Shortly after the election of Mr Wilson's Government last February, the Foreign Secretary, who was at that time far more hostile to the European Economic Community than he is...

All the indications now are that the Government has under-estimated unemployment trends; and that the figure of unemployed in the normal official statistics will be at least one...

The Dublin government is to be congratulated on its steadfast refusal in any fashion to give way to pressure from the IRA to relieve the self-imposed suffering of the terrorist...

Sir "If the people endorse the verdict of ... the mandarins of Europeanism I, for one, will accept their verdict' says Mr Patrick Cosgrave (February 1). I do not agree that this...

Sir: It is difficult to follow current reasoning from on high that the British Public cannot be expected (or trusted!) to take part in a referendum, as the subject of membership...

honest charlady and 50 million good simple People like her". Just let us suppose for a moment that this country had been guided through the last twenty years by a Parliament of...

of his leadership Mr Heath is bemoaning the "constitutional innovation" of the referendum. It is an innovation which arises as a direct consequence of the ruthless trampling...

(with apologies to Lewis Carroll) Peggy-top and Teddy-bear Agreed to have a battle; For Peggy-top said Teddy-bear Had spoilt her Tory rattle. The ethics of the grocer She said...

debate to be raised, he can make a contribution himself by eschewing such personally abusive remarks as "the bloated figure of Sir Christopher Soames." M. J. Dowsett 69...

Sir: Before the last election I ventured to express the opinion in a letter which you published, that the Conservatives would not be returned to power under the leadership of Mr...

Sir: The first paragraph of Mr Roger Stacey's letter (January 25) strikes the note of inaccuracy which pervades his entire letter. I refer to his sarcastic reference to his...

on the Journal of Palestine Studies, but I must object to his appallingly inaccurate statement that the Journal publishes 'anti-semitic material.' The Journal, which has several...

Sir: It is interesting that Dr John Linklater should confirm that what children learn at an early age they come to regard as normal. Writing in the Observer Magazine, Miss...

Sir: In reply to Miss J. J. Empson's letter (February 1): as one who has been brought up a catholic, I find it disturbing that three Roman Catholic Bishops have attended the...

were burnt at the stake partly because they denied the theory of transubstantiation a capital offence under both Henry VIII arid Mary. The Church of England still denies this...

Sir: 1 am afraid there is one point in Mr O'Brien's story about the Archbishop Of Canterbury in his 'Personal Column (February 1) that does not ring quite true, i.e. when...

From Sir Victor Raikes Sir: Madeleine Simms in her article ia your columns (February 1) makes It quite plain that she would favour abortion on demand. She claims that the right...

Sir: Being neither middle-aged nor male I cannot enlighten Mrs Simms on the reactions of middle-aged anti-abortion males who intrigue her. As a young female with children who...

film criticism. Waltzing around Peter Hall's Ahenfierd, he first recommends Mr Blythe's admirable book because it collates interviews With ordinary Suffolk people but then...

Sir: I do not know who 'Senior Officer' is, if in fact he really be one; but one thing is clear — that is, that one does not 'withdraw' one's own troops from one's own country...

Sir: Like other reviewers, Alan Brien finds it difficult to see Vassal! as 'a book meant to be read seriously.' Are not all difficulties solved by the hypothesis that it is a...

Sir: A biography of the late Patrick Duncan, a major figure in the recent political history of South Africa, is to be written by Mr C. J. Driver. Mr Driver has been appointed by...

Sir: Seldom can more inaccuracies have been written in so few lines as in your leader (January 18) under the headline 'Employment agencies'. Your publication is entitled to its...

The strange case of Mr Gilmour and Mr Powell (Part 1) Patrick Cosgrave Not too long ago, my colleague Tom Puzzle, discussing certain long and more or less impenetrable...

Notwithstanding the temporary lift in the stock market, it goes without saying that we are living through not only an unhealthy business period but a time of unpleasant...

Tuesday, January 28 Master Heath has declared this day that any change in the Tory leadership must assuredly require the full-hearted consent of the British people, which is to...

Trade fallacies An Industrialist Jilly Cooper did us all a great service by revealing in the Sunday Times the powerful thinking of our top man at Brussels. The following...

Kissinger, détente and the EEC Gerald Segal A series of questions, arising from recent Speeches of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger cry out to be asked — even though they...

