Not being done Sir: John Wells's delightful parodies of the idiotic waffling of young music critics are always amusing. 'Not being done,' about the music of John Cage (25...

After the Budget Sir: I read with much interest your survey After the Budget' (25 April). The contribution by Charles Villiers suffers from a fatal blemish. He says, 'Mr...

Sir: While there may be 'small crumbs of comfort' for a few by the removal of selective employment tax from certain branches of the processing and reclamation industries. the...

The book of Enoch Sir: I would like to question Mr Brittan's statement, in his review of Enoch Powell's book, that 'it is difficult to accept the sincerity of the professed...

Sweet girl graduates Sir: Mr R. G. Wood (Letters, 25 April) eloquently misses the point of my argument, and then launches into Lesson Three of 'The Polemic's Primer' with some...

Machiavelli in the doghouse Sir: Whatever the merits or demerits of Mr Sidney Anglo's work on Machiavelli (which I have not yet read), I think it at least unfortunate that...

General in the wings ISRAEL RONALD CHOLODNY Jerusalem-The news of almost daily deaths along the Suez Canal front have produced in Israel for the greater part a mood of grim...

Lloyd George knew her father LETTERS From G. Acton, Quiuinz Hogg MP. Archibald Robertson-Glasgow, Tibor Szamuely, Robin Horton, Paul de Hevesy, Stephen Garviin, Hugh Cudlipp,...

Sir: Mr Waugh's genius for inaccuracy con- tinues to baffle me. He writes 'those parts of his [i.e. the speaker he wittily refers to as "Big Breadwinner Hogg"] speech which...

A spectator's protest Sir: In his 'Personal Column' (25 April), the ever-amiable Mr Simon Raven has been a thought too genial. The progressives arc not unread nor, within the...

The rules of the game Sir: Mr R. A. F. Howroyd (letters, 25 April) has produced the interesting information that torture was used in Russia in the eighteenth century to obtain...

The whole Hog Sir: Many of your readers must have shared my astonishment at Mr Melvin J. Lasky's unseemly approbation of the violence and vandalism exhibited by football fans....

One tongue, one state Sir: Perhaps I may answer the question with which Mr Kuldip Nayar ends his discerning article (25 April). As he so justly says, relations between the...

When is a nation not a nation? Sir: Sir Denis Brogan (18 April) has tried very hard to stun me with a ponderous display of crudition. So far as I can see, however, neither he...

Sun and Gale Sir: In his column (2 May) Mr Bill Grundy wrote: 'Hugh Cudlipp, chairman of the International Publishing Corporation, said that there had been informal talks about...

Finance Bill blues MONEY NICHOLAS DAVENPORT 'Another stinker' was the rude remark made to me by an angry young solicitor about the new Finance Bill. Since Labour came into...

Fringe banking NEW ISSUE JOHN BULL Details of a particularly interesting new issue have been advertised this week. I refer to London and County Securities. the commercial...

Market report CUSTOS A quiet week in Throgmorton Street has been marked by the stirring of old bones in the giltedged market. At the end of the last account it was observed...

Static Societ : The Paradox of Latin America Latinos all BRIAN CROZIER John Mander (Gollancz 55s) It may be fitting to declare an intcrest. About six months before John...

Ferdinand Christian Baur on the Writing of I Church Ilisiory Shorter notice I edited and translated by Peter . . - . I -C C. Hodgson (ouP 68s). It is at the level ot W. S....

7 hit, Operas of Puccini Butterfly music CHARLES REID Williaim Ashbrook I'uccini's remains one of the oddest stories of the century. His big tunes and 'strokes of theatre'...

Bricks with straws THE PRESS BILL GRUNDY I think it was Bertrand Russell-well, to be perfectly honest, I know it was Bertrand Russell--who said that if all the experts are in...

Up in the air TELEVISION STUART HOOD Last Sunday there was on BBC I a pleasing juxtaposition of programmes which was not merely a happy accident, such as now and then...

A hundred years ago Fromh iMic 'Spectator,' 8 May /869-Mr. Gladstone made a frightful blunder on Monday. He actually proposed that Members should forgo a week of their...

This way madness MUSIC MICHAEL NYMAN 'Music Theatre is a vogue term which makes of the composer not merely a manipulator of sounds and forms but of action, gesture....

