23 DECEMBER 1966

Page 3

Age of Unreason

The Spectator

AT A T Christmas, as the dustmen claim their bribe and the carol-singers swing their polythene Oxfam boxes, we do our best to think of others, especially over- seas, less...

Page 4

End of Term Report on the Cabinet

The Spectator

POLIT1C.4L COMMENTARY By ALAN WATKINS BOTTOMLEY, A. G. Arthur tries hard, and his elocution lessons are going well. BROWN, G. A. Another year of ups and downs. George, if he...

Publicity for Poets

The Spectator

'Poets should not be mocked.'—Maurice Richard- son in the 'Observer.' Poets agree with one accord They simply hate to be ignored. They rack their brains devising ways By...

Page 5

The Real Prison Scandal

The Spectator

MITCHELL By GILES PLAYFAIR The vital question arises, though, of whether Mitchell should ever have been sent to Dart- moor, where there is no sort of psychiatric ser- vice...

Page 6

The Birth of Newspeak

The Spectator

THE PRESS By DONALD McLACHLAN T SHALL follow Fleet Street's example over 'Christmas and take a few days' rest from the troubles of the Guardian and of Lord Thomson's evening...

A Queen and her Servant

The Spectator

AMERICA From MURRAY KEMPTON NEW YORK I r is both ironic and di ffi cult to remember that in March of 1964 Attorney-General Robert F. Kennedy announced that the heirs of John...

Page 7

A Spectator's Notebook

The Spectator

T m prospect of women priests in the Church of England is enough to shake the apathy even of those one-day-a-year Christians who will be crowding the hospitable Anglican...

Page 8

Which Doctor?

The Spectator

MEDICINE TODAY By JOHN ROWAN WILSON (NNE of the more encouraging features of kjpresent-day life is the increasing volume of advice available to consumers. Quite apart from the...

White Paper Christmas

The Spectator

TELEVISION By STUART HOOD The Corporation's greatest victory is that it will have control of the national music pro- gramme, which will carry no advertising. If any...

Page 9

Home Thoughts from Abroad

The Spectator

From RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL NEW YORK Here in New York I am no more intoxicated by the glowing Christmas trees on Park Avenue than I would be by the garish illuminations of...

Page 10

A Christmas Sermon

The Spectator

By AUBERON WAUGH I is not hard to see why most grown-ups detest 'Christmas nowadays. It is expensive and tawdry, a time for self-deception and false senti- ment. It is a...

rbe %pcctator

The Spectator

December 22, 1866 Our New York Correspondent demonstrated last week, to his own complete satisfaction, that the dread of any contact between the white and black races is strong...

Page 11

Socket's Expedition

The Spectator

By LORD EGREMONT My ancestor was a bookish man. He ought to have been happy in the Tower. But he wasn't. Despite the fact that he wasn't an out-of-doors man, he longed for the...

Page 12

An Aptitude Test for Christmas

The Spectator

AFTERTHOUGHT By JOHN WELLS R EADERS are invited to study the following paragraphs, and to immerse themselves imaginatively in the given situations before reach- ing their...

Page 13

Essays After Tea

The Spectator

Sm,—The tone of Mr Patrick Anderson's review of Virginia Woolf's Essays (November 11) appears to be one of regret at her 'failure in scholarship' and neg- lect of 'familiar...

Hospital Breakdown SIR,—To one living at the end of the

The Spectator

earth, the SPEC- TATOR is something other than a weekly newspaper. Six weeks or more pass before it arrives. By then, prophecies have been fulfilled or forgotten, gambles lost...

The Empire of Make-Believe ME'rirEn5 911 UNE - E From: Kenneth

The Spectator

Lewis, MP, S. W. Routledge, W. McL. Thomson. E. GOnensay, Angus Hone, Barbara Aspeling, Henry Adler, Bernard Donoughue and G. W. Jones, Mrs Franya Godby. Sta.—Your leader...

Germany's Right SIR,—Whilst concurring with your findings that the National

The Spectator

Democratic party (NDP) merely succeeded in garnering the traditional right-wing vote in the recent Land elections, and that its neo-Nazi ten- dencies have been unduly...

Sul,—One wonders how Professor Bauer in his reply to Professor

The Spectator

Streeten and Mr Hill (December 2) manages to extract 'extensive confiscation' from Dr Balogh's advocacy of 'some sort of universal national service for labour-intensive rural...

Dr Balogh and the Third World

The Spectator

Sur,—Messrs Streeten and Hill's latest letter (Decem- ber 16) raises a major issue. Their lighthearted equation of military operations and economic activity is the more...

Page 14

Damned Dots

The Spectator

Sta,—If Mr Callaghan really believes that the average housewife will get used to the new decimal coinage in six weeks, he is like the queen in Through the Looking Glass, who...

