A mid Opposition protests at the severity of the sentence, and with regrets from the Guardian, which handed over to the authorities the secret document she gave them, Miss Sarah...

A non-manifesto 'I object to the introduction o' politics,' said the mottle-faced gentleman. 'I submit that ... that 'ere song's political; and wot's much the same, that it...

Lire Stir ta,:e mail Air mail 6 months: [17.25 5* [26.50 One year: 1.:34.50 [34.50 L41.00 153.061 For special offer turn to p.35. Name Address US Subscriptions: $75.00...

Fr he Greek government ought by now to be seriously alarmed at the activities of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles. The committee, in the person...

P erhaps in order to show that its affairs have not yet fallen entirely into the hands of marketing executives, the Conser - vative P- arty has just launched a publication...

T he meeting at the Brant Inn, Groby, on Tuesday is historic. For nine members of the national executive of the National Union of Mineworkers to meet and to encourage miners to...

W e learn from the Central Statistical Office's most recent summary of Regional Trends that in 1981-2 a lower pro- portion of households in the West Midlands had, or reported...

received letters ad- dressing them as 'Dear Rev'. This was a very grave error, and if the Spectator had the resources of the Sunday Times it would publish a three-page...

Thoughts from the far east Auberon Waugh Hong Kong ?There was a time in the Sixties and early 1 Seventies when it was rather smart to have gone to China. Distinguished guests...

have been leafing through the latest Who's Who and wondering why on earth I am listed in it. Presumably it is because I was once the Literary Editor of the Spec- tator, which...

Timothy Garton Ash San Salvador H undreds of visiting journalists rose early in El Salvador on Sunday 25 March, piling into hired cars to observe, film and sound-record the...

James MacManus Amman F rom the hills around Amman at night one can see the lights of Jerusalem some 3 0 miles away across the Jordan valley. By day truckloads of oranges from...

Geoffrey Wheatcroft Gaborone I n 1947 the Royal Family paid a state visit to South Africa. The King and Queen and the two young princesses crossed the Union in high style,...

Frank Johnson Paris A few weeks ago, I was walking along the Rue du Bac, a dignified street near an area of ministries and diplomats' resi- dences, when I was stopped by a...

Richard West Bombay (Morning back to Bombay after twenty N./years, I am struck not so much by the poverty of the masses as by the flaunted af- fluence of the rich. Over the bay...

Roy Kerridge N ineteen eighty-four, according to Ken Livingstone, is Anti-Racist Year. For myself, I regard 'racism' as a meaningless word, as everyone can see that, very...

Simon Blow A look of consternation crossed the face of the late Duke of Beaufort when I asked him if the slightly recent peerage of a foxhunting friend might have been a...

The main argument against the Bishops sitting in the House of Lords is this, — that the most constant in their atten- dance get a certain worldliness by their position there,...

Tisdall: the real issue Paul Johnson N o one comes out very well from the Tisdall case, but the Guardian has done something to redeem itself by its P u blication, last...

On to a ton? Jock Bruce-Gardyne A couple of months ago I mentioned with a nuance of scepticism the predic- tions of the Sunday Telegraph that the FT Index — the old-fashioned,...

Orifices Sir: It was at least honest of Auberon Waugh ('Another voice', 3 March) to confess that his information about the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill came from Mr George...

Sir: A. M. Daniels, in his article (17 March), exhibits one of the major symptoms of Neo-Liberalus Americanus — an irrational (?) desire to show his native land in the worst...

Sir: May I bring up to date my letter (3 March) about Dr Anatoly Koryagin, the imprisoned Russian psychiatrist? The American Psychiatric Association, of which Dr Koryagin is an...

orifices at police discretion rather worries me. I am inclined s P o ntaneously to fart a bit when nervous or excited, and though I can keep from Making a rude noise, I have...

Sir: An outsider, watching those gunning for Mark Thatcher, is forced to conclude that they don't want people to make any money, either for themselves or for the country. They...

Sir: I am glad to have seen Mr Bossano's letter (10 March) since I had missed Mr Courtauld's piece about Gibraltar. UN resolutions which place the ownership of real estate above...

Lost friends Colin Welch S till no news of my old mentors, off in my lost commonplace books to some unknown region. I try to commune with them, beseech them to get in touch: a...

