Daily Archives: December 1, 2019

The National Theatre of Scotland is to confront the country's slave trade past with two major new shows as part of its 2020 programme.

Theatre-goers will be led on a new guided tour of Glasgow which will see their mobile phones become "a window to meet the ghosts of the city's painful past and its effect on the present."

Immersive theatre project Ghosts, which will be staged next November, will see striking images exploring the city's "often unspoken history" projected onto the walls of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), to reflect how it was built as a home for tobacco and sugar merchant William Cunninghame.

A separate show will explore the little-known true story of Joseph Knight, an African man sold as a slave in Jamaica to a wealthy Scottish plantation owner, John Wedderburn, and brought back to work on his Perthshire estate.

The show will recall how Knight would go on to be the key figure in a landmark legal case which challenged his status as a slave in Scotland and paved the way for the abolition of slavery in Britain.

NTS unveiled plans for the two shows today in the wake of growing awareness and acknowledgement of Scotland's long and profitable links with the international slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Last year it emerged that Glasgow University had agreed to pay 20 million in reparations in recognition of the financial support it had received from people whose wealth was partly built on slavery.

The city council is also exploring proposals to create a slavery museum in Glasgow to reflect the role the slave trade had in its development, particularly the Merchant City, and its links to thoroughfares like Buchanan Street.

Glasgow-based actor, writer and director Adura Onashile, who is creating Ghosts for NTS, also been cast in the lead role of Medea for a revival of Liz Lochheads acclaimed adaptation of the classic Greek tragedy, which will be staged at next years Edinburgh International Festival.

Ghosts will use the latest augmented reality technology to tell the story of a young boy fleeing through the streets of 18th century Glasgow.

Onashile, who has spent about seven years researching Glasgow's slave trade past, said: "I really want to say something about the scale of it and how many lives were affected, which often gets forgotten about. People don't have any idea of how much the city prospered from slavery.

"We want to treat Glasgow as a character that is nudging its inhabitants to remember something they would rather ignore. There is a sense that because it was such a fundamental part of Glasgow's history the fact we don't know enough about it can't be be doing us any favours or the city any favours."

"People will be able to download an augmented reality app on their mobile which will allow them to follow a young boy through the Merchant City as he hides in various spaces and tries not to be found.

"When you point your phone at certain locations your phone will become animated and at other locations you will walk through a doorway to step into a complete world to hopefully look at the idea of excavating some locations.

"As we find out about his history we also find out also about the city's history. But we also want to move it from being a historical guide to Glasgow to bring it right to date and look at where the money trail from slavery ended up today.

"The walk will talk an hour and there will also be a 15-minute show projected onto the walls of GOMA, which will hopefully be pretty spectacular and will be able to be seen by people who are just walking through the Merchant City.

"In my mind, Glasgow will feel like a completely different city once you have finished the journey and the audience we will also feel different themselves. It will hopefully be the classic thing of 'once you see it you cannot unsee it."

Pitlochry Festival Theatre is hosting the premiere of Enough of Him, Edinburgh-born writer May Sumbwanyambe's play about the complex relationships between Joseph Knight, John Wedderburn and his wife, and Annie Thompson, their servant that Knight fell in love with and married.

NTS has billed Enough of Him, which will tour to Perth Theatre and the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh next autumn, as a "compelling domestic drama focusing on the power dynamics at play between slaves and free men, servants and masters, and husbands and wives."

The play, which is is being brought to the stage by NTS after a radio play based on Knight's story by Sumbwanyambe was broadcast on Radio 4 last year, will have clear echoes with the debates around Brexit, according to the writer.

Sumbwanyambe said: "There is a real indictment about not knowing our own history in Scotland - it's really because we've not been taught it at all.

"But there is a big push in the academic world at the moment to shake Scotland out of its amnesia.

"I've always been fascinating by the history of black people in Scotland but when I started working on this project it actually shocked me how little I knew about the story of Joseph Knight.

"There is actually a myth that black people have only been part of this country for a short very short of period time.

"The only way we can contend with that in the arts and make a contribution that is really relevant and impactful is actually find these black people, who had significant lives and played a significant role in the culture and development of society, and write plays about them.

"The really fascinating thing when I discovered during my research is that when Joseph Knight was fighting for his freedom there were arguments being made that Scotland would be inundated with immigrants who would come here and pollute the country's genetics.

"There really is something about the way history repeats itself if we don't know our own history."

Other highlights of the NTS programme include an adaptation of An Enemy of the People, the 19th century play by Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen, by award-winning Glasgow playwright Kieran Hurley.

The Enemy will relocate Ibsen's story to a "once great Scottish town," will explore what happens when a dangerous secret emerges over a major new development which promise to transform the local community's fortunes. The show, which will star Gabriel Quigley, will go on tour to Lanark, Clydebank, Darvel, Dunoon, and Dumfries.

Maverick theatre-maker Rob Drummond's next Edinburgh Festival Fringe show - Who Killed Katie? - will explore the growing public fascination for true crime stories by asking the audience to deliver their verdict on a gruesome case.

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National Theatre to tackle Scotland's slave trade history as 2020 programme is revealed - The Scotsman

In old money this constituency is mostly central and south Co Armagh which slices into Newry as far as the old boundary on the Clanrye river as it heads for Carlingford Lough but it leaves most of the more Protestant/Unionist northern part of the historic county within neighbouring Upper Bann.

The population is younger than most other constituencies, which comes with a large housing need amongst that lower aged cohort. Even so theres been a massive expansion of house building the area to the west of Newry which is creating a light conurbation that stretches almost as far Crossmaglen.

The economy has been transformed through focused community initiatives like Work In Newry (WIN) by exploiting the European Single Market Act after the abolition of lengthy customs stops from 1992 and the IRAs ceasefire which that ended its economic war just two years later.

The net effect of splitting the old county constituency up has been to create a stable nationalist majority, with Sinn Fin regularly holding three Assembly seats since the 2007 election. On the nationalist side, the SDLP has struggled badly ever since Seamus Mallon stepped back in 2005.

After that election, Conor Murphy put his definitive stamp on the post. For a time he was MP, MLA and Minister for Regional Development, from which one of the most tangible products was brining Newry one of the most slick and modern railway stations in Northern Ireland.

However, the stations continued disconnection from the Belfast suburban line means that whilenine trains leave Portadown and arrive in Belfast city centre at or before 9.30 am only one leaves Newry in time. The new Belfast Regional City Deal is being driven locally by the council, not the Assembly.

