The House of Lords has at least succeeded in surviving into the lunar age. What is remarkable (at least in the light of pre- vious Labour threats) is that the peers' prospects...

Carry on, Carrington DAVID WALDER When Queen Victoria sought Lord Mel- bourne's advice on the constitution he wrote in reply 'there is no publication to which reference can be...

Success story JOHN GRAHAM Washington—The Americans are simply an amazing people. If the qualities that the British pride themselves on show best under strain, then the...

Shock report CRABRO The recipe for royal commissions and review committees is almost infallible. You take an eminent jlidge, or an eminent businessman; add a well-known...

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Cafe des Westens, Berlin, July 1969 In place of Strife?—Du Lieber Gott Here am I sweating, well and hot. Here workers rising with the lark All earn their...

Congress sunset KULDIP NAYAR New Delhi—Last year India experienced a foreign exchange crisis. The year before there was a food crisis. And now we have a political crisis....

J. W. M. THOMPSON How seriously should we take the personal popularity ratings of the party leaders in the opinion polls? I've been pondering the question ever since the latest...

Evil communications SIMON RAVEN `If a Mr Simon Raven is on the ground,' wailed the tannoy, 'will he please go im- mediately to the secretary's office in the pavilion.' No, I...

Dark and obnubilated affairs MERCURIUS OXONIENSIS GOOD BROTHER LONDINIENSIS, I am now (God be praised) out of the In- firmary, to which I was committed after my misadventure...

Way of all flesh KARL E. MEYER Now that Parliament seems likely to de- bate a private member's Bill—any play on words is wholly unintended—calling for the abolition of...

Safe distance R. A. CLINE 'Why do I have to see a solicitor before I can get in touch with a barrister?', asks the client bitterly. 'Why not go straight down to one of those...

Of the Sun . . • BILL GRUNDY It never really recovered from that dis- astrous launch, of course. I remember it well. Rumours were rocketing around even more rapidly than they...

• and the moon GEORGE SCOTT Television, the medium which enables all of us to become privileged spectators of historic occasions, also diminishes them. Television...

A nation of shopkeepers DENIS BROGAN I have had the ambiguous pleasure of reading in the press the report of a com- mittee on the future of our diplomatic service. On the...

What's wrong with the right? ROBERT BLAKE Mr Angus Maude is one of the most thoughtful of our modern Tory back- benchers. Like Mr Ian Gilmour whose views, though far from...

MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH The Railway Accident Edward Upward I Heinemann 35s) The Rotten Elements Edward Upward (Heinemann 30s) Until 1962, when the first part of his trilogy In the...

OLIVER WARNER Peterloo: The Case Re-opened Robert Walmsley (Manchester up 90s) This very long and rather extraordinary book can best be described as a marathon in...

JAMES CORNFORD Stratagems and Spoils: A Social Anthro- pology of Politics F. G. Bailey (Blackwell 36s cloth, 18s paper) This is a much more serious and interesting book than...

Pig tales BARRY COLE Pig Jeff Nuttall (Fulcrum Press 28s) The Land and The Flesh Ivan Potrc (Peter Owen 42s) The Shearers Rayner Heppenstall (Hamish Hamilton 25s) Dr Amadetts...

ROBERT SKIDELSKY Joseph Chamberlain and the Tariff Reform Campaign: Vols. V and VI of the Life of Joseph Chamberlain Julian Amery (Mac- millans £12) Joseph Chamberlain is one...

CHARLES STUART Guineas and Gunpowder: British Foreign Aid in the Wars with France 1793-1815 John M. Sherwig (Harvard/our 105s) The myth of Pitt's gold dies hard, and it is...

JOHN HIGGINS 'My friends think I'm mad to take the job'. Peter Hall is happily belligerent about his decision to go to Covent Garden at the be- ginning of the 1971/2 season as...

MICHAEL NYMAN Many once obscure composers, like Stock- hausen and Berio, seem to be coming in from the cold abstractions of serialism to rum- mage around musical second-hand,...

Superman CLEMENT CRISP As Spartacus in the Bolshoi's newest ballet at Covent Garden last week, Mikhail Lav- rovsky gave the finest performance by a male dancer that I have...

Gruff stuff PENELOPE HOUSTON Alfred the Great (Empire, 'A') Three Into Two Won't Go (London Pav- ilion, 'X') Years ago, I remember listening to one opera-going friend...

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT On hearing of the surprise issue of £400 million of 9 per cent Treasury stock 1994 at 961 a City friend who reads this column telephoned to ask with some...

Revaluations JOHN BULL This week I have made some major changes in my two portfolios, throwing out a num- ber of shares which recent economic events time left looking a shade...

Sir: With diffidence I acknowledge the erudition of your correspondents (Letters, 21 June, 5, 12 and 19 July), but to deal with this subject as if the Welsh language were unique...

Sir: Is it really necessary for the clergy to use such phrases as 'How the hell' and `He didn't care a damn' (19 July) in order to add force to their arguments in favour of the...

Sir: Like the flowers that bloom in the spring, my membership. of a BBC Advisory Council has nothing to do with the case I was presenting (Letters, 28 June), against commercial...

Sir: The important speech made by Mr Bernard Braine, in last week's debate on the Nigeria-Biafra situation appears to have passed without notice. He broke new ground in a...

From Charles Fletcher-Cooke, MP, Mrs Yvonne C. R. Brock, the Rev D. J. McClure. G. Yates, the Rev Edmund Havi- land, Gerald B. Rose, Peter Cadogan, Mar- gery Rinehart, C. M....

Sir: I do not know if you will allow me to come in again on this subject but I do think Mrs S. N. Nanpona (Letters, 19 July) ought to read Mr Bernard Berelson's paper 'Beyond...

Sir: I must apologise to Miss Oman (5 July, and my letter, 12 July): one of the grand- fathers of Sir William Hamilton was a Duke of Hamilton--a curious title granted for life...

Sir : I have just got back from a spell abroad where I did not see the SPECTATOR. In my absence, I note, I have been found worthy of criticism by two of your readers. Your...

Sir: Where does Howard Robertson (Letters, 5 July) get his idea of the Empire? In thirteen years spent in the Gold Coast Colony between 1914 and 1932 I never heard of a case...

Sir: I write to acknowledge an error in my article on 'The truth about the generals' (28 June). From more recent information, it is clear that I underrated the military rec-...

Sir: I was glad to see that Count Polacki de Montalk is still remembered (Anthony Bur- gess, 21 June; Shaun Mandy, Letters 19 July). But I feel that these gentlemen do him some...

From the 'Spectator', 24 July, /869 — The Colonial office is rapidly carrying out its policy of compelling the Colonies to defend themselves. Lord Granville has written to...

Summer reductions JOHN WELLS F&CO INTERNAL MEMORANDUM TO ALL DE- PARTMENTS. SUBJECT SUMMER HOLIDAY ARRANGEMENTS. EAT AFTER READING. The amount of suffering caused by the...

No. 563 : Sun set Competitors are invited to .compose a lament for the Sun newspaper, which the International Publishing Corporation will cease to publish at the end of the...

Across 1 What's the angle on a takeover? (6) 4 Home ground of the episcopal dahlia (8) 8 Deny tea began in confusion (8) 10 Petals to be used in order to fix the market (6) 12...

PHILIDOR Specially contributed by Dom Joseph Coombe- Tennant (Downside Abbey). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to no. 448 (Kluver and Fabel):...