In the distracted, divided, and uncertain state of the national mind at the moment one thing at least is clear: to state it involves accepting the normal charge made against...

From the Executive Director of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Sir: May we, through the courtesy of your columns, correct some misleading information...

Sir: In your issue of the September 21 your readers, under guise of a review of Professor Arthur J. Schlesinger Jr.'s book The Imperial Presidency, are treated to yet another...

Sir: The Maria Colwell case has haunted me for months. I am a trained nursery nurse and know the very difficult time a child who has been in my constant care from birth to five...

sibility in his article on the Maria Colwell case. But it is essential to correct one glaring error. Social workers are not underpaid: A qualified social worker in...

Sir: An afterthought: having just digested the content of the Conserva tive Party's manifesto, part of it prompts me to digress thus: The Tories' manifesto claims They'll not...

Sir: In 'Society Today,' Jane McLoughlin (Spectator, September 1 4 ) while rightly criticising the subsidy an milk on the ground that both it and its products are in short...

Sir: If the American liberal press had (according to Mr Al Capp, September 14)not hounded Mr Nixon he would not have been driven to his excesses. And if the German liberal press...

the field of sex education than all the great men of the past, would they not also be very good at the job of hastening blooming by opening rose buds with their fingers? J. A....

From the Editor of 'Child and Family' Sir: On returning from the World Population Conference, 1 had the good lOrtune to be sitting next to Dr John L inklater on the plane from...

S ir: I am always surprised, made to feel i nferior and riot a little frightened by !hose who are able to see complex issues al stark black and white. "As in all the recent...

S ir: A common mistake has been a Pearing more and more often in the Spectato r , e.g. B. Green (September 7) writes "Blitski and myself arranged • . David Welsh 16 .1 Tower...

From the Hon. Executive Secretary of the 7lent Society for International Develop 1 Professor Joan Robinson, reviewing °}1 0 White's book, The Politics of , a reigri Aid (The...

Sir: Mr Patrick Cosgrave (September 28), is far too modest. He himself is a much better writer than Mr Henry Fairlie and may well be The Spectator's greatest political columnist...

Sir: I regret to see your note (September 21) that the views of Mr Stephen Probyn, making the case against nationalisation of North Sea oil, are not those of The Spectator. They...

From the Creative Director of Orbis Publishing Limited Sir: You comments in the 'Bookend' column of the Spectator of September 14 have caused me considerable embarrassment. The...

From Mrs 0. Matthews Sir: The future which is shaping up promises to be more Carrollian than Orwellian. A shade of hyperbole could result in the following conversation....

The new Heath Patrick Cosgrave In London on Sunday afternoon Mr Heath, fighting the most unusual campaign of his strange career, sat, in his new, pullovered style, engaging,...

hear that Conservative headquarters is not ,anything like as happy as it might be at reports roin North of the Border that Sir Alec "unglas-Home, just retired, is fighting fit...

'Nixon's hurt the country far more than he's hurt me' Larry Adler In last week's issue, Alger Hiss talked to Larry Adler about Nixon's political career and his recent...

To win the battle, or the war George Gale This is a very odd general election indeed. I have met no politician, pollster or pundit — and in the past fortnight I have...

As I see it odowing is a random selection of comments on the election, mostly obtained by telephone. ;ue questions posed were (a) What is the main issue of this election? (b)...

To spendthrift Growth and bankrupt Envy prey, Brought thus to fare perfection of Decay, Britain attracts, as mouldy cheese does flies Chaos and Dulness to dispute this prize,...

Bill Grundy The Prime Minister is not mad al?out the press, although he is 2it_en mad at it. Those who have Heard him know that he can be Positively paranoiac on the subject....

The Spectator of 21st September 1979 contained an article by Bill Grundy which stated that Mr Martin Walker of the Guardian "opens too few files." The article went on to say...

Campaign policies Rhodes Boyson My experience of door-step politics in this election is that very many voters are disillusioned by all the major parties and are filled with...

Twice bitten John Linklater An emergency call to attend one of m y ru r al patients at the height of the last election campaign gave me a glimpse of the unexploited political...

A hot potato? Philio Kleinman Remarkably little attention has been paid during the present election ti5 the case of an advertisement which could have become a big campaign...

Preaching at Nazareth Martin Sullivan I have already pointed out in this column that the only place from which Christ was physically ejected was His Parish church, the local...

Michaelmas Denis Wood According to the Penguin Diction ary of Saints, the feast of St Michael and all Angels "originated in the annual commemoration of the dedication, before...

An editorial in these pages on October 1 1954, entitled 'In the Movement', a nnounced that - for years now there has b een no coherence in the literary scene, not even the...

Robert Blake Memoirs of a City Radical Nicholas Davenport (Weidenfeld and Nico1son £3.o0). Mr Nicholas Davenport needs no introduction to readers of the Spectator, for whom...

Leo Abse Wilkes Audrey Williamson (Allen and Unwia £4.95) The sexual problems of politicians, as this century knows to its sorrow, can 'become catastrophically enmeshed in...

Eysenck Darwin On Man, A Psychological Study Of Scientific Creativity Howard E. Gruber (WildWood House £.5.00) Creativity is getting to be big business in rnodern psychology;...

A man's world Denise Robins Harlequin Morris West (Collins £2.75) I must confess this new novel by Morris West both disappointed and interested me. I remember how completely...

Curioser and Cur loser Benny Green What a beautifully eccentric idea is a book c omposed entirely of footnotes; just as crazy in Its way as a novel requiring an index, but s...

Bookend Whatever differeaces there may be between publishers and the press corps, both factions are generally agreed on one point: the importance of retaining the review...

Amarcord Director: Federico. Fellini Stars: Magali Noel, Bruno Zanin, Puppela Maggio, Armando Brancia. 'X' Warner West End 3 and Curzon (123 minutes) Frankenstein: The True...

Canned dancing Robin Young There are times when I wonder whether it is a good thing being The Spectator's ballet critic. At the last general election, for example, when I was...

New reading John Bridcut Hoist The Planets LSO/Previn / Ambrosian Singers (HMV; ASD 3002) Sibelius Violin Concerto Fried/Belgium Radio SO/Defossez; Chausson Poerne...

Life with the stars Philip Bergson There is nothing like a film festival for restoring belief in the irrational and fantastic. The g audy gatherings of film-makers ,...

The dreaded Svoboda strikes again. The all-moving series of pitfalls the Czech master has designed in the way of a set for Covent Garden's new Ring production has proved too...

Nicholas Davenport It has always been my conviction that if Mr Harold Wilson were to be r eturned with a large majority the bottom would fall out of the stock markets. The...

Who cares? Reginald Bevins Not for the first time the gnomes of gloom and the devils of despair are on the rampage in Britain. Politicians, by some curious definition, are...

Panics and depressions are to be feared and need great resolve on the part of . the . central financial authorities if their effect is not to prevent recovery for several years....