After double jobbing legislation came Murphy stepped down and the personable and well-liked Mickey Brady stepped in for the 2015 election, easily holding Murphys vote total. Despite being low profile compared with Murphy, in 2017 he boosted his percentage by a handy 6.8%.

His main advantage is that there is no obvious challenger. Because the Catholic/Protestant split is roughly 70/30, the only likely long term change lies almost entirely within the nationalist camp. Last time out, however, local sitting SDLP MLA Justin McNulty ceded further ground to the Sinn Fin man.

This time they are running a young, gay councillor from Crossmaglen Pete Byrne who won a council seat on Newry, Mourne and Down District Council in May. This will be a test, not so much to see if hes a future MP, so much as to whether he has potential as a second assembly candidate.

Local MLA William Irwin easily should top the Unionist poll for the DUP after he completely took the wind out of Sam Nicholson (UUP)s sails in 2017, with Jackie Coade (Alliance) and Martin Kelly (Aont) bringing up the rear from a long way back

Likely winner: Mickey Brady. Everyone else is approximately nowhere.

Westminster Bridge, London by Arran Bee is licensed under CC BY

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

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#GE2019 profile: Newry and Armagh has a young growing population, but is politically stagnant - Slugger O'Toole

With the general election on 12 December, each of the main political parties has outlined its plans for the country, including for the property market.

Here, we highlight some of the key housing policies that theyve announced, particularly those affecting landlords.

They range from introducing a lifetime deposit that moves with a tenant, to making open-ended tenancies available.

The Conservatives have promised to continue with their target to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.

The party has also promised to review new ways to support home ownership following Help to Buys completion in 2023.

Perhaps more directly applicable to landlords is the abolition of no fault evictions for tenants, and only requiring one lifetime deposit that moves with a tenant.

Theres a mention of banning the sale of new leasehold homes and restricting ground rents to a peppercorn rent (a very low token rent).

This could be welcome news for any landlords owning a leasehold property although the detail has yet to be fully outlined.

Read the Conservative and Unionist Party manifesto for the 2019 UK general election.

The central housing policy announced by Labour has been a promise to build an extra 150,000 council and social homes a year, with 100,000 of these built by councils for social rent.

The party has announced a range of measures that would see a significant expansion of tenants rights, including open-ended tenancies, government-funded renters unions, and the abolition of current rules that require landlords to check peoples immigration status.

It also wants to introduce rent controls and give councils powers and funding to buy back homes from private landlords, although details havent been given about how this would work.

Read the Labour Party manifesto for the 2019 UK general election.

The Liberal Democrats would like to see 300,000 homes built every year by 2024, 100,000 of which would be social homes.

It would also allow local authorities to increase council tax up to 500 per cent where properties are being bought as second homes.

The party plans on introducing a new rent to own model for social housing where rent payments give tenants an increasing stake in the property, owning it outright after 30 years.

Other housing policies directly affecting landlords include mandatory landlord licensing and increasing minimum efficiency standards for privately rented properties.

Read the Liberal Democrats manifesto for the 2019 UK general election.

The Green Party is focused on making sure that every home in the country is insulated properly.

It would also like to see 100,000 new council homes a year.

Read the Green Party manifesto for the 2019 UK general election.

The SNP has announced restoring housing support for 18 to 21 year olds across Britain. It also intends on encouraging councils and individuals in rural areas to bring empty homes into use, making them available to rent or buy.

Read the SNP manifesto for the 2019 UK general election.

The Brexit Party has announced a range of housing policies, including simplifying planning consents for brownfield sites.

However, it has not specifically mentioned landlords or the rental sector.

Read the Brexit Party manifesto for the 2019 UK general election.

What do you think 2020 has in store for landlords? Let us know in the comments below.

Over 200,000 UK landlord policies, a 9/10 customer rating and claims handled by an award-winning team. Looking to switch or start a new policy? Run a quick landlord insurance quote today.

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UK general election 2019: what landlords should know - Simply Business knowledge

When the Declaration says that all men are created equal, that is no mythAn interview with historian Gordon Wood on the New York Times 1619 Project By Tom Mackaman 28 November 2019

Gordon Wood is professor emeritus at Brown University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, as well as Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 17891815, and dozens of other books and articles on the colonial period, the American Revolution and the early republic.

Historian Gordan Wood speaks with WSWS about American Revolution and the NYT 1619 Project

Q. Let me begin by asking you your initial reaction to the 1619 Project. When did you learn about it?

A. Well, I was surprised when I opened my Sunday New York Times in August and found the magazine containing the project. I had no warning about this. I read the first essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones, which alleges that the Revolution occurred primarily because of the Americans desire to save their slaves. She claims the British were on the warpath against the slave trade and slavery and that rebellion was the only hope for American slavery. This made the American Revolution out to be like the Civil War, where the South seceded to save and protect slavery, and that the Americans 70 years earlier revolted to protect their institution of slavery. I just couldnt believe this.

I was surprised, as many other people were, by the scope of this thing, especially since its going to become the basis for high school education and has the authority of the New York Times behind it, and yet it is so wrong in so many ways.

Q. I want to return to the question of slavery and the American Revolution, but first I wanted to follow up, because you said you were not approached. Yet you are certainly one of the foremost authorities on the American Revolution, which the 1619 Project trains much of its fire on.

A. Yes, no one ever approached me. None of the leading scholars of the whole period from the Revolution to the Civil War, as far I know, have been consulted. I read the Jim McPherson interview and he was just as surprised as I was.

Q. Can you discuss the relationship between the American Revolution and the institution of slavery?

A. One of the things that I have emphasized in my writing is how many southerners and northerners in 1776 thought slavery was on its last legs and that it would naturally die away. You can find quotation after quotation from people seriously thinking that slavery was going to wither away in several decades. Now we know they couldnt have been more wrong. But they lived with illusions and were so wrong about so many things. We may be living with illusions too. One of the big lessons of history is to realize how the past doesnt know its future. We know how the story turned out, and we somehow assume they should know what we know, but they dont, of course. They dont know their future any more than we know our future, and so many of them thought that slavery would die away, and at first there was considerable evidence that that was indeed the case.

At the time of the Revolution, the Virginians had more slaves than they knew what to do with, so they were eager to end the international slave trade. But the Georgians and the South Carolinians werent ready to do that yet. That was one of the compromises that came out of the Constitutional Convention. The Deep South was given 20 years to import more slaves, but most Americans were confident that the despicable transatlantic slave trade was definitely going to end in 1808.

Q. Under the Jefferson administration?

A. Yes, it was set in the Constitution at 20 years, but everyone knew this would be ended because nearly everyone knew that this was a barbaric thing, importing people and so on. Many thought that ending the slave trade would set slavery itself on the road to extinction. Of course, they were wrong.

