I'm now wishing I'd stood. My only policy would have been that I'd do absolutely nothing and donated all the money to the police force.
Well as the new role replaces the existing Police Authorities I presume you are happy for the police to have no oversight whatsoever and have no accountability to the local community.
The phrase "if its not broke, don't fix it" springs immediately to mind
And I can't think of a single thing instigated by a politician that's primary intention wasn't to further their own self-interested agenda
If you read [url= http://www.hmic.gov.uk/media/police-governance-in-austerity-20101025.pdf ]this report[/url] there is a suggestion that most were only performing adequately so arguably the system could be improved - no doubt we will find out in due course.
costs of this estimated between £75million(telegraph) and £100million (guardian)
just for the elections
couldve put a few thousand extra coppers on the beat for that, rather than another layer of party political (mis)managers
it really is so utterly pointless offering a choice between candidates , they are all gonna be in favour of the same thing!
ather than another layer of party political (mis)managers
It is not another layer, it is replacing a 15 person committee structure with one person.
I presume you are happy for the police to have no oversight whatsoever and have no accountability to the local community.
We're already there around here.
From the Beeb...
But Labour's Chuka Umunna said: "It has been a total shambles and the £100m spent on it could have been spent on 3,000 police officers."At least if you are going to have the elections, organise them properly and [b]don't have them in the middle of winter[/b]."
Did I miss some mahoosive climate change event?
of course one politically driven person is always better than a commitee of 15, with its checks and balances, accountability my arse-- people on here freely admitting they voted for something they know nowt about-- i suppose thats called democracy !
Well as the new role replaces the existing Police Authorities I presume you are happy for the police to have no oversight whatsoever and have no accountability to the local community.
It wouldn't matter what I wanted, it would have been the will of the electorate.
If I'd stood with that policy, I'd have a mandate to do nothing. After all, as many as 7% of the electorate would have chosen me.
Lots of people on radio saying they wouldn't vote as no one had told them anything about the candidates. Apologies but this really riles me – fair play if you don't agree with the whole idea, fair play if you want a "none of the above" option, but to say you're not voting because nobody told you about the candidates is just pathetic. Look on the net FFS! Take some f######g responsibility for your choices!
If the people standing can't be bothered to canvass or provide literature, then that speaks volumes about how unimportant they feel these elections are. Meanwhile, the Home Secretary has been busy explaining all the things the PCCs won't be able to do.
Why would you vote for someone on that basis?
druidh - MemberFrom the Beeb...
But Labour's Chuka Umunna said: "It has been a total shambles and the £100m spent on it could have been spent on 3,000 police officers.
"At least if you are going to have the elections, organise them properly and don't have them in the middle of winter."
Did I miss some mahoosive climate change event?
I know! It was the nicest day we've had in months yesterday. I went to vote after banging 40 clear, crisp, dry miles in on the bike. I've not been able to say that many times this year! 😀
A ballot box in Newport contained no votes 😯 not sure if that says more about the good burghers of Newport or the idea of voting for a Police Commisioner.
If the people standing can't be bothered to canvass or provide literature, then that speaks volumes about how unimportant they feel these elections are.
They couldn't afford to send out leaflets, after the government removed the one free postal delivery per candidate.
The areas covered are much larger than in most elections, so they're not able to visit each household, or hand-deliver leaflets using volunteers.
The only person in our area who could afford a leaflet delivery was the independent. I'm suspicious about the source of this money; who gains by him winning?
They couldn't afford to send out leaflets, after the government removed the one free postal delivery per candidate.The areas covered are much larger than in most elections, so they're not able to visit each household, or hand-deliver leaflets using volunteers.
Many of the candidates are standing for the main political parties - if they won't fund them...
I note that the Lib dems didn't even bother to field a candidate in many areas.
The most important issue: was my vote spoiled, or spoilt?
