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Portrait of the week
The Spectatorp resident Brezhnev arrived in Bonn for talks designed to forget about Afghanistan and concentrate on nuclear disarmament in Europe. About 15,000 protesters were kept out of...
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Political commentary
The SpectatorFrom Swing to Scarman Ferdinand Mount I t was reported in Surrey that there was 'an extraordinary demand for county maps by foreigners'. A Norfolk magistrate told the Duke of...
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Notebook
The SpectatorB eing on the point of leaving for Washington for a few days, I have borrowed a copy of the White House Phone List published by the National Journal. Not only does it tell one...
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Another voice
The SpectatorTraveller's tales Auberon Waugh Chiang Mai, North Thailand T here comes a moment in the life of most travellers, I imagine, when they ask themselves: 'What on earth am I doing...
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Coming up for air
The SpectatorNicholas von Hoffman Washington I n the decade since Tom Wolfe coined the term 'radical chic', the radicals in American society dissipated faster than steam on a cold day and...
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An unacceptable face
The SpectatorSam White Paris ver since it embarked on its large scale nationalisation programme, France's socialist government has needed a fleshand-blood capitalist villain who would...
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Armies galore
The SpectatorRonald Payne Beirut A pair of Israeli Phantom jets on routine patrol over Beirut, capital of the Arab state of Lebanon, sketch out the sign of a cross with their vapour trails...
One hundred years ago
The SpectatorMr Chamberlain on Thursday made a very encouraging speech at the Carpenters' Hall. He believes that the time of depression is over, for he finds from the latest returns that...
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Mr Paisley's paper army
The SpectatorStewart Dalby Belfast 1ster in some ways resembles a tele vision serial. It is possible to miss any number of individual episodes and yet pick up the narrative thread again...
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Tebbit's law
The SpectatorPeter Paterson T he long drawn-out war between Parliament and the trade union movement, after 12 weary years with one truce and three set-piece battles, enters a new phase of...
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The world according to Ted
The SpectatorPatrick Cosgrave T n the IRIS system, Mr Edward Heath (C. 'Bexley Heath) is responsible for the world; which, you must admit, is a step up from being Prime Minister of the...
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All that
The SpectatorRichard West W hen I last wrote in praise of the Suffolk town of Southwold the Spectator got a letter from Nicolas Walter, the head of the Rationalist Press Association and a...
Broadcasting
The SpectatorGoverning Paul Johnson L ast week saw the closing date for applications for the post of Director-General for the BBC. At the same time the Government is deciding whether the...
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Jack Fingleton
The SpectatorAlan Gibson B y a strange chance, I received a letter from Jack Fingleton the day after his death was announced. He was in good spirits, at least before his short illness. 'I...
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The Governor's eyebrows
The SpectatorChristopher Fildes T he eyebrows of Gordon Richardson are large, and bushy, and gubernatorial. That is as it should be, because the most powerful force in the City of London...
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In the City
The SpectatorGoing nowhere Tony Rudd T he fact is that the experts can't really tell us where this economy is going. A month or two ago everybody was doomladen, and the prospect for 1982...
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Honest Stockman
The SpectatorSir: I am sorry that Tom Bethell from Washington considered it appropriate to refer to the Stockman affair as a 'crucifixion' (21 November), and still more that he thinks he,...
Colonial power
The SpectatorSir: In Hong Kong (the subject of articles on 31 October and 21 November) those who have lived there for some time usually state that the sources of power in the Colony in...
A little bit of butter
The SpectatorSir: Dr Gould is correct (7 November) — the truth is that nobody yet knows whether the kind of fat we spread on our bread makes any difference to our chances of surviving into...
German V sign
The SpectatorSir: May I correct a small error in Mr Woodhouse's review of Albert Speer's book The Slave State (14 November). The designations VI (for the flying bomb, not the rocket) and V2...
Terrorism, right or left
The SpectatorSir: Caroline Moorehead's review of Claire Sterling's The Terror Network (14 November) is a mixture of misrepresentation and conceit. Moorehead claims that Sterling's book is...
In good faith
The SpectatorSir: The generous and easy-going malice with which A. N. Wilson accuses me, by insinuation, of plagiarism (14 November) hardly allows for debate. Simply for the record I would...
Missing Manuscript
The SpectatorSir: It appears, judging from one sentence in your remarks (Notebook, 14 November) about the difficult business of how to include women when writing about man in general, that...
Tactless
The SpectatorSir: Richard West is indeed correct to note (21 November) that the names of railway locomotives are not always appropriate. One Spanish ambassador, himself a railway enthusiast,...
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CHRISTMAS BOOKS I
The SpectatorBooks of the Year We asked our contributors to select the books they would recommend most highly from those they had read in 1981. Harold Acton The books that stand out in...
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Dominie Nobiscum P.J. Kavanagh English Poetry 1900-1950: An assessment C.H.
The SpectatorSisson (Carcanet New Press pp. 271, £9.95) Selected poems C. H. Sisson (Carcanet New Press pp. 104, £3.95) E nglish Poetry 1900-1950; An Assessment (how like C.H. Sisson to...
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A geranium, not a violet
The SpectatorHarold Acton A Solitary Woman: a Life of Violet Trefusis Henrietta Sharpe (Constable pp. 205, £7.95) U p Girls and at 'em! Lesbos is in fashion again with our enterprising book...
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Hallelujah!
The SpectatorAuberon Waugh Butler's Lives of the Saints eds. H. J. Thurston S.J. & D. Attwater (Burns & Oates 4 vols, pp. 2824, £60) Mext week offers quite a jolly Callendar for those who...
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Gentle knight
The SpectatorC. M. Woodhouse Auchinleck: The Lonely Soldier Philip Warner (Buchan and Enright pp. 300, £10.50) Elew of the allied Generals of the Second World War stand out in the memory a...
Bluff buff
The SpectatorAlfred Alexander The Tongs and the Bones: the Memoirs of Lord Harewood (Weidenfeld & Nicolson pp. 334, £9.95) D iscretion is a hall mark of Royalty — indiscretion the essence...
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Mocking women
The SpectatorCaroline Moorehead Baby Love Joyce Maynard (Andre Deutsch pp. 243, £6.95) Something Else Virginia Fassnidge (Constable pp. 152, £5.95) A Night at the Odeon Robert Rubens...
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ARTS
The SpectatorFamily connections Mark Amory Mother's Arms (Royal Court, Theatre Upstairs) Fall (Orange Tree, Richmond) Dog Beneath the Skin (New Half Moon) A Midsummer Night's Dream...
Cinema
The SpectatorAfter the fall Peter Ackroyd True Confessions ('A', selected cinemas) T he title of the film sounds ironic, a 'camp' send-up like the cover of a magazine on a Warhol painting;...
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Art
The SpectatorSafety first John McEwen V Tisual art attention at the moment is V centred on the Hayward Gallery, with Lutyens on the first floor and Sickert on the second (till 31 January...
Television
The SpectatorCharacter parts Richard Ingrams T he sad news this week is that there are going to be no more Muppet shows, The inspired creators have decided, perhaps rightly, that they have...
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High life
The SpectatorDesigning Takt New York J ust as I was settling down in London, preparing myself for some well deserved fun, the mother of my children telephoned from New York and threatened...
Low life
The SpectatorTalking points Jeffrey Bernard T was lying in the bath this morning I thinking, for no good reason, how much the Pope looks like the man who used to run Bianchi's when the...