I think the important point to make about slavery is that it had existed for thousands of years without substantial criticism, and it existed all over the New World. It also existed elsewhere in the world. Western Europe had already more or less done away with slavery. Perhaps there was nothing elsewhere comparable to the plantation slavery that existed in the New World, but slavery was widely prevalent in Africa and Asia. There is still slavery today in the world.

And it existed in all of these places without substantial criticism. Then suddenly in the middle of the 18th century you begin to get some isolated Quakers coming out against it. But its the American Revolution that makes it a problem for the world. And the first real anti-slave movement takes place in North America. So this is whats missed by these essays in the 1619 Project.

Q. The claim made by Nikole Hannah-Jones in the 1619 Project that the Revolution was really about founding a slavocracy seems to be coming from arguments made elsewhere that it was really Great Britain that was the progressive contestant in the conflict, and that the American Revolution was, in fact, a counterrevolution, basically a conspiracy to defend slavery.

A. Its been argued by some historians, people other than Hannah-Jones, that some planters in colonial Virginia were worried about what the British might do about slavery. Certainly, Dunmores proclamation in 1775, which promised the slaves freedom if they joined the Crowns cause, provoked many hesitant Virginia planters to become patriots. There may have been individuals who were worried about their slaves in 1776, but to see the whole revolution in those terms is to miss the complexity.

In 1776, Britain, despite the Somerset decision, was certainly not the great champion of antislavery that the Project 1619 suggests. Indeed, it is the northern states in 1776 that are the worlds leaders in the antislavery cause. The first anti-slavery meeting in the history of the world takes place in Philadelphia in 1775. That coincidence I think is important. I would have liked to have asked Hannah-Jones, how would she explain the fact that in 1791 in Virginia at the College of William and Mary, the Board of Visitors, the board of trustees, who were big slaveholding planters, awarded an honorary degree to Granville Sharp, who was the leading British abolitionist of the day. Thats the kind of question that should provoke historical curiosity. You ask yourself what were these slaveholding planters thinking? Its the kind of question, the kind of seeming anomaly, that should provoke a historian into research.

The idea that the Revolution occurred as a means of protecting slaveryI just dont think there is much evidence for it, and in fact the contrary is more true to what happened. The Revolution unleashed antislavery sentiments that led to the first abolition movements in the history of the world.

Q. In fact, those who claim that the American Revolution was a counterrevolution to protect slavery focus on the timing of the Somerset ruling of 1772, which held that slavery wasnt supported by English common law, and Dunmores promise to free slaves who escape their masters.

A. To go from these few facts to create such an enormous argument is a problem. The Somerset decision was limited to England, where there were very few slaves, and it didnt apply to the Caribbean. The British dont get around to freeing the slaves in the West Indies until 1833, and if the Revolution hadnt occurred, might never have done so then, because all of the southern colonies would have been opposed. So supposing the Americans hadnt broken away, there would have been a larger number of slaveholders in the greater British world who might have been able to prolong slavery longer than 1833. The West Indies planters were too weak in the end to resist abolition. They did try to, but if they had had all those planters in the South still being part of the British Empire with them, that would have made it more difficult for the British Parliament to move toward abolition.

Q. Hannah-Jones refers to Americas founding documents as its founding myths

A. Of course, there are great ironies in our history, but the men and the documents transcend their time. That Jefferson, a slaveholding aristocrat, has beenuntil recentlyour spokesman for democracy, declaring that all men are created equal, is probably the greatest irony in American history. But the document he wrote and his confidence in the capacities of ordinary people are real, and not myths.

Jefferson was a very complicated figure. He took a stand against slavery as a young man in Virginia. He spoke out against it. He couldnt get his colleagues to go along, but he was certainly courageous in voicing his opposition to slavery. Despite his outspokenness on slavery and other enlightened matters, his colleagues respected him enough to keep elevating him to positions in the state. His colleagues could have, as we say today, cancelled him if they didnt have some sympathy for what he was saying.

Q. And after the Revolution?

A. American leaders think slavery is dying, but they couldnt have been more wrong. Slavery grows stronger after the Revolution, but its concentrated in the South. North of the Mason-Dixon line, in every northern state by 1804, slavery is legally put on the road to extinction. Now, theres certain grandfathering in, and so you do have slaves in New Jersey as late as the eve of the Civil War. But in the northern states, the massive movement against slavery was unprecedented in the history of the world. So to somehow turn this around and make the Revolution a means of preserving slavery is strange and contrary to the evidence.

As a result of the Revolution, slavery is confined to the South, and that puts the southern planters on the defensive. For the first time they have to defend the institution. If you go into the colonial records and look at the writings and diary of someone like William Byrd, whos a very distinguished and learned personhes a member of the Royal Societyyoull find no expressions of guilt whatsoever about slavery. He took his slaveholding for granted. But after the Revolution thats no longer true. Southerners began to feel this anti-slave pressure now. They react to it by trying to give a positive defense of slavery. They had no need to defend slavery earlier because it was taken for granted as a natural part of a hierarchical society.

We should understand that slavery in the colonial period seemed to be simply the most base status in a whole hierarchy of dependencies and degrees of unfreedom. Indentured servitude was prevalent everywhere. Half the population that came to the colonies in the 18th century came as bonded servants. Servitude, of course, was not slavery, but it was a form of dependency and unfreedom that tended to obscure the uniqueness of racial slavery. Servants were bound over to masters for five or seven years. They couldnt marry. They couldnt own property. They belonged to their masters, who could sell them. Servitude was not life-time and was not racially-based, but it was a form of dependency and unfreedom. The Revolution attacked bonded servitude and by 1800 it scarcely existed anywhere in the US.

The elimination of servitude suddenly made slavery more conspicuous than it had been in a world of degrees of unfreedom. The antislavery movements arose out of these circumstances. As far as most northerners were concerned, this most base and despicable form of unfreedom must be eliminated along with all the other forms of unfreedom. These dependencies were simply incompatible with the meaning of the Revolution.

After the Revolution, Virginia had no vested interest in the international slave trade. Quite the contrary. Virginians began to grow wheat in place of tobacco. Washington does this, and he comes to see himself as more a farmer than a planter. He and other farmers begin renting out their slaves to people in Norfolk and Richmond, where they are paid wages. And many people thought that this might be the first step toward the eventual elimination of slavery. These anti-slave sentiments dont last long in Virginia, but for a moment it seemed that Virginia, which dominated the country as no other state ever has, might abolish slavery as the northern states were doing. In fact, there were lots of manumissions and other anti-slave moves in Virginia in the 1780s.

