Babies for sale. L ady Thatcher voted against her party Whip for the first time in 34 years in Parlia- ment in a Lords vote on a referendum on the Maastricht Bill. The...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 THE FAMILY WAY The problem has changed significantly since the early...

`This is the time of year when wars break out' SIMON HEFFER A year ago I found myself in a televised debate with Mr William Powell, the Con- servative MP for Corby. We were...

O nly twice in my life have I sidled through the glossy black door of No. 10. The first occasion was during the premier- ship of Major Attlee, when I was bidden to a bun-fight...

EuroDisney's failure prompts fresh thoughts on the survival of the monarchy AUBERON WAUGH T he Sun's story that the Princess of Wales is claiming a £10 million settlement on...

Alasdair Palmer talks to the man hunting for the genes which determine human intelligence, and explains why his work is so feared and detested The conclusion that genes shape...

left, except to be put out of their misery Sarajevo THIS IS now a city without water, without food, without oil, without electricity, with- out defence against the guns which...

persist.. . WHEN EDUCATIONAL theorists speak of multiculturalism, I think they imagine public readings of T.S. Eliot in Thai restaurants. An Italian radical writ- er put it...

John Laughland catalogues Germany's recent agonising efforts to create its very own foreign policy Munich `WE REALLY must start having some for- eign policy again.' The German...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft argues that Westminster and Dublin seem incapable of realising that partition is the least bad solution to the Irish question THIS SUMMER is the 25th...

I THINK I am beginning to suffer from irritable vowel syndrome. When people use the wrong vowels it makes me irritable. The symptoms are surprisingly common. A report in the...

Two convictions, both by juries, have this week attracted some attention. On Friday, July 7th, Mr. Tims, a London County Councillor, was found guilty at the County of London...

Kenneth Minogue argues that our liberty and our patience are being eroded by hyperactive legislators IT IS NEARLY half a century since Michael Oakeshott, grinding his teeth...

history of Britain's fourth oldest company is a parable of the fate of the British economy I REMEMBER Witney on a damp November evening, 20 years ago; it was quiet as the...

Fish-, water- and wind-power for lairds worth their feathers PAUL JOHNSON T he Highland area of Scotland forms a large proportion of the total land surface of the British...

NOW THE game of bluff has shifted to the French franc, and the stakes are rising. If played by central bankers' rules, this game would require the Banque de France to hoist its...

ALVIN AND Marilyn Levett of Michigan, passengers on the P&O liner Regal Princess, have found a new way to finance their Caribbean cruise. They filmed the crew dumping plastic...

THE CHURCH of England feels let down by Mammon. It owns a lot of property, val- ' ues fell sharply last year, nowadays the accounts have to say so, assets are down by more than...

Gold tells us not to put our trust in Euro-Monopoly money CHRISTOPHER FILDES C hess masters can suffer fool's mates over money — Bobby Fischer is holed up in Belgrade, trying...

BASRA AT boiling point, Pusan by troop- ship, Bootle on a wet Sunday — any list of the world's worst destinations must surely feature Naples in sultry July. It has its...

Sir: You are doubly in error in reporting (Portrait of the Week, 10 July) that 'Mr Major and Miss Clare Latimer received £1,100 each from the New Statesman in an out-of-court...

Sir: I write from a deep sense of resentment and anger against British shirt manufactur- ers, who have so far failed to produce a truly non-iron shirt. In my wardrobe I have...

Sir: I was moved to tears by Frank Keat- ing's note on the imminent sale of Ran- dolph Turpin's Lonsdale Belt (`Under the hammer', 10 July). I count myself honoured to have met...

Sir: Buck's Fizz (Letters, 10 July) was first produced in the Thirties by Henri, the bar- man at the Golf Hotel Le Touquet, for `Buck's Weekend' when members, accom- panied by...

Sir: Re Mr Haslam's agitated little piece (Arts, 3 July) on the Queen Elizabeth memorial gates: isn't it rather base, while skirting so deferentially round the question of whose...

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The many faces of Eve James Buchan MARY MAGDALEN by Susan Haskins HatperCollins, £25, pp. 518 Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, as Mary...

Philip Glazebrook ON FOOT TO THE GOLDEN HORN: A WALK TO ISTANBUL by Jason Goodwin Chatto, £15.99, pp. 278 journey, especially a trudge through Eastern Europe like Jason...

John McEwen A VICTORIAN NATURALIST: BEATRIX POTTER'S DRAWINGS FROM THE ARMITT COLLECTION by Eileen Jay, Mary Noble and Anne Stevenson Hobbs Warne, f25, pp. 191 T oo many of the...

