'No, we're not the Poles you're meant to be taxing.' T hree British servicemen were killed in IRA car bomb and shooting attacks in Holland; three others were badly injured. The...

The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WC1N 2LL Telephone 01-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 242 0603 RACIAL RAGE T o be despised or spurned on account of one's origins is a...

Year by the Periodical Publishers Association. Ambrose Evans- Pritchard was shortlisted as writer of the year. The Spectator was shortlisted for consumer publication of the year...

Is local politics too unimportant to be left to the politicians? NOEL MALCOLM One school of thought pretends that local elections offer a sort of national mega-opinion poll,...

CHARLES MOORE the end of March there had been 4,689 reported cases of Aids here (the first was reported in July 1981). There have been 2,831 deaths and over 90 per cent of...

week.

Children with cancer have a much better chance leaves their families with greater uncertainty EVERY day in Britain a familiar scene takes place in a rather clean room scattered...

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on the candidate who thinks reason can prevent wars Washington THERE are hawks, doves and owls. Hawks blame appeasement, doves blame Provocation, but...

Raymond Lark on the Romanian dictator who is destroying the capital and national prosperity Bucharest THE absence of snow has meant ceaseless toil for the gangs of labourers...

'Has . . . [the poll-tax rebellion] brought a new corps of Tory MPs into conflict with the Government or has it merely provided a new opportunity for a core of regular rebels?...

Roy Kerridge discovers a new kind of prejudice in the American South LITTLE did the Southern gentlemen who once owned mansions bursting with im- ported art treasures think it,...

Margaret's men: a profile of Denis Thatcher, head of the household at No. 10 This is the last in a series of profiles of men the Prime Minister admires. AN impeccably...

THE Circular of the Roman Congrega- tion of the Propaganda on the subject of the 'Plan of Campaign' and Boycotting, signed by Cardinal Monaco, and dated April 20th last, has...

Become a subscriber to The Spectator and save 212 a year on the regular UK newsstand prie - that's 76p a week, or less than 71p if you take out a three year subscription. We'll...

who linked Mrs Thatcher with the Highland clearances A FEW weeks ago, in the saloon of the Hotel Emperador in Madrid, Derek Jar- man, leaning in a mock-confidential man- ner...

Needed: new tests for takeovers competition is not enough CHRISTOPHER FILDES W e need a new law to govern the takeovers of British companies. The pre- sent law is effectively...

When bad news would be good news JOCK BRUCE-GARDYNE T he question of what level, within a wide range,' Mr Lawson told the MPs of the Treasury Committee when he last appeared...

Sir: In his review of Cardus on Music: A Centenary Collection (9 April) Rupert Christiansen, writing about the tradition of prose of the Manchester Guardian, men- tions that it...

Sir: I hope I may be forgiven for returning to the subject of bank lending overseas, so amusingly dealt with by your correspon- dent Christopher Fildes (City and sub- urban, 25...

Sir: Mr Dominic Lawson wrote an interest- ing article 'Where there's muck' (9 April). It is a pity that he cancelled at short notice his acceptance of my invitation to come to...

Sir: Charles Glass (Diary, 23 April) cor- rectly noted the unusual phenomenon of most people's likelihood of selecting an odd number less than ten, rather than an even number....

Sir: Auberon Waugh's exposition of the parable of the sheep and goats (Matthew xxv, 31-46) in his predictable critique of Archbishop Derek Worlock's political and theological...

SUBSCRIBE TODAY — Save 15% on the Cover Price! RATES 12 Months 6 Months UK 0 £45.00 0 £23.00 Europe (airmail) 0 £55.00 0 £28.00 USA Airspeed 0 US $90 0 US$45 Rest of...

GARRY O'CONNOR 'WHERE do you live?' 'In the Boulevard Henri IV. In a chambre de bonne.' 'How many flights up?' 'Eight!' Both of them winced. 'It's not so bad once you reach...

Countries own god Ferdinand Mount GOD LAND: REFLECTIONS ON RELIGION AND NATIONALISM by Conor Cruise O'Brien I . first set eyes on Conor Cruise O'Brien in the flesh at a party...

I heard a locker-room debate On executions by the State. In the affirmative stood Jon In socks and shorts. With nothing on, Robert, a French-Canadian Without a vote, it was,...