For the Wiltshire PCC out of a total of 514,855 eligible voters only 81,477 cast a vote with a total of 2,683 votes rejected (one was mine as I fundamentally disagreed with political candidates being able to sack my chief constable)
Didn’t really matter tho my mate Dave’s mate was duly elected – result said my mate Dave and its only another £80k added to the burden of bureaucracy in Wiltshire. Everyone's a winner
So as I understand it, the government thinks that a union should have to get a majority of all their members to vote in favour of strike action for the vote to have any validity. However, it's absolutely fine for police commisioners to get in with a majority of the 10% who turned out.
Its amusing hearing the political class blame everything from the fact its November, it was dark and the London media [ they did not tell us enough - though of course the govt refused to pay for a mail shot for the candidates but sent a mail shot telling me it was on as if the ballot paper was not a big clue] rather than just accept that the majority of the country think its a daft idea and not worth voting on- what a waste of money
I spoiled/ spoilt/ f'ed up my ballot paper at 19.15, I was the 2nd name on the 2nd page to "vote", the old dear sat there reckoned about 30 folk had been through all day.
Good work Team Tosspot (my new name for the co[s]ck[/s]alition)
I went for a night ride round Woburn, had a great time.
what a fiasco, the omnishambles rumbles on.
Spoilt/spoiled.
Moist/soiled. It's a fine line really.
I spent all yesterday evening checking the polling stations of the Ribble Valley. One station had had 8 people in by 8pm
Quite a few colleagues worked on the polling stations, most stations worked out about £10 pound per vote on staffing costs alone.
I was all in favour of a campaign for spoling votes/boycotting, but decided that throwing a strop wouldn't help, and decided to find out about the candidates:
The Labour candidate was vice chair of the current Police authority, and his main aim was to campaign against the cuts - so he was out, I need someone who will try and do the best job despite the cuts
The Tory - apart from being a Tory - was deputy leader of the council, and I wasn't voting for a career local politician
The independent guy was an ex-special constable who claimed to have a vague knowledge of turning round struggling businesses, so maybe.....
The UKIP guy was proposing to be tough on crime/criminal, used the phrase "zero tolerance" and said that if savings could be found he would plough them back into coppers on the beat....
God help me, I voted UKIP 😥
Where I went to vote in mid afternoon there were two tables you could choose from. One table had just 15 people all day, reckoned that would be about 60 for the full shift!
There was a turnout of 9.46 percent in Stoke-on-Trent! How long till we get rid of the commissioners?
I wrote a nice little message on my ballot paper 🙂 In Wiltshire, the guy got elected with 6% of votes, and 3% of papers were spoilt... I heard on r4 tonight, "many papers had been spoilt, some deliberately...."
That will be Radio 4 pushing the Cabinet Office line then. They have to make up after grovelling for the previous lot.
Shamelessly stolen from somewhere sensible...
... when the Public and Commercial Services Union announced a strike of border guards in July 2012.
Damian Green MP: “This is a completely selfish and irresponsible decision by the PCS leadership. With only around one in 10 voting for industrial action, they have no authority to call their members out on strike.”
My local PCC is a career B-list politician who had the vote of 6.8% of those eligible. What was that Damian?
Tom B - Member
There was a turnout of 9.46 percent in Stoke-on-Trent! How long till we get rid of the commissioners?
its very hard to roll back 'democratisation'
Northwind - MemberSo as I understand it, the government thinks that a union should have to get a majority of all their members to vote in favour of strike action for the vote to have any validity. However, it's absolutely fine for police commisioners to get in with a majority of the 10% who turned out.
+1
Spoilt votes came a close third for Devon & Cornwall, (we had ten candidates in total, 4 'political' ones and six independents, and spoilt papers beat three of the four 'political' candidates). The man that won only had twice as many votes as there were spoilt ballot papers, and only 4% of people that could have voted at all actually voted for him. Good lord. 🙁
iNorthwind - Member
So as I understand it, the government thinