rt is wrong to argue that the choice of Mr Tony Benn as Labour candidate for Chesterfield proves anything very dreadful about the state of the Labour Party. The choice does not...

The passion of Ted Charles Moore O n Tuesday night, Mr Edward Heath was looking like an elder statesman. Now that he is thinner, his face is more lin- ed and distinguished. He...

W hen the late Richard Daley became Mayor of Chicago, his son was work- ing for a local insurance company. Im- mediately business poured in that Company's direction from all the...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £17.25 1RL17,25 £20.50 £26.50 One >ear: £34.50 IRE34.50 £41.00 £53.00 See page 25 for special in- troductory offer. Name Address US...

Roll of Honour Auberon Waugh L ast week I received a notification from Mr John Sumsion, Registrar of Public Lending Right, that the nine of my eleven published books judged...

Charles Glass Beirut S aad Haddad, the Lebanese army major whom the Israelis found and funded in S outh Lebanon in 1976, was buried this Week in his native village of...

Peter Paterson Lusaka T he brokers' men from the International Monetary Fund are moving in all over Africa. In Nigeria they have provoked a coup. In Tunisia, their...

Christopher Hitchens Washington I t is arguably true to say that of all living American politicians, Dr Henry Kissinger h as s the most strongly developed sense of history. It...

Timothy Garton Ash Munich 'W hy is Germany so boring?,' I am often asked. Or to be more precise: why do West German politics seem so bor- ing to the British newspaper reader?...

Richard West T he 'Anti-Racism Year' of 1984 will almost certainly concentrate on hostili- ty to South Africa. Already Ken Liv- ingstone, the head of the Greater London...

Peter Mullen T he Archbishop of Canterbury stands in the House of Lords and speaks emo- tionally and with understandable regret of the fact that society no longer understands...

Allan Massie T hat Scotland is badly governed is a truism. We experience government which is simultaneously excessive, remote and irresponsible. It is excessive because it has...

For an introductory subscription offer, including a signed copy of Peter Quen- nell's autobiography, see page 25.

Sunday mag wasteland Paul Johnson I s there anything more depressing than looking through a bunch of six Sunday newspaper colour magazines? Yes, there is: looking through two...

Mr Barnum, misled by the en- thusiasm manifested in this country for Jumbo, evidently thinks that the English are susceptible about elephants, and has sent over a beast...

After New Cross Jock Bruce-Gardyne H ow seemingly appropriate that the publication of Professor Jim Gower's considered views about the policing of financial markets should...

Centralist assumptions Sir: We take so much of the dominance of central government for granted that even to question centralist modes of thought will often appear absurd. Thus...

Sir: The recent history of the title to the Marbles has been well explored in your columns. I wonder that your correspondents did not look further back. They would then have...

Sir: In your editorial of 10 December you wrote: `if there is one scandal for which this Government may be remembered, it is the way in which agriculture has been grotes- quely...

Sir: Mr Wheatcroft in his review (31 December) of the new edition of the Carter and Pollard Enquiry fails to mention the invaluable contribution of Fanny Ratchford (then...

Sir: I read with great interest Robert Silver's article on Jordan (`Water under the bridge', 31 December). It is a pity that he failed to mention that long before the rise of...

one seems to have considered in what condition they might now be, if they had been left in Greece. M. Gill 8A Walton Street, Walton-on-the-Hill, Tadworth, Surrey

in the Louvre failing to attract the interest of Miss Mercouri. I would suggest that the magnificent Pergamon Altar in the Pergamon Museum in East Berlin might also come under...

Sir: I've just thought of a new game to liven up the long dark winter evenings — guess what you are eating for supper from the ingredients description on the pack. For example,...

Wiser counsels Colin Welch T he appearance of Mrs Gandhi in the Queen's Christmas broadcast gave me a nasty turn, as I have already told the retired suburban majors etc who...

