THE SPEGIA-O The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL Telephone: 071-405 1706; Telex 27124; Fax 071-242 0603 SILENCE IN COURT The Criminal Justice Act, which has its...

P O L I T I C S A last call for volunteers for the new Milk Street Mafia SIMON IIEFFER I am surrounded by other columInIlists wilfully invading my territory and telling you...

Pay As You Like THOSE B3ROWN eInvClopCs ought to Contain a check-list. (If 1 nerved nmyscl to opCn them I might find that they did.) 'Mark the following projects', it would...

Churchill's Law C(HURCHILL WAS thc Chanccllor candid Cenoulggh to cxplain why Tax Frcccloi D)ay gets later and latcr: "Ilic truth is - and I speak with thc advantagc of a...

CITY AND SUBURBAN_ A taxpayer writes: Dear Inland Revenue, why don't you spend it on me? CH RI STO P I-i ER FI LD ES M\4y ncw yca rs malilhbg got of'' to, , mixed start,...

Wodehouse was right Thc Treasury hates the whole idea of' taxpayers picking and choosilng. 1lax, it believes, ought to go into 0oe big pot. Whose hand on thc ladle? I recall a...

Chorus line Sir: Andrcy Vysokowsky (Letters, 11 December) is a lad un1fair to William Cash when lie accuscs him of spouLitng drivel. Even Mr Vysokowsky's cncyclopacdic...

Fildes solemnised Sir: A scrap of paper was fouind in tle hack of ai taIxi bear-ing these lines. I thouLIght your readers might be interested. FHldcs nOW Or(Cdered, SOOn...

LE TTERS First-footing Sir: In his review of the past 12 months, Aubelrcon Waugh ('111C yearl of hallm1rIlgCe gases', 18/25 Dcccmber) wrote that, in February, "I'hC Ramblcrs'...

Death by handsaw Sir: Tar Bab /y may have been the only novel by loni MorrisonI that .Jan1les BLucIhanII faileCd to finish (B3ooks, I Jan1ua1L-y) but his hollow, reductive...

The black diamond of pessimism. Stephen Logan --- ---- _-- . . . . -.- .... B3ECKE'IT-S L)YING WORDS by Christopher Ricks (CIarc'uid on, Li 7.50, pp. 218 B eckett is widcyv...

Watching spies and shooting birds Michael Davie PASTORAL SYMPHONY by Chapman Pincher Swan Hill Press, 116.95,pp. 254 C haP1;pman Pinchcr, X( ncxt ycar, is an1 old-fashioned...

They had a farm in Africa Simon Courtauld THE RHODORA LETTERS by Rosemary Seys The Book Guild, 25 High Street, Lewes, Sussex, £14.95, p). 330 R osemary and Tony Seys were...

Two views of London Mark Girouard THE SELLING OF MARY DAVIES, AND OTHER WRITINGS by Simon Jenkins Jo/in Murray, £17. 99, pp. 180 THE FABER BOOK OF LONDON edited by A.N....

Safe stuff from the podium Fiona Maddocks SIR JOHN PRITCHARD: HIS LIFE IN MUSIC by Helen Conway Deutsch, f20, 1)p. 4.35 ,A s a genre, books on great conductors tend to be...

Theatre You Can't Take It With You (King's Head) Wildest Dreams (Barbican Pit) Aspects of Love (Prince of Wales) HartWarming Sheridan Morley .A t the King's Head, a joyous...

Pop music New Year's resurrection Marcus Berkmann M uch merriment has greeted the belated comeback of' Meatloaf, the lunchloving rock bawler whose Bat Oul OJ'Hell II...

High life Baba and the black sheep Taki D (;Gslaad espite the best snowfall in years, as vvell as an ouItstandingly debauched New Year's Eve party, 1994 fills me with...

Long life Off the handle Nigel Nicolson T ie event that most excited me as a child was Charles Lindberglh's transAtlantic flight in 1927. He was only 25, winsomely handsome...

llkl fll l11 1111l-11fllil , I T A -~~~~~ ii. ~4~'A~ \\'X",& KN..e, - .1 w- I I i~ I - '' I" -s - "- iIam Les Saveurs _ - m THE FLASHING red light in the window offering...

SPECTATOR SPORT Raising the Cup Frank Keating THERE MUST be hundreds of thousands of them decorating the world's trophy cabinets, but you just have to say 'the Cup' and...