T he Tory party remained in some con- fusion as opinion polls showed it in third place. A Cornish MP announced that he could no longer vote with the Government on issues of...

AT A time when there is much — justifi- able — criticism of the United States, it is very pleasant to record a new debt that we owe to certain individual Americans. The scheme...

WHAT SCHOOLS NEED U sually in British politics, the Depart- ment of Education has been considered a backwater. It has been a post either for rising politicians in need of a...

visually handicapped people at an annual subscription of £5 from: The Talking Newspaper Association, High Street, Heathfield, East Sussex, TN21 8.1B. Telephone: (04352) 6012.

`I WANT always to be a little boy and to have fun.' — Peter Pan. 'I just want to play the game and have some fun.' — Ian Botham.

Another bombing raid to cheer up the President's supporters FERDINAND MOUNT `A s different as chalk from cheese' — Sir Geoffrey Howe. 'It's quite a diffe- rent situation' —...

W hat a tragically diminished figure the Duke of Windsor, once King of Eng- land, has now become. Revision of a man's worth in the light of events after his death is always...

A further villainous sigh from Tom O'Bedlam AUBERON WAUGH I have a friend who works in the Bethlem Royal Hospital, now situated in Monks Orchard, near Beckenham — the same...

John Mortimer talks to Norman Tebbit, a hard nut with a soft centre, who is pressing on with his uncompromising approach while there is still time A VISIT to Norman Tebbit...

Stephen Robinson concludes that P. W. Botha preferred to take on the ANC than opposition at home Cape Town AS NEWS of South Africa's latest military adventure broke this week,...

Richard West on Spain's continuing tension between Right and Left Avila THE campaign leading up to the general election on 22 June, is matched for interest in the Spanish...

Dhiren Bhagat attends the largest festival in the world Haridwar A FEW weeks ago at a seminar orga- nised at the India International Centre in New Delhi (raw concrete...

The temper of the House of Com- mons is growing hot over Home-rule. In a debate on Thursday night over the renewal of the Arms Act, Mr Parnell demanded that the Act should be...

Patrick Bishop watches Ken Livingstone's latest performance Amsterdam AMSTERDAM is Ken Livingstone's kind of town. Long before lunchtime the fun is well under way. In the...

Simon Jenkins on fear of terrorism in Europe and its consequences RAMBO is a wimp after all. From Sylves- ter Stallone to Harvard Collegium Musi- cum , from AT&T to USA Today,...

that admen may play a much bigger part in our public life A HUNDRED years ago this January, William Lever began making his own soap in Warrington, called it Sunlight and used...

A FEARFUL omen from the money mar- ket is the fate of the Earl of Clarendon's hat. Tall black burnished silk hats are the market's uniform. Lord Clarendon (7th earl, cr. 1776)...

COMMITTEE Room 15 in the Palace of Westminster is high and hot and airless. There the Commons' Treasury and Civil Service Committee is trying to learn how we plan our public...

The paper caper reads like a story with an unhappy ending CHRISTOPHER FILDES C ity nannies who want order in the nursery like to frighten their charges by whispering horror...

MY FAVOURITE nationalised industry has broken its own record. This week it reported a profit of £1,397 million. The figure was up by 28 per cent on the previous year's, and was...

Blowing the froth off Montezuma's Widgets JOHN HOWARTH W e were going on a bit about froth last time and saying that a small amount is fine as a head, but too much entitles...

in the Spectator Classifieds' `Summer Breaks' 31 May

Sir: Donald Trelford's rambling and un- convincing defence in last week's Spectator of why he allows the print unions to dictate what goes into (or does not go into) the...

Sir: As your correspondents suspect (Let- ters, 17 May, Diary, 10'May), moustaches are uncanonical in a clergyman. When Cosmo Lang was made Archbishop of York in 1908, King...

Sir: I am sorry to see Bill Deedes (Diary, 17 May) perpetuating the myth that the 1933 Fulham by-election was fought 'on the pacifist ticket'. This was Baldwin's version. But...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for c (Equivalent SUS & Eurocheques accepted) RATES: 12 Months 6 Months UK/Eire ❑ £41.00 ❑...

