I AM not sure S Caplin is right (We like our clock.', Hereford Times, May 10). Public donations were so slow the town council upped its grant, meeting half the cost from council tax.

It has been suggested the ducking stool could still be turned into a seesaw and more people would enjoy it. That could be a good way out.

Coun Cooke has said the ducking stool could be educational. But how? Surely not school-kid sniggers? Educational' implies relating to modern life'. For example, the bicentenary of the Wilberforce' Act has educated us all, heightening our awareness of slavery in many parts of the world today and of thousands of slaves in modern Britain, and our government is looking for solutions. The clock doesn't make that link, but my letters attempt it.

I repeat: ducking, nowadays called waterboarding', is torture. We in Britain are allowing refuelling to CIA planes carrying victims to torture camps away from American (and British) law.

This is doubtless deplored on all sides of the House when attention is drawn to it, so hardly political'. Not political, either, as Molly and I would probably sit on the same side in that august assembly we are fortunately spared.

Perhaps we should both apologize to your readers for bits of this debate. I am all for a good tough argument, even laced with jokey digs, but it should deal with the points raised, not with personalities. Anger gets in the way.

Alfred Dowson, Deerfold, Birtley, Bucknell