But the black rebellion in Saint-Dominguethe Haitian Revolutionscares the bejesus out of the southerners. Many of the white Frenchmen fled to North Americato Louisiana, to Charleston, and they brought their fears of slave uprisings with them. Then, with Gabriels Rebellion in Virginia in 1800, most of the optimism that Virginians had in 17761790 is gone.

Of course, I think the ultimate turning point for both sections is the Missouri crisis of 18191820. Up to that point, both sections lived with illusions. The Missouri crisis causes the scales to fall away from the eyes of both northerners and southerners. Northerners come to realize that the South really intended to perpetuate slavery and extend it into the West. And southerners come to realize that the North is so opposed to slavery that it will attempt to block them from extending it into the West. From that moment on I think the Civil War became inevitable.

Q. Theres the famous quote from Jefferson that the Missouri crisis awakened him like a fire bell in the night and that in it he perceived the death of the union...

A. Right. Hes absolutely panicked by whats happening, and these last years of his life leading up to 1826 are really quite sad because hes saying these things. Reading his writings between 1819 and his death in 1826 makes you wince because he so often sounds like a southern fire-eater of the 1850s. Whereas his friend Madison has a much more balanced view of things, Jefferson becomes a furious and frightened defender of the South. He sees a catastrophe in the works, and he cant do anything about it.

His friend Adams was, of course, opposed to slavery from the beginning, and this is something that Hannah-Jones should have been aware of. John Adams is the leading advocate in the Continental Congress for independence. Hes never been a slaveowner. He hates slavery and he has no vested interest in it. By 18191820, however, he more or less takes the view that the Virginians have a serious problem with slavery and they are going to have to work it out for themselves. Hes not going to preach to them. Thats essentially what he says to Jefferson.

By the early nineteenth century, Jefferson had what Annette Gordon-Reed calls New England envy. His granddaughter marries a New Englander and moves there, and she tells him how everythings flourishing in Connecticut. The farms are all neat, clean and green, and there are no slaves. He envies the town meetings of New England, those little ward republics. And he just yearns for something like that for Virginia.

Q. How it is that the American Revolution raises the dignity of labor? Because it seems to me that this concept certainly becomes a burning issue by the time of the Civil War.

A. Its a good question. Central to the middle class revolution was an unprecedented celebration of work, especially manual labor, including the working for money. For centuries going back to the ancient Greeks, work with ones hands had been held in contempt. Aristotle had said that those who worked with their hands and especially those who worked for money lacked the capacity for virtue. This remained the common view until the American Revolution changed everything.

The northern celebration of work made the slaveholding South seem even more anomalous than it was. Assuming that work was despicable and mean was what justified slavery. Scorn for work and slavery were two sides of the same coin. Now the middle-class northernersclerks, petty merchants, farmers, etc.began attacking the leisured gentry as parasites living off the work of others. That was the gist of the writings of William Manning, the obscure Massachusetts farmer, writing in the 1790s. This celebration of work, of course, forced the slaveholding planters to be even more defensive and they began celebrating leisure as the source of high culture in contrast with the money-grubbing North.

Slavery required a culture that held labor in contempt. The North, with its celebration of labor, especially working for money, became even more different from the lazy, slaveholding South. By the 1850s, the two sections, though both American, possessed two different cultures.

Q. In my discussion with James Oakes, he made the point about the emergence of the Democratic Party in the 1820s, that in the North it cant do what the southern slave owners really want it to do, which is to say slaves are property, but what they do instead is to begin to promote racism.

A. Thats right. When you have a republican society, its based on equality of all citizens; and now many whites found that difficult to accept. And they had to justify the segregation and the inferior status of the freed blacks by saying blacks were an inferior race. As I said earlier, in the Colonial period whites didnt have to mount any racist arguments to justify the lowly status of blacks. In a hierarchical society with many degrees of unfreedom, you dont bother with trying to explain or justify slavery or the unequal treatment of anyone. Someone like William Byrd never tries to justify slavery. He never argues that blacks are inferior. He doesnt need to do that because he takes his whole world of inequality and hierarchy for granted. Racism develops in the decades following the Revolution because in a free republican society, whites needed a new justification for keeping blacks in an inferior and segregated place. And it became even more complicated when freed blacks with the suffrage tended to vote for the doomed parties of the Federalists and the Whigs.

Q. The 1619 Project claims basically that nothing has ever gotten any better. That its as bad now as it was during slavery, and instead what youre describing is a very changed world...

A. Imagine the inequalities that existed before the Revolution. Not just in wealthI mean, we have that nowbut in the way in which people were treated. Consider the huge number of people who were servants of some kind. I just think that people need to know just how bad the Ancin Regime was. In France, we always had this Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities view of the society, with a nobleman riding through the village and running over children and so on. But similar kinds of brutalities and cruelties existed in the English-speaking world in the way common people were treated. In England, there must have been 200 capital crimes on the books. Consequently, juries became somewhat reluctant to convict to hanging a person for stealing a handkerchief. So the convict was sent as a bonded servant to the colonies, 50,000 of them. And then when the American Revolution occurs, Australia becomes the replacement.

I dont think people realize just what a cruel and brutal world existed in the Ancin Regime, in the premodern societies of the West, not just for slaves, but for lots of people who were considered the mean or lowly sort. And they dont appreciate what a radical message is involved in declaring that all men are created equal and what that message means for our obsession with education, and the implications of that for our society.

Q. You spoke of the consensus school on American history before, from the 1950s, that saw the Revolution, I think, as essentially a conservative event. And one of the things that they stressed was that there was no aristocracy, no native aristocracy, in America, but you find, if I recall your argument in The Radicalism of the American Revolution, that though aristocracy was not strong, it was something that was still a powerful factor.

A. Theres no European-type aristocracy, the kind of rich, hereditary aristocracy of the sort that existed in Englandgreat landholders living off the rents of their tenants. But we had an aristocracy of sorts. The southern slaveholding planters certainly came closest to the English model, but even in the more egalitarian North there was an aristocracy of sorts. Men of wealth and distinction that we would label elites sought to make the title of gentlemen equal some kind of aristocracy. Gentleman was a legal distinction, and such gentlemen were treated differently in the society because of that distinction. With the Revolution, all this came under assault.

