It is no criticism of Mr Anthony Crosland, although it is of the Labour party, to say that he is the best theorist they have got. The Fabian Society has published a tract by...

Established 1828 99 Gower Street, LondonkWC1 Telephone: 01-387 3221 Telegrams: Spectator, London Editor: George Gale Associate Editor: Michael Wynn Jones Literary Editor:...

The Commonwealth, being an institution in no strong position to do anyone any harm, and being rather less incapable than the United Nations organisation, say, in doing in a very...

HUGH MACPHERSON And now', said Baldwin to Lloyd George, 'they have caught you telling the truth.' Politicians are much more concerned about the way their activities are...

The rightness of indecision By 'a Conservative' The decision of the Dutschke Appeals Tribunal, coming as it does at the beginning of a university term, will provoke discussion...

Wednesday 6 January: From Paris, the news that the us Secretary of Defence believes all American ground forces will be out of Vietnam by the end of the year, and that the us...

A Tremendously Important Person S ALLY VINCENT Little more than half the full complement of the House of Commons returned from its holiday to grace' the first day of the new...

But what of the quid pro quo, the reciprocal deal long talked of which would compensate Associated Newspapers for the ignominious loss of the Daily Mail to the Daily Express, by...

Never can Fleet Street have come to so sorry a pass. The faces are long and ready to bitch; the backs are padded against stabs: never has the place been further removed, meta-...

Our art critic, Mr Evan Anthony, who con- scientiously turns up at a great many more exhibitions than he can bring himself to write about, experienced an opening last week that...

The conviction grows that the evident need of our Minister for the Environment, Mr Peter Walker—who has already been not very nice about historic town centres—to demonstrate to...

Had not Donald McLachlan been killed in a motoring accident in Scotland last week- end, we would have resumed soon the dis- tinguished commentary on the affairs of the press...

This week's SPECTATOR welcomes as political corespondent Mr Hugh Macpherson, ex- draughtsman, ex-physicist, ex-chairman • of Glasgow University Labour Club, ex-politi- cal...

The KGB is a tainted source, and the pro- venance of the document cannot but cast grave doubts upon its genuineness. Yet in itself this is no proof that the Khrushchev 'memoirs'...

Here is a document of the greatest im- . portance—yet the publishers have utterly and uncompromisingly refused to give any indication as to the source of the document, its...

The publication of the Khrushchev 'memoirs' raises a number of fundamental questions. Is the book authentic, and if so, to what degree? Is it what it purports to be, namely the...

Rumours of the KGB's involvement began to circulate at a fairly early stage, and soon the essential facts became known. The in- termediary between Time Inc and the KGB was Mr...

How the KGB fooled the West TIBOR SZAMUELY On 23 November 1970 the Times, with a suitable flourish of trumpets began a prob- ably unprecedented four-week serialisation of the...

Nevertheless, even taking all these bizarre circumstances into account, it should still be possible to establish (a) whether Khrushchev really is the author of the fragments,...

But even allowing for the selection and editing by the KGB, might there not remain some worthwhile facts concerning a country about which we know so little? The book does...

What, then, are these purposes? To begin with, the money must have come in quite useful : the USSR is short of foreign currency, and the KGB is involved in many expensive...

Now for the claim that these are Khrushchevi authentic reminiscences, an analysis of their style shows that hardly any—probably none—of these fragments were dictated by...

How to kick it BENNY GREEN On the evening of 19 October last, at ten m inutes to ten, I placed a clean sheet of paper in the typewriter and lit a cigarette, my eight- eenth of...

ROGER BARNARD It is a depressing fact that the intellectual abstractions, critical analyses, muckraking exposes, and social indictments which are accounted 'knowledge' in our...

Soccer report PATRICK MARNHAM The poster outside the church hall in Liver- pool made a..bold inquiry of every passer-by. `What would you do if Christ returned to- morrow?'...

wre MEVIEWaBOOKS W. H. Auden on George Orwell—Thirty Years After Denis Donoghue on the Essays and Poetry of Allen Tate Brian Crozier on Hugh Thomas, Richard Cobb on French...

It is a surprise to learn that, in about 1890, Gissing was sometimes bracketed with Hardy and Meredith, and the three were seen to- gether as the major novelists of the age. The...

The four essays in this collection, introduced and concluded by Dr Zeldin. are all con- cerned with the 1850s and 1860s and have as a common theme the conflict between...

For the tough-minded, this is an hilariously funny book : for the pessimistic, it is a tract that will make them well-nigh suicidal. That is to say, it is a characteristic...

The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus (Penguin 4 vols lOs each) Aside from editorial matter, these volumes run to...

An important part of our attitudes towards other people is determined by the way in which we think of their actions. We think of people as being responsible or not responsi- ble...

Essays of Four Decades Allen Tate (oup 42s) There is a moment in Allen Tate's novel, The Fathers, when the narrator, Lacy Buchan, says that people living in formal societies,...

The New Cambridge Modern History: Vol IV, The Decline of Spain and the Thirty Years War 1609-48159, ed. J. P. Cooper (CUP 80s) The seventeenth century was an age in which men...

on secret police The Russian Secret Police Ronald Hingley (Hutchinson 60s) 'One must admit that our social existence is a sorry affair. This absence of public opinion, this...

The first thing the wondering purchaser is entitled to know about . this book is that it runs to nearYy 1,700 pages (about the size of Who's Who); and the second, that at seven...

No 639: Heave ho! Set by M. K. Cheesetnan: The Boat Show is with us again. Com- petitors arc asked to celebrate it with a sea shanty (not more than sixteen lines) for all...

Siberian trip Sir: Tibor Szamuely (Letters 9 January) has not replied to the points 1 raised in criticising his review of Involuntary Journey to Siberia, attributed to Andrei...

Sir : Like Mr Christopher Reekie I enjoyed Benny Green's article on boys' papers, but must enter a mild protest at the way in which two relative johnny-come-latelies as Strang...

A new novel by Edna O'Brien is something to which any regular novel reviewer looks forward with such eagerness that he must be careful to moderate his language on discov- ering...

No. 1464 JASON A prize of three guineas will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 25 January Address solutions: Crossword 1464, The Spec- tator, 99 Gower Street,...

egg 9 Leporine 10 Scheer 12 Eulogy 13 Semester 15 Adjutant bird 18 Comp- trollers 23 Atlantic 24 Assure 26 Becket 27 Fanlight 28 Estate 29 Coverage. Down: 1 Belted 2 Supply 3...

PATRICK SKENE CATLING ON TELEVISION There are experts (please don't ask for their names; they are only code-symbols perforated on tape in memory banks)— there are experts who...

Middle ground DAVID COHEN We keep hearing that there is a crisis in the film industry here and in America. Com- panies try desperately to repeat successes like Easy Rider,...

London secession EVAN ANTHONY To avoid the obvious, the Royal Academy's Vienna Secession show (which I'll get around 7 to when the crowd clears), I made a London ,secession...

Party pieces RODNEY MILNES The second issue of Decca's mammoth re.4 cording of the complete Haydn Symphonies comprises Nos 57-64 (HDNE 23.26), works that stem, as did the...

On 1 January the new divorce law came into effect. It abandons the old legal concept of one person' and one person alone being the guilty party responsible 'for the break- down...

Sir: In my capacity as President of the Professional Hypnotherapists Centre I have enabled hundreds of people to permanently stop smok- ing. May I suggest that the Royal College...

Letters from Liman Kogan, Brian Branston, the Gay Liberation Front, John C. Goss, Robert Con- quest, R. Emmet' Tyrrell Jr, Victor Seely. Letters to the Literary Editor are on...

Sir: Andrew Lumsden's piece on the Gay Liberation Front (2 January) dwelt too much on our relations with the press. It is quite true that we do not want to be sensationalised or...

Sir: The charge of antisemitism against Arabs is frequently denied by arguing that Arabs themselves are semites and therefore can hardly be antisemitic. However, an examination...

Sir: Mr Tony Palmer's pre- occupation with the Underground leads him to ignore what is taking place on the surface. I refer to his claim that 'the communications men have re-...

Sir: Do you never receive coin- pliMentary letters? Does no one feel it proper to put pen to paper except in indignation, argument or disapprobation? Or is it simply that...

regarding Mr Tony Palmer's pompous attitude towards youth may I recall an item of similar interest as that attitude and doubtless, if amusement isn't enough, of sociological...

betrays in- credible naiveté. Can it be that the stubborn Englishman who ignores threats of death from the Royal College of Physicians will not risk a fine for his 'illegal'...

Sir: It is surprising that Simon Raven (2 January) believes that he can make a valid assessment of the Greek regime after a week in Corfu and two days in Athens. As to the...

Sir: The Reverend J. L. Peace, (Letters, 26 December) in criticism of His Most Reverend Ramsey's politics, concludes by offering his own politics for Dr Ramsey to adopt and...

Sir: Elgar's Caractacus. Mr Howes's rambling letter is the more horrify- ing for its very innocence: for it shows the attitudes I complained bf so deep-set as no longer to feel...

Sir: In the controversy which has gone on over the control of the Savoy Hotel, one important fact seems to have been overlooked and that is the value of the Savoy group to...

Sir: Having just read Mr Powell's essay (14 November) it occurs to me that' though he may be the most enlightened gadfly in the his- tory of the Western world he is the most...

Sir: I wonder if I might refer to a small matter which I think would be of interest to readers. As keen Mozartians, my wife and I are regular patrons of the monthly concerts of...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT The great industrial nations of the West are cutting their bank rates and making money cheaper—all except Britain. Npt before it is time—in view of rising...

Smoking Balance Sheet in the Sunday Times this week : Economy would save Millions Cost of treatment and prod- uction loss due to smoking illness Cost of fires due to smoking...

An 8 to 1 place with my alternative selection, The Laird, proved almost as profitable at £3, as an outright win on his 6 to 5 conqueror, Into View, and so with my gambling...

Though hire purchase deposits have been the target of the Treasury for many years in controlling inflation I recently saw some American statistics which make the point, well...

No reply had been received to the letter addressed early last week by the SPECTATOR to head-in-the-air Mr Aidan Crawley pro- testing at the transfer by GEC of their share-...

The following letter has been received from LWT as the SPECTATOR goes to press: My Chairman, Mr Aidan Crawley, has passed on to me your letter to him dated 5th January in which...

Glencoe, according to a small, silly poem by T. S. Eliot, is where 'the patient stag breeds for the rifle.' They seemed to be doing it for sheer pleasure when I saw them at it,...

Gastronomy abounds in old wives' tales: cheese at bedtime gives you bad dreams, port and champagne at the same meal gives you a hangover, women shouldn't walk through mushroom...

For several months rumour, as passed around at Women's Institute meetings, gatherings in the bar at the Fox and Hounds, and similar village assemblies, has warned us that the...