On this day...

Woody Allen, film director, above left, 85; Lee Trevino, golfer, 81; Bette Midler, singer and actress, 75; Gilbert O’Sullivan, singer, 74; Stephen Poliakoff, playwright, 68; Charlene Tilton, actress, 62; Jeremy Northam, actor, 59; Sarah Silverman, comedian and actress, 50; Janelle Monae, musician, 35, above right 1906: The Cinema Omnia Pathe, the world’s first purpose-built picture palace, opened in Paris.

1959: Twelve countries signed an agreement to preserve Antarctica for peaceful scientific research. 1989: Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Rome to end 70 years of hostility between the USSR and the Vatican.

1990: The two halves of the Channel Tunnel were joined under the sea.

2009: International agreement the Treaty of Lisbon, also known as the Reform Treaty, came into force.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A society dedicated to preserving the ‘much abused’ apostrophe was to be shut down, it was announced, as its chairman said ‘ignorance and laziness’ had won.

Time to widen our horizons in print...

I TAKE Mr Charlesworth’s ‘fish and fowl’ comment as a compliment.

I see no moral dilemma in giving my vote to the person or party I judge to be most up to the job (or at least the ‘least worst’ option).

But how has this train of correspondence got here, from my original letter pleading for a larger number of readers writing

So opinion is simply not open to debate?

ONE can only assume that Mr Shackleton must be on constant lookout for ammunition for the Examiner letters page.

There is also the incessant vitriolic, biased opinions of some prolific letter writers.

These writers seem to think

It’s all gone quiet at Speaker’s Corner

I AM sorry to inform Alan Stephenson that he will not be able to speak at ‘Speaker’s Corner,’ as the police have banned people from speaking at speaker’s corner.