Sir: One positive proof that the recent Conservative Government, particularly its leader, is 'out of touch' was given us on the evening of February 7 when the PM on TV was asked...

of Mr Enoch Powell. may I be permitted to place on record my thanks and appreciation for all he has done on behalf of Britain. His decision not to seek re-election for...

his review: "Every item of de Gaulle's life as a statesman . . . is totally untranslatable into the terms of British politics." What could be clearer than that? There are people...

Sir: An overall Labour majority of about twenty-three will be the result of the general election of February 28. This could be too slender a majority for Labour to live on for...

Sir: I am glad that someone has at last expressed his views on The Spectator's 'editorial vendetta' with the Prime Minister. Mr Bell (Letters, February 16) is not the only one...

Sir: It may well be that politics has become so amoral an art that a Conservative government, returned to power, would take its re-election to mean that full-hearted consent to...

Sir: Inflation seems to be the gr ea , l issue of this election. All parties a' against the monster, but the wea,P ° d li c they have chosen to fight it WO not impress me....

b.om Lt. Commander Noel Paulley Sir: The trade unions cannot reasonably be held responsible for an inflat ion which has got progressively worse during a period when wages were...

Sir , May I submit the enclosed jingle in i!PlY to Christopher Hollis's jingle on ,ne Revolt of the Rich in this week's 'ssue5 lo defend Mr Michael Foot's policies , A gainst...

w age . • • a general attempt to stabilise th e , 8 ' • . to bring the lower paid up to to f 'evel of the better paid. . . doomed te r „ all • . . .murder the spirit of en-...

Sir: The fallibility of experts, especially political and economic, is notorious. Hence it was not a tremendous surprise to hear your able political correspondent Patrick...

Sir: If the history books ever require a nickname for the present administration, may I suggest the 'What I say three times is true' Government. L. A. Partridge 72 Eastfield...

Sir: Angus Maude's reference to the current spate of Irish jokes is timely, even if it is ambivalent (does he approve of them or not?). Is the fact that the Southern Irish...

Sir: Angus Maude writes in 'A Spectators Notebook (February 9) that when "the shadows of doom darken and hope seems futile" the best recourse is to play the 'Dies irae' from the...

The leaders and their vulnerabilities Patrick Cosgrave Since it is at the moment fashionable not merely to deride our political leaders, but to assume that one's derision is...

As you might expect in a 'bitter' and 'divisive' election, there has been remarkably little humour during the campaign. Mr Heath jerks his hands in and out of his pockets,...

Making sense of the swings and roundabouts Conrad Jameson Interpreting opinion polls is the most gratifying of intellectual pastimes: everyone wins and no one loses, since...

Peter Turner Once upon a time Bolton East was an easy industrial constituency to forecast. Bolton Tories and Liberals had a pact which gave Mr Philip Bell QC (Conservative) a...

Beryl McNulty Tory Bill Benyon won the marginal seat of Buckingham from Labour in 1970 with a majority of 2,521. Whether he will hold the seat on February 28 is one of the big...

A local correspondent The demi-richs.area of Surrey is not a Pla ce ,. where one would expect to find Michael Fo O : campaigning enthusiastically against tha' most moderate of...

Geoffrey Harvey-Barnes W ti hichever party wins Exeter is likely to form ; L rle next Government. The cost of living is not `ne biggest issue. Exeter people are not obs ,essed...

has added to the uncertainty at m er Y - held Gloucester where the indefatigable t o r t Sally Oppenheim had been widely tipped ,"eP hold of the seat she captured from cilloour...

A local correspondent Keighley is a solid Yorkshire textile and engineering town with Howarth Moors within its boundaries. Miss Joan Hall, the Tory MP, had a majority of 616 in...

Chris Machin Housing, industrial development and communications are the three major local issues facing Jeremy Thorpe and his opponents in North Devon. Rising property prices...

Abstention: an inability to choose the lesser of two evils. Balance: a statutory method of arranging television programmes to favour the other party. Common Market: the gun...

A local correspondent "This," said Tory headquarters, "is the most crucial constituency in the election." and with the television cameras and national newspapers descending on...

Time to think again Gerald Segal Fortunately we are not just back in sqL 18 , 1 ! one. The situation as it arises from both t"; EEC's failure to agree on internal and exterl...

When both ends meet John Fletcher Instead Of the conventional political map — a straight line with the left wing at one end and the right at the other, with consensus politics...

This past week I came upon the trot for a visit with my friend Sir Simon at his seat in Huntingdon. The journey was a long and tedious one, my coachman getting frequently lost...

VD —the irresponsible propagandists John Linklater Daily newspapers do not often advise readers to risk catching venereal disease by indulging in promiscuity. But this is...

Air conditions Philip Kleinman Licences to print money are pretty hard to come by these days, as the men who run our commercial radio stations can tell you. The prospect of...

The exile Martin Sullivan Alexander Isayenvich SolzhenitsYn has been thrown out of his native land. Born in Rostov-onbon in 1918, he was a mathematician first rather than a...

Confound their politicks Pamela Vandyke Price Aristotle would have been balked by me. For I am a wholly unpolitical animal. But indeed, was Aristotle gastronomic? And as...

Finishing fifth in the Welsh Grand National does not get you a mention in the Sunday papers but Straight Vulgan did a lot better than most of his twenty-three opponents and in...

Crocodile tears Peter Quince On a day when the wind howled in the tree-tops, and the rain swept across the landscape like an agent of divine retribution, it was pleasant to...

Richard Luckett on Schoenberg and his search for structure 'Tor me the only exposition deserving the name of analysis is that which brings out the idea of a work and shows it...

Kenneth Minogue Anyone who wishes to trace the movement of modern British sensibility can do no better than look at the books that are published each year by commercial houses....

Peter Ackroyd .w Reluctant Bride Barbara Cartland (Arrow Rook s 30p) ,, nfessions of a Private Soldier Timothy Lea (Sphere 30p) Although Miss Cartland always appears in s...

Penguins and Paladins Benny Green It is not all that easy for a paperback to - 1 , its way into my library; easy, perhaps, but On` e ' all that easy. I suppose the rigour of...

Bookend Sir Neville Cardus, in his memorable autobiography, tells a delightful story of his experience in the Long Room a Lord's. It was late in the summer of 1939, and...

Mr Wilson, according to Peter Harland of the Observer who has been accompanying him on his travels, doesn't want to be bothered too much by the press. "He clearly appreciates,"...

the news seems bad Wadays," remarks someone in e – h e course of War and Peace; true d ' 4 °Ligh but not, for once, at Lonn n s opera houses. Maybe this is the week for Western...

Mirage of inconvenience Kenneth Hurren For most of his career as a dramatist, Jean Anouilh has been sardonically preoccupied with the ephemerality of love and the unholy...

Vanessa Redgrave's candidacy on behalf of the Workers Revolutionary Party is no surprise to Waspe who, by happy chance, was having a lunchtime fortifier the other day in a pub...

Ralph Harris Suppose we take a break from the Party political shadow-boxing that Passes for a mature democracy in action and ask who, if anyone, is r esponsible for the latest...

Challenging the DTI Ivor Catt The NRDC (National Research Development Corporation) was first asked to support the CAM invention eighteen months ago. Since then, though...