Sir: Sheila Hutchins, Cookery Editor, Dai- ly Express (Letters, 10 May), might find it useful to 'go for guidance', as she puts it, from the Border shepherd, if not from...

Andrew Brown YEAGER: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by General Chuck Yeager and Leo Janos Century Hutchinson, £11.95 A s a young man, Chuck Yeager had sharp eyes, good reflexes, a fine...

Not all the reasons that they give Will ever make their actions live. Reasons, ha, ha! You think you have them when you say Some words that you learned yesterday Ha, ha! What...

Christopher Hampton SELECTED LETTERS OF CHARLES BAUDELAIRE: THE CONQUEST OF SOLITUDE translated and edited by Rosemary Lloyd Weidenfeld & Nicolson, f17.95 V hy shouldn't I...

Thunder was ever a facile excuse For rumination steered to little use: False portents teem in this green light. That old thug, Love, returned tonight, Unstained, I found myself...

Hugh Cawdor T he last time I saw the Ilk, shortly before he died [in February], was in White's club. He was standing in the corner of the crowded bar, before lunch. As usual,...

Anita Brookner CHARDIN by Philip Conisbee Phaidon, £37.50 T he Paris exhibition of 1979 established Chardin as one of those rare painters about whom no one expresses serious...

I was only trying to change the subject, but I was viciously attacked for holding forth on the hottest topic of the moment, the effect of the Libyan air raid on the antiques...

Real Dreams (Pit) . Chess (Prince Edward) Side issues Christopher Edwards R eal Dreams, by the Marxist play - wright Trevor Griffiths, takes an affection - ate poke at 1960s...

Crimes of passion Peter Ackroyd T here is nothing more comforting in the cinema than a good `thriller'; there is a terrible consolation to be found in the spectacle of dead...

Song books Peter Phillips T hree books on and around the subject of English song have been published in the last few months, and since the Brighton English Song Competition...

Words and pictures David Wakefield O n the slopes of Montmartre, just south of the seedier parts of Pigalle, lies the quiet residential district known in the 19th century as...

Nuts in May Alan Gibson I t has not been much of a cricket season so far — at least, not for me. I had a week at Oxford, but it was too rainy for more than occasional cricket....

STUDENTS ARE TWICE AS LIKELY TO ENJOY THE SPECTATOR AT LESS THAN HALF PRICE* More stimulating than any lecture, funnier than the set books, The Spectator should be required...

Out of this world Peter Levi T here is plenty of decent, mildly in- teresting television if you peck about for it, except at bank holidays, which the author- ities use to show...

Two Franks Taki rank Shields was one of the best- looking men to ever play top tennis, certainly the handsomest Wimbledon final- ist ever. In the 1932 semi-final against...

Gloom and doom Alice Thomas Ellis I t was the 13th yesterday. I have the sort of watch that isn't supposed to stop ever, and yesterday it stopped at one o'clock. It's started...

Street of shame Jeffrey Bernard A t the time of writing this column it is still not known just what will become of Ian Botham, but whatever happens to him it is a certainty...

• or'itkv., WHITSUN today but as they who know better have moved the Whit Monday Bank Holiday away from Whitmonday you will be reading this just in time for the official...

I HAVE never written a column on bur- gundy before. I have been trying to sort out the reasons. The most obvious is that most of it, the red kind at least, is bad — 90 per cent,...

I n Competition No. 1421 you were in- vited to write a poem in which the last two words of each line rhyme. The last time this competition was set was about 15 years ago, when...

from the rigours of organising the world championship and the general work- load of London Chess Year. At the Festi- val of the Sensa, the Doge used to cast a golden ring into...

Kings and queens remain popular, but their jobs are becoming increasingly unen- joyable. I foresee a day when a republican government somewhere in the world will be driven to...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £12.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) will be awarded for the first...

Spot = predicament. Lights at (Ac) 4 24 27 34 38 41 and (Dn) 4 13 18 20 30 may be spotted hidden in their non-clues. Winners: C. T. Hatten, Madrid (£20); Mrs A. M. Osmond,...