USING strident language and meaningless phrases: couldn’t run a whelk stall, jumped in with his size 12 boots, mucha macho, Blackwood cohorts – cabals, the political class and their sycophants are quick to condemn and rush to the judgement of others holding a contrary view. They require evidence while themselves dealing in speculative opinion. Accusing others of bullying and sensitive to criticism, they are equally guilty. Neither for nor against women chief constables, ability and leadership are my guide.

I don’t claim with faint praise that hypocrisy is for politicians and their ilk. I write according to evidence and experience, crime statistics and the nightly weekend state of Newport are facts for others to judge. More evidence, then? Wayne David, MP, in April 2012 said publicly ‘that doubt had been cast over Mrs Napier’s desire to maintain a legacy of community orienting policing’. A Damascene conversion, and in less than a year!

Like you, Mr Boyd, I want openness and transparency, especially in public affairs. What do you mean, then, by mucho macho Blackwood cabals and cohorts? What evidence do you have? I’ve little faith in many parliamentary inquiries, oh and at what expense?

I’m prepared to sit in an open public forum chaired by the editor of the South Wales Argus or a truly neutral person along with politicians and interested folk. Now that would be true democracy in action, not political bombast, Mr Boyd.

J Sanderson, Woodlands, Newport