T he memoirs of Peter Wright, the ex-MI5 man, went on sale in the United States and copies were flown immediately to Britain. The Government is taking legal action against the...

THE LOOSE CANNON I n 1931 the Labour Party suffered an electoral defeat of seemingly catastrophic Proportions, emerging with only 52 MPs compared with 289 in 1929. Yet in...

Too late to turn back from one of Mrs Thatcher's less good ideas FE RDINAND MOUNT They have been made an issue solely by the dogged, unappeasable insistence of Mrs Thatcher on...

B ruce Chatwin's new book, The Song- lines, which I have not read, apparently introduces us to a system by which Abor- igines find their way about. From songs, they learn the...

Roy Buggins waits for the chance to see himself all right AUBERON WAUGH A m I alone in being seriously alarmed by the Roy Hattersley phenomenon? What alarms me is not so much...

The Iran gate hearings have been transformed by the an awkward outcome for some, but not for the President Washington CAN it be that Oliver North has single- handedly turned...

HERR Krupp has been so closely associated in the European mind with German victories, that his death on the 14th inst. is an event. Herr Krupp in 1848 commenced the manufacture...

David Butler thinks that Mr Kinnock could learn from Labor's victory in Australia Sydney To switch from a British election to an Australian one is to see some strange reverse...

John Jolliffe attacks the fantasy of the novelist's politics GRAHAM Greene's novels have earned him a popularity and respect which are richly deserved but which become...

Oral Answers to Questions — Monday, 6 July Mr Harry Greenway (Ealing North, Conservative): Will my right hon. Friend see whether we can move over coinpletely to self-seal...

they are trained to use firearms AS I was sitting in the canteen of the Metropolitan Police Firearms Training School at Lippetts Hill, a sergeant instruc- tor approached me and...

Michael Trend disentangles a case history of failure by British Telecom FOLLOWING the appearance of an article, 'British Telecom's number is up' (Spectator, 4 July) my life...

Patricia Morgan argues that social planning has failed to stop child abuse WHEN the Government meets the dam- ages and costs imposed last week at Stras- bourg for violating...

The media: Paul Johnson explains why the Government should pay more attention to words I HOLD no particular brief for Bryan Gould, who seems to me a very overrated fellow at...

A miracle from Mr Major would not come amiss JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE L et us, as they say from the Sabbath Pulpit in the Anglican Church, take for our text this weekend some words...

week for John — always J. J. — Warr. For 35 years a pillar of the money market (first with Union Discount, then with Clive, as deputy chairman) he is giving himself the time...

Here comes the Bang to blast the stars out of their courses CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he Big Bang is now. That much- heralded popping noise last autumn was no more than a...

Sir: Many of us who hated the idea of the new Clare College library and the effect it was obviously going to have on Scott's impressive Memorial Court/University Library vista,...

Sir: Like Jeremy Lewis (Books, 6 June), I had also speculated on the origins of the Pattle surname. Since so many of that family served with distinction in India, the...

Sir: I am astonished that Charles Clover (Prince Charles in Spitalfields', 11 July) should attribute to Stoke Newington 'a kind of hopeless delinquency, exclusively public (and...

Sir: Radio Four's Today and Brian Red- head have twice had the good news-bad news routine. When the Policy Studies Institute pro- duced a report indicating that racial discri-...

Sir: I was in Bradford recently and saw nothing of Richard West's 'Inner city of dreadful night' (27 June). Indeed, I have happy memories of a lovely English city of...

Sir: I could hardly believe my eyes when I read the Diary by Mary Soames (4 July). Here she was stating that we are doomed to a continuing malaise in our religious life and that...

Sir: Am I alone in being irritated and repelled by the expression 'state of the art', applied ad nauseam to every advertised product from heavy machinery to fizzy drinks?...

Sir: It is only the delight I have in John Mortimer's writings which causes such exasperation at his article 'Should writers think?' (27 June). Spurious juxtapositions,...

Sir: Sir John Biggs-Davison (Letters, 4 July) says 'Non sequitur' to Stephen Robinson's assertion that any Unionist would in time lose South Down because of its natural Catholic...

Sir: Paul Johnson claims that the Mail on Sunday is losing money. This is simply not true. The Mail on Sunday has been trading at a considerable profit for the last 18 months...

Sir: Does Oliver Knox ('Homer for sex lessons', 27 June) need to return to the Mad to discover the negative aspects of sexual passion when schools still teach Othello, Romeo and...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY — Save 15% on the Cover Price! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for £ (Equivalent SUS & Eurocheques accepted) RATES 12...