A bull returns to the ring Shiva Naipaul The Rock of the Wind: A Return to Africa Denis Hills (Andre Deutsch £8.95) T have learned one bitter truth, that we .1.Africans...

Peter Levi The Case for Animal Rights Tom Regan (RKP £17.95) W hat historians talk about is history; mathematicians are condemned to co mmunicate only in numbers and t h...

Christopher Hawtree The Life of Arthur Ransome Hugh Brogan (Jonathan Cape £10.95) P erhaps the most unlikely of literary 1 debuts was The ABC of Physical Culture by the...

Caroline Moorehead Taking it Like a Woman Ann Oakley (Jonathan Cape £7.95) I nstead of marrying Jean-Paul Sartre, at the start of their relationship, Simone de Beauvoir left...

Francis King Not Now But NOW and Sister Age M.F.K. Fisher (Chatto and Windus £8.95 each) The best way to describe the sep- tuagenarian American writer M.F.K. Fisher is to say...

James Knox Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. Somerville and Ross (The Surtees Society £7.95) T he Surtees Society, who have alread y had such success with their facsim il e...

Gavin Stamp Stones of Empire: The Buildings of the Raj Jan Morris with Simon Winchester (OUP £15) T he Queen's Christmas Message last month was remarkable not least for m...

The Spectator Open to non-subscribers or to those who want to take out a gift subscription. Subscribe to The Spectator for twelve months and we will send you a signed copy of...

Wonders of the world John McEwen The View from Above: 125 years of aerial photography (The Photographers' Gallery, 5 & 8 Great Newport Street, WC2, till 28 January) Pilgrims:...

No soft option Giles Gordon Softcops (RSC: The Pit) A Handful of Pleasant Delights (National: Cottesloe) Where the Wild Things Are (National: Lyttelton) Foolsfire (Riverside)...

Red and dead Peter Ackroyd Daniel ('15', Gates Bloomsbury and Notting 'Hill) T his exercise in the rewriting of American history opens with a lecture on the meaning of...

Profiles Maureen Owen A rthur Ransome was evidently one of ,, those writers who responded well to dis couragement, if not to downright cruel- t Y: 'it's no worse than one of...

Off colour Richard Ingrams /There are two main drawbacks to the 1 colour telly. One is blood, the other is food. In the second instalment of The Jewel in the Crown I was...

Bitter pill Taki New York T his is not a pleasant story but one that must be told. Mind you, it is hard- ly original, but it does give a certain perspective on the state of...

Shop-soiled Jeffrey Bernard A you may well imagine, the farmer's Wife who is about to inherit £3 million has been on my mind this past week and m very pleased to hear that she...

Beeb boob P. J. Kavanagh w hen I first heard dark murmurs that the BBC had 'lost its way' and should be put into private hands, I was dismayed. I was brought up under its...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for an extract from a history book for children explaining and describing a future mini-war between Iceland and a then in- dependent...

No. 1304: Poem of the month Set by Jaspistos: If Baudelaire could write a nice poem about the unlovely month of February, so can you, with a limit of 16 lines. Entries to...

by Doc A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 6 February. Entries to: Crossword 641, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL....

13 N 'A .. 113 a 13 A0 R 0 1 FI , L . R1rE - p■-■ - LOD_VE'N 5 1 H E HAT 0 119 A fri LI lij_ NTRAIN E N r I 0 RTIA u A LWENFY N L E N i il i 'F÷ R A P 0 Y 13 F'OZG 6 . R...

World firsts Raymond Keene G ary Kasparov, whose interrupted campaign for the world title was reviv- ed by the intervention of Acorn Computer, has Justified the faith of his...

T wo days before the start of the Euro- pean Disarmament and Security Con- ference in Stockholm, President Reagan proposed 'greater cooperation and understanding' with the...

THE SWEET SCIENCE by A. J. Liebling. Jef- frey Bernard, c/o The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL. HORSELESS ROAD LOCOMOTION by A. R. Semmett and 'Steel Chariots in...