IN his letter (Oxford Mail, July 17) Roger Tucker comment at the end ‘Oh, save us from graduates with degrees, with daft ideas!’ This raises the matter of graduate entry into the police service with a promise of promotion within three years shortly, if my information is correct, to be reduced to one year. If this is so, then the patients truly are running the asylum.

I have nothing against graduate entry per se. We must acknowledge that some of our better leaders, military and political, explorers, poets, business people and athletes have developed from the university system. But I do object to them having an advantage over other recruits when joining the British police.

Join, by all means, but on a level playing field, no promises of accelerated promotion. Police work, as stated in Roger’s letter, is a matter of learning to deal with people and using common sense and, yes, I accept, a little cunning along the way.

With a university background of study, the promotion exams should not present too much of a problem, but then the candidates should be judged on powers of leadership and attendant qualities; not become a supervisory officer in fewer than three years just because one has enough knowledge of how the Ancient Egyptians ruled to able to obtain a degree.

The Government of our country has decided that we don’t need armed services as much as we did and are making a large number of servicemen redundant. I proffer the suggestion that a great many of those unfortunates would make excellent police officers, supervisors, and if they are put in a melting pot with the graduates, perhaps once again we can begin to have a police service that we can be proud of, rely on and be the benchmark which other countries envied as it was in the past.

We don’t need to live in the past. Times have changed in the world and criminals have also changed. But there is no harm is taking the best parts of the old system and developing it.

CHRIS PAYNE, Turnpike Road, Bicester