deli- vered his autumn statement on the eco- nomy to Parliament. Falling unemploy- ment and an unexpected cash bonus from the sale of council houses enabled the provision of an...

1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 A VISION OF BRITAIN T he response of architects to 'A Vision of Britain', the television programme made by the Prince of Wales, has revealed...

Fighting the Government tooth and eye NOEL MALCOLM P olitical crises, • like Frankenstein's monster, are man-made.things which sud- denly develop lives of their own. It's not...

JENNIFER PATERSON here is a very big threat on the horizon; in fact it is already here, lurking about, ready to pounce on any of us at any moment. Far worse than all the nanny-...

It's incredibly nasty, but must we suppose that it is Art? AUBERON WAUGH I am just old enough to remember the heat generated in artistic circles by Anni- goni's first portrait...

With the presidential race all but won, Ambrose Evans - Pritchard explains why the Democrats are so out of touch with America Macomb County, Michigan COMPLETE chaos. People...

Anthony Daniels finds memories of injustice are long in the suppressed republics THIS year there were no history exams in Soviet secondary' schools; a politically acceptable...

Charles Glass on the part played by Muslim fundamentalists in the rivalry between Syria and Iraq Damascus THERE is a shop in the old souks of Damascus which sells, among other...

WE deeply regret to observe that Car- dinal Newman has had a very serious accident, and is suffering not only from the consequences of a fainting-fit, but of the heavy fall...

Alan Angell predicts that General Pinochet will usher in democratic government CHILE was widely known as the first country to elect, in an open and democratic contest, a...

Richard West discovers that Graham Greene's fictions can come true in Nicaragua Managua NICARAGUA no longer looks like an issue in the United States election. The country is...

uncomfortable champion IT IS, as they say, lonely at the top. How much more lonely then, to be at the top of a profession in which isolation from the mainstream of society is a...

The media: Paul Johnson examines the growing paranoia of the intellectual Left AN entertaining piece by Valerie Grove in this week's Sunday Times gives an illumi- nating...

Mr Lawson buys off the dentists and opticians JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE F orecasting, Mr Brian Walden put it to the Chancellor on television a fortnight ago, is a mug's game. Mr...

THE case of Brian Fisher is going to the House of Lords, and I can offer their Lordships an unusual precedent, supplied by an eminent judge, which will help them no end. This...

INVESTMENT, says the Chancellor, is boomi ng — it is rising twice as fast as consumer spending, as it has over the last five years. In manufacturing industry, in- vestment this...

TURN out the merchant banks, bring on the auctioneers — now that we are at the odds and ends stage of privatisation it is time for the principle of the job lot. That is how...

If your aunt had wheels, would foreigners pay to keep her on the road? CHRISTOPHER FILDES W e now have a simple sum for teachers to set to their classes, or vice versa. This...

Sir: Richard Bassett's article on Yugoslavia (`Mob-handed in Montenegro', 15 Octo- ber) is as frivolous as it is malicious. Already in his second sentence he informs us that the...

Sir: Professor Ayer ('Postscript to a post- mortem', 15 October) asserts that 'Des- cartes has few contemporary disciples. Not many philosophers of whatever persuasion believe...

Epistle to Paul Sir: Strange to relate, from the first re- corded moment, Christmas 1986, that Paul Johnson started worrying — at the dinner table and then in your pages —...

Sir: Concerning 'Britischer Architekt' by Gavin Stamp (1 October 1988). The time I spent at James Stirling's office was fantas- tic for me and I treasure the memories of a rare...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY - Save 15% on the Cover Price! RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK 1:1 £49.50 0 £26.00 Europe (airmail) 0 4:60.50 D £31.15) USA Airspeed D US $99 CI US$50 Rest of...

Sir: The Spectator for Poles who love intellectual freedoms (and political ones of which they are at present deprived) is a marvellous idea. Timothy Garton Ash and you have...

Sir: Several years ago Spike Milligan, in a piece called 'Sorry, I can't hear above the Muzak', pointed out that music was meant to be absorbed, not applied. After a lively...

Sir: In his review of my Frederick II: A Medieval Emperor (20 August) David Gil- mour dismissively accuses me of applying modern standards of tolerance to Frederick II's time;...

SHOULD you meet an Englishman abroad, chances are he's from the Gra- nada area. For statistics prove that our viewers take more package holidays than the rest of the country as...

Sir: Our ambassador in Venezuela, Giles Fitzherbert, with whom I am staying, has drawn my attention to my mother's letter (8 October) mentioning her visit with her mother, my...

Sir: Further to Kingsley Amis ('Sod the public II, 15 October) on bookshops, on 15 September I ordered a book from W. H. Smith in Trowbridge costing £20. I paid a deposit of...

Sir: I have just made Jennifer Paterson's lemon dessert (Letters, 10 September; Food, 23 July), with the following addition Measuring the amount of lemon juice, I doubled this...

