2 MAY 1970

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Cricket, lovely cricket

The Spectator

A society for the abolition of all inter- national sport would have a strong case to argue. There is precious little evidence, at least in recent years, that sporting events...

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POLITICAL COMMENTARY

The Spectator

The old polls act PETER PATERSON Who is the most significant person in British politics this week? Who makes Westminster tremble, disrupts question time in the House of...

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SOUTH AFRICA

The Spectator

White hopes ANTHONY DELIUS The South African elections gave the Prime Minister, Mr Vorster, rather more than he wanted, and surplus is often more difficult to handle than...

AMERICA

The Spectator

Mr Nixon in trouble MURRAY KEMPTON New York — If the President reads the public mood aright, he is at the moment surrounded by politicians whose careers are even more...

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A hundred years ago

The Spectator

From the 'Spectator,' 30 April /870—The De- ceased Wife's Sister came up for her annual discussion on Wednesday, the main feature of the debate being Sir Roundell Palmer's...

GOVERNMENT

The Spectator

Decline and fall DAVID HOWELL What is to be done with the Board of Trade? For something must be done before long. It surely cannot go on the way it is, a con- tradictory...

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Lord and mister

The Spectator

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS The Speaker has ruled that the Earl of Durham (renounced) may continue to use the courtesy title of Lord Lambton outside the Palace of Westminster, but...

LAW AND ORDER

The Spectator

Where the weakness lies R. A. CLINE Political agitations and disorderly demonstrations are 'nothing new in the history of English social and political conflict. Over a century...

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SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

The Spectator

J. W. M. THOMPSON The Bishop of Stepney, who sees this country with fresh eyes after his many years in Africa, made an interesting remark the other day. He suggested that...

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PERSONAL COLUMN

The Spectator

More means different J. L. HERKLESS My own educational background is a varied one. I attended school and university in America until I was twenty-two. I then came to Britain...

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TELEVISION

The Spectator

An open letter BILL GRUNDY Dear Mr Young, I wouldn't presume to try and tell you any- thing about television were it not for the fact that you have yourself admitted that you...

DRUGS

The Spectator

The case against cannabis LORD O'HAGAN Mr W. H. Brereton's book The Truth about Opium was savagely reviewed in the SPECTA- TOR because it maintained that most people who took...

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MEDICINE

The Spectator

To cut or not JOIIN ROWAN WILSON Some interesting facts about surgery have just been brought to light by Dr John P. Bunker, an anaesthetist writing in the New England Journal...

IMMIGRANTS

The Spectator

The skin game RAWLE KNOX Last week I listened to a Conservative MP telling his local association members that one of the objects of the next government, to be formed by their...

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VIEWPOINT

The Spectator

The abuse of television GEORGE GALE The leftish and trendy bias of television I have always taken for granted, a phenome- non not to be surprised at, something that goes...

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The pond dig

The Spectator

WES MAGEE We laid out the shape with rope then peeled off the turf as if skinning an orange and dug like navvies until solid limestone poked its raw bones into sunlight for the...

BOOKS The age of optimism

The Spectator

J. H. PLUMB For generations now the philosophers of the Enlightenment have suffered in public esteem because of the disrepute into which they fell during the nineteenth...

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Rites and wrongs

The Spectator

BRYAN WILSON ■ • antral Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology %lary Douglas (Barrie and Rockliff 45s) Comparative anthropology is at once the most exciting and frustrating of...

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Clean sweep

The Spectator

DENNIS J. DUNCANSON British Policy in China, 1895-1902 L. K. Young (out. 70s) China: The Roots of Madness Theodore H. White (Bac 35s) The Transformation of the Chinese Earth...

NEW THRILLERS

The Spectator

Heads you win PETER PARLEY Heads Edward Stewart (Andre Deutsch 30s) Blow the House Down John Blackburn (Cape 25s) Skin Man Martin Tarmey (Barrie and Jenkins 25s) The Devil...

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Low treason

The Spectator

Elizabeth WISKEMANN Betrayal From Within James Barros (Yale UP 90s) This is an indictment of Joseph Avenol, the French Secretary-General of the League of Nations from 1933 to...

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Hares in the cabbage patch

The Spectator

HILARY SPURLING Bertolt Brecht: Collected Plays Vol I 1918- 1923 edited by John Willett and Ralph Man- heim (Methuen 60s) Bertolt Brecht: His Life, His Art and His Times...