Its interesting to look at the debates that occur in the New York ratifying convention in 1788. The leading Anti-Federalist, Melancton Smith, a very smart guy but a middling sort and with no college graduate degree, gives the highly educated Alexander Hamilton and Robert Livingston a run for their money. He calls Hamilton and Livingston aristocrats and charges that the proposed Constitution was designed to give more power to the likes of them. Hamilton, who certainly felt superior to Smith, denied he was an aristocrat. There were no aristocrats in America, he said; they existed only in Europe. That kind of concession was multiplied ten thousand-fold in the following decades in the North, and this denial of obvious social superiority in the face of middling criticism is denied even today. You see politicians wanting to play down their distinctiveness, their elite status. I can have a beer with Joe Six-pack, they say, denying their social superiority. That was already present in the late 1780s. Thats what I mean by radicalism. Its a middle-class revolution, and it is essentially confined to the North.

Q. You were speaking earlier of the despair of Madison, Adams and Jefferson late in life. And it just occurred to me that they lived to see Martin Van Buren.

A. Thats right. Van Buren is probably the first real politician in America elected to the presidency. Unlike his predecessors, he never did anything great; he never made a great speech, he never wrote a great document, he never won a great battle. He simply was the most politically astute operator that the United States had ever seen. He organized a party in New York that was the basis of his success.

Van Buren regarded the founding fathers as pass. He told his fellow Americans, look, we dont need to pay too much attention to those guys. They were aristocrats, he said. Were Democratsmeaning both small d and also capital D. Those aristocrats dont have much to say to us.

Did you know that the founding fathers in the antebellum period are not Jefferson and Madison and Washington and Hamilton? In the antebellum period when most Americans referred to the founders, they meant John Smith, William Penn, William Bradford, John Winthrop and so on, the founders of the seventeenth century. Theres a good book on this subject by Wesley Frank Craven [ The Legend of the Founding Fathers (1956)].

Its Lincoln who rescues the eighteenth-century founders for us. From the Civil War on, the founders become the ones we celebrate today, the revolutionary leaders. Lincoln makes Jefferson the great hero of America. All honor to Jefferson, he says. Only because of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson didnt have anything to do with the Constitution, and so Lincoln makes the Declaration the most important document in American history, which I think is true.

Q. For our readership, perhaps you could discuss something of the world-historical significance of the Revolution. Of course, we are under no illusion that it represented a socialist transformation. Yet it was a powerful revolution in its time.

A. It was very important that the American colonial crisis, the imperial crisis, occurred right at the height of what we call the Enlightenment, where Western Europe was full of new ideas and was confident that culturewhat people believed and thoughtwas man-made and thus could be changed. The Old World, the Ancin Regime, could be transformed and made anew. It was an age of revolution, and its not surprising that the French Revolution and other revolutions occur in in the wake of the American Revolution.

The notion of equality was really crucial. When the Declaration says that all men are created equal, that is no myth. It is the most powerful statement ever made in our history, and it lies behind almost everything we Americans believe in and attempt to do. What that statement meant is that we are all born equal and the all the differences that we see among us as adults are due solely to our differing educations, differing upbringings and differing environments. The Declaration is an Enlightenment document because it repudiated the Ancin Regime assumption that all men are created unequal and that nothing much could be done about it. Thats what it meant to be a subject in the old society. You were born a patrician or a plebeian and that was your fate.

Q. One of the ironies of this Project 1619 is that they are saying the same things about the Declaration of Independence as the fire-eating proponents of slavery saidthat its a fraud. Meanwhile, abolitionists like Frederick Douglass upheld it and said were going to make this all men are created equal real.

A. That points up the problem with the whole project. Its too bad that its going out into the schools with the authority of the New York Times behind it. Thats sad because it will color the views of all these youngsters who will receive the message of the 1619 Project.

The author also recommends:

Interview with Gordon Wood on the American Revolution[3 March 2015]

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An interview with historian Gordon Wood on the New York Times' 1619 Project - World Socialist Web Site

Recently, the Kartarpur Corridor was officially opened, allowing Indian Sikhs rare visa-free access to visit their place of worship. The opening of the Corridor was favourably timed with the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanaks 550th birth anniversary.

The Corridor is a 4.5-kilometre border linking India and Pakistan, connecting two of the most revered Sikh shrines the Dera Baba Nanak Sahib in India, and the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan. This initially began as a proposal in 1999 but was finally opened on November 9, marking an unprecedented historic moment for the two otherwise hostile neighbouring nations.

The moment was monumental for the Indian Sikhs. Since partition, they have borne a heavy heart at the separation of one of their most revered places of worship. Although there had been a lot of speculation about the ulterior political and economic motives of the move, and much criticism had been raised about the $20 fee, it is interesting to analyse the symbolic significance of the event itself.

By opening the corridor, both countries fulfilled a long-standing wish of the Sikhs whilst simultaneously making their travels easier and cheaper. The name Kartarpur means a place of God. Here, all people irrespective of religion or caste lived together in peace, representing the first Sikh commune, before partition. This context is ironic when you notice the far-from-favourable treatment of minorities in both Pakistan and India. Media outlets were, therefore, quick to label this as an event that would create momentum for better treatment of minorities in both countries.

It is also interesting to think that the shrine was built to commemorate the site where Guru Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life, spreading the message of peace. Pakistan and India have a long, muddied history. The tension at the borders was exacerbated in August following the abolition of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that granted the disputed territories of Jammu and Kashmir partial autonomy. The opening of the corridor, hence, is a testament to the fact that bridges can be built in seemingly incurable situations. Not only can its symbolic significance be applied to our political situation, but it can also act as a metaphor, translating into our daily lives.

Moreover, the event proved that territorial divisions among people of a shared heritage do not extinguish the colossal transformational power they possess. It made us believe in the collective power of goodwill; that people on either side of a conflict can triumph over political struggles.

In opening the Kartarpur Corridor, Pakistan and India have allowed us to believe that borders dont need to be seen as constraints when there is a shared momentum for peace.

It is tough to say whether this will really be a stepping stone for greater good in the future, but it is not entirely unrealistic to hope that a gesture such as this one will be a catalyst for larger breakthroughs. As Prime Minister Imran Khan said at a ceremony marking the construction of this work on the Pakistani side, We will only progress when we free ourselves from the chains of our past!

Read more here:

Beyond the Corridor - The News on Sunday

For people looking in from outside of Cornwall, Camborne and Redruth would, on the face of it, be considered a working-class constituency which might be expected to be traditionally aligned to Labour.

But since the constituency was first formed in 2010 after boundary changes it has returned a Conservative MP at each of the three general elections it has voted in.

While the heart of the constituency is based around the urban areas of Camborne, Pool and Redruth it also stretches to the north and south coasts, taking in areas such as Constantine and Gweek.

