Thanks to Ciaran Thapar (What kind of society sends young men to jail and ruins lives because of the lyrics in a song?, 31 January). This is a totally unjustified attack on young Black musicians. Tom Jones got away with his knifing-Delilah song and so did Jimi Hendrix’s Hey Joe (“with that gun in your hand”) and Motörhead’s Shoot You in the Back. Our talented young Black musicians should be encouraged, not jailed.
Jenny Moir
Chelmsford
• Your article (Cressida Dick sought £500,000 to quit as Met chief, 29 January) lists a series of scandals reported by the mayor of London, over which she presided as police commissioner but omits perhaps the most serious, in which she was personally involved. As you reported in June 2021, the official inquiry into Daniel Morgan’s murder and corruption in the force “found she had hampered its efforts to get to the truth”.
Ian Reissmann
Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire
• As a former newspaper man, I very much enjoyed Elisabeth Ribbans’ piece about the strange words journalists use in the workplace (The perils of using journalist jargon outside the newsroom, 31 January). Please note: piece, not article. There are no two words more sweet-sounding to the journalist’s ear than “Nice piece.”
Robin Lustig
London
• I won my 50p bet over Nadhim Zahawi (Letters, 30 January), but sadly I long ago lost my bets that Dominic Raab, Priti Patel, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson and many more would resign when they broke rules of law or decency.
Maggie Lyons
Sheffield
• There’s plenty of room in that bathtub (Marina Hyde, 31 January). All Ian Maxwell is doing is revealing the poverty of his own sex life.
Alexandra Sellers
London
