A culture of managerialism is behind Met police failures | Letters

Managing policing and other public services should be about people, not data, writes Derrick Joad, while Simon Marlow-Ridley thinks the job of Met commissioner is too big for one person

What Dal Babu's article on policing (The Stephen Port scandal is another betrayal of public trust. The UK deserves better policing, 10 December) demonstrates is how the prevalent cult of managerialism" blights so much of public life. This is a cult that overvalues good management" and devalues the task of doing.

Managerialism insists everything must be managed in the correct way, as taught by business schools and promoted by politicians as the answer to everything. Neither politicians, auditors nor commentators were aware of the approaching failure of Carillion, the outsourcing giant, because it was managed" correctly. What Babu describes is the very negative consequence of the adherence to this cult in the police service.