lain Macleod used to speak of the 'nanny state'. There could be no better illustration of what he meant by the phrase than the measure passed by the House of Commons last...

Alexander Solzhenitsyn appeared on television to declare that the West was on the 'verge of collapse'. Under the influence of this intoxicating rhetoric, Lord GeorgeBrown stood...

Tories and the unions Patrick Cosgrave In considering the Conservative Party's latest opening to the trade unions one old rule should be remembered—that nothing is party...

It is poignant and ironic that Alexander olzhenitsyn's powerful warning of a sudden and imminent fall' of the West should have led so instantly and directly to the collapse of...

Free Albert Thorogood Auberon Waugh Ladies I meet in London sometimes say What a convenient thing it must be for ine to have as many opportunities for airing my social...

Michael Ledeen Rome Scandals are nothing new to Italy, but Italians have clearly been shaken by the source of the latest accusations to rock their political world. The members...

Richard West Nostalgia stabbed at me as I read the news item that South Vietnam is hoping for 10,000 foreign tourists this year and that Saigon itself is the main tourist...

Patrick Marnham The press has unaccountably overlooked the news about Jim Baatright, the American basketball professional. Baatright is now allowed to play for Makabi of Tel...

Henry Fairlie Washington Ho! Hum! Here we go again! Another American presidential election! And immediately the blood begins to race in one's veins. Every four years, as the...

Peter Hebblethwaite Libya is a country which has a vast territory, a small population (2,700,000) and considerable wealth from carefully husbanded oil. It is also blessed with...

Jim Higgins I must confess that I like Glasgow. I like the place despite its blackened air of unkempt squalor and despite the fact, according to my own subjective internal...

Neil Sinclair Geoffrey Woolley is a gentle, self-effacing bachelor in his fifties who receives as many as 500 letters a day from strangers. He must also be among the most...

Denis Wood The Tree Council was formed two years ago to focus attention on the importance of trees in both town and country and to remind local authorities, and indeed all of...

Ethic of the mixed economy Nicholas Davenport The good-natured television interview between Robin Day and the Chancellor was a delight to watch. Every time Robin Day carefully...

Sir: The reasons for the churches' approval of Marxist regimes may be many but the most obvious one is fear. Fear on the part of church leaders in the countries concerned that...

Sir: Please allow me some space to comment on the issues raised by your contributor Richard West (February 21). He has exaggerated in his criticism of Bernard Levin's article in...

Sir: Mr Lockhart's article on the decline in modern language study mentions the lack of good language teachers as a main contributor to this sad state of affairs. Although lack...

the microscope It behoves everybody to pay attention to the outcome. Dilettante extremists argue that all examinations are superfluous and should be abolished. In that case how...

Sir: I hope that Professor Kedourie will forgive me if I say that in unravelling the Anglo-Arab labyrinth, he reminded me of a highly skilled dentist whose drill probes through...

Sir: I was interested, as I hope were many of your readers, in Norman St JohnStevas's article about petitions in your edition of 28 February. What you, and perhaps they, do not...

Here perhaps is a means, by which we can secure not only better government, but also better PO finances—for surely government would pay the Post Office for the work done! Roger...

Sir: As a regular subscriber to The Spectator, I must express my disappointment with the tenor of your editorial—'Rhodesian opportunity'—in your issue of 21 February. In...

In the junk yards Philip Mason The Opium War Brian Inglis (Hodder and Stoughton £5.25) '"A child? I always thought they were fabulous monsters," said the Unicorn. "Is it...

John Julius Norwich The Norman Fate David Douglas (Eyre Methuen £11.25) The Normans and their Myths R. H. C. Davis (Thames and Hudson £3.25) The Norman Age A. F. Scott (White...

Patrick Cosg rave It is hard to explain, not just the power, but the attraction, of Jacqueline Wilson's crime novels, the fourth of which, Let's Pretend, has just come from...

Duncan Fallowell Wilt Tom Sharp (Secker and Warburg £3.50) Wilfred and Eileen Jonathan Smith (Hutchinson £3.75) Listen, don't anyone fall off their breakfast bar stool or...

Benny Green Paxton's Palace Anthony Bird (Cassell £4.50) In the early evening of November 30, 1936, I was fooling around in the gutters behind Euston Road with a couple of...

H. J. Eysenck Life—The Unfinished Experiment S. E. Luria (Souvenir Press 0.50) The author of this book is a Professor of Biology and Director of the Centre for Cancer Research...

Alan Brien The Lucan Mystery Norman Lucas (W. H. Allen E3.50) We Lucan-spotters, a devoted if dwindling corps, will pick up The Lucan Mystery with some hopes that it might...

Angela Huth The Trial of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh Roger Manvell (Elek/ Pemberton £5.95) Just ninety-nine years before the Linda Lovelace trial re-tickled the British...

Alan Montefiore Reflections on Language Noam Chomsky (Temple Smith £5.00) Even allowing for his own extraordinary standards of productivity, this must surely (for the present...

Peter Washington Primal Vision. Selected Writings Gottfried Benn (Marion Boyars £6.50) Man is the animal who questions his own existence; that is the proposition to which...

Peter Ackroyd At a time when frenzied letters are being written to the Times about the state of contemporary art criticism, it is as well to remember that there are far more...

Duds' army in the bin Kenneth Robinson One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Director: Milos Forman Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield. 'X' Odeon, Leicester...

Second look Kenneth Hurren Otherwise Engaged by Simon Gray (Queen's Theatre, London) The 'Hits Revisited' caper is a well-known stand-by of theatre reviewers in those weeks...

Giving voice John Bridcut Brilliant though they may be, it is not by the professionals that the musicality of a nation is judged; the decisive factor is the amount of music in...

Ring time Rodney Milnes The English National Opera has just given three Ring cycles in London and is about to perform four more on tour—in Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester and...

Sporting types Jeffrey Bernard On Saturday afternoons my gambling becomes compulsive. During the week I kid myself that my hours spent in betting shops have something to do...