“We Scots must face up to our slave trading past” (Comment, page 47, Scottish edition, 22 Nov) said that in 2008 the Scottish government asked Dr Eric Graham and Dr Iain Whyte to contribute to a volume on Scotland’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade, adding: “It seems they didn’t like some of the home truths that the academics revealed and so they were quietly jettisoned from the project” – giving the impression that the SNP minority government, elected in 2007, was to blame, when it was the previous Labour-led Scottish Executive that commissioned the work in 2006.
An Observer editorial headlined “Questions the PM must answer before we act” (Comment, 22 Nov, page 44) twice used the term “in tandem” (one after the other) when we meant “in parallel” (at the same time).
Apologies to those thwarted by our Thanksgiving recipe for Aunt Lisa’s pumpkin bread (Magazine, 22 Nov, page 65). It recommended 3⅓ cups of flour, which we erroneously converted to a mere 85g. We meant 415g. Disaster.
Homophone call: “…drafty office space” (“When Tiny Tim met Little Nell” (News, last week, page 12).
Write to Stephen Pritchard, Readers’ Editor, the Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk or telephone 020-3353 4656
