4 JUNE 1983

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Practical voting

The Spectator

A t election time, there is a slightly artificial convention that the voter chooses between the parties 'on their merits'. The major parties are treated with equal deference,...

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UK Eire Surface mail Air mail 6 months: £15.50 1R£17.75 £18.50 £24.50 One year: E31.00 1RE35.50 £37.00 £49.00 Cheques to be made payable to the Spectator and sent to...

Notebook

The Spectator

E lsewhere in this issue of the Spectator a number of people tell us how they are going to vote in the general election, and why. You may possibly be wondering how I am going to...

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Another voice

The Spectator

Away from it all Auberon Waugh L ast week I journeyed up to the North East for what I supposed wouldbe another pre-election Geordie-baiting episode, sponsored by Newcastle's...

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The Election

The Spectator

Sitting on serpents' eggs Colin Welch M r Foot's old white head bobs about among the jostling crowds of Lan- cashire and Yorkshire like flotsam dashed hither and thither by...

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Heseltine and Tebbitson

The Spectator

Charles Moore / What sort of government will we get if the Conservatives win? Mr Denis Healey has been drawing out attention to this question. Like those Victorian ar-...

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Wrong-Footed

The Spectator

Paul Johnson A Labour heads for what looks like disaster, Mrs Barbara Castle MEP has been complaining of the conspiracy of right-wing press proprietors to bring it about. There...

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Labour's good egg

The Spectator

Richard West King's Lynn O n the way to report on the North-West Norfolk election, I stopped off at Ely, which is the best place in England for seeing our modern worries in the...

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Heath: radiating isolation

The Spectator

Peter Ackroyd M rs Thatcher was described, in these pages last week, with her absurd rushing about and occasional shrillness, as resembling Widow Twankey; if we continue the...

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The vultures gather

The Spectator

Peter Paterson It is highly uncharacteristic of Mr Denis Healey to volunteer for martyrdom, but his quixotic gesture in virtually taking over Labour's campaign from the unhappy...

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Black and British in Brixton

The Spectator

Roy Kerridge 'T think Mrs Thatcher is a fine woman and 1 I'm going to vote for her,' a St Lucian housewife told her demure 14-year-old daughter. 'But I'm afraid that young peo-...

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Fathers and mothers

The Spectator

Leo Abse L abour MPs in private speak of Michael Foot invariably with affection and frequently with exasperation: the Tory MPs, contrariwise, exude no warmth towards the...

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Age of the common Tory

The Spectator

Alan Rusbridger T he Sun is pretty pleased with the way things are going in this election, and few things seem to please it more than the prospect of a future Thatcher cabinet...

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INTRODUCTORY OFFER

The Spectator

open to non-subscribers Take out a subscription to The Spectator and we will send you a free, signed copy of BESIDE THE SEASIDE OTHER TALES by Roy Kerridge Subscription...

One hundred years ago

The Spectator

There are many ways of wasting time in the House of Commons, but all but one are imperfect in this or that par- ticular. They require some degree of concert on the part of those...

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The Queen and the spaceman

The Spectator

Andrew Brown T he evening train from Gothenburg to Uddevalla seems to have been assembl- ed from old trams, or perhaps from war- time troop trains. Drunks flock to it, perhaps...

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Can the disease be cured?

The Spectator

Nicholas von Hoffman Washington . . . We got reports from down here that people were doing 'stupid sensual things', were in a state of 'uncontrollable frenzy', were wriggling...

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How they will vote

The Spectator

The Spectator invited a number of people from various walks of life to say how they would vote in the general election, and why. Some regarded the question as impertinent;...

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`Political' interpretation

The Spectator

Sir: Mr Harry Theobalds of the IBA has not really made the Code on who or who cannot advertise on television logically ex- plicable (28 May) — even though it looks as if the...

Full and vigorous

The Spectator

Sir: Your leader 'Campaign tedium' (21 May) derides the broadcasters for being too cautious in covering the general election. We are accused of suppressing 'most of the...

Calvocoressi and Labour

The Spectator

Sir: Peter Calvocoressi tells us that he will vote Labour with more conviction than ever before (21 May). Is that because the new Labour Party programme is almost iden- tical...

The beauties of Belfast

The Spectator

Sir: In my article on the architecture of Belfast (21 May) I much regret that the large cuts which had to be made omitted all mentions of both the Ulster Architectural Heritage...

Letters

The Spectator

Brideshead look-alikes Sir: Peter Shore without his spectacles reminds Paul Johnson (28 May) of Sir John Gielgud playing Charles Ryder's father in Brideshead Revisited. While...

Who owns the Victorians?

The Spectator

Sir: The Spectator owes much of its readability to the powers of caricature, so it may seem churlish to complain of Peter Ackroyd's account of the History Workshop on 'Victorian...

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Books

The Spectator

The beautiful life Caroline Blackwood Mary Berenson: A Self Portrait from her Diaries and Letters Edited by Barbara Strachey and Jayne Samuels (Gollancz £12.95) `S he was...

