ONE of the great things about the correspondence sections of newspapers is that they give you an insight into the composition of that journal's readership.
Reflecting on our Letters Pages over the three weeks since my last contribution to this slot, I am reminded (as if I could ever forget ) that readers of The Herald are intelligent, erudite, witty, and interested not just in the weighty matters of the day, but in the minutiae of everyday life.
The last few days have seen a fine illustration of this truth. The Herald last week carried a news report on classics students from the University of Glasgow launching a course to teach Latin to school pupils. Immediately we had a plethora of letters on the subject, including some scholarly Latin jokes, and the useful information that the phrase "awa' an' bile yer heid" can be translated as "abeunt et coques caput tuum". You don't get that on the telly.
Consider also the topics we have been discussing: continuing the education theme, we have had debates on declining standards of literacy and numeracy in our schools, concerns over the Curriculum for Excellence and the vexed issue of access to universities and medical schools.
In politics, we have had the continuing fall-out from the General Election, and we have embarked on two debates that will undoubtedly feature prominently over the next year: the in-out EU referendum, and the 2016 Holyrood election campaign. We have also discussed electoral reform, the State Opening of Parliament and the conduct and treatment of the SNP intake, and (in contrasting terms) two Liberal Democrat politicians, Alistair Carmichael and Charles Kennedy.
Other weighty issues have included the possible distribution of surplus supermarket produce to food banks, assisted suicide, primary care and the National Health Service; yesterday and today the subject of interpretation of the Scriptures has arisen.
Our readers are clearly also passionate about the arts (the fate of The Arches in Glasgow and the career of George Gershwin), nature and the environment (the possible reintroduction of wild spaces, camping in our national parks, and how to maintain our bee population), and sport (the Fifa affair and the goings-on at Fir Park, Motherwell).
We can file under "Miscellaneous" golliwog dolls, Deaf Sign Language, Calmac Ferries, the shortage of Church of Scotland ministers and the flinging of jeely pieces.
I have said before in this slot that I never know what is going to be in the mailbag on a day-to-day basis, but one occurrence is almost as inevitable as death and taxes: every few months or so we will be accused of bias in our coverage. I should once more repeat that we strive to maintain balance at all times. At the end of the day, the final selection will always represent the weight and quality of contributions received; if feel your viewpoint is under-represented, then the way to correct that is to write in.
Perhaps I will take a leaf out of our scholarly readers' books and give the Letters Pages a Latin motto: Veritas et aequitas, which can be translated as truth and fairness. Or perhaps quid pro quo?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
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