Patrick Garland GIELGUD W hen he was asked by a green and callow director to button-hole the audience during the headmaster's speech in early rehearsals of Forty Years On...

Roy Jenkins THE TROUBLED FACE OF BIOGRAPHY edited by Eric Homberger and John Charmley Macmillan Press, £27.50, £8.95, pp. 140 I was recently involved in the discussion of a...

Karan Thapar FROM RAJ TO RAJIV: 40 YEARS OF INDIAN INDEPENDENCE by Mark Tully and Zareer Masani BBC Books, £10.95, pp. 174 0 f all the products spawned by last Year's 40th...

Philip Glazebrook THE MISSIONARIES by Norman Lewis Secker, £10.95, pp.244 E dward Grey noted with dismay that to discover and watch a bird's nest, with whatever precautions...

Become a subscriber to The Spectator and save 22 a year on the regular UK newsstand pride — that's 76p a week, or less than 71p if you take out a three year subscription....

Mary Lefkowitz HESIOD: THEOGONY, WORKS AND DAYS translated by M. L. West OUP, £17.50, £2.50, pp. 104 T he ancient Greeks did not learn about their gods from an authorised...

Peter Levi THE POLITICS OF PARADISE P resented with an dlite, one often wants to join in, but that of Hampstead left-wing intellectuals and that of the House of Commons, of...

Exhibitions 1 Himself when young Giles Auty Cezanne: the Early Years 1859-1872 (Royal Academy, till 21 August) B ecause recent travels have shot me from the unseasonal cold...

Faust Part II (Lyric) Ziegfeld (London Palladium) Collector's items Christopher Edwards ow that I have seen both parts of this splendidly ambitious enterprise (Part I was...

Handel's well Peter Phillips I f anyone asks me again why I am about to give up teaching in any of the nation's higher colleges of musical education I shall quote to them at...

The Knot Garden (Covent Garden) Tippettian therapy Rodney Milnes F ew contemporary works have enjoyed so star-blessed a peformance history as Tippett's third opera. Peter...

Under Satan's Sun (`15', Premiere Swiss Centre) Wall Street ('15', Odeon Leicester Square) Greed works Hilary Mantel h ere's a nice balance between God and Mammon in the...

Armada (National Maritime Museum, till 4 September) D-day 1588 John Keegan T he exhibition staged at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, to com- memorate the 400th...

At the barricades Taki I wish to say a few words about 7 May 1968, a day that saw the Parisian jet-set turn revolutionary, if only for a night. The night came to mind first...

Master builder Chris Hellier V isitors to the British Museum until 30 May can see a selection of resplendent works from the reign of Sultan SiHeyman the Magnificent, the most...

Country ramble Jeffrey Bernard I would like to be walking through a wood carpeted with bluebells and listening to a cuckoo at this very moment. As it is I am stuck here in the...

Murder most tasteful Alice Thomas Ellis The film was Ryan's Daughter and it did not hold my attention. This may be why I didn't understand it; also I was simul - taneously...

.0 ) 101 Lik • A ANOTHER grey, gloomy May-day Bank Holiday has gone by; I wish they would stop it or move it to a more cheerful moment. However, on the joyous side I have...

Karpov's brain Raymond Keene A natoly Karpov, so the experts said, won the Brussels World Cup (and with it $20,000) in the style of his best years. That is true, but there is...

To enable competitors to economise on postage, entries for one or more weeks of the Competition and Crossword may be posted together under one cover addressed 'Competition...

Plinth-filler Jaspistos I n Competition No. 1521 you were asked to supply verses to accompany a sculptured figure of your choice on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square....

There are some famous lists in poems (the Cambridgeshire villages and their charac- teristics in Brooke's `Grantchester', for instance). A similar list poem', please (maximum 16...

A first prize of £20 and two further prizes of £10 (or, for UK solvers, a copy of Chambers Dictionary, value £13.95 — ring the words 'Chambers Dictionary' above) for the...

I° C H r7 E C 1.1 , L . U3XIW 11:I • STLERIYETAL ICA JIMITILEIECUR I T.PPUY i t $ COR U BUN RF C 2 P1I H ILVN T R S 0 N I a T i t I EC E E 10 2 11 . 1 A . LNI A110 2 E 2 11 R...