Theatre in Crisis

The Spectator

SIR,—Mrs Spurling might have considered the rela- tionship between the commercial and the so-called repertory companies the other way round. So far from the commercial theatres...

Lord Morris' on of Lambeth

The Spectator

Snt,—We have been asked by the literary executors Of the late Lord Morrison of Lambeth to write his official biography. We would be extremely grateful if readers of the...

Queen Victoria Was Here

The Spectator

OPERA By CHARLES REID No French book had been printed for the occasion; one has to go to the Choudens score to get some idea of what's going to be sung. In the lobby you can...

Page 15

THEATRE

The Spectator

Two Middle Brows On Approval. (St Martin's.) — Royal Hunt of the Sun. (Old Vic.) — The Lion and the Jewel. (Royal Court.) O NE thing I had no room to mention last week is the...

Ironside

The Spectator

ART In Ironside's painting, as well as in the stan- dards embodied in his writing, we do not get much further than the eighteenth century, though a modern awareness gave a...

Page 16

No Short Answer

The Spectator

CINEMA D URING the last few weeks, sighting shots have been fired in what promises to be a long war. On one side stands the film establishment, im- perturbable as ever, drawn up...

Page 17

Dickens Loud and Clear

The Spectator

By ANTHONY BURGESS I the age of Levi-Strauss and the British 'Humanists, Christmas becomes an increasing embarrassment. Indifference to the feast is im- possible, and so the...

Page 18

Early Years

The Spectator

This short, unsentimental account of the author's early years, 1920-29, deserves a wide audience. It is set ha a Norwood still close to the open country for which his...

Plus ca Change

The Spectator

From Sarajevo to Potsdam. By A. J. P. Taylor. (Thames and Hudson, 35s.) IN his introduction to this, the latest volume in Geoffrey Barraclough's 'Library of European...

Page 19

What a Big Book

The Spectator

WIIAT a nice book, what a lovely book, what a beautiful book, what a BIG book! What kind of a book? Why a PICTURE book—for Christmas, of course, to match the carols, the...

Page 20

Detective Story

The Spectator

REASSESSMENT By PATRICK ANDERSON w ILKIE COLLINS'S The Moonstone,* the story of the theft of an already stolen diamond from a young girl on whom it has been bestowed with...

More Equal than Others

The Spectator

Classical Greece. By C. M. Bowra. (Time-Life Books, 36s.) The Emergence of Greek Democracy: The Character of Greek Politics, 800-400 B.C. By W. G. Forrest. (World University...

Page 21

Site Seers

The Spectator

SIGHTS, in the packaged-tour sense, lie all over the place. Sites, by contrast, imply a nexus, a link with time. In AD 66 the Masada story was graphically reported by Josephus,...

The Great Game

The Spectator

`MAFrick, v.i. Exult riotously (f. Mafeking, relief of which in 1900 was celebrated extravagantly in London, etc.).' 'Extravagantly,' Brian Gardner would agree, is the very...

Page 22

Second Thoughts on Decimalisation

The Spectator

moma.” n On 7 By NICHOLAS DAVENPORT • much as the old penny will confuse every house- wife in the land—even those in the stock- broker belt. To mint it in bronze (plain edge)—...

Market Notes

The Spectator

By CUSTOS T HE fall in the Treasury bill rate to f6 12s. 6d. per cent and the rise in the American bond market have helped to bring about a recovery in Government bonds. The...

Page 23

Port Types

The Spectator

CONSUMING INTEREST By LESLIE ADRIAN IF ever a wine was con- trived, that wine is port, and a lot of damage has been done to its reputation over the years as a con- sequence....

Ups and Downs

The Spectator

By JOHN BULL E -1 EW can look back this Christmas on a success- "- ful Stock Exchange year. If you have kept breast of the prospects for lead and zinc then you might have made...

Page 24

The Boredom-Count

The Spectator

D. PIM By STRIX Youth, in retrospect, seems to have been full of raptures and discoveries; one forgets how much of it was permeated by boredom. At first escape was possible,...

Page 25

CHESS by Philidor

The Spectator

No. 3 1 4. From ' Bonus Socius' MS. circa 1300 WHITE to play and mate in five moves; the oldest known pr oblem of its kind; , . solution next week. Solution to No. 313...

Page 26

CROSSWORD No. 1253

The Spectator

ACROSS Great Scott, what charm he had! (8) 5. Big Tam gets a move on board (6) 9. 'Ali! let me make this lute -' (Watson) (8) so. Love, sir, is for a divinity (6) 12. Spenser's...

SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 1252

The Spectator

ACROSS.--x Scribes. 5 Moonlit. 9 Authors. so Shingle. ri Pocahontas. 12 Star. 53 Pen. 14 Redgauntlet. x7 Freebooters. 19 Vic. 20 Puck. 22 Disc-jockey. 26 Floruit. 27 Arizona 28...