20 MAY 1978

Page 3

Cuckolds' convention

The Spectator

When MPs of all parties start congratulating one another, the rest of us had usually better watch out. The chances are that slovenly if not actually dirty work is afoot. Mr...

Page 4

Political commentary

The Spectator

Carry on regardless Ferdinand Mount So what are you going to do? Do? Well, as you can see, the Government has a crowded programme this week. Take Thursday, for example....

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Notebook

The Spectator

r3 . 1 1 the day after the news of the royal divorce, the Daily Mail carried a picture n p ! Princess Margaret leaving hospital, the u„Qily Telegraph carried a picture of Lord...

Page 6

Another voice

The Spectator

The last kick Auberon Waugh At times this column has been marked by a nervousness, not to say a vulgar despondency, over the prospect of workers' power, on the grounds that it...

Page 7

Confusion in Rhobabwe

The Spectator

Xan Smiley Confusion reigns in Rhobabwe. The only certainty is that those most utterly convinced that they know the answer to the riddle are invariably the most ignorant — The...

Page 8

The independent Afghans

The Spectator

Anthony Mockler The Shah is reported to be very worried — amidst his other preoccupations — by the situation in Afghanistan. The last Shah to be equally worried by the same...

Page 9

Anglo-Aussie

The Spectator

Phillip Knightley AuStralians have a healthy cusrespect bordering on contempt for their politicians. My own theory is that broadcasting parliament has a lot to do with it. It...

Books and Records Wanted

The Spectator

HUNTING SKETCHES by Anthony Trollope; Vorrocks Country' by Uvedale Lambert; 'The England of Nimrod and Surtees, 1815-54' and 'English Country Life, 1780-1830' by E.W. Bovill....

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Light in the darkness

The Spectator

David ,Pryce-Jones Moscow The most Stalinist building in Moscow is the University, gigantically visible everywhere, so that nobody can miss the ideological nature of thought...

Page 11

The Orlov trial

The Spectator

John Macdonald The trial of Professor Yuri Orlov in Moscow and the parallel 'trial' in London — have fpcused attention on the abuses of human tights in the Soviet Union in a...

Page 12

The stoic compromise

The Spectator

Geoffrey Wheatcroft Florence On Saturday, the day of the state funeral, we talked inevitably of Aldo Moro, abducted and murdered by terrorists. Among the smallish party was a...

Page 13

Parliamentary 'phone-in

The Spectator

George Gale I happen to have heard all Prime Minister's Question Times since the proceedings of the House of Commons began to be broad cast. This is because each weekday...

Page 14

A crime for the times

The Spectator

Christopher Booker As the most famous crime committed in Britain since the war, obviously the most interesting thing about the Great Train Robbery has been not so much the...

Page 15

In the City

The Spectator

Trade and money figures NIcholas Davenport The moaners and groaners in the gilt-edged Market finally got what they wanted — a 9 Per cent Bank rate. The MLR (minimum lending...

Page 16

Theirs not to reason why

The Spectator

Sir: In recent weeks Geoffrey McDermott has apparently twice condoned the policy of the terror raids on Germany and more particularly that on Dresden. He has also assured us...

Wall included?

The Spectator

Sir: Geoffrey McDermott concludes his review of the Goebbels Diaries (6 May) with the words 'long may both the Federal Republic and the Democratic Republic flourish'. Would he...

Who are the muggers?

The Spectator

Sir: So George Gale (6 May) believes 'mugging' to be 'where people of one colour attack and rob those of another'. Very per spicacious! But even here in Manchester our...

Motherhood

The Spectator

Sir: I do not know much about the fall in population, although I should have thought this overcrowded island could do with it; but as the mother of four children I can assure...

Garfield's girl

The Spectator

Sir: If, as I suspect, the name Judith Acton is a rose by another name, Judith Todd, then one may immediately assume that her article of 6 May on Rhodesia would reflect her...