Robert Sehuettinger The more conservative members of the Republican Party: like their counterparts in the British Tory Party, are becoming increasingly restless. Last year's...

Reginald Bevins The English malaise is not a wicked fairy story or an invention. It is a fact and we all know it. It relates to radically changing attitudes in Our daily...

Bishops and palaces Bernard Croft By moving into Bishopthorpe, the new Archbishop of York becomes one of only a very few diocesan,bishops left with Palace addresses in England...

Geoffrey Bocca A prototype caricature for British derision is the American tourist, with camera in form-fitting case doing the Grand Tour from "Stratford Upon Ayvon" to...

Beverley Nichols In March 1974, out of the blue, I had a haemorrhage, and was rushed to hospital for an exploratory operation. This revealed a deep-seated cancer, and two days...

Unconsidered trifles Bill Grundy I have never told anybody this before, but my middle name is Autolycus. I am, in other words, a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles. Which is...

Sugar baddy John Linklater The fact that sugar could cost the British public in the region of fifty pence a pound may not, after all, be such bad news, according to Surgeon...

Invulnerable knight Martin Sullivan I wrote something the other day about one aspect of St Paul's theology and I want now to add a note about the man himself. There are few...

The biggest spender . Philip Kleinman Quick, without thinking — who regularly spends the most money on advertising in Britain? It's not a trick question, and the answer Should...

J. P. Kenyon on Edward IV, a king who would not behave Edward IV's career was one of the most spectacular of any English king's. As the great-grandson of Edmund, Duke of York,...

G. R. Elton Change and Continuity in 17th Century England Christopher Hill (Weidenfeld and Nicolson £5.00) Dr Hill has collected twelve papers, lectures and reviews, written...

Christopher Hill God's Blueprints: A Sociological Study of Three Utopian Sects J. M. Whitworth (Routledge and Kegan Paul £7.50) Dr Whitworth defines a utopian sect as a...

Robert Blake Queen Charlotte Olwen Hedley (John Murray £6.00) Queen Charlotte is not among the more celebrated royal names in British history. A few . People may remember that...

A. L. Rowse Cases of Conscience. Alternatives Open to Recusants and Puritans under Elizabeth I and James I Elliot Rose (Cambridge University Press E7.00) Professor Rose has an...

Peter Ackroyd The Case Worker George Konrad translated by Paul Aston (Hutchinson £2.75) The Transformation George MacBeth (Gollancz £2.20) Ways of Loving Brendan Gill (Michael...

Graves of academe Benny Green The relentless academic pursuit of resolutely unacademic themes is one of those jokes subject to the law of diminishing returns. At first, with...

Bookend One guaranteed source of occasional merriment is the appearance of the Irish Censorship of Publications Board reports. In its latest list of banned books the Board has...

This rgport almost did not reach You. So many times. That, one gathers, is how things are done out here. From the very beginning, While Conrad Rooks's genderless epicenity was...

Corpse de ballet Kenneth Robinson Thieves Like Us Director: Robert Altman: Keith Carradine, John Shuck, Bert Remsen, Shelley Duvall 'AA' London Pavilion (125 minutes) The Mean...

Minority report Kenneth Hurren John Gabriel Borhman by Henrik Ibsen; National Theatre Company (Old Vic) Claw by Howard Barker (The Open Space) I am, in regard to John Gabriel...

English Rose Rodney Milnes Less than a fortnight after their successful Magic Flute, the amazingly resilient English National Opera has mounted an equally sound new...

It has occurred to my suspicious mind that a part, at least, of the present lofty campaign to relieve the arts of VAT may be a little less than frank. Waspe supposes it to be a...

Nicholas Davenport It is clear that I must have another bet with my colleague, Skinflint. I am prepared to bet him £5 (in depreciating paper) that if the referendu m vote goes...

Subsidies for equities Bernard Hollowood I am convinced that the British press is wasting millions of pounds annually by printing unwanted news. Nearly all our daily papers...

There is a sort of bitter irony n the Americans latching on to the sort of economic xenophobia launched in France by Jean-Jacques ServanSchreiber. And his book was, of course,...

Just three years ago — how distant it seerns now — I queried the motorway programme, especially the urban monsters. It had taken years of public clamour about the inadequacies...