Additional factors include the exact method used to wash up by hand the

Additional factors include the exact method used to wash up by hand, the energy used to manufacture the item (including producing the steel, plastics and circuitry), the pollution created during distribution, the energy required to produce the extra-powerful detergents used and extract them from the waste water at the treatment plant, as well as the pollution created at the end of the item’s life cycle.If Mr Cooper has devised a way to measure all of these things against a pair of Marigolds, then he deserves a research grant.RICHARD MARRLONDON W3 Kolkata no longer ‘magnet for misery’ Sir: Hamish McRae’s article on cities (8 March) bestows the dubious distinction on my city of being a “magnet for human misery”. First, Mr Vallely fails to provide the theological warrant and justification for forgiveness: we are called to forgive others, quite simply, because God forgives us. Were God not the Forgiver, we would not even exist.Second, without this theological foundation, forgiveness comes perilously close to being a purely utilitarian practice. Indeed much of the popular literature on forgiveness focuses entirely on its personal benefits of “inner healing”.

We do benefit from forgiving, but that is not the point: the point is not “me”, it is the “other” to whom I pass on the free gift of God in a graceless culture.THE REVD KIM FABRICIUSSWANSEA The eco costs of the dishwasher Sir: Roger Cooper suggests (Letters, 6 March) automatic dishwashers are more environmentally friendly than washing by hand because of lower water, detergent and power usage per cycle.Sadly, it’s not possible to sum up a product’s environmental impact in such simplistic terms. The church teaches that forgiveness is neither optional, nor a quid pro quo. And while it is true that without repentance the goal of forgiveness, reconciliation, inevitably remains incomplete (because the refusal to repent constitutes a rejection of forgiveness), nevertheless forgiveness itself remains unconditional.Two supplementary points. Why are we British so keen to erase our popular architectural history?IAN ROCKCHARTERED SURVEYOR WORMINGHALL, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE Lesson for press in divine forgiveness Sir: Thanks to Paul Vallely’s article (“The struggle to forgive”, 7 March), the secular press is now without excuse for its ignorance and misrepresentations of the heart of Christian faith.

Most have lasted extremely well, perhaps because of the good quality natural materials used, compared to today’s replacement housing with their chipboard floors, hollow partition walls, concrete tiles and cheap, poorly painted timbers, which are unlikely to stand the test of time. You can blame the double-glazing industry for wholesale replacement of architecturally stylish original windows and distinctive “one over three” doors with awful aluminium or plastic replacements, which has wrecked the character of whole streets.But this can now be remedied. It is a fairly simple task to insulate older properties and to fit efficient heating systems. And there are some wonderful repro Art Deco fittings available. Both financially and ecologically, restoration is a far superior option to redevelopment. I just wish someone would inform John Prescott, whose department is busy repeating the mistakes of the 1960s by demolishing vast swaths of perfectly good Victorian housing in Hull and Merseyside.