Before he departed the Ministry of Education and Science Mr Prentice was wont to make large-sounding appeals to the so-called moderates of all parties, calling on them to...

There are two points to be made about the difficulties,in which the Prime Minister of India has found herself. First, although it is virtually universally accepted that Mrs...

It is reported from Kampala that General Amin insists on being waited upon either by the Foreign Secretary or the Secretary of State for Defence, before he even begins to give...

Though it was initially regarded with suspicion by the more traditionally-minded members of the House of Commons, it has to be said, though cautiously, that the experiment of...

Sir: Gillian Freeman (May 31) appears to be obsessed with brothels. She's not? Then why suggest I am? Among 580 pages of my book, IVIankoff's Lusty Europe, she's glanced at only...

Sir: Despite the fact that Patrick Cosgrave's adulation of Mrs Thatcher is based on qualities (of a right-wing nature) which she does not claim to possess, his warnings of...

Sir: 'What with one first cousin in the Eleven and another in the Procession of Boats I went along to the Fourth of June at Eton.' (Why 'along'? Would not 'went to' be enough?)...

Sir: With regard to Benny Green's review of my novel A Victorian Masque (June 7) I do not feel that his obvious hero-worship of Gilbert justifies him in suggesting that Sullivan...

Sir: Before all the triumph of the pro-Marketeers dies away, I think it ought to be said that many of us who voted "Yes" on June 5 did so very reluctantly, and only because we...

The heart of the matter Patrick Cosgrave I have often argued that the doctrine of monetarism — which gives control of the growth of the money supply as one of the most...

I understand there is a good deal of rather grand philosophical reflection going on among what used to be called the Gayfrere set, now mainly old chums of Ted Heath, and...

A guide for Survival and Action During these doomlatien times and as the top heavy world economies teeter on the tightrope of inflation and depression, and while Western...

From Russia with worry the tourist's week Kate Wharton There was a moment when I sensed the whole of Russia — its million upon million of square miles—and was not...

India stunned into crisis Kuldip Nayar New Delhi India faces a crisis. This time not economic but political. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, held guilty by the High Court of her...

(With Apologies to W. S. Gilbert) In this modern world we live in, there are many to be found Who never would be missed; I've got a little list, Of pestilential people who...

Time to stop the chess game Nicholas Ridley, MP It is possible to look at the current state of tension in the Middle East in two entirely different ways. Either it can he...

Squeezed between millstones H.V. Hodson So the Middle Class Association has changed its name because its middle-class members, or potential members, do not like being labelled...

On the day Mrs Gandhi was convicted for corruption her Aunt, Mrs Pandit, was giving the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture at London University. As her subject was her family and...

There is no Humour in the Ruffian Party or else the Members of it would surely have laughed at my harmless jest in Annie's Bar the other night. My audience included the Scions...

One of the sufferers in the recent swingeing reorganisations and economies at BBC Radio London was my colleague lain Scarlet, who was ousted with remarkable dispatch with his...

Indefatigable in his endless search for the truth about publishing, Bookbuyer flew to New York to observe the members of the American Booksellers' Association, and the staff and...

Benny Green on a new edition of a triumphant trilogy The perfect stranger, entering the national and municipal art galleries for the first time, comes across the Nineteenth...

Alan Clark MP United Nations Journal William Buckley (Michael Joseph £5.50) The United Nations Organisation is the big "So What?" of our time. Indeed, so low has it fallen in...

Hugh Lloyd-Jones Oxford in the History of the Nation A. L. Rowse (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £4.50) There is no end of making books about Oxford; but even a reader who knows many...

Sir Geoffrey Keynes The Illuminated Blake annotated by David Erdman (Oxford University Press £10.00) William Blake had to wait nearly a century after his death before being...

Jan Morris The Golden Hordes Louis Turner and John Ash (Constable £5.00) Every time I oppose my neighbour's application for planning permission to have a caravan site on his...

Second best Peter Ackroyd A Good Listener Pamela Hansford Johnson (Macmillan £3.50) The Traveller and His Child Gillian Tindall (Hodder and Stoughton £3.75) Better times are...

Old books for new Colin Franklin Anyone involved knows the marvellous neurosis shared alike by librarian, dealer and private collector. Gideon (he's twelve) said, "Why write...

Unspent money is the fascination of unbought books. Their prospect over the years should be more fun than orgies now. I have enough for enjoyment. The problem comes: if I see,...

Education A wolf in sheep's clothing Rhodes Boyson, MP The third Black Paper was entitled Goodbye, Mr Short! and it was issued in 1970 after the Conservative electoral...

Upmarket Bill Grundy In view of the fact that most papers are broke these days, you'd think that a book called Newspaper Money would consist of plenty of nothing, wouldn't...

Riding the Euro-wave Philip Kleinman "Yes to Europe, Yes to Bloggs's Baked Beans." Well, I must admit no bright advertising spark came Iv with those particular words in the...

Whores' d'oeuvre Lam Scarlet Strumpets on strike? Of course there are people about naive enough to think that it couldn't happen here. But they'd be wrong:And as in...

The superbugs Bernard Dixon A couple of Fridays — ago, ICI announced the completion of a new, high security laboratory at Runcorn, Cheshire, where novel microbes will be...

More than illusion Martin Sullivan A relatively modern attack upon religion emanating from the world of psychology suggests that all religious feelings and beliefs are mere...

Cinema Locust boy makes bad Kenneth Robinson The Day of the Locust Director: John Schlesinger Stars: Karen Black, William Atherton, Donald Sutherland 'X' Empire (145 mins)....

'Baby talk Kenneth Hurren Ashes by David Rudkin (Young Vic) The Phantom of the Opera by David Giles, from the novel by Gaston Leroux (Wimbledon Theatre) The problem in which...

Pale shadow Rodney Milnes _ . "Do you know what this opera is about?" asked a colleague, facetiously I trust, as we walked into the Royal Opera House for last week's revival...

Hope glimmers in Oxford John Bridcut Earlier this term I attended an enterprising concert of chamber music by Brahms and Schoenberg in Oxford's venerable Holywell Music Room....

The sterling crisis deepens Nicholas Davenport In all the rough and tumble and hysteria of the referendum debate the Stock Exchange set an example to the nation by behaving...

Social demarcation problems Bernard Hollowood The Snacker and Diplocket Small Things Co. (1928) Ltd is not yet a workers' co-operative, but moves are afoot to make the company...

be --1 • Since Mr Wilson has now joined the ministerial chorus rejecting a wages freeze, it is evidently imminent. The current attempts to produce a Mark II social contract...