19 NOVEMBER 1983

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Pragmatic murderers

The Spectator

T he Provisional IRA has often found it difficult to win enough support, not because it resorts to violence — that has always made it glamorous to the outside world, and has...

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Political commentary

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Our own resources Charles Moore I f you suffer from persecution mania, you will imagine that there is a conspiracy of silence among politicians on the subject of the Common...

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Notebook

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A very good joke by Princess Elizabeth of Toro. Last month I wrote something in the Spectator suggesting that she ought not to have sought damages from the British press for...

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Ux Eire Surface mail Air mail a months: E17.25 07.25 E20.50 E26.50 One year: E34.50 E34.50 £41.00 £53.00 Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator and sent to Subscriptions...

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Another voice

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Mein Kampf Auberon Waugh L ast Thursday 73 policemen, some arm- ed, surrounded the home of Mr Maurice Dann, a well-known Plymouth dog-breeder. When armed officers even- tually...

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Friends, Romans, Japanese

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Murray Sayle Tokyo M ost friendships,. Sir', said Dr Samuel Johnson to his pushy young friend Boswell, 'are mere leagues in vice, or conspiracies in folly.' Political...

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One hundred years ago The difficulties of the historian are

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well illustrated in the discussion in the Times on turtle soup. Sir Henry Thomp- son, who is an eminent authority on food and cooking, as well as surgery, writes to say that...

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A Seychellois identity

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Shiva Naipaul long Independence Avenue, Victoria's i — vmain thoroughfare, one sees the developing modern profile of the Seychelles capital. Here you will find a couple of...

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Will Syria finish the job?

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Charles Glass Tripoli E smat al Muqaddam's grocery is doing a .1—.Ibrisk business these days. The rest of Tripoli is closed for the duration, but Esmat sells hundreds of...

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Kennedy lives

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Nicholas von Hoffman Washington T he American imagination is crowding in on American reality. The former Secretary of State and United States Senator, Edmund Muskie, will...

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Kennedy lies

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Christopher Hitchens Washington L ike every one else of my generation, I can remember exactly where I was standing and what I was doing on the day that President John...

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Spanish fiesta for peace

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Harry Eyres Barcelona A Fiesta for Peace and Disarmament .organised by the Catalan Communist Party (PCC): one might have expected a grim and dreary occasion, badly amplified...

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Back to Somerset

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Richard West Weston-super-Mare T f 1832 was 'the Year of Birmingham' I that city led the campaign for the Reform Bill, then 1983 deserves to be called 'the Year of...

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Attacking scholarship

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John Casey sonne You are a widowe, rich and now childlesse, and there be in both universities so many pore towarde youthes that lack exhibition, for whom if you would found...

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In the City

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Suitors for the savers Jock Bruce-Gardyne I tmay be that the Daily Mirror does not currently count a very high proportion of building society general managers among its...

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The press

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Epistolary dons Paul Johnson A s a careful student of Letters to the Editor, 1 have become increasingly aware of a growing and reprehensible tendency of readers to write not...

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The Jesus diaries

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Sir: I suspect that Hugh Burnett may be un- justified in his criticism of Paul Johnson (Letters, 12 November). Many Biblical critics would argue that the conversations contained...

Sir: Discussing the 'Best Novels of Our Time' business, Paul

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Johnson ('Literary sil- ly season', 12 November) asks rhetorically, 'Who but Miss Howard would have selected Elizabeth Taylor's little-known Angel?' Well I would, for one. The...

Letters

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Best novels? Sir: The story behind the Observer's story on the Book Marketing Council's 'Best Novels of our Time' stunt is even sillier than Mr Paul Johnson (12 November)...

Sir: We refer to the latter part of the article

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by Richard West entitled 'The Bridport dagger' in your issue of 1 October. In a series of unsubstantiated comments based mainly on hearsay Richard West manages to malign all...

Bridport strikes back

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Sir: A scurrilous article recently appeared in your paper entitled 'The Bridport dagger' (1 October) under the name of a Richard West. 1 am suprised that the Spectator has sunk...

Tolstoy's flight

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Sir: Count Nikolai Tolstoy deceives himself. He has not written 'a low-key and in part ironical approach' to Tolstoy's flight. He does not possess the literary resource. His...

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Centrepiece

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Runcie's contribution Colin Welch G rave misdemeanours have been alleged against Archbishop Runcie. Last week in the Spectator, for instance, A. N. Wilson charged him with...

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Books

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A dazzling European view John Keegan Europe Transformed, 1878-1919 Norman Stone (Fontana History of Europe, £3.50 paper- back) T his is a fascinating book, elegant, witty,...

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Elder brothers

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Mark Amory Married to a Single Life: An Autobiography, 1901-38 Wilfrid Blunt (Michael Russell £9.95) Brothers and Friends: An Intimate Portrait of C.S. Lewis The Diaries of...

Pigeon pie

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Anthony Blond The English Rothschilds Richard Davis (Collins £12.95) P rofessor Davis will not be the last chronicler of this amazing tribe but he is the first to be given...

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Scent and spume

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Peter Quennell Pierre Loti: Portrait of an Escapist Lesley Blanch (Collins £12.50) rlarrying home two massive volumes of the Oeuvres Completes de Pierre Loti, I met on the bus...

