T he Government came close to being defeated in the House of Lords, when an amendment which condemned as a dangerous precedent its plan to abolish elections to the GLC and...

The need for enemies W hen the Social Democrats were invented, it was said that one of the good things about them was their opposi- tion to 'adversarial politics'. If you were...

W hen the last editor of the Spectator entured to suggest that the in- dependence of Reuters might need protec- ting if its shares were to be offered to the public he was told...

T hose of us who, over the years, had become heartily sick of hearing Ger- m, an strictures on the unsatisfactory state of industrial relations in this country, will con-...

T he great increase in illegitimate births — up from 55,400 in 1978 to 99,200 this year, a figure which represents 16 per cent of all live births — suggests, if anything, that...

'suspect it is just a beginning,' wrote Ju l 198 3) in prophetic llor vein. ( HeNotebook had drawn o a r tt e nt ivo to Camden borough council's' Street, inof Selous Street as...

For special offer turn to p.20 6 months: One year: UK £17.25 £34.50 Eire £17.25 L34,50 Surface mail Air mail £20.50 L26.50 £41.00 £53.00 Name ...................................

column, which will incor- porate the monthly appearance of Auberon Waugh's wine offer. Our first article, by Digby Anderson (p.38), explains how to make a green salad.

Suitable case for shooting? Auberon Waugh S o all month long the noise of battle roll'd, with D-Day reminiscences not only from such heroic warriors as Colin Welch...

M Y daughter's in-laws live just outside Woking in a house overlooking the Surrey hills with a view as unspoilt as any to be seen in the wilds of Scotland or Wales. E very...

Dhiren Bhagat Shah Mohammed today, leaderless, declares: `Our armies won but won to lose'. Qhah Mohammed's lines from the Pun- jabi epic Jang Nama are a compressed commentary...

Michael Skapinker Athens T hey may have greeted elections to the European Parliament with a stifled yawn in Britain, but in Greece the politi- cians have been filling up the...

Timothy Garton Ash O n 3 May last year a group of men in plain clothes broke into St Martin's convent in Warsaw, wrought havoc in the rooms of the Primate's Aid Committee for...

Charles Glass Beirut N o siren sounds, no bell rings the all- clear in the capital of Lebanon. When people go down to the relative safety of their basements, they do not know...

Richard West Richard West concludes his account of his visit to Medjugorje. H er cegovina has for centuries been at the heart of all the national and religions troubles of what...

Andrew Gimson nr David Owen is now thought to stand in the same relation to the Government as Lord Melbourne stood to the Church of England. While he cannot be regarded as one...

Roy Kerridge F rom a radical point of view, all the por- tents for the first Feminist Book Fair were favourable. Riotous miners stormed up and down Fleet Street, and in Aldwych...

Michael Trend B efore we all retire from Clio's court e xhausted by our attentions to the stirr- ln g events of 40 years ago on the beaches of '.°rInandY to historical moment...

Markets' Waterloo T he sterling markets — money, govern- ment stock, the exchange rate — drift damply about, like clouds looking for a suitable mountain. Oh for some nice...

Y oo-hoo, down there in Bath, are you looking after my pension? Yes, I know I stopped working for you 20 years ago, but I was in the scheme, and I'm still around, so I hope you...

R ash iconoclasm sweeps the City. From the Government broker to the senior bill-workers, no monument can be counte d secure. Worst of all, vandalous Pic k- hammers have fallen...

T hat shuffling noise outside the board- room door of Thames Television comes from the loyal staff. Do they dare ask the owners to move over? They should try lean- ing on the...

Sir: Paul Johnson (The press, 2 June) has devastated the letter to the Times from three bishops, though he has done so by saturation bombing rather than pin-point accuracy. It...

Sir: It was immensely kind of Janet Daley (Letters, 9 June) to suggest that Spectator readers might like to contribute to my expenses in defending the action brought by Mrs...

Sir: In his review of my book on chivalry (Books, 2 June), Mr Christiansen generously suggests that I may have committed an irresponsible and blatant error as a result of my...

Ulster's record Sir: Charles Moore opines (Politics, 26 May) that `everyone knows, of course, that he [Mr Prior] feels the customary E nglishman's contempt for the province...

Sir: Enjoyable as it was to read yet another offering (Letters, 9 June) from the illustrious epistolier, though not always so belle a lettriste, writing this time not on the...

looking at buildings for a guidebook I am writing, and was shocked to find that in the diocese of Southwell on a Sunday afternoon, out of several churches inspected only one was...

A reason why the Government cannot simply treat the Ulster Loyalists as friends and the Nationalists of the South as foes, is to be found in the peculiar character of Ulster...

Jenkin's Bill to abolish the GLC does not have the significance that Councillor Nickols pretends (Letters, 2 June). It is merely another case of that alarming servility among...

