Richard Dawkins is right that robotic machines have supplanted humanoids on other worlds (Little green aliens? Perhaps – or maybe ice creatures, 20 December). His wife, Lalla Ward, who played Romana opposite Tom Baker’s Doctor in Doctor Who, could have reminded him that the Cybermen and the Daleks annihilated the indigenous human beings on their home planets, to become the supreme beings in the universe. Exterminate and happy Christmas!
Frank Danes
Ely
• You note that, when Alan Rusbridger became Guardian editor in 1995, this was supported by a journalists’ poll (Guardian staff to vote in process of choosing next editor-in-chief, 20 December). The world of democratic consultation has moved on since then – witness the way the Labour leader is elected. Surely it is now time to let readers have a say too.
Keith Flett
London
• What a wonderful photograph of the rhinos enjoying their sprouts at Chessington World of Adventures (Eyewitness, 19 December). If anything shouts that we must save these animals, it was this terrific image. Mind you, I would not want to be in the immediate vicinity of the rhinos once those sprouts started to do their work.
Martin Johnson
Congleton, Cheshire
• Hope that fox used the Downing Street side gate ((Fox on the run, 18 December). Another inquiry might cost the earth.
John Hunter
Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire
• After recent front-page stories about a man using a camera and a couple having a baby (Letters, 22 December), I can’t wait for the spread on an elderly woman going to church later this week.
Bill Dixon
Crewe
