“... was the only minister to oppose it, and did so because of its likely political unpopularity. That may be true, but the political argument for the Poll Tax is the only plausible one. Its aim is, by creating ‘ratepayers’ out of people who had hitherto paid no rates at all, to make the new ratepayers as resentful of local councils as ratepayers are supposed ...”

“... the cause of freedom and equality as they variously saw it. Still looking for patterns, we may notice that Walzer’s typical social critic is, to use an appropriately archaic and sexist term, a man of letters. That is to say, he (or in one case she) makes a living from some combination of journalism, non-fiction and novels that tend to be a ...”

“... ignored. Ecological consciousness filters into our thinking only slowly and patchily. Some comfort may be gained from the volume Future Earth. This is one of those superlatively produced and illustrated popular accounts of current science that are food and drink for the enquiring young. A dozen topics are considered here that would never have been included in ...”

“... virtues – personal modesty, public order, a sense of duty – preserved in the East. There may have been a bit of truth in that in the early Seventies – by the late Eighties it had all gone. According to a survey of workers’ morale, 36 per cent enjoyed ‘high job satisfaction’ in 1967, 24 per cent in 1987. In 1967, 42 per cent said they missed ...”

“... known, then this should be made clear. It would seem that country-house archives and other sources may yet yield good material for a more scholarly examination of such matters. So while the gardener and the cook in me found many points of interest, the historian found herself bristling with questions, almost all of which remained unanswered. How did the head ...”

“... been written by the inmate of a lunatic asylum. Why this alleged fact was found worthy of remark may not be immediately obvious to the outsider, but I suspect that the moral of the story was that the madman, though deranged, had, through the grace of God, never lost contact with the great truth that no account of the divine love will ever be definitive. And ...”

“... like critical legal studies and critical legal sociology. These movements scrutinise what may be called the cultural self-constitution of law. They attempt to trace exactly how the law goes about establishing its own splendid eminence. In so doing, they adopt an external perspective on the law, keenly aware of the outward mechanics of its ...”

“... three schools of thought on this issue, with much variation within them. One school, which we may call the nomothetic realists, holds that (ideal) psychology consists of an explanatory set of content-involving causal laws: psychology is just one more special science, but one in which intentional properties are the domain of interest, as factual and nomic ...”

“... neighbours and associates was so common as to be considered normal. In the light of this book, we may have to consider whether this is not also a part of the British way of life. According to the authors, Henry Kerby, a Tory MP, reported to MI5 on his fellow Parliamentarians. George Wigg, a Labour MP, told MI5 all he could find out about what was going on in ...”

“... regret to say that this Edenic oasis is no exception. (An incautious nine-iron shot, for instance, may loft one’s ball into the abutting refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila; a mishap which the well-liked professional, Mr ‘Sami’ Ibrahim, counts as an extra stroke.) Other unwelcome reminders are not wanting. The honours boards tell their own distressing ...”

“... of the natural landscape. The valley’s criminal fraternity, led by the psychopathic Clem, may be mindless hoodlums but they too have some of the glamour of outlaws recycling the wealth of the city. Conrad is hardest on his professional middle-class characters, living comfortably in their sterilised tower blocks but obsessed with the valley and its ...”

“... not describe why, for the most part, people read worthwhile books ...’ Robinson, one imagines, may have some explaining to do when he meets those whom, seven years ago, he induced to join him in the Open University tribute to Hill’s work. Someone who can write, straight-faced, of ‘worthwhile books’ obviously isn’t bidding to be the flavour of the ...”

“... suddenly confronted by a glamorous display of naval dash and efficiency – so that the audience may feel: ‘Ah, this is the real navy – or the Platonic idea of the navy.’ Was that scene, too, ‘a wart on a pretty face’, or a beauty-spot on a crone’s puckered brow? Zinnemann also had to contend with masterful Harry Cohn, the president of Columbia ...”

“... is often the best adjective he can find for a woman; it is a trait more often valued in dogs. He may despise the women who cross his path, but doesn’t refuse them. George Devine, who was such an influence on his career, would ‘pull on his pipe lingeringly at the sight of a pretty girl’; Osborne was also a pipe-man. Back in his Gay croft School days he ...”

“... or literature the man of letters did at least say straight out what he thought, however much he may have been conditioned to think it. He did not compel a work of art to understand, indeed to create, itself: he gave his own response to it, his own awareness of approval, curiosity or dislike, which he could justify only in part or not at all, since they came ...”