Follies M r Neil Kinnock gained overwhelm- ing support for a wholesale revision of Labour policies at the party's annual con- ference at Brighton. The price of the union block...

WHEN it comes to appealing to man's most primitive instincts, even the prop- rietors of the 'popular' press have always had something to learn from those who write advertising...

UNFAIR SHARES But the pure in spirit on the Left are quite wrong in accusing Labour's trade and industry spokesman of reactionary re- visionism. The policy Mr Gould is propos-...

Labour puts its shaky faith in aspirations NOEL MALCOLM T he sun shines all day long, the posters advertising Rocky Horror Show — Live on Stage gleam fluorescently at passing...

CHARLES MOORE N ow that Mr Kinnock has said that all Labour Party policy should be reviewed in the light of the result of the last election, defence is once more debatable...

Why one-man-one-vote is the Indian in Fiji's woodpile AUBERON WAUGH F iji is a long way away and one can quite understand that not many Britons are tremendously interested in...

Alexandra Artley discovers the feminine spirit of Barbara Castle at work again among Labour women A FEW weeks ago I stood in a flower- banked marquee in Hampshire at a very...

Terence Kealey argues that the Crown has let Britain down by pretending to rule Fiji THE Queen of Fiji has lost her crown. Not that she fought very hard for it. When the King...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard finds American hatred of Iran helping Russia in the Gulf Washington IN March 1985 a car bomb exploded in Beirut killing 80 people. There were suspi-...

In rural Africa, the power of the witch-doctor lives on, writes Sousa Jamba ALTHOUGH I come of a middle-class Angolan family — my father was a teacher who owned a school until...

no one knows whether cervical smears do any good anyway THE furious storm that has broken over the head of the former Liverpool patholog- ist, Dr Kathleen Lodge, serves to...

Peter Jones fears the effects of excluding Latin and Greek from Mr Baker's core curriculum WE Classicists are a pragmatic lot. Num- bers doing Latin at school fell, so we...

believes he knows the answer MR John Moore's well-publicised observa- tions have highlighted a commonplace of Conservative thought that the hypertrophy of the welfare state has...

there is nowhere for the party to debate its future AT LONG last there are encouraging signs that a genuine policy debate is beginning in the Labour Party. After nearly two de-...

The new model Lawson leans on a Third World door CHRISTOPHER FILDES The message he finds here, at the meet- ings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, is: Hold...

Sir: At the risk of receiving a bump on my own head from Taki, it seems only fair to point out that Valery Borzov is not the only white man since 1960 to have won the 100 metres...

Sir: So Christopher Fildes thinks banks ought not to be the City's playthings. Might I suggest that manufacturing indus- try too should be taken away from the children? Stephen...

Sir: Magnus Linklater's account (`The death of my paper', 1 August) of the life and death of the London Daily News was salutary, but I am growing tired of the breathless,...

Sir: Glasnost is derived from glas, an old word for 'voice' which can be found in all but the smallest dictionaries. One of your correspondents (Letters, 26 September) thinks,...

Sir: It was an immense pleasure to see Alec Guinness's tribute to Douglas Byng (5 September). It saddens me that he never got any honours for his contribution to our lives in...

Sir: John Bryson's tirade (Letters, Septem- ber) against preserving façades only of buildings expresses a fashionable but naïve attitude. Innumerable buildings are of composite...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - Save 15% on the Cover Price! Please enter a subscription to The Spectator I enclose my cheque for £ (Equivalent SUS & Eurocheques accepted) RATES 12...

My journal of the difficult birth of the Independent NICHOLAS GARLAND ANDREAS Whittam Smith's plan to start a new newspaper with Matthew Symonds and Stephen Glover became...

A lost crab, sometimes crabby Colin Welch THE CAMPBELL COMPANION: THE BEST OF PATRICK CAMPBELL edited and introduced by Ulick O'Connor Michael Joseph, £12.95 M y generation...

Francis King THE NEW CONFESSIONS by William Boyd Hamish Hamilton, f11.95 F rom the title of this novel, from its prefatory quotation from the private pap- ers of James...

Michael Davie IN THE LAND OF OZ by Howard Jacobson Hamish Hamilton, £9.95 A nyone leafing through publishers' catalogues these days can readily identify the books commissioned...

Isabel Colgate THE COMPLEAT WOMAN: MARRIAGE, MOTHERHOOD, CAREER: CAN SHE HAVE IT ALL? by Valerie Grove Chatto & Windus, £12.95 W ondering in a dark moment whether it is...

THE Americans believe that they have invented a new and most formidable weapon. On September 20th, Lieute- nant Zalinski was permitted to try his air-gun in New York Harbour...

David Profumo THE COLOUR OF BLOOD by Brian Moore Cape, £10.95 T he due balance of economy and real- ism is surely one of the chief touchstones of literary fiction, and there...

Anita Brookner THE GOOSEBOY by A. L. Barker Hutchinson, £9.95 A . L. Barker is such a quiet writer that she often passes unnoticed while noisier performers commandeer the...

Richard Cobb THAT SWEET ENEMY: A PERSONAL VIEW OF FRANCE AND THE FRENCH by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson Cape, £12.95 F rance is a big country, so there is plenty to choose...

Crafts The dangers of vesselism Tanya Harrod Vessel (Serpentine, till 11 October) Alison Britton: New Ceramics (Contemporary Applied Arts, till 10 October) Ve ssel is worth a...

John Piper: Georgian Arcadia (Marlborough Fine Art, till 16 October) Helion (Albemarle Gallery, till 14 October) Autumn artists Giles Auty W ith summer no longer a...

Medea (Olivier) Beyond Reasonable Doubt (Queen's) Ritual and bravura Christopher Edwards N o apologies for returning to the National Theatre's International Season, where...

regular critics. THEATRE The Importance of Being Earnest, Royalty (831 0660). Excellent revival of Wilde's classic comedy. Strong cast for a limited season. Diary of a...

Double takes Peter Phillips I t seems, what with compact discs and flourishing new labels for the less trad corners of the repertory, that the classical record industry is in...

Business as Usual (`15', selected cinemas) Not bad enough Hilary Mantel T o call someone 'a little shopgirl' was a prime middle-class insult not long ago, but the strange...

Open- Wendy Cope C E very single person has some talent,' said the Prime Minister in an interview for the first Open College broadcast on Chan- nel 4. I used to work for a...

Got any good.. Taki The greatest Greek writer since Aris- tophanes did no better than old Charlie upon reaching Hades's goal line. 'Bloody jellyfish,' would have been my last...

. . . exit lines, Jeff? Jeffrey Bernard I t was Ascot last week and now it's Longchamps tomorrow for the Arc de Triomphe. Far too much champagne for my liking and so next year...

The chicken and the egg Alice Thomas Ellis A week of minor — but nonetheless infuriating for that — crises. Janet is off on her hols and I've been flying round London on...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £13.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the first...

Anglo-US rift Jaspistos I N Competition No. 1491 you were invited to invent an exchange of letters between a Briton and an American in which the difference between the...

Classics Raymond Keene T he world of chess literature has suf- fered a terrible loss with the death at the age of 57 of Alex Cox, chairman of B. T. Batsford, the most prolific...

in friends' houses where the ice is made in the freezer part of the refrigerator that due to spillage or leaky ice trays the freezing base gets to resemble the icy wastes of the...

You are invited to provide a description (maximum 150 words) by a much later historian of the typical English pub of 2084. Entries to 'Competition No. 1494' by 16 October. The...

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