Page 3
Practical voting
The SpectatorA 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,...
Page 4
Subscribe
The SpectatorUK 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 SpectatorE 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...
Page 5
Another voice
The SpectatorAway 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...
Page 6
The Election
The SpectatorSitting 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...
Page 7
Heseltine and Tebbitson
The SpectatorCharles 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-...
Page 8
Wrong-Footed
The SpectatorPaul 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...
Page 9
Labour's good egg
The SpectatorRichard 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...
Page 12
Heath: radiating isolation
The SpectatorPeter 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...
Page 14
The vultures gather
The SpectatorPeter 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...
Page 16
Black and British in Brixton
The SpectatorRoy 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-...
Page 18
Fathers and mothers
The SpectatorLeo 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...
Page 19
Age of the common Tory
The SpectatorAlan 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...
Page 20
INTRODUCTORY OFFER
The Spectatoropen 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 SpectatorThere 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...
Page 21
The Queen and the spaceman
The SpectatorAndrew 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...
Page 22
Can the disease be cured?
The SpectatorNicholas 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...
Page 24
How they will vote
The SpectatorThe 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;...
Page 26
`Political' interpretation
The SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorSir: 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 SpectatorBrideshead 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 SpectatorSir: 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...
Page 27
Books
The SpectatorThe 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...
Page 28
A life of contrasts
The SpectatorRichard 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...
Page 29
Mrs Wilde
The SpectatorPeter 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...
Page 30
Not the Monster
The SpectatorArtemis 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 SpectatorBrian 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...
Page 31
Wartime Eire
The SpectatorMary 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...
Page 32
Ragley
The SpectatorJohn 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...
Page 33
Conversations about Stalin
The SpectatorBohdan 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...
Page 34
Arts
The SpectatorLove 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...
Page 35
Cinema
The SpectatorUnhappy 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 SpectatorQuestionable 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...
Page 36
Art
The SpectatorLooking 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...
Page 37
Theatre
The SpectatorA 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...
Page 38
High life
The SpectatorStar-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 SpectatorSpirituality 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...
Page 39
Postscript
The SpectatorLiquid 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 SpectatorWell 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...
Page 40
No. 1268: The winners
The SpectatorJaspistos 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 SpectatorNo. 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...
Page 41
Solution to 607: Light-o'-love
The SpectatorThe 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 SpectatorBrobdingnagian 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 SpectatorAssembly 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,...
Page 42
Portrait of the week
The SpectatorT 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 SpectatorGRAEME: any 'Blackshirt' novels. Michael Freeman, Flat 6c, Crendon St, High Wycombe, Bucks. SATURDAY BOOKS numbers 29 (1969) and 33 (1973). D. Gunston, Lawnswood, Denmead,...