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A life of contrasts

The Spectator

Richard Shone Lydia Lopokova Edited by Milo Keynes (Weidenfeld £15) rrhis book brings vividly to my mind memories of an extraordinarily original and enchanting human being...

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Mrs Wilde

The Spectator

Peter Ackroyd The Importance of Being Constance Joyce Bentley (Robert Hale £8.75) F or almost a century Mrs Oscar Wilde has remained precisely that: only the s, of her title...

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Not the Monster

The Spectator

Artemis Cooper The Loch Ness Mystery Solved Ronald Binns (Open Books Publishing Ltd £7.95) T he monster is very big and easilY recognisable, having a small head on a long...

Ducal

The Spectator

Brian Masters Who Wants to be a Millionaire? David Frost (Andre Deutsch £4.95) I t would be churlish to offer criticism of a book which is designed to be left on top of the...

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Wartime Eire

The Spectator

Mary Kenny In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality 1939-45 Robert Fisk (Andre Deutsch £25) M y family in Dublin retains a vivid recollection of neutrality...

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Ragley

The Spectator

John Martin Robinson One Man's Estate Dennis Barker (Andre Deutsch £9.95) r e late Lord Leicester used to admonish research students wishing to see his estate archives at...

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Conversations about Stalin

The Spectator

Bohdan Nahaylo Stalinism: Its Impact on Russia and the World Edited by G. R. Urban (Maurice Temple Smith £15) 'H istory does not know a despot as brutal and cynical as Stalin...

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Arts

The Spectator

Love in a cold climate Rodney Milnes Idomeneo and Die Entfiihrung aus dem Serail (Glyndebourne) Carmen (WNO, Cardiff) Virst the good news. I don't know whether Glyndebourne...

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Cinema

The Spectator

Unhappy medium Peter Ackroyd The Ploughman's Lunch ('15', Gate Notting Hill) linmy Penfield, the central character in this film, is a BBC journalist; he is . a man without...

Radio

The Spectator

Questionable Maureen Owen T find the two most compulsive election 1 themes at present on the air to be Robin Day's daily Election Call (Radio 4), and the less predictable...

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Art

The Spectator

Looking up John McEwen 215th Summer Exhibition (Royal Academy of Arts till 28 August) I. the 215th Summer Exhibition is surely I . the best for a long time. The reason in...

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Theatre

The Spectator

A touch of class Giles Gordon Beethoven's Tenth (Vaudeville) They Came From Somewhere Else (Lyric Studio, Hammersmith) The Comedy Without A Title (Lyric, Hammersmith) Bottom's...

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High life

The Spectator

Star-struck Taki T here are two things I've always liked about Oliver Gilmour: his wife and his sister-in-law. As of last week I've added another, a bit more abstract perhaps,...

Television

The Spectator

Spirituality Richard Ingrams TVs funny how on every one of these 1pointless bank holidays which now make life in spring and early summer so difficult, I end up watching a...

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Postscript

The Spectator

Liquid light P. J. Kavanagh I propose to write in praise of the month we have just enjoyed, the wettest, darkest May anybody can remember — which is to say since last year. I...

Low life

The Spectator

Well mauled Jeffrey Bernard illiatn Harrison 'Jack' Dempsey, the `Manassa Mauler', has taken the float count as Ring Magazine would and will say. He was born on 24 June, 1895...

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No. 1268: The winners

The Spectator

Jaspistos reports: Competitors were asked to anticipate the imminent British Telecom Dial-a-Prayer service with a formula that cannot possibly give offence or arouse con-...

Competition

The Spectator

No. 1272: Elementary Set by Jaspistos: You are invited to write a short detective story of less than 250 words in which Sherlock Holmes reaches a typical- ly brilliant solution...

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Solution to 607: Light-o'-love

The Spectator

The unclued lights are terms of endearment. Winner: Irving Gray, 24 Lloyd Square, London WCI. H I ' N A ' M AFE A10 D TIEI' ENE K " A C U SL A 0 1) El OW • Ar,..RzEIP m...

Chess

The Spectator

Brobdingnagian Raymond Keene A n interesting venture has just been brought to my attention — a new company calling itself Giant Chess and Draughts Ltd. It is the idea of...

Crossword 610

The Spectator

Assembly line by Mass A prize of ten pounds will be awarded for the first correct solution opened on 20 June. Entries to: Crossword 610, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street,...

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Portrait of the week

The Spectator

T he tide in the affairs of the Labour Party continued to lead on to misfor- tune. Mr Jim Mortimer, Labour's general secretary, felt constrained to affirm the par- ty's...

Books Wanted

The Spectator

GRAEME: any 'Blackshirt' novels. Michael Freeman, Flat 6c, Crendon St, High Wycombe, Bucks. SATURDAY BOOKS numbers 29 (1969) and 33 (1973). D. Gunston, Lawnswood, Denmead,...