Circling Red Square Christopher Booker h ere has been no more dramatic de- velopment in this decade than the emerg- ence of Mr Gorbachov as the leader of the Soviet Union. His...

Nicholas Lezard A NEST OF NINNIES by John Ashbery and James Schuyler Carcanet, £10.95 T his is an extraordinary book. It was first published in America in 1969, but had been...

Anita Brookner WORLDLY GOODS by Elizabeth North Methuen, £10.95 N ina and Campbell seem unlikely to go the distance, although their wedding is being intensively planned by...

I was resting my feet between two pogroms And cooling them in a stream, When through the tender leaves above I saw an angel gleam. My guardian angel: I knew him at once. He...

Byron Rogers CHARLES by Penny Junor Sidgwick & Jackson, E12.95 I t was not much fun in the beginning When, between the seed-time and the harvest, there were armies which you...

William Scammell ROBERT LOWELL: COLLECTED PROSE edited and introduced by Robert Giroux Faber, £17.50 I t was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . . What an age...

Paul Johnson THE VICTORIAN CHRISTIAN SOCIALISTS by Edward Norman CUP, £17.50 0 ver the past 150 years the political orientation of the Church of England has slowly changed...

(For John Joubert, on 20th March, 1987) A day is a long time For a child of two or three; From breakfast-time to lunch Is an eternity. At six, he still may find The day too...

John Ness Barkes SIDNEY NOLAN: SUCH IS LIFE by Brian Adams Hutchinson, £16.95 S idney Nolan's 70th birthday is current- ly being marked by a major retrospective at the...

'Maps do not hold the spirit of the land!' claim clever folk, who reckon none are wise but through their lore. We learn to understand one point of view from them, but others...

Fathers and Sons (Lyttleton) The power of absence Christopher Edwards T his new production is an adaptation by Brian Friel of Turgenev's great novel. It would be as well,...

Capriccio (Glyndebourne) Irony and iron Rodney MIlnes 0 f all Handel's myriad qualities, the one least appreciated is surely his sense of humour, at least until recently. Yet...

Radio Days ('15', Odeon Haymarket) Raising Arizona ('15', selected cinemas) Lands of lost content Hilary Mantel G rowing up in New York, before the war . . . Jewish,...

Short rhymes Wendy Cope t's too hot. I have mislaid my pencil- sharpener and can't summon up the energy to look for it. But none of this must be allowed to get in the way of...

Low blows Taki E numclaw is a small town near the beautiful Cascade Mountains in the far north-west corner of Washington state. The local newspaper is the Enumclaw Courier,...

Reach for the sky Ursula Buchan T here is a widespread, wrong, assump- tion that small gardens require (perhaps even deserve) only small plants. Small trees with small leaves,...

Pharaoh- Jeffrey Bernard I never meant to get sucked into a group and it was foolish of me to imagine I wouldn't be when we set sail from Aswan to go downstream to Luxor....

Umbrella cover Alice Thomas Ellis I believe I am responsible for the recent pleasant weather. A couple of weeks ago when it was still relentlessly raining I penned a few words...

New white Australia policy Auberon Waugh Berri Estates and Renmano are an Upwardly mobile consolidate from the Riverlands area of South Australia, who have recently been...

C/o Shaftesbury Vintners plc, 4 Peel House, Barttelot Road, Horsham, West Sussex. Tel: 0403 64317/40703 Product Price No. Value Whites 1. Berri Estates Semillon 1986...

IT WAS in Chelsea that I learnt to twist, aged four, in the kitchen. I lived there from nought to seven and from 16 to 19; and I have an affection for the place which has little...

STUDENT'S ARE TWICE AS LIKELY TO ENJOY THE SPECTATOR AT LESS THAN HALF-PRICE More stimulating than any lecture, funnier than the set books, The Spectator should be required...

Conquering heroes Raymond Keene A n historic moment for British chess — Nigel Short and Jon Speelman, the reigning British champion, have tied for first place in the...

Self-portrait Jaspistos I N Competition No. 1480 you were invited to provide a self-portrait in prose, accurate or plausible. A kind reader has added a postscript to my...

:F I U R OINI ' N.A.O ' SIIIRCLI N T an 4M1 TIMLarble MAR XIA AITEY M 05 N TIPFIOIS OERC UlEl Ul0 I GN I E . ' F .L 6 1. A IN T AN N N I S TaP MILE Is IG I TOBA M !A 1 2 U...

You are invited to compose the ultimately ecumenical hymn (maximum 16 lines) guaranteed to give no offence (or pleasure either) to adherents of any religion. En- .tries to...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £13.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the...