Hell in hell

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Patrick Skene Catling London Tales edited by Julian Evans (Hamish Hamilton £8.95) F or people who have never been in London (there must be such people) this vividly...

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Fairy fingers

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John Michell The Stars and the Stones Martin Brennan (Thames & Hudson £12) M artin Brennan is a New York artist who studied Shintoism in Japan and was advised by his teachers...

Thrillers

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Harriet. Waugh The Last Supper Charles McCarry (Hutchinson £8.95) A Flaw in the System R.B. Dominic (Macmillan £6.95) The Name of Annabel Lee Julian Symons (Macmillan £6.95)...

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Recent paperbacks

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James Hughes-Onslow Markets of London Alec Forshaw and Theo Bergstrom (Penguin £4.95) London Street Markets Kevin Perlmutter (Wildwood House £2.95) No city has such a variety...

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Arts

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Raoul revealed John McEwen T he programme is advertised round the battlements of the Hayward as 'Dufy/ Hockney', but in quality and size Hockney's contribution is actually of...

Cinema

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Why do it? Peter Ac kr o yd Finally, Sunday! (PG, Chelsea Cinema) L ighted interior seen from the street people arguing, lamp overturned — car door slams — picture of woman...

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Theatre

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Disenchanted Giles Gordon Blonde! (Old Vic) Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and The Actor's Nightmare (Ambassadors) False Admissions (Lyric Studio, Hammersmith)...

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Radio

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Giving voice Maureen Owen \V inter is the time for pondering meaty issues on the wireless, and lectures and subsequent discussions about the lec- tures are highly suitable to...

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High life

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In-crowds Taki New York I is that time of year a g ain. What Saki called the period between the cruelty of summer and the harshness of winter. Well, I'm afraid Taki isn't as...

Television

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Meddlesome Richard Ingrams T here was some irony in the fact that the BBC should broadcast a two-part play about its founder John Reith just at the time when it is under...

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Postscript

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Poets Amalgamated P.J. Kavanagh A l this summer the 45-year-old poet Frances Horovitz lay seriously ill. She was unable to work and so was her hus- band, Roger Garfitt, who...

Low life

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Grants and groans Jeffrey Bernard T here seems to be a crazy idea going around that journalism is actually im- portant. What nonsense. How awful that Harry Evans, ex-editor of...

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Competition entries

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To enable competitors to economise on postage, entries for one or more weeks of the competition and crossword may be posted together under one cover addressed 'Competition...

No. 1293: The winners

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Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a set of rules for a Groucho Club to be founded in London. `So you want to see the rules, Mrs Ritten- house? Ah, what an evening...

Competition

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No. 1296: Truepenny? Set by Jaspistos: How glad, really, was Penelope when Odysseus/Ulysses returned? An untraditional poem please (maximum 16 lines) such as she might have...

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ORDER FORM SPECTATOR WINE CLUB

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c/o Berry Bros & Rudd 3 St James's Street, London SW1A 1EG Telephone 01-930 1888 DESCRIPTION PRICE No. OF CASES VALUE 1. Charmes-Chambertin (EB) 1971 12 bots. £118.26 2. Aloxe...

Special offer

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Spectator Wine Club Auberon Waugh F or the last offer of the year we are back to my old particular stamping ground of fine and expensive old burgundies, this time raiding the...

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Chess

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Capital city Raymond Keene A few years ago, while compiling a book of chess brilliancies, I discovered that from the 1850s to the 1880s a majority of the truly outstanding...

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Crossword 634

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A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 5 December. Entries to: Crossword 634, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. The...

Solution to 631: General 6A 'E' 1 4. I I S . c .. r0'P .... EIN •

The Spectator

El i cl'i 3 ARACEISUSIO ATI AINELLSTA ... R . 01RI N TAGEDOORS LAST IC ' E 'A . S I T ° F1 NITRITUE ' T..1 .. . L. J . R LILL H I D ItI E T Eli el I E S ZIIIRIH OS I E E...

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Portrait of the week

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T he first of the American nuclear cruise missiles arrived at Greenham Common air base 24 hours earlier than expected by the women protesters camped outside the gates. Defence...

Books Wanted

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JUDITH VIORST: 'It's hard to be hip over thir- ty and other poems'. Vincent, 01-370 3909. LOUIS AUCHINCLOSS: any novels by this author. G. Gordon, 23 Hogarth Court, Fountain...

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Game for a Daimler

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with Dame Edna Everage Hello Possums! Although I'm as Left as they come, I've always had a soft spot for that marvellous old Maverick from the Orkney Isles — cuddly, tweedy,...

How to take part

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I. Dame Edna Everage will introduce one question by a different person in each issue of The Spectator from now until the 10 December issue. 2. Do not send in your replies each...

Back Numbers

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If you missed the previous weeks' issues, it is still possible to enter the competition. Back numbers are available from: The Spectator, Competition Back Numbers, 56 Doughty...

Prizes

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The first prize is a magnificent 1934 Daimler Saloon, which is illustrated above. It is fully licensed and in excellent condition having had only two owners. The car is valued...