The only thing you really need to take part in parkrun | Brief letters
Brief letters: Humility for runners | Carspreading and ESVs | Reform UK and Nathan Gill | Party rebrand for Count Binface | Ernő Rubik
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
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