English phlegm ART BRYAN ROBERTSON This week has seen the arrival in London and subsequent departure, after a loaded itinerary, of the International Council of the Museum of...

Et in Academe ego AFTERTHOUGHT ARTHUR BARTON Thirty-five years ago I became a student, in fancy at least, if not immediately in fact. One summer morning a small shrewd...

Ilis TOY His Dream IHis Rest Bones dreams on MARTIN SEYMOUR-SMITH John B&rryman (Faber 50s) It seems extraordinary that Dudley Fitts found in John Berrymnan's early poems...

Footnote This week Mr Michael Foot chose to repeat in the House of Commons his earlier allegations against the SPECTATOR, the New Statesman and the Daily Express. According to...

The- not-so-bonny Clyde Most of the pi escmt Go ernnlent's troubles are of its own devising. The crisis which erupted this week over the financing of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders...

Spouse traps THE LAW R. A. CLINE The following dialogue recently occurred between a world-wcary lawyer and an intending bride. The bridegroom was not present. ww-t Your...

The Rules of Chaos Al is flux SIMON RAVEN Stephen Vizinczey (Mac- millan 30s) Stephen Vizinczey was driving with chums to catch the car-ferry at Dover, when their motor flew...

The As.sassinafion of Winston CIurchill Poison ivy LORD CHANDOS Carlos Thompson (Colin SSmythe 63s) I first met the author. Carlos Thompson, nearly a year after the bhoaid...

The whiting's eye ARTS HILARY SPURLING If Congreve has an affinity-whether in turn of phrase, habit of mind or in formal and technical treatment-with one writer over another,...

Hell in the Pacific CINEMA Unpacific island PENELOPE HOUSTON (Metropolc, 'U') Up Tight (Plaza, X') If lie Hollers Let Him Go (New Victoria, 'X') John Boorman's Point Blank,...

SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK J. W. M. THOMPSON We would all benefit if there were more people I!'le Sir Osbert Sitwell. There was something Splendid, I have always thought, in the way...

The expendability of Harold y/ou regard Harold as expendable?" Cl'Prossman. 'Yes, and: you too," Bevan jed.' Thus, according to Hugh Dalton, utin Bevan's S attitude to Messrs...

Nor Any Country NEW NOVELS Private lives MAURICE CAPITANCHIK Garth St Omer (Faber 21s) Dear Parson Derwent May (Chatto and Windus 30s) The Coffer Dams Kamala Markandaya...

Hill horses JOHN HOLLOWAY Undulant with smoother motion Through their watery manes and tails Run the hill horses of Wales Than white horses down the ocean; Airy, then, or...

True brew CONSUMING INTEREST LESLIE ADRIAN About a hundred and fifty years ago, a Select Committee of the House of Commons discovered that half the public houses in London,...

Over the Border CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS Good Unionists all understand Rebellious threats to law and order Are quite invariably planned The other side the Border. And history shows...

De Gaulle Exceptional artist JOHN GRIGG Aidan Crawley (Collins 60s) Not, perhaps, since Moses has a great nation owed so much to a single man as the French owe to Charles de...

The hand that rocks the boat . .. GERMANY MALCOLM RUTHERFORD Bonn- West Germans tend to believe that Britain will stop at nothing in its campaign to achieve the revaluation...

Life behind the battle BIAFRA PAUL CONNETT When I went to Biafra last month I expected to be surrounded with death, but when I arrived there I was surrounded with life. For...

After the amnesty NORTHERN IRELAND MARTIN WALLACE Martin Wallace is political editor of the 'Belfast Telegraph.' Belfast-For the moment, the Unionist parliamentary party is...

The case for a referendum PERSONAL COLUMN ROBERT SKIDELSKY In common with most referenda, the final one which sent de Gaulle toppling has been widely considered to have been...

Pastor resartus TABLE TALK DENIS BROGAN It has been a week too full of news. But far too little attention has been paid to a very ominous sign of the times. The Pope has...

I The Parade's Gone By Kevin Cottage industry PENELOPE HOUSTON Brownlow (Secker and Warburg I lOs) A routine expression like labour of love won't do for Kevin Brownlow's The...

False teeth and strange spectacles POLITICAL COMMENTARY AUBERON WAUGH The timing of Mr Crossman's announcement on the price of spectacles and false teeth will at least give...