just that they like to eat better themselves, but also that they distrust...

Variety performance Ausonius T he presses have been groaning, and 1986, as well as a good year for wines in most areas, looks as if it will prove a bumper vintage for wine...

Cod and cake Jennifer Paterson A dvent is lurking round the corner and Christmas Eve is getting depressingly near, egged on by those in Oxford Street with their premature...

his pudding certainly has no theme. Four countries and six wine areas make up my raid on the Avery's cellar for the Christmas season. I had hoped to include Avery's excellent...

Avery's of Bristol, 7 Park Street, Bristol BS1 5NG Telephone: 0272-214141 Code Product Price* 9719886 F (1) Avery's Fine White Burgundy '85 12 bots. £52.90 9719986 F (2)...

in the last Wine Club of the year next week.

A first prize of a bottle of Hennessy XO Cognac and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers...

War games David Spanier I srael has been prevented from taking part in the chess Olympiad, now starting in Dubai. A few countries, notably Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden,...

Old favourite Jaspistos . I n Competition No. 1446 you were in- vited to write a poem in honour of a film star of a bygone era. The only good poem on the old cinema that I...

R ' A ,... L11 6 G L E R P 0 • 1 S .L I 'M b ra l S T R A _ N A l' A'USTENIRaSTEISIM RUIT13 Y 3 , / H A R ! ‘.1 . A N 0 I i fr E R A T Ai SR G 0 T 2 111 E1 P A I A 6.1913 I. 22...

A letter, please, to the outside world from the first visitor to a lost island, describing its unique flora, fauna, inhabitants, cus- toms etc. Maximum 150 words. Entries to...