Letters: Rod was right about Bob Marley

Copping out

Sir: Both the Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Andrew Billings and your recent correspondent John Pritchard are partly right (Letters, 16 and 23 March). Policing has gone wrong for two reasons.

First, the massive cuts in staff instigated by Theresa May as home secretary resulted in a large number of the most experienced officers leaving. Even the replacement of these officers under Boris Johnson took time and could not make up for the loss of experience. Secondly, the inspection regime under the Inspectorate of Constabulary fails to address the crimes that matter to the public. During the years I was PCC for the Thames Valley, I made household burglary, theft, violence on the streets and rural crime our priorities. That was what the vast majority of the public wanted. We would then get castigated by the Inspectorate for lack of effort on such nebulous things as diversity. What communities want above all is security in their houses and on the streets. The Inspectorate forgets that, and many chief constables seem delighted to abandon proper policing.

Anthony Stansfeld

Kintbury, Berks

Marley and me

Sir: It’s not often I find myself in agreement with Rod Liddle, but the day has come. He has articulated what so many music (especially reggae) fans have long believed, but never dared declare: that Bob Marley is ‘perhaps the most overrated songwriter in history’ (‘The greatness of Steve Harley’, 23 March). Songs such as ‘Three Little Birds’, ‘One Love’, ‘Turn Your Lights Down Low’, ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Iron Lion Zion’, are so bland, banal and puerile –both musically and lyrically. And they’re not only overrated but also tediously over-played on Radio 2 and Greatest Hits Radio.

While we’re on the subject of overrated songwriters: I see your Bob Marley, and raise you Freddie Mercury. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ doesn’t make up for the likes of ‘Bicycle Race’, ‘We Are the Champions’, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ and ‘Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy’.