I t may have appeared to some readers of the Spectator that we have been devoting too much space to the subject of Reuters news agency. It is widely thought — and not without...

A slight whiff of revolt Charles Moore T here have been four Tory 'revolts' in a week. Viewed from afar, the word 'revolt' may seem an exaggeration. There are no crowds in the...

G ranada Television's What the Papers Say press awards were subjected this Year to even more criticism than usual. T hey are now widely known as the 'Tony Awards' after the...

UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £17.25 1R£17.25 f20.50 £26.50 One year: £34.50 1R£34.50 £41.00 £53.00 See page 23 for special in- troductory offer. Name Address US...

Jay's baby Auberon Waugh M any harsh and bitter things can be said against the Church of England in perfect truth. Most of them will be welcom- ed and admitted and made the...

Steven Erlanger T he night Andrei Gromyko and George Shultz finally squared off, an American colleague lay flat on his back in a carpeted reception room of the unspeakable...

Murray Sayle Tokyo akuei Tanaka, the former Japanese .1./Prime Minister and current ruling strongman, may yet do time for his involve- ment in the long-running Lockheed scan-...

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington I n 1822, two years before the next presidential election, Hezekish Miles, a visitor to Washington, wrote home astonished at `so great a buz...

Richard West Helsinki W ithin hours of coming to Finland, I heard someone remarking: 'We've had 40 wars against the Russians and lost them all, but who is having a good time...

Jo Grimond T he rumpus set off by Mr Powell's remarks about the Queen's Christmas broadcast is absurd. I hope that it is only a ritual uproar raised by the press, for whom the...

It is impossible to judge from the telegrams whether Khartoum will hold out, and indeed all depends upon the reception of this news. If, when it is received, the disaffected are...

Alan Gibson H ad 1 such a counsellor,' said the Emperor Charles V when he heard that Henry VIII had executed Sir Thomas More, 'I had rather have lost my best city.' I felt much...

Flops and clangers Paul Johnson ?There is nothing quite so pathetic, or to competitors hilarious, as a sensational scoop which fails to stick. It's not so serious among the...

Institutions under challenge Jock Bruce-Gardyne O n Tuesday Mr Norman Fowler of the DHSS and his four assessors (Barney Hayhoe of the Treasury, Marshall Field from the Life...

Sir: Surely Richard Ingrams can easily solve one of his problems with the new television set. By turning the colour knob fully anti - clockwise he can resume seeing everything...

Sir: Richard West (`Drinkers will be persecuted', 31 December) is wrong to say that Oliver Cromwell banned the celebra- tion of Christmas. It was the work of the Long Parliament...

Sir: The interestingly informative letter from Mr Colin Brown (14 January), elaborating the distinctions between individuals, objects and places that are all dignified by the...

A monetarist's dream Sir: Charles Moore ('Mr Jenkin's cap', 14 January) displays only a partial grasp of the issues at stake in the Government's rate- capping proposals. He...

Sir: Whilst having no wish to protract ad nauseam the debate on the return of the Elgin Marbles, I cannot resist suggesting a possible solution to this absurd situation....

Sir: Roy Kerridge (`Baffling the Boggins', 14 January) and his local informants are in error when he declares that the 'Hoodnapping' of 1984 was the first. In 1942, 'D' Battery...

Who is the enemy? Colin Welch T he so-called peace campers often denounce American airmen here as part of an enemy army of occupation. Doesn't the cap fit their own little...

Mischief in Ireland George Gale Political Violence in Ireland: Government and Resistance since 1848 Charles Townshend (Oxford University Press £22.50) Terrorism in Ireland...

Anthony Storr Roman Roman Polanski (Heinemann £12.95) R aman Polanski is now 50 years old. His fame as the director of such films as Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, and...

Jeffrey Meyers Kleist: A Biography Joachim Maass Translated by Ralph Manheim (Seeker & Warburg £12.95) T he Prussian playwright Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) is known to...

