T he Labour Party published its new policy review, but said it would not spend more than the country could afford. The Prime Minister called for a giant interna- tional effort...

SPECTATOR The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 WAR CRIMES INJUSTICE The principal argument against passing...

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Dr Owen falls half in love with easeful Death NOEL MALCOLM E xactly ten years ago, during the run- up to the creation of the SDP, Roy Jenkins came up with the following...

JONATHAN DIMBLEBY I t is widely assumed that there is more animosity between the political parties than within them. However, if I have discovered nothing else from chairing Any...

The terrible threat of oranges growing in the garden AUBERON WAUGH E xpert meteorologists as we have all become in recent weeks, those of us with a mind to it now in a...

Edward Whitley investigates what Jacob Rothschild is doing with Britain's largest inheritance - and the tax he must pay on it ON THE death of a distant — very distant — cousin...

Stephen Handelman on the pressures that shortages are putting on Mr Gorbachev Ottawa IN previous journeys abroad, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev looked — there is no other word for it —...

The Japanese are blaming the Americans for their financial crash, argues Michael Lewis Tokyo SOMEHOW I wasn't surprised when the Japanese housewife with the neat stack of...

Anthony Daniels on ballots and bullets in Colombia Bogota IN ITS euphoria over the fact that only 11 policemen were killed on election day in Colombia, the liberal newspaper...

I SUPPOSE a doctor is growing middle- aged when he goes straight to the obitu- ary columns of the British Medical Journal and the Lancet instead of to the scientific papers, and...

Simla is not what it from two persecuted ladies TO KIPLING, Simla was a place of illicit romance. In story after story of Plain Tales from the Hills, the same plot repeats...

Nicky Bird attends the 50th anniversary of the defence of Calais `A BIGGER f—ing shambles than 50 years ago,' grumbled a Rifle Brigade veter- an. A true Rifleman — chirpy and...

Sandra Barwick on the contradictions in Labour's embracing of Market Socialism WILL Tina go too? Dralon-covered sofas and dress racks bending beneath the weight of Aquascutum...

Robin Simon tries to judge bishops by their garb MY grandfather always claimed that he could spot a Nonconformist minister from the back at fifty paces 'by the cut of his...

Roy Kerridge finds lots of things beside the seaside besides sewage FEW Londoners spend a week at the English seaside in these Mediterranean days, but a day's rail outing to...

The media: Paul Johnson looks at the first moves in the coming election THE media battle for the next election started in earnest last week. Labour pro- duced its programme....

Saintly and humourless cats in stitches over the EMS auction CHRISTOPHER FILDES T he political auction over the Euro- pean Monetary System is more than enough to make a cat...

I HAVE the remedy for Paul Johnson's complaint — that the Press Council under its new chairman, Louis Blom-Cooper, has banned the word 'w**ft*e. Another high- minded Council,...

I SUGGEST that what happened to the pound after that might well be unpleasant. We should have a re-run of what happened two years ago, when sterling had its affair with the...

ALL together, now, boys. Which is our most profitable nationalised industry? Which earns enough for the nation's cof- fers to shave a penny off the income tax? Yes, that's right...

Sir: A. N. Wilson's cruel begorra-like caricature of the late Cardinal Tomas O'Fiaich (Diary, 19 May) missed by a mile the true qualities of the man. His great attribute was his...

Sir: D. A. Yerrill (Letters, 26 May) sells Dumfries short. He is not the only Dum- fries reader. There's me, and there's the poet (published) I talk to in the pub....

Sir: Mr Yerrill's answer to Frank Keating's question about the football club Queen of the South reminds me of another confu- sion over the whereabouts of a Scottish club. Some...

Sir: This letter is long overdue and might never have been written had not I, coming back from a long trip, rediscovered Lord Jock Bruce-Gardyne's remarkable article of last...

Blood lines Sir: Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, in his review of Debrett (Books, 5 May) fails to do justice to the estate workers who have, over the years, maintained the lines...

Sir: Who are these fattifers and thinnifers referred to by Christopher Fildes's eminent central banker friend (City and Suburban, 26 May)? Could he have been thinking of the...