The pigskin library

The Spectator

Sir: Simon Courtauld's remarks about explorers and the books they read (Notebook, 13 May) reminds me of Theo dore Roosevelt's safari in the first years of the century. He took...

Page 17

Gaps unfilled

The Spectator

Sir: As Richard Ingrams says (6 May), there were a lot of gaps in the TV programme dealing with the journalists' strike at the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph last year. But...

Ingrams intolerant?

The Spectator

Sir: Richard Ingrams has rendered the fine art of Pure Hypocrisy a near-mortal wound With his intolerant review (29 April) of my excellent appearance on BBC 2's Don't Quote Me...

Biblical preference

The Spectator

Sir: Perhaps a word on behalf of the New English Bible may be allowed following the gratuitous kick aimed at it by Auberon Waugh (25 March). I began daily Bible reading (more or...

The Israelites

The Spectator

Sir: Bruce Chatwin's article (8 April) revives some well-worn anti-semitic formulations. He portrays the Jews as essentially herd-minding nomads, with a periodic itch for...

Page 18

Books

The Spectator

The head only Robert Skidelsky The Letters of Sidney and Beatrice Webb: Vol I Apprenticeships 1873-1892; Vol II Partnership 1893-1912; Vol III Pilgrimage 1912-1947 Edited by...

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Vituperative

The Spectator

John Kenyon The Letters of Junius Edited by John Cannon (Oxford £20.00) On 21 January 1769 the Public Advertiser printed a long letter over the pen-name 'Junius' which...

Page 20

Keeping in

The Spectator

Alan Watkins Messengers of Day Anthony Powell (Heineman E6.00) One's picture of life as one would wish to lead it — or, perhaps, as it is in fact led, by a group of...

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A channel for their loyalty

The Spectator

John Biggs-Davison A Place Apart Deryla Murphy (John Murray £5.50) Dublin from Downing Street John Peck (Gill & Macmillan £6.25) A Place among the Nations: Issues of Irish...

Page 22

Out of court

The Spectator

Benny Green Show Boat: The Story of a Classical American Musical Miles Kreuger (Oxford £11.95) A radio producer once played for me a tape he had received from a prospective...

Page 23

Last laughs

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Francis King Mother's Footsteps Harriet Waugh (Weidenfeld £4.95) Except for comedians in television studios or on the end of piers, mothers-in-law are usually no joke. If they...

Page 24

Desert islander

The Spectator

Evelyn Waugh In a Valley of This Restless Mind Malcolm Muggeridge (Collins £4.95) This review of Malcolm Muggeridge's novel was first published forty years ago in the...

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Arts

The Spectator

Flayed skeletons Germaine Greer The Tempest (Riverside studios) The Tempest (RSC, Stratford) The audience that perched itself on the wooden staging at the Riverside Studios...

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Cinema

The Spectator

Sacrificial Ted Whitehead lphigenla (Studio 3) A good classical education left me with an aversion to the classics that I regarded as permanent until the recent revival of...

Art

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Gestural John McEwen Most artists have one-man shows every two years or so, so it is asking a lot if you expect their work to evolve very significantly from their previous...

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Opera

The Spectator

On form Rodney Milnes The Two Foscari (Coliseum) Form and convention in opera have to be accepted because, like Rio Rita, they are there, and they are probably accepted more...

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Cricket

The Spectator

Great lives Alan Gibson The new cricket season has been marked, I need scarcely point out to you, by atrocious weather; but also by the publication of several interesting...

Television

The Spectator

Sickening Richard Ingrams What with my Melvyn Bragg obsession I had forgetten all about Russell Harty, a society for the extermination of whom I once proposed in this column....

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High life

The Spectator

Trojan horses Taki English gentlemen's clubs, already in their death throes, are suffering the ultimate Indignity. In order to ensure their survival they are electing as...

End piece

The Spectator

Run of the mill Jeffrey Bernard One of the few things I find to be absolutely compulsive reading apart from the Racing Calendar's list of defaulters, Irma Kurtz's agony column...