Camborne is home to one of the biggest foodbanks in Cornwall which gives out 16,000 meals a month - an increase of 20% since 2018.

But, at the other end of the scale, there is Constantine where the average house price, according to Zoopla, stands at just under 350,000.

And there is also a large student population due to the Falmouth University and University of Exeter accommodation on the shared Penryn campus being within the constituency with around 1,800 students. Because of this there is a chance that the student vote could be significant on December 12.

At the last election in 2017 Conservative George Eustice was re-elected with a majority of 1,577. That represented a drop in his majority just two years earlier when he was returned with a healthier majority of just over 7,000.

The last two elections have seen Labour taking runner-up spot but when the newly-formed constituency was first contested in 2010 it was the Liberal Democrats who were second.

Julia Goldsworthy, who had served as MP for the former Falmouth and Camborne constituency from 2005 to 2010, lost out to George Eustice by just 66 votes.

Then, five years later, she found herself trailing far behind in fourth place behind the Tories, Labour and UKIP with just 12.4% of the vote compared to 37.4% in 2010.

The Lib Dem vote in this area did not recover and at the last election finished third with just 2,979 votes, a measly 6.1% of the overall vote.

But what do the candidates seeking your votes on December 12 think are the main issues in Camborne and Redruth and what have they heard on the doorstep?

Green Party candidate Karen La Borde said that it had been "mixed" but there were clear priorities.

"It is the NHS, people are struggling to get doctors' appointments, they can't get dentists, surgeries are closing,"she says. "Social care is also mentioned a lot as we have an ageing population that I wasn't aware of.

"People are struggling to get social care for their parents who they are having to look after and those who work in social care are not being paid enough."

Public transport, low wage economy and education have also been raised when the Green candidate has been out canvassing.

She adds: "I have met people who are running two or three jobs at a time just to keep afloat. And in education I have met teachers who say that children are turning up to school without having been fed, so they are having to feed them before they can start teaching.

"We in the Green Party say that we want to focus on the climate emergency but also social justice - the two things go together. We want to create a universal basic income that would really help people in this area."

But Karen highlights the differences in the constituency areas saying that in Constantine people are more keen to talk about second homes - "something you don't have in the town areas".

She says: "There is extraordinary wealth over there. It is embarrassing compared to what there is elsewhere in the constituency."

The Green candidate said she was pleased that climate change has taken a higher profile in this election but she was still finding people who "don't care" but said that mostly people were interested and want to make a change.

For Liberal Party candidate Paul Holmes there is only really one issue at this election - Brexit.

"The Liberal Party is, unlike the Liberal Democrats, in favour of leaving Europe - we should have left by now," he says, "we are a Brexit party."

He says that housing and homelessness had been raised a lot and the priority should be in building council and social housing.

And Mr Holmes praised Don Gardner for the work he does at the local food bank, saying "he deserves a medal, it's fantastic".

But he adds: "I help to raise money for it by holding concerts, but we shouldn't need to. We shouldn't need to have food banks."

The Liberal Party candidate also mentioned the plans for lithium mining in Cornwall which he supports but says should be used to build an industry in the county.

"All the work that is involved with it should be in Cornwall, we should have all the jobs not be shipping it all out of here to be used elsewhere.

"What is wrong with building factories down here to make batteries?"

Mr Holmes said the low wage economy was a factor in Camborne and Redruth and there was a big gap between the national average wage and those earned in Cornwall.

The impact of this spreads to the provision of affordable housing which, Mr Holmes said, means that the way affordable housing rates are calculated put it out of reach for locals.

"The word affordable should not be used in Cornwall because it doesn't exist."

The Liberal Party also has plans to reinstate the Milk Marketing Board which Mr Holmes said would be important to help the dairy industry in Cornwall.

He recalled the days when there were four major dairies in Cornwall and said that a Milk Marketing Board would help bring about a return of a thriving dairy industry.

But when all is said and done the Liberal Party is basing its campaign around its desire to see Brexit happen.

"We haven't had government of this country for three years," said Mr Holmes. "It has been stagnant, it has been locked in a place we don't want to be, locked by people trying to thwart something the people of this country wanted.

"Once out of Europe we can get back to doing things like helping schools and hospitals and planning for new businesses. But nothing is happening now."

Describing himself as a monarchist he said that if the UK remained in Europe it would end up being "an offshore island in the United States of Europe and would lead to the abolition of the monarchy".

George Eustice, who is defending his place as Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth, has always been a leave supporter having previously been a member of UKIP.

And it is Brexit which he has been encountering on the doorstep when campaigning in this election.

He said: "There is exasperation at the national situation and the faliure to deliver Brexit. There is a desire to have a government that can just sort the Brexit thing out and get on with the job. That is what I have heard from all sorts of people including former Labour voters."

But he is keen to state that he doesn't think it is the only issue in Camborne and Redruth.

"It would be wrong to say it is the number one issue in terms of what matters to people here, but it is number one in terms of the fact that we need to get it out of the way in order to address the things that people do care about.

"It is a logjam and we're not going to be able to move on to the issues that matter to them."

The other issues include the NHS - "our pledge to continue increasing funding for the NHS has been welcomed" - and the need for higher paid jobs in the area.

Mr Eustice said he had seen that there had been more people indicating support for the Lib Dems "in the villages" but he had been seeing "generally a positive reaction".

He said the issues in Camborne and Redruth around low wages and deprivation could be helped by the Conservatives highlighting plans to increase the living wage and to take more people out of the income tax and National Insurance threshold.

But he said there was also some optimism in the area with a number of better paid jobs being created in recent years with creative and technology companies which had been formed by students from the university who have remained in Cornwall.

Labour candidate Paul Farmer is clear what the main priority is for the people he has met in Camborne and Redruth - public services.

He said: "That covers a lot of things, whether it is people with long-term illnesses or dependents with special needs, we have areas of financial deprivation and there are concerns about the NHS.

"We have the biggest food bank in the UK - it is an issue that we are very concerned about and it is evidence of the situation that we are in."

Mr Farmer says that he has experienced poverty himself which he says gives him much more insight into the plight of those affected than other politicians.

"I have lived in Cornwall for a long time and I was self-employed, I brought up my children on a low income and qualified for tax credits. I have lived most of my life in council housing and know exactly what the pressures are that people face and what it is like to feel like you life is falling apart."

But what would he do to try to help those affected? "We need big investment in Cornwall and specifically in our area.

"The low wages here are a real problem - a lot of the people using the foodbank are in full-time work, but they can't afford to live.

