Flanked fore and aft by army escort vehicles – the Welsh Guards, Royal Welch Fusiliers, and local Territorial Army units such as the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry are taking turns to accompany them all the way – they do not end their efforts at their daily destination. It is difficult to resist forking out when you see them on a long haul up a Welsh hill, hands flailing at the wheels of their racing chairs and still managing to acknowledge the encouraging horn-blasts of passing lorries.On the downward slopes they’ve reached over 40mph on their specially- built pounds 2,000 Invacare racing chairs and braking on the bends has seen them go through more tyres than Jacques Villeneuve. Chris Hallam and John Harris, however, are taking the other options to an uncomfortable extreme; propelling their wheelchairs 600 miles around the steep outer rim of Wales for five weeks of fund-raising during which they’ve generously allowed themselves two rest days. Being two of Britain’s top paraplegic athletes over the past 15 years, and among the more defiant and assertive ones at that, they would never have considered that the first step towards self-help these days is to reach for an application form.
On the other hand, it might be said that they are collecting their Lottery allocation at source; saving their benefactors the trouble of buying tickets, sparing them all those false hopes, allowing them to see exactly where their donation is going, and cutting out all the middlemen and assorted fat-cats.Judging by the fact that they’ve been showered with loose cash amounting to over pounds 2,000 a day on some of the better stages of their exhausting odyssey, the public welcome the opportunity for first-hand financing of some good causes. Adwindling number of people may be aware of this, but there are other ways to raise money for a sporting cause than by putting on a mournful look and chaining yourself to the golden railings outside the National Lottery office.

The former are long-established religions which people choose after finding Christianity doesn’t appeal to them. It was not long ago that Hindus in India were converting to Christianity in much the same way. The true cults are the ones which destroy other faiths by preaching that they lead to Satan. It’s time Christians realised it is the arrogance and evangelicalism within their own faith that will “bury Christianity”, not the unorthodox ideas of people trying to make their increasingly secular lives a little more spiritual.
Danny HuberChulmleigh, Devon.

However, not only is the UK per capita contribution three times the world average, but the IPCC has indicated the need to cut emissions globally by at least 60 per cent in order to stabilise the climate. If we are to deliver our fair share of this reduction, that round trip accounts for double the UK per capita annual emissions that could be allowed. If we continue to exceed our share there can only be two outcomes, both of which are politically and morally unacceptable. Either those who do not yet use their share, mainly people living in developing countries, must be prevented from doing so, or we must witness and bear the costs, together with future generations, of escalating damage from climate change.
Dr Mayer HillmanPolicy Studies InstituteLondon NW1. You acknowledge that “many unorthodox movements are respectable” and yet still lump religions such as Buddhism and Paganism with evangelical cults such as Mormonism (“Cult explosion threatens to bury Christianity”, 8 June).

In the meantime, Alan Watkins et al will have to keep reminding the Labour Cabinet that this is 1990s Britain and not pre-war Germany.
Michael P WardStockport, Cheshire. Air travel has more significance for climate change than even Geoffrey Lean allows (8 June). He correctly notes that a round flight to Florida produces carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to 10 weeks worth of each British person’s average emissions from using fossil fuels (for heating, power, lighting, commerce and industry, as well as transport). But I am convinced that someone with the benefit of being educated and trained in these areas will generally perform better than someone without.Julian IvesNottingham Trent University. Alan Watkins points out that Labour’s massive parliamentary majority is unhealthy and that the only effective opposition is provided by “old lags” like himself (8 June)

He is right Tony Blair is not interested in electoral reform. His hand will be forced only after the next general election when he has to rely on the Liberal Democrats to keep him in power. They will indeed discuss and, where possible, practise just the sort of field crafts Chris lists so incredulously and much more besides.

Unlike some of us older hands, young journalists these days don’t get to pick up these skills so easily in their factory-like newsrooms.Frankly, I don’t know if better training would have saved a vulnerable source such as Mordecai Vanunu or whether it would always fend off hoaxers. Roger Cook of The Cook Report, has just been appointed as visiting professor, joining Jon Snow from Channel 4 News and Radio 4’s Sue MacGregor.Our students, many of whom will already have had bylines, will work with experienced journalists. In fact this centre has no plans to teach media studies, which is a respectable but largely theoretical discipline. The new and very practical MA in investigative journalism will be a sister course to our successful three-year BA in broadcast journalism. When that started in 1992, TV and radio hacks queued up to say how you can never teach anyone that sort of thing; they just have to do it. Now that the majority of our graduates have good-quality work with broadcasters and, we’re told, four have moved on to do work for ITN – that’s in their early twenties, mind you – you don’t hear that call for “inky-fingered apprenticeships” so much among broadcast journalists.
Like our BA, the new MA will be vocational and is being developed with a raft of industry supporters, including ITN, Carlton/Central Television, BBC Midlands and GWR/Radio Trent. We were bemused by Chris Blackhurst’s attack on us and “media studies” (“First, ask the right question”, 8 June).