Sir: As a police constable and a graduate, I have
small motive to endorse the present arrangements for promotion in the police service, yet I would like to put forward an ad hominem argument.
Is fresh blood urgently needed at senior levels in journalism? Surely yes, as public confidence in the press is dramatically lower than in the police.
Should editors and their assistants have been professional leaders in fields other than journalism? Or is there a case for top journalists to have had more than 'some experience' of the trade?
Most Spectator readers would probably answer 'perhaps' and 'yes' to the last two questions, and would further say that all three questions fail to do justice to the subject.
Most police officers, also thinking peo- ple, and in whom I see few signs of trades union mentality, would say the same about both journalism and policing.
The Spectator's leader writer might do the same, before his readers take him at his word and call for his replacement by a talented lieutenant-colonel.
David Nicholson
134 South Farm Road, Worthing, West Sussex
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