James Lees-Milne THE EMPTY THRONE by Tony Scotland Viking, f16.99, pp. 186 U ntil recently Tony Scotland was known as one of Radio 3's star announcers and comperes. Foi 20...

of the natural history drawings, Beatrix Potter — A Victorian Naturalist, can be seen at Inverleith House, The Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh until 25 July.

John Jolliffe D ominic Lieven's subject is vaguely familiar to countless readers, but he claims convincingly and inoffensively that all pre- vious biographies are defective in...

Albert Read h e objectivity of the reviewer is tested to the limit when presented with Peter Mayle's first novel along with a pile of hopeful unknowns. All thoughts of his pre-...

Roger Clarke A DIFFERENT SEA by Claudio Magris Harvill, £12.99, pp. 104 C laudio Magris, an academic from Trieste, wowed the usually sedate world of travel-writing with his...

The Spectator index for July to December 1992 is still available. Name Address Postcode Please return to: "Spectator Index", 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL This six...

Keith Christiansen FRA ANGELICO AT SAN MARCO by William Hood Yale, f45, pp. 368 W en, at the end of May, 1845 John Ruskin arrived in Florence for the first time, he had two...

The Sherlock Holmes stories P ay tell me,' says Sherlock Holmes one day to Watson, 'what you can infer from this hat?' 'The wearer is clearly a plumber, though one who has not...

Architecture White gallery by the sea . Alan Powers praises the thoughtfulness of the new Tate Gallery building at St Ives A well-lit, spacious depository for all tempestuous...

... or whited sepulchre? Giles Auty sees the gallery as a shrine to a narrow and short-lived art movement tisses,' commented the young man cleaning railway carriages at St...

A tale of Tiggyvvinkles Ursula Buchan T his is the time of year when the dead hand of tidiness weighs most heavily on our gardens. Anarchic weed growth is losing its vigour,...

Critic or conductor? Peter Phillips I 'm coming to the conclusion that there are two quite distinct kinds of concert reviewer. On the one hand are those con- cerned with the...

Jurassic Park (PG', Empire) Bronto buster Mark Amory Y ou haven't read the book, you never wore the tee-shirt, you missed the comic, the ice-cream special and the...

Yes I would like to take out a Student Subscription to The Spectator, and enclo- se a cheque for: ❑ £37 (12 months) 0 £22.50 (6 months) US only Please state college Name...

Sunset Boulevard (Ade1phi) Much Ado About Nothing (Queen's) Sarajevo (touring) On the Wilder side Sheridan Morley I f it ain't broke, don't fix it: one of the major...

Francesco di Giorgio: Architect (Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, till 31 July) Francesco di Giorgio and the Renaissance in Siena 1450-1500 (Sant'Agostino, Siena, till 31 July) Master...

Oases in the summer desert Martyn Harris S itting in a waterfront bar in San Diego last week (how many TV columns have openings like this?), a familiar croak came drifting ....

Je ne regrette rien Taki n F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1931 short story, `Babylon Revisited', the hero returns to Paris after an absence of two years to find that things and people...

Scrupulously honest Nigel Nicolson Now, I do not claim a higher morality than the sculptor, simply a difference in habit, and a greater fear of being found out. I am quite...

a huge success and made more money than ever before for the church's restoration funds. I won nothing as usual, and the £1,000 was won by a banker of means, wouldn't you know....

CHESS SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA . C*IDOluill11 SPAIN'S FINEST CAVA Cui Bono Raymond Keene THE NEWS THAT U2 singer Bono (who reputedly contributes more than the EEC does to the...

, PURE MALT , Devil's Advocate Jaspistos IN COMPETITION NO. 1787 you were invited to play the Devil's Advocate and argue that one of the Seven Deadly Sins is a mere...

Arqd. imET. t ONDUC I VK N ZHU% P V6DREISHR"a... A E A Y1 T A L't I 6 E A T S C E O N L e71" A R A r - A ROR l O c ly M P E R 0 ▪ Y R N A I I IN • E M ATERTAINK C HH . L A...

In one film Grouch() sang a song, 'Whatev- er it is, I'm against it'. You are invited to provide a song with these words as a chorus line. Maximum 16 lines, discounting the...

W. & J. CROSSWORD GRAHAM'S PORT A first prize of £20 and a bottle of Graham's Malvedos 1979 Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 2 August, with two...

Hit and miss Frank Keating DIPPING IN an oar rather late, this corner will resist the purple-braided quotation you must have read ten times already this week — you know,...

Q. I live in a semi-gentrified area of Ken- nington. Our house is one of 40 grouped in an oval shape around a tiny patch of green. As there is never anywhere to park in these...