When the title “Humberside” was axed, returning the former North Humberside to Yorkshire, the “regional” people were so vexed that they insisted on retaining the word “Humber” somewhere, so the EU voting region refers to Yorkshire and the Humber, consigning Scunthorpe, Grimsby, and the rest of what is in fact north Lincolnshire to the deep.ERIC RICHARDS Riccall, North Yorkshire. In August last year a neighbour asked if I could identify a very large caterpillar. It had been found in her garden feeding on potato leaves and she had been frightened by not only by its size but by the strange cry it made. Can there be an alphabetical bias in the selection of leaders? We have Blair and Brown The US has Bush and Italy has Berlusconi Moving down the alphabet you find Chirac and Helen Clark. I fear I would stand little chance of being elected, condemned to the bottom of the ballot paper.DAVID WALKER Sittingbourne, Kent Fabulous caterpillar Sir: It is exciting indeed to see the caterpillar of a death’s head hawkmoth in this country (report, 15 September). Recent former leaders include Bush (again) Clinton and Chr?en.

He should be tried for the deaths of over 15,000 iraqi civilians, over 1,000 American troops and at least 100 British troops. Where does Kofi Annan’s statement leave our troops in Iraq legally?GRAHAM GAVIN Rotherham, South Yorkshire Bottom of the list Sir: I was interested to read the report of Meg Munn’s Bill to list candidates in random order on the ballot paper (Simon Carr, 15 September). The lowest-ranking soldier is expected to give his life for his country if necessary, regardless of family concerns. I wonder what Osama Bin Laden thinks of this story; he must be laughing his head off.RICHARD GRAHAM High Peak, Derbyshire Iraq war crimes Sir: In the light of Kofi Annan’s statement that the war in Iraq is illegal, it is now incumbent upon our Prime Minister to resign immediately and find himself a defence lawyer Tony Blair should be tried for war crimes.

Are we supposed to feel sympathy for the poor man? The leader of our country should be someone who puts the wellbeing of his country before anything else, including his family. But only when we accept the idea of sufficiency – that most of us have enough – will we start to make the radical changes in our lives and economy that are required to slow climate change.It’s easy for me to say this – I’m not elected. But will the Prime Minister have the courage to put rhetoric into action when Britain assumes presidency of G8 next year? The world’s poor, and the planet, need him to.ANDY ATKINS Advocacy Director, Tearfund Teddington, Middlesex Family worries Sir: I was astonished to read that Tony Blair almost quit his job earlier in the year “because of family pressures”. In our consumer culture, progress has come to mean “more” – more cars, more air travel, more production and consumption of more things, with more people owning and using more of them, more often. We now know that much of this consumption needs more energy, which uses more fossil fuel, which emits more CO2 – which causes more climate change.We can boost energy efficiency. So if Mr Ferguson is right, for every wind turbine we build, we have to provide equivalent extra cooling towers in a power station somewhere! I don’t believe this can be the case.I would be interested to know the subject of Mr Ferguson’s Senior Research Fellowship at Jesus.CHRIS WALLIS Littlewindsor, DorsetSir: Combating climate change will require a change in the rich world’s attitudes to progress.