Two essays in illusion Edward Norman Namibia A Report to the Archbishop of Canterbury by the Anglican Delegation after their visit of October 1983 (Available from Lambeth...

Eric Christiansen Vladimir the Russian Viking Vladimir Volkoff (Honeyglen Publishing £13.95) I t is not every day that a biography of St Vladimir of Russia appears in English....

Michael Horovitz Collected Shorter Plays Samuel Beckett (Faber £7.50, paperback £3.50) B eckett's dramatic work has been well served by interpreters in Britain since its i...

Humphrey Carpenter In Search of C. S. Lewis Edited by Stephen Schofield (Valley Books, Chepstow, Wales £3) C . S. Lewis was a very good man. A lot of very bad books have been...

Artemis Cooper West of Sunset Dirk Bogarde (Allen Lane £8.95) I n one of his volumes of autobiography, Dirk Bogarde quotes Noel Coward's ex- cellent piece of advice to the...

P.J. Kavanagh Inside the British Police Simon Holdaway (Blackwell £14.95) 'Simon Holdaway left school and joined the police force. He served for eleven Years and was then...

Peter Quennell on F. Scott Fitz- gerald. Francis King on Randolph Stow. Shirley Robin Letwin on John Stuart Mill. Terence de Vere White on A Writer's Ireland.

James Hughes-Onslow The Light Garden of the Angel King: Journeys in Afghanistan Peter Levi (Penguin £2.95). Many of the villages described 15 years ago have now been napalmed...

Richard West The Gurkhas Byron Farwell (Allen Lane 12.50) T he most memorable photograph from the Falklands War showed a party of Gurkha soldiers, in civvies, at Heathrow A...

Artist and politician Gavin Stamp William Morris Today (ICA) William Morris Today (ICA) T he William Morris Today Exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (until 29...

Offensive (Theatre of Comedy: Ambassadors) . The Way of the World (Greenwich) Topokana Martyrs' Day • (Bush) OO rton and Congreve, like Wilde and Pirelli, were stylists....

Revelations Rodney Milnes Gloriana (Coliseum) Jenufa (WNO, Oxford) ?There are people in these hard times who 1 wonder what an expensive international opera house is for;...

Famous boleros Alexander Chancellor S hortly before I stopped editing the Spectator 1 got a postcard from our oc- casional reviewer Alastair Forbes irl Switzerland, rejoicing...

On the boards Peter Ackroyd The Dresser (PG', Odeon Haymarket) rr here was a time when actors simply played the role of hero but now, it seems, they themselves can be heroes...

Fohnies Taki Gstaad A il is quiet in Gstaad. Now that the 'smart' people have left, it is once again possible to find a place in the sun on the terrace of the Arc-en-Ciel for...

The Spectator for twelve months and receive FREE a signed copy of GOD'S APOLOGY A chronicle of three friends by Richard Ingrams Open to non-subscribers or to those who want...

Problem areas P. J. Kavanagh W e are a wordy culture; sometime s i t seems a shame to add to the hubbub, silence being preferable; but silence is underpaid. We talk and write...

Sweet charity Jeffrey Bernard T sometimes feel pangs of ineffectual guilt about not contributing towards worth- while charities. But the pangs are fleeting and the charities...

No. 1314: Redfriars Set by Jaspistos: Thanks to R. A. Collins- splatt, I now know that George Orwell once had an abortive correspondence about the possibility of founding 'an...

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked for a poem in praise of the older man or woman as a lover. Ancient person, for whom I All the flattering youth defy, Long be it ere...

El L U E E EM - 'bsupAra 43 G LAT U D E O N 'TAT ABL L MON E , L AL E A 5 Thematic components in defined lights: (Ac) 12 cod, 24 scar, 26 drinh; 34 tai, 38 gudgeon, 41...

Prize: flO — or a copy of Chambers Dictionary, 1983 edition (ring the word Dictionary' under name and address) — for the first cor- rect solut'on opened on 16 April. Entries to:...

Edging forward David Goodman W ith draws in the sixth and seventh games, the score in the Kasparov- Smyslov match now stands at 41/2-21/2. The seventh game finished after 13...