Alan Gibson The Railway Navvy David Brooke (David & Charles £9.95) The Railway Builders R.S. Joby (David & Charles £9.50) The Railway Heritage of Britain Gordon Biddle, O.S....

Isabel Colegate Still Life: Sketches from a Tunbridge Wells Childhood Richard Cobb (Chatto & Windus £8.95) k Yone who cares to sample the flavour of a middle-class life in the...

The Spectator Open to non-subscribers or to those who want to take out a gift subscription. Subscribe to The Spectator for twelve months and we will send you a signed copy of...

Caroline Moorehead Alexandra Freed Lisa Zeidner (Jonathan Cape £8.95) Gilbert: A Comedy of Manners Judith Martin (Hamish Hamilton £8.95) Painting Water Teresa Waugh (Hamish...

Columnist of the Year by Granada's What The Papers Say. Jeffrey Meyers has published biographies of Katherine Mansfield and Wyndham Lewis and is now writing a Life of...

Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd Fields Elysian Simon Blow (Dent £12.95) A Classic Connection Michael Seth-Smith (Secker & Warburg £9.95) T he great divide between the 'hearties'...

Open house John McEwen Stephen Farthing: Roomoramma (The Art Gallery, St Paul's School, Lonsdale Road, SW13, till 9 February) I t is much to the credit of St Paul's Schoo l...

Calling the tune Giles Gordon Red Saturday (Royal Court Theatre Upstairs) Nightshade (Kings Head) T he Kremlin, Moscow; January 1948. Stalin, Marshal Zhdanov (spokesman on...

20th-century blues Rodney Milnes Where the Wild Things Are (National: Lyttelton) Wozzeck (Covent Garden) T he undoubted success of Knussen's Wild Things was encouraging on a...

Guttural Peter Ackroyd The Moon in the Gutter (`18', Lumiere Cinema) T he last film made by Jean-Jacque s Beineix, Diva, was so odd that it Pro: yoked a great deal of...

Silent majority Richard Ingrams C ometimes I feel like erectin g No Tres- 1...,passing si g ns round my column to stop people poachin g on my territory. The Poet Kavana g h...

Not so super Taki New York T he Super Bowl, America's equivalent of the Cup Final, occupied most people's minds throughout last week. If any of you haven't heard of the Super...

Fireworks Jeffrey Bernard T went out last Sunday to celebrate th e 1- anniversary of Byron's birthday -- excuses, excuses — and someone transfe r- red me from the Queen's Elm...

Pouncers P. J. Kavanagh O ne of the pleasant things about trying to write novels and poems, and publishing them, is that they seem to vanish into an abyss. Something may be...

Unseen blushes Raymond Keene I t will be a long time before all of the hidden subtleties from the Kasparov Korchnoi match are revealed by the players themselves or by...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a song for delegates of EEC members to sing at their gatherings to promote unity and amity. Mountains of butter, fountains of win?:...

No. 1305: Valentine Set by Jaspistos: A light but heartfel t Valentine poem (no minimum or maxima l number of lines) please, with all the ends of the lines rhyming. Entries to...

A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 13 February. Entries to: Crossword 642, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL. 11...

11 IRON, 22 BARIUM, 24 PLATINUM, 27 HOLMIUM, 31 NICKEL, 42 BRONZE, 43 BRASS; (Dn) I LEAD, 6 THULIUM, 10 ARGENTUM, 15 SAMARIUM, 17 CHROMIUM, 20 POTASSIUM, 25 GOLD. 33 MERCURY....

T he deaths of 100 were reported from Morocco, as a result of rioting in the northern towns of Nador, Al Hoceima and Tetuan, near the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta. The...

LONDON'S UNDERWORLD by Henry Mayhew (edited by Peter Quennell, Spring Books 1950) and 'Horse Sense' by Paul Major. J. L. R. Lucas, 17 Causeway Close, Potters Bar, Herts. THE...