The only thing you really need to take part in parkrun | Running
I was delighted by Alan Martin’s article on taking part in parkrun (I’ve completed 355 parkruns – here’s what you need to get started, 8 July). As a parkrun obsessive (252 runs and 126 volunteering sessions at 88 different venues) with a respectable personal best time of 20:05, I have learned that you only really need one thing to participate: the humility to accept that you’ve just been overtaken by a fellow runner pushing a buggy.
Ralph Fyfe
Newton Abbot, Devon
Regarding Christian Wolmar’s article on large cars (Britain’s cars and SUVs are growing bigger – but there is a way to stop this deadly ‘carspreading’, 12 July), isn’t part of the problem that many SUVs are bought and driven as ESVs: emotional support vehicles?
Martyn Wilson
Malvern Link, Worcestershire
John Crace’s useful résumé of notable Reform UK members (The politics sketch, 9 July) omits the party’s former member Nathan Gill, a man of faith and staunch upholder of family values, once esteemed by Nigel Farage – and now in jail for taking bribes to make pro-Russian statements in the European parliament (Reform UK’s ex-leader in Wales Nathan Gill pleads guilty to bribery charges, 26 September 2025).
Allan Jones
Yardley Gobion, Northamptonshire
To fight Reform, Count Binface should rebrand his party as Refuse (‘He goes a bit funny if you use his real name’: the unstoppable rise of Count Binface, 11 July).
Richard Ferraro
Ventnor, Isle of Wight
“Ernő Rubik, inventor of the cube” (Birthdays, print edition, 13 July)? Surely not. It was Tate & Lyle, wasn’t it?
Steve Lupton
Prestwich, Greater Manchester