Sir: Noel Malcolm's article on Rumania (`Good old bad old times', 26 May) seemed distressingly accurate to me and no more so than when he wrote about Ruma- nians being 'starved...

Abandoned by the bourgeoisie Ferdinand Mount THE ENGLISH TOWN by Mark Girouard Yale, £19.95, pp.330 LIFE IN THE GEORGIAN CITY by Dan Cruickshank and Neil Burton Viking,...

It sometimes seems I only need to lie Still for a moment — and in it floods, the sea Of surging water, blue and bright as ice, From which there is no refuge, not one rock Or...

Francis King WHICH OF US TWO? by Colin Spencer Viking, f15.99, pp.258 C olin Spencer, not yet a successful writer and artist, and John Tasker, not yet a successful...

Ross Clark CHANGES AND CHANCES by Stanley Middleton Hutchinson, f12.95, pp.215 I t is a common complaint about modern novels that they make the consummation of their love...

Kenneth 0. Morgan HANES CYMRU by John Davies Allen Lane, f30, pp. 710 T he 1980s have been a time of torment for the Welsh. Their coal industry has been emasculated; their...

Juliet Townsend W hen I collect my daughters from boarding school at the end of term they are apt to go into exaggerated rhapsodies as the school recedes into the distance....

This is my prayer to the sea: Help. Not against typhoons and shipwreck, Not against pirates and whirlpools, the storybook perils, Strandings on desert islands, sea serpents,...

Exhibitions The Venice Biennale (Venice, till 27 September) Dearth in Venice Giles Auty A night fell I followed three myste- rious, jewel-laden women down one of the...

Torvill and Dean (Earl's Court Exhibition Centre, till 10 June) Revolution on ice Deirdre McMahon I n the opening moments of Bolero, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean kneel...

Dreams (`PG', Lumiere) Image problems Hilary Mantel W ords fail us, constantly. Akira Kurosawa has said that if the message of his films could be put into words he would take...

Die Zauberflote (Glyndebourne) Bored and angry Rodney Milnes I t is unusual to feel bored and angry at one and the same time, certainly at a traditionally well-run opera...

ART S DIARY (16XNN A monthly selection of forthcoming events recommended by The Spectator's regular critics DANCE Kirov Ballet, Coliseum (071 836 3161), 6 June-7 July....

Henri IV (Wyndham's) The Writing Game (Birmingham Rep) Off-key grandeur Christopher Edwards R ichard Harris returns to the London stage in a revival of Pirandello's Henri IV,...

Charming to a fault Wendy Cope F or the last two or three years there has been an intermittent fault on my telephone line. Sometimes, when there is an incom- ing call, the...

Who shall be queen? Taki nsiders of the philanthropic set have been talking about it for months, if not years. Some have gone so far as to call it `the burning question of our...

A fishy business Jeffrey Bernard I shall give Epsom a miss on Wednesday. The coach parties over the past few years, either from the Groucho Club or with 'Bookshop' Billy, have...

Country pursuits Zenga Longmore W hen Omalara and I arrived at mY sister Boko's last week, we both realised that something was afoot. Boko was lying in bed with a strange,...

LAST Saturday, 26 May was the feast of St Philip Neri, founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, a great and splendid man and a wonderful educator of youth. Perhaps the...

Fast lane Raymond Keene A t times important chess events crowd in thick and fast and this week I will try to give a broad update on what has been a hectic month. In the Euwe...

11 YEAR OLD SCOTCH WHISKY COMPETITION c toTAS REGA4 - 7 12 YEAR OLD le SCOTCH WHISKY Awful writing Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1627 you were asked for a piece of prose...

RANBERR YITPEED The unclued lights are the names of nursery rhyme characters. Winners: Reg Nolan, Birkenhead (£20); Fiona Brandman, Arkley, Herts; Brian Ball, Southport.

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers English Dictionary — ring the word 'Dictionary') for the first three correct solutions...

You are invited to write a poem (maximum 16 lines) damning a member of the oppo- site sex with faint praise. Entries to 'Com- petition No. 1630' by 15 June.

Epsom sorts Frank Keating I am not a racing man, though I have enjoyed talking in small doses down the years to small jockeys — wizened, wasted, little obsessives with waxwork...