FEEDBACK

It irritated Michael Harris from Shoreham. The intro to a story in some editions on Monday last week about burglaries in a district of Brighton said the accompanying map showed 43 places which had been raided. Only there was no map, not a trace of it.

It did appear in the first edition but didn't make much sense without a giant magnifying glass for every reader so we removed it next time around but simply forgot to alter the words. We straightened it all out by the last edition but you are right, Michael, it shouldn't have happened.

Thank you, though, for your kind comments about this column and, as you put it, our honesty in apologising for mistakes. However, Feedback is not unique as you suggest. Other daily newspapers in Britain do something similar and so do many in America.

A correspondent who wishes to remain anonymous accuses Lizzie Enfield of mutilating the language in her Tuesday columns and says they set a bad example to the young writers we are encouraging by giving them a regular once-a-month day for their letters.

Personally, I think her breathless, clickety-clack style is just right for a column about the trials of rail commuting. Lizzie really manages to capture the daily dramas of the rush up the line and the swaying and shuddering of carriages as they jolt across the points at Clapham Junction and lurch into the London stations.

We reported last week that former criminal Ricky Clarke is now on the straight and narrow and has set up youth clubs at Moulsecoomb in Brighton.

Backed by the police, he is putting his efforts into giving youngsters who live there something to do. Unfortunately in our picture captions we may have given the impression that the kids seen with him had found themselves in trouble at some time.

That is not the case and we never meant to imply that about any of the boys. I'm sorry if we upset anyone in telling the story of Ricky's desire to give something back to society.

WE slipped up slightly in Bygone Brighton, the first of our millennium supplements. In the countdown of the century we said the German battleship Graf Spee was scuttled off Chile in 1939. Thanks to Philip Quick from Brighton for pointing out Montevideo is in Uruguay.

Finally, a plea to letter writers. Stop attacking Hove MP Ivor Caplin for signing an Early Day Motion about energy matters and not another about banning live animal exports. He didn't sign the energy motion; House of Commons officials mistakenly added his name to it, an error they have acknowledged by removing it and publishing the fact in Parliament's records.

Because Mr Caplin is a Parliamentary Private Secretary he is forbidden by Commons rules from signing any Early Day Motions regardless of his personal views.

And just for the record, he was in the House to support the Bill banning live exports when it came before MPs this week.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.