"The Labour green industrial revolution will help to create the better quality jobs that will help people in these areas."

However the Labour candidate says he has not really encountered many people wanting to talk about the one issue that many believe has caused this election - Brexit.

"I don't think people feel that we are moving on, but they are just fed up of people talking about it. When I knock on doors I ask if people have a particular issue and the main response is 'everything really'.

"People don't think it has been resolved but there is this stasis associated with it. But whether it will be an issue at the ballot box remains to be seen. It baffles me really that I haven't had more people talking about it - it is just not something people want to talk about and is usually me who brings it up."

He adds: "What I try and talk about is a future that is better than where we are now.

"Housing is something that is a big issue and something that needs to be addressed everywhere - we need much more social housing and affordable housing.

"If you live in our constituency it is harder to qualify for a council house due to the competition for them - it is 50% harder to qualify in this area, you need to be 50% poorer to get a house here than anywhere else in Cornwall.

"That kind of situation makes people less optimistic about the future and especially when you talk to people who have to use the food bank.

"It is stark for those people - many of them are on limited zero-hours contracts and not earning enough to live on. I want to make sure there is more help for them and a better benefits system for people."

Liberal Democrat candidate Florence MacDonald says she has had a lot of people talking to her about the issues which affect everybody's daily lives.

"There are a lot of families that don't have the security and stability that they would like and need. Whether that is job security or a secure home.

"There is a lack of affordable housing and long-term tenancies and there are the problems with Universal Credit.

"The way that Universal Credit works means that if you have flexible working or zero-hours contract there is a mismatch between your income and benefits which mean you can find yourself short and unable to pay things like rent.

"That will not only affect your financial situation but also your mental health and wellbeing of your children. These all link into a number of different areas which affect a lot of people."

Florence said the Lib Dems would look to make changes to Universal Credit which would make it better to fit with the circumstances that people find themselves in and to help those who may not have fixed contracts or are self-employed.

Changes to workers' rights would give people the right to a fixed-term contract after 12 months of working.

She said: "There are some advantages to having flexible hours but at the moment the advantages are for the employer and not the individual.

"We also need more jobs in this area and the green industrial revolution will create opportunities, especially here in Cornwall."

Housing is also a key issue for her and she talks about the need to give people longer tenancies which would provide more stability for people and improving rights for tenants.

And when it comes to Brexit she is clear how people in Camborne and Redruth feel: "On the doorstep the main reaction is that people are completely fed up of it, beyond belief fed up.

"I have had a lot of people saying they don't trust any politicians anymore, a lot of people saying they won't vote this time or that they just don't know how they will vote.

"It feels more up in the air than I would have expected - generally people feel furstrated at what has happened."

Other issues which have come up on the doorstep for the teacher have been funding for services in Cornwall, the NHS and education.

"Infrastructure has been a huge one. People see a lot of development going on but there is no infrastructure to go with it. People can't get GP appointments and then wonder where all these other people will go. The same applies to school places."

But she says there is a frustration among people that Brexit has distracted from the issues that matter.

"I feel, myself, that this election is not going to solve those problems. We are in an awful situation because David Cameron called a referendum on something he wasn't prepared to carry out.

"That has created big divisions and has messed up the political picture. I don't feel confident that this election will produce a majority or a strong majority which will sort it out.

"We have had three successive governments that have not been stable and I am not sure that will be solved with this election."

On the campaign trail she is keen to ensure people know she is listening.

"I go out there and talk to everybody but not telling them what is right or wrong. I want to hear what they have to say.

"The anger at Brexit is also an anger about a lot of other things. I will be completely honest about my stance so that people know what choice they are making when they vote."

Continued here:

Camborne and Redruth constituency is where students could decide next MP in General Election - Cornwall Live

Interesting choice of words by the PM in parliament in the debate over his phone call to the NSW Police Commissioner - when referring to the Opposition he said: "On the next day they sought to trump up something else." Freudian slip? Was there a quid pro quo? - Peter Paige, Moss Vale

With Morrison increasingly copying his pal Trump, surely it cant be long until the PM starts demanding a wall somewhere. - Nick Andrews, Bellevue Hill

One can only presume that it is the success and popularity of Clover Moores style of politics, free from the influence and pressure of party-political operatives and back-room vested interest groups and lobbyists, that even as an independent mayor of a local council in NSW she is seen by a minister in the federal government as a "political opponent" and becomes a target for "an impossible claim" ("Morrisons judgment failed him and now hes totally exposed", November 28). - Harvey Sanders, Paddington

The former immigration minister who wouldnt reveal on-water matters now, as PM, wont reveal off-water matters either. So much for transparency in government. - Merilyn McClung, Forestville

I think it's about time the rest of Australia woke up to how Quiet Australia works. When the most powerful politician in the land makes a quiet call to the state's most powerful police officer, the nature of that call should remain just that - quiet. Enough of these quite frankly disrespectful questions. Next thing a certain kind of nosey Australian will be demanding to be told about the government's policies on energy, the drought, bushfires and climate change. As we hurtle towards the summer holidays let's get on with the Christmas shopping, the Test and say a quiet prayer for Australia. - Nick Franklin, Katoomba

Morrison is just like any other average bloke, right? What quiet Australian wouldnt have a quiet chat to the police commissioner if their colleague was under investigation? - Mark Pearce, Richmond

That reminds me; I must call the NSW Police Commissioner to discuss my recent speeding fine. - David Farrell, Erskineville

Clive James, an Australian icon and iconoclast has departed, stage right (''Clive James: Literary and TV giant dead at 80'', November 28).

Much more than the Kid from Kogarah, his sharp wit and verbal skills flourished in foreign soil and he held up a mirror not only to the pretentiousness of much of the manners and morals he found abroad but he was ever aware, like the true artist, of his own fragility and limitations.

We are fortunate not only for the memories of this great raconteur but for the rich vein of profound thoughts he left us in his memoirs and poems. - Eugene OConnor, Terara

There were many highlights, and James himself noted, some regrets. He executed the craft of wit with his unique style. A stand-out from my youth was watching on New Years Eve his take on the years people and happenings.