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Northern wights

The Spectator

DAVID KNOWLES The Viking Achievement P. G. Foote and D. M. Wilson (Sidgwick and Jackson 65s) This book, unlike some of its predecessors in the series 'Great Civilisations', is...

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MUSIC

The Spectator

Another country GILLIAN WIDDICOMBE One of London's saddest concerts in a long while was the 'Composer's Choice' pro- gramme of music by Peter Racine Fricker at the Purcell...

ARTS

The Spectator

The revolutionary conga line PENELOPE HOUSTON In The Confrontation (Academy One, 'A)y Miklos Jancs6 has set dialectic to the tempo of a swaying revolutionary conga line; and...

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ART

The Spectator

Golden oldies BRYAN ROBERTSON It is easy to write informatively about R. B. Kitaj, the American artist, to be fairly entertaining about him and his exploits, and totally...

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THEATRE

The Spectator

Amazon in diamonds HILARY SPURLING Carol Charming with Her Ten Stout-hearted Men (Drury Lane) The Government Inspector (Cinoherni Klub at the Aldwych) Henry IV Part...

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MONEY Gilt-edged sacrifice

The Spectator

NICHOLAS DAVENPORT The sudden collapse of the gilt-edged market—it has now virtually lost a six months' rise—suggests that something has gone radically wrong and I suspect that...

Budget postscript

The Spectator

E.M.B. Each year R. Jenkins with his fluent pen Removes large numbers from the fiscal net Until B. Castle's promises unmet Ensure next springtime they must leave again.

Fair shares?

The Spectator

• JOHN BULL Some of the larger unit trust groups in Lon- don have been rubbing their hands with pleasure at the difficulties of Investors Over- seas Services (los), the Geneva...

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LETTERS

The Spectator

From Anthony C. Cowdy, J. R. L. Curling- ham, W. A. Miller, D. G. Leslie, Miles Hud- son, Peter Conder, Alan Smith, Cohn Welch, T. C. Skertngton-Lodge, Richard Cobb, P. H. Can...

Red hands across the sea

The Spectator

Sir: In your issue of 25 April Mr Quintin Hogg in his article on Ulster stated that 'the treaty represents a compromise desired by, literally, no one'. Surely the situation is...

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VCs in Vietnam

The Spectator

Sir: As one who has had a vc in the family, I feel it wholly deplorable that the Queen should have been put in the posit;on of awarding two vcs to Australians fighting in the...

Penny foolish

The Spectator

Sir: Mr Bill Grundy (25 April) accuses the Daily Telegraph of dropping circulation 'to today's figure of 1.390.000'. It is in fact Mr Grundy who has dropped 20,000 or more, not...

The dwarfs of Lime Grove

The Spectator

Sir: Yvonne Brock in her letter to you (18 April) says—'What matters in broadcasting is not whether programmes are left, right or centre or "clean" or "dirty"; these are wholly...

Trouble in the pit

The Spectator

Sir: It is tempting to pursue Gillian Wid- dicombe's metaphor of `the. grazing cham- pion' a little further. When champion bulls are grazing, heifers in neighbouring fields tend...

Going on before

The Spectator

Sir: The spelling `Liege' was changed to 'Liege' by act of the Prince Regent of Belgium, Prince Charles, in 1945 or 1946. 1 remember seeing the Act published in Le Moniteur...

Policy for the environment

The Spectator

Sir: Mr Heath's policy for the environment (11 April) is admirable in its intent to reduce noise and industrial filth and in its affirma- tion of protection from erosion of...

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AFTERTHOUGHT

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Wooster sauce JOHN WELLS Spring had come late to Westminster that year, but now that it had sprung it had sprung with a vengeance. Golden daffodils fluttered and danced by the...

COMPETITION

The Spectator

No. 603: Garden parties Set by Molly Fitton: In a recent SPECTATOR article, David Walder tells of 'an energetic canvassing lady of my acquaintance who is capable of looking at...

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Crossword 1428

The Spectator

Across 1 Church militant on Salisbury Plain? (10) 6 Dog-end movements deviously indicate booty (4) 10 Nautical courses include basic brassware (5) 11 The buttercup grows on...

Chess 489

The Spectator

PHILIDOR Touw Hian Bwee (4th Prize, BCF, 1967). White to play and mate in two moves; solution next week. Solution to No. 488 (Thomson-3R4/7Q/ Bb2p1 Rp/ 1N1P3r / 7p / 1PBkp3 /...