Are the Department of Health taking notice of this drug due to Dr Stephen Dealler's very noisy methods of goading officialdom? Over the decades, as a scientist, I may have mistakenly chosen to use quieter, more carefully reasoned methods for suggestions, warnings or criticisms on CJD-related topics - of my several attempts, only my 1976 warning of CJD-contaminated human growth hormone yielded any positive official response. I do not think that there is a shred of evidence for the assertion by Dr Dealler that the children of those who have died from human BSE are at higher risk of also being infected Needless distress will result from his statement. Is such hype needed to provoke official action? Put more generally, do those with a poor "signal-to-noise ratio" tend to become government advisers?Dr A G DICKINSONLasswade, Midlothian. Sir: I cannot comment on the other instances mentioned in Emma Cook's sneering article "How lo-fi can you go?" (25 November) but I can speak with some authority about Kate Winslet's wedding. It was as near a normal wedding as someone in Kate's position was going to be allowed and it was thoroughly genuine.

I try to ensure that each couple marrying in my church do so in the style most appropriate to them, and I am quite clear that we achieved that aim in Jim and Kate's case. If they had wanted opera singers, string quartets, costumes and stage sets we could have accommodated them, and it would have been splendid, but it would not have reflected the people that they are. I realise that you cannot libel a building, but to describe All Saints, Downshire Square, as a "quaint little local church" is almost actionable: it is a sumptuous Victorian Gothic basilica which seats five hundred, as a moment's research would have told Ms Cook. West Reading may not be Knightsbridge, but it is possible to have style outside the capital. Fr HENRY EVERETTVicar, All Saints, Downshire SquareReading, Berkshire. Sir: The Leukaemia Research Fund has been greatly saddened to learn of the death of Georgina Horlick. Despite all the pressures on her time, Georgina's mother, Nicola, has given selfless and invaluable support to the fundraising efforts of the Leukaemia Research Fund.

It is unfortunate that reports in your paper and in The Independent on Sunday have contained errors of fact which may unnecessarily alarm the parents of other children with leukaemia. The Independent on Sunday has stated that about 1,200 children a year are diagnosed with leukaemia. Happily the true figure is about 420 cases a year. More seriously, the impression is given (report, 30 November) that within the last five years bone-marrow transplants have become the treatment of choice for childhood leukaemia This is not the case. Some two-thirds to three-quarters of all children with acute leukaemia will have an excellent response to chemotherapy. The relatively more toxic and dangerous bone- marrow transplant approach is reserved for children identified as having high-risk leukaemia or for children, like Georgina, who have relapsed. The article further implies that long-term follow up treatment is a new approach, whereas this was introduced about 30 years ago.There is little or no evidence to support the assertion that every last leukaemia cell must be destroyed for treatment to be successful. This is the subject of ongoing research but there is historical evidence to suggest that cure is not dependent on a strategy of total annihilation of all leukaemia cells.Although there has been major progress in treatment of childhood leukaemia, there is much work still to be done.

Education of the public has a valuable part to play, but it is vital that the information is timely and accurate.KENNETH CAMPBELLLeukaemia Research FundLondon WC1. Sir: Michael Cooper (letter, 28 November) rightly points out that the closed list system precludes independents like Martin Bell ever being elected But this is only the half of it. In our parliamentary system it is candidates who stand for election, and there is a list of requirements and exclusions that control who can and cannot stand. In this respect, parties are not registered or formally recognised in law, so since when have they become an electable entity? If the constitution is to be opened up like this, we must know what organisations can and cannot take part. Another key point arises from the fact that we, the electorate, will learn who will represent us only after the election. Will this new type of representative be governed by the same rules as apply currently to candidates? At what stage are they to be screened and by whom?MAX BERANDidcot, Oxfordshire.

Sir: Ed Clarke's omelette (letter 30 November) will not unscramble back into eggs because of the entropy (irreversibility) created in the process of its manufacture. A better measure of the passage of time and its associated irreversibility is to ponder the claim, "Nuclear electricity will be too cheap to meter." May I have a research grant please? Professor A PORTEOUS Faculty of TechnologyThe Open UniversityMilton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. TODAY'S PUBLICATION of examination league tables is no longer the cue for party political arguments. This is a welcome sign of a new consensus on education policy: as the public debate shifts to the mechanics of teaching and the details of raising schools' performance, so the ideology that so marred the Seventies and Eighties has been fading into the background. Establishing homework clubs, wiring schools to the Internet, fixing buildings, lowering speed limits for traffic around schools: these seem to be the new minutiae on which schools will be judged. It is as if the great set- piece confrontations over "child-centred learning", grammar schools, selection and coursework have exhausted all the passion of politicians and professionals alike. The Conservatives do not seem to be interested in opposing the Government's education policies. Proposals for paying teachers by results, in order to attract outstanding graduates to the teaching profession, were circulating in Conservative circles just before the election.The Prime Minister is skilled at appropriating the political middle ground.