Handing out awards, as often was the case, the recipient was not present in the studio. Straight-faced, James would announce they were unable to be there. Now as the tributes flow Clive James will loom large as he accepts the recognition deserved. - Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook

Poet, memoirist, literary critic, chat show host and tango enthusiast: just some of the attributes of the Kid from Kogarah. With his gravelly voice and crinkly eyes, he beguiled his audiences and his sparkling prose left his admirers wanting more. He and I were born just weeks apart and I would have been grateful for a third of his talent. - Joan Brown, Orange

One of Clive James's greatest achievements was translating the 500-odd page medieval Italian text by Dante, The Divine Comedy, from its original Tuscan dialect into English. He did this for his wife, a Dante scholar. The result is breathtaking; one of the greatest translations of Dante that we have. - Dale Bailey, Five Dock

James was one of Australia's most brilliant and prolific writers, yet not one of his books or poems are prescribed texts in the NSW HSC English curriculum. It is a sign of the greatness of the man that he saw the funny side of his exclusion, as he had the ability to extract humour from the most unlikely of places. - Tony Letford, Wentworth Falls

I have an abiding memory of James one late summers afternoon at the Quay, sitting at his favourite restaurant observing the passing parade, a quizzical look on his face, thoroughly in the moment but apart at the same time. - Diane Hughan, Woolgoolga

He shone so brightly to the last, and then was gone. Vale Clive James. - Meredith Williams, Dee Why

A group of eminent climate scientists has issued another warning that the world faces a "cascade" of climatic "tipping points" when change becomes irreversible unless emergency action is taken to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are directly or indirectly caused by humans ("Tipping points 'dangerously close'", November 28). Unless we can avoid these tipping points, sea levels could rise as much as seven metres, and temperatures could become unbearable in coming decades. These events could in turn cause mass migration from low-lying regions.

Despite such warnings, the Prime Minister and his disciples stubbornly refuse to listen. They persist with their welded-on support of coal, the dirty rock that began the era of global warming when global temperatures were headed towards another ice age and is still the chief culprit behind an increasingly uncomfortable and dangerous climate. - Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin, ACT

I always felt that climate change would one day undo the Coalition. It's all a big joke to them. But no amount of marketing from the Prime Minister can undo facts. The country is on fire in spring, and now the tipping point climate scientists warned of could be closer than imagined. What a national farce these fossils are to claim only they can "keep Australians safe" and only they can be trusted to run our economy. - Sue Young, Bensville

Climate tipping points are like stones thrown at an icefield: they seem irrelevant until the mountain descends onto the valley. This isn't nonsense, greenie panic or black humour. This is present reality. Tomorrow will be too late. Far, far too late. - David Neilson, Invergowrie

Pru Goward is right ("Here's a way to make health insurance more affordable for all", November 28). We need much more government investment into keeping well, rather than always throwing money at the pointy end of the health spectrum.

For far too long acute hospitals have been seen as the face of health. It is actually primary and extended care with a preventative and all-encompassing community health-wellness focus which carries the flag always under resourced and vastly undervalued. It's this sector which can free up hospital beds for those who really need them by keeping us healthy and at home rather than clogging up the system. Lack of whistles and machines that go "ping" doesn't seem to win votes though. - Judy Finch, Cedar Party

I agree that young people are being belted for taking up private health insurance ("Young, healthy and bled dry", November 28). However, when you are older there is the huge financial penalty for not having taken up private insurance by the age of 30. For my partner and I, when I looked into the costs in 2012 we were to be penalised by a 70 per cent premium, resulting in a $5000 yearly fee.Based on my investigation we decided to self insure and in the last seven years have saved approximately $40,000.

I would strongly advise any youngsters to forget about private health insurance and take up advice to commence a salary sacrifice into investments to the same amount. You will be amazed at how much you amass with time. - Graham Lawson, Birchgrove

Large and unplanned-for population growth is a huge concern for many but the "debate" is going nowhere as your correspondent points out (Letters, November 28). To call for a reduction in the largest single factor, immigration, elicits cries of racism which it's definitely not.

But the inescapable consequences of the mathematical laws of compound growth tells you that it can't keep going on. Someday, population has to stabilise. The only questions are when and at what level. Soon, and about the same number of people as now, would be good answers. What to do, when the political "leaders" will do nothing? - John Burman, Port Macquarie

Stephen Bartholomeusz frets about the "loss of corporate memory and experience" should there be further loss of Westpac directors ("Bank's fate should make all big company directors nervous", November 28). Directors and management in many large companies have placed little value on these factors in recent years as they retrench experienced staff and outsource key activities. - Jane Wilkie, Gymea

Congratulations to Warwick Farm Public School for creating a culture of high expectations for their students with the resultant improvement in their academic achievement and attitude to school in general ("Expectations great as a pupil aid", November 28). Good teachers know that students will stretch themselves with positive encouragement and demands which are not necessarily comfortable but always reasonable. A little stress is sometimes a requirement for meaningful and rewarding progress. - Max Redmayne, Russell Lea

We've already lost great chunks of the Sydney Domain, Parramatta Park, Penrith's Weir Reserve, and no doubt many other public parks to vested interests. Now Tempe Reserve is again under threat ("Sydney FC revisit plans for training base", November 28). To maintain some sort of balance, surely it's now time to return the Moore Park Stadium site to public parkland. - Kevin Eadie, Drummoyne

The "hidden disaster" of children lost to education will persist as long as governments accommodate a binary education system public and private and cannot ideologically accept that the operation and funding of the public system is the prime responsibility of any just system ("50,000 children missing school at any one time", November 28).

Of course there is a role for the private system but as long as its entitlements are skewed to the extent of folly the "missing children" problem will not be addressed. - Gus Plater, Saratoga

Yes, the cold water that comes out of the shower head before the hot water comes through is very collectable (Letters, November 28).

I collect five litres of cold water in a bucket each time I use the shower, and then use it to water my garden. Or flush the toilet. With a household of four people, that's 20 litres a day. - Mia David, Wollongong

Its time for the International Maritime Organisation to push for the abolition of noisy diesel powered ships. Not only will this improve air quality around the world, it seems noiseless electric powered ships will enhance the love life of migrating hump back whales (''Boat noise puts kibosh on whales romance'', November 28). - Cornelius van der Weyden, Balmain East

Growing up in a Catholic household in the '60s and having been taught by nuns for 13 years, the term ''modesty'' became a term that wrapped itself around the core of my being ("Modesty blazes a new fashion trail", November 28). However, for the first time in my life, I have bought a dress that gives me cleavage. Am I game enough to wear it? - Genevieve Milton, Newtown

When it is lighter for longer at the end of the working day due to daylight saving, conceivably this could encourage more people to go out and about in fossil-fuel emitting machines after they get home from work, increasing fossil fuel emissions (Letters, November 28).But increased fossil fuel emissions due to daylight saving are unlikely to have an impact on your curtains, if you keep the windows closed. - Max Hopwood, Zetland

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PM's need to appear 'tough' exposes his key weakness - Sydney Morning Herald