Ian Buruma I s Japan going to lead the world? Will we all look to Tokyo in the way we now look to Washington? Will Pax Japonica replace Pax Americana? It is a question often...

How the Japanese show off Bill Emmott At least, this is how Japan used to be when I lived there until 1986. Tokyo was never quite as harmoniously egalitarian as the stereotype...

The distinction between those who issue orders and those who obey them is fudged: the mandarins, in this ideal world, are naturally obeyed, even without giving direct orders,...

Royalty An everyday story of imperial folk Jurek Martin How it all came about, with the tennis following the dancing, is, in its own tiny way, almost instructive about the...

From the horizon Colin Thubron OVER THE RIM OF THE WORLD: SELECTED LETTERS OF FREYA STARK edited by Caroline Moorehead John Murray, f19.95, pp.404 F reya Stark once said...

Andrew Lownie PHILBY: KGB MASTERSPY by Philip Knightley Deutsch, £14.95, pp. 291 D ressed in his check shirt and cash- mere pullover, copies of Dick Francis and the Times on...

day behind the Staff Club, after sundown, sat idly on benches, boozing, ogling at a straw man burning. He was writhing slowly. Out of that great blaze flames in abstract curves...

Robert Kee PEACE FOR OUR TIME T he strength of the British obsession with the second world war, about to be prolonged for at least six years by the 50th anniversary syndrome,...

Michael Davie DOWN HOME: REVISITING TASMANIA by Peter Conrad Chatto & Windus, £12.95, pp.232 A photograph on the back flap of this book is mostly of foliage, but the author...

Adrian Dannatt PICTURE THIS by Joseph Heller Macmillan, £12.95, pp.352 A merican literary success induces pa- ralysis, a masochistic certainty on the part of the author that...

Antony Lambton AGNELLI: THE NETWORK OF ITALIAN POWER by Alan Friedman Harrap, £12.95, pp.320 T he trouble with this biography is that it only superficially concentrates on...

Stephen Logan THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE: THE 1986 T.S. ELIOT MEMORIAL LECTURES AND OTHER CRITICAL WRITINGS by Seamus Heaney Faber, £12.95, pp.200 A ll the great critics,...

Just for a moment, I said to myself As I stopped to unload This dead-weight of the thing I am By the side of the road Where, cool, the willow-shadows fluttered And, clear, the...

Exhibitions At the shallow end Giles Auty David Hockney: a Retrospective (Tate Gallery, till 3 January) David Hockney: a Retrospective (Tate Gallery, till 3 January) I n the...

Champions of plainsong Peter Phillips T he hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society was celebrated on 31 Octo- ber, the eve of All...

Sweetness and light Rodney Milnes S omeone I know once worked on the music staff at the opera house in Brussels, where a bright young French director who shall jolly well...

The Plantagenets (Stratford) Everything but the horse Christopher Edwards 0 nce the word went out., 'Make it new,' Now the injunction is, 'Make it last.' These Wagnerian...

Blame it on the box Wendy Cope ere is a horrifying statistic, culled from last week's This Week (ITV). The typical viewer's television-watching over a year would fill January...

Vincent (`PG', Minema, Camden Plaza) Homage to an artist Hilary Mantel 0 ne of the reasons why films about painters and writers are usually unsatisfac- tory is that a film...

Out in the cold Jeffrey Bernard M any, many years ago, I spent an afternoon making love to a rather silly woman who was married to a member of Parliament. Labour, of course....

We are not amused Taki 0 ne of the reasons I'm almost happy to be flying off to the Big Bagel is that I shall thus be missing the newspaper cover- age of Fergie's return....

Glastonbury tour Alice Thomas Ellis I went to Glastonbury last week with my friend Charles. We wanted to see if the Tor would have a strange effect on us. Charles had a friend...

Mini-B acchae Raymond Keene lenge, which finished in London last week, the twelve-year-old Hungarian prodigy, Judit Polgar, certainly put her male oppo- nents to flight. She...

Sexameters Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1547 you were in- vited to write some English hexameters begining with the words 'I am in love, meantime . . .' Clough, that chronic...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 for the first three correct solutions opened on 21 November. Entries to: Crossword 883, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street,...

Michael Foot recently confessed that his first poetic effort was a sonnet to Everton Football Club. Your are invited to write an admiring sonnet to any well-known team or...

Christmas glory for you Auberon Waugh hristmas is a time when we are supposed to think about the poor, so after long and careful thought I have decided to include a cheapie in...

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HAVING lived in London all my life, I regard the country as a place where you wear Wellingtons and go for walks or wear socks and sit by the fire. So I felt it inappropriate, to...

concise and handsomely bound in soft, navy blue leather, it offers all the facts, figures and numbers that are absolutely essential. Listings of top wine merchants by Auberon...