In building a new nation to be, as John Winthrop wrote in the 17th century, a beacon to the rest of the world, Americans were somehow to defeat the human condition that afflicts others. The anxiety of this failure is an American feature, not, as Sheila Johnston so provincially argues, European.Yours,Richard GiordanoManchester. This weekend belongs to the aliens. Manchester plays host to the International Conference on Alien Abduction, while Channel 4 gives lesbianism a rest and screens pictures claimed to be of dead space folk being dissected in Roswell, New Mexico, circa 1947. The Roswell film is, of course, a hoax, following in the long tradition of the Turin Shroud, the Loch Ness monster and the Hitler Diaries Each time new, astonishing evidence is discovered. The writings of the early Puritans, through Melville, through Malamud and Bellow, to Richard Ford – not to mention the popular sociology of the 1950s and 1960s (White Collar by Whyte, The Lonely Crowd by Reisman, The Urban Villagers by Gans) – all deal with a central dilemma in American life: the building of a nation by individuals who have few emotional bonds, and the resulting chasm between what a nation can be collectively, and what it really is today.To a painting, Hopper’s work depicts loneliness and, more important, isolation – the vast distance between individuals who are physically close.

From Mr Richard Giordano

Sir: I was disappointed with Sheila Johnston’s review of the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Whitney Museum in New York (“Does Edward Hopper really epitomise American culture?”, 22 August).
From the 17th century onwards, a central strand in American intellectual and cultural history has been the loneliness of the individual in a fluid society, itself located on a vast impersonal continent. They also recognised that the right to privacy had to be reconciled with the right to freedom of expression.The Convention sets out the right to privacy in Article 8.1:Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondencereconciles it with the right of freedom of expression in Article 10.2:The exercise of (the right to freedom of expression), since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society forand insists on remedies in Article 13:Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in this Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority …Not only is a privacy law workable and possible, its introduction is an international obligation of the UK.Yours faithfully,J A McLeanBurness SolicitorsEdinburgh24 August. From Mr J A. McLean

Sir: Andrew Marr (“Privacy, the press and happy hypocrites”, 24 August) says that “a privacy law is perfectly possible and perfectly workable”.
The framers of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Council of Europe 1950) thought so too. The fine dust in an airfall is a respiratory hazard, if ash is allowed to accumulate thickly on roofs it can cause them to collapse, and it may kill crops and other vegetation.Yours faithfully,David A. RotheryDepartment of Earth SciencesThe Open UniversityMilton Keynes24 August. A lava flow may destroy buildings in its path, but it almost always moves slowly, usually advancing on a narrow front, and it can be walked away from.
The real threat to life on Monserrat is of a wide-spread ground-hugging flow of volcanic ash that could be generated by a major explosive eruption.

These hot avalanches travel at more than 100km per hour, and it was one of these that obliterated the town of St Pierre, along with its 28,000 inhabitants, on the nearby island of Martinique in 1902.So far, the most vigorous current activity on Monserrat has been ash thrown a few thousand metres into the air, dispersed by the wind and falling slowly to the ground. An air-fall deposit such as this should not be referred to as an avalanche, because the process of emplacement and the hazard it represents are both quite different. Rothery

Sir: The fears among scientists about the possibility of a much bigger volcanic eruption still to come on Monserrat are not that it will “spew deadly lava”, as stated in your report (23 August) Lava is rarely deadly. From Dr David A. After all, justice is not a commodity to be bought but a right to be fought for.Yours faithfully,Dave MorrisLondon, N123 AugustThe writer is a defendant in the “McLibel” trial, in which he is being sued by McDonald’s for distributing a leaflet critical of the fast-food chain.. From Mr Dave Morris

Sir: Regarding the issue of increasing numbers of people denied legal aid and the difficulties faced by litigants-in-person, as well as the problem of access to legal advice, there’s the problem of a sheer lack of money and resources that working-class people face when they act for themselves in a case (“How to tell it to the judge”, 23 August).
When you consider that we’re currently having to raise pounds 350 per day just to buy copies of the daily official transcripts of the McLibel trial hearings, on top of all the other basic expenses, it’s no wonder that people are cynical about the courts dispensing “the best justice that money can buy”.I send my solidarity to all those who, whether for personal or political reasons, have decided to stick up for themselves despite all the hardships and difficulties. For those that have the option, I wonder whether we are now likely to see an upsurge in the conversion of pasture to arable land, more pressure towards intensification, and a further loss of landscape and ecological character.It is vital that we maintain a vibrant rural economy and a profitable agricultural sector.

The countryside would be a very different, and much less diverse and attractive place, without farming. It is right that farmers should have the opportunity to make a living, and a good one, in a profession that requires a combination of technical skill, business acumen, commitment and sheer hard work matched in few others.But in a sector that receives huge amounts of public funds, the taxpayers must be sure to receive the greatest benefit for their investment. This benefit at present comes predominantly in the form of a secure supply of relatively cheap food.In an age when, thankfully, we do not go hungry, we are entitled to ask for more. Provision for nature conservation, landscape improvement, reduced pollution – these are all “commodities” that the farmer is in a unique position to provide.

They should be recognised much more centrally in the CAP, and incorporated as part of society’s return for the financial support it is giving to the industry.None of this means that farmers need suffer. Subsidy levels can still be set to give a good living, and can certainly be adjusted to give greater assistance to hill farmers.It is simply a case, as customers, of changing our specification to the supplier and ensuring that we get true value for money and public benefit from public funds.That, surely, is the order of the day.Yours sincerely,Nick BrownLeamington Spa,Warwickshire17 AugustThe writer is Principal Landscape Conservation Officer, Warwickshire County Council.. This, and the devaluation of the green pound, have made arable farming a good business to be in.
Conversely, other sectors of the industry, particularly hill sheep farmers who cannot grow cereals, are in a bad way. From Mr Nick Brown

Sir: Drought or no drought, it certainly appears to be a bumper year for arable farmers. We hear that the combined effects of a switch within the Common Agricultural Policy from price support to area payments and the unexpectedly high market price for cereals have led to record profit levels.