All of them stand where they do or prospered because they had ready access to the sea or to waterways

All of them stand where they do or prospered because they had ready access to the sea or to waterways. How can the history of London be understood without constant reference to the sea? The offices of The Independent are now at Canary Wharf in Docklands, as maritime an address as you could find. Even Birmingham, the least seafaring of places imaginable, is well served with canals.In a marvellous passage in his lecture, Professor Kennedy took as his example the Tyne, where he was brought up. The maritime history he wishes to read - and which he may indeed have to write if nobody answers his call - would observe that on the Tyne the social structure was simple. Apart from the doctor, the schoolteacher and the clergy, everyone was working-class and lived in terrace houses next to the sea. As for politics, Tyneside was first Liberal and then Labour but pacifism never took hold It provided the bedrock for "patriotic Labour". And in place of Braudel's remarks about snow, there would be a brief study no doubt of various pub names in Wallsend - The Ship, The Nelson, Trafalgar, The Anson, The Mauretania (built at Wallsend), the Admiral Collingwood (born locally), the Galleon, Admiral Benbow, The Gibraltar Rock and the Victory.History like this - ambitious, intensive, complicated as it would need to be - would undoubtedly be worth writing for its own sake But Professor Kennedy didn't stop his argument right there.

He went on to say that Britain's present circumstances reminded him of the 1920s. Then the questions were whether there would ever be a major war again, would there be fighting in Europe or only in "brush-fire" situations overseas, would Britain always have allies in battle and who would the next enemy be: the Bolsheviks, the French, Japan, Germany? And rather than spending money on the nation's defence, it was also asked 70 years ago, would it not be better to balance the budget, and to invest instead in education and improve the social fabric? These discussions of the 1920s do indeed have a familiar sound today.But today it is much harder to make the case, as Professor Kennedy does, for maintaining or even enhancing our naval power. This is his second reason for having a proper maritime history - it would help the argument for a big navy At this point I part company. Since the Second World War, the United Kingdom has spent a significantly higher proportion of her national wealth on defence than most other comparable industrialised nations. We do it out of habit, because it has bought us a bit of influence and because military tasks are something we are good at.

These are not convincing reasons for spending much more on defence than similar countries do. I am sure that the nation has been literally poorer as a result. Let us have a full account of Britain's maritime past; let it be well taught in schools and universities But let us also accept that those days have finally gone.. Tower blocks may be a thing of the past, but tragically most of the disastrous mistakes of 1960s social housing have been made all over again this decade. Despite so much evidence, the human and social lessons of the past have been ignored. How do you make a housing estate work? It is a fascinating human puzzle that excites social engineers. How can these artificial "communities" of the poor be made bearable? The evidence was all there, had they chosen to heed it. The Government, loathing local authorities, put its faith in housing associations.

But several reports - one from the Audit Commission, another from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation - show they have now created another generation of human dust-heaps. How did it happen?Trying to kickstart the housing market, under intense pressure from building contractors stuck with unsaleable private houses, in November 1992 Norman Lamont suddenly released a lot of money for housing associations to buy off-the-peg private estates. The catch was, they had to borrow half the money and they had to spend it all within four months It is hard to imagine a better recipe for disaster. In those four months, 18,433 units of social housing were acquired.