Sir: Lord Aberdeen remembers Sir John Betjeman applying two tests to architecture: love and liveliness (Letters, 9 June). 1 can give the noble marquess a further example of...

Sir: Since the leader of Kensington and Chelsea Borough Council told me recently that he deemed my earlier letter to be `scurrilous', it is not surprising that one of his...

Sir: I was shocked and disgusted to find one of the greatest men alive today and a great hero of mine, Ronald Reagan, described as a geriatric warmonger by some ignorant...

The Spectator for twelve months and receive FREE either THE KNOX BROTHERS A biography by Penelope Fitzgerald or UNDER SIEGE Literary Life in London 1939.45 by Robert...

Schooling the teachers Colin Welch T eachers want more money. How little, alas, which appears from day to day in the papers suggests that they deserve it. They' of course is a...

Ivy and friends Christopher Hawtree Secrets of a Woman's Heart Hilary Spurling (Hodder and Stoughton £14.95) `Tt is a pity that speech cannot be _Lprinted.' Such a remark,...

Peter Ackroyd The Memoirs of John Addington Symonds Edited and introduced by Phyllis Grosskurth (Hutchinson £14.95) thought that, if I lived to do nothing else, I should write...

Mark Amory Jean Rhys: Letters 1931-36 Edited by Francis Wyndham and Diana . Melly (Andre Deutsch £10.95) T etters are arbitrary. Crucial events may A be left out because the...

Careless of petit-bourgeois shame, They bent the rules yet played the game. Now they're just people in old homes Distinguished by a lack of gnomes. The richer ones invest, keep...

All irony and no fire Michael Horovitz Some Contemporary Poets of Britain and Ireland Edited by Michael Schmidt (Carcanet Press £9.95, £4.50) M ichael Schmidt's preface begins...

P. J Kavanagh Selected Poems George Meredith (Carcanet £4.95) G eorge Meredith is, I suppose, an unfashionable novelist, and I would strongly recommend The Egoist to anyone who...

David Wright Collected Poems C. H. Sisson (Carcanet £14.95) In the light of so magisterial a collection 'there is no disputing Robert Nye's large claim, quoted on the...

Run for your life! Whether Welter Weight or Cruiser, Scannell is a frightening bruiser! Redgrove is a Black Belt too! Those who cheek them — very few! NOTE: Vernon Scannell...

Elizabeth Jennings Chapter and Verse: Bible Poems Laurence Lerner (Seeker £5.95) w henever I am confronted by a pile of new volumes of poetry, I always, perhaps rather...

That's entertainment Giles Gordon The Merry Wives of Windsor (Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park) The Clandestine Marriage (Albery) I f you've an eye for anagrams, you'll notice...

Foreign aid Peter Phillips H aving just written an article in this column on the subject of how healthy festivals in England are, who pays for them and so on (26 May), and...

False dorm Peter Ackroyd Another Country ('15', Odeon Haymarket) I am told by One Who Knows that the Odeon in Haymarket is the cinema most eagerly sought by producers for the...

Gross profits Taki Southampton, Long Island T he Hamptons were once a series of quiet, tiny, tranquil villages by the sea that served as a country refuge for Ne w York City's...

Baron Manhattan is a man of mystery. I can find nobody who has ever heard of him. But I am grateful to News- night for digging him up. Newsnight was preceded by a profile of...

French bread Jeffrey Bernard L ast weekend at Chantilly was a strange 0411dd to have a decent meal or two and the tion, and idiocy. I went there for the races „.--ci.drink and...

New hat P. J. Kavanagh I t is possible for some of its students to be sceptical about the university at Oxford. It has pretensions to an absoluteness of intellect and...

Triple echo Raymond Keene xamine this diagram. Twelve years ago 1– . ./C. H. O'D. Alexander gave this posi- tion as a test to Bill Hartston, Jonathan Penrose, Andrew Whiteley...

No. 1325: Eccentric entries Ae Set by Jaspistos: You are invited to PrQt i ` . extracts from The Diary of a Mad , (occupation supplied). Maximum words. Entries to 'Competition...

„ c k Jaspistos reports: Competitors were as t he for a plausible piece of prose containing 'hi following words: dromedary, divers , dog-leg, doodad, dicky, dyslexical l y ,...

' 10 or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 edition (ring t he Word 'Dictionary' under name and address) — for the first c orrect solution opened on 2 July. Entries to:...

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G reen salads in southern French cooking are served after the main course and consist of endive, chicory or lettuce with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and garlic. Their failure, as...

STREET WITHOUT JOY by Bernard B. Fall.' Col C. Knight, MBE, Several House, Church Plain, Mattishall, Dereham, Norfolk NR20 3QF. SCARNE'S COMPLETE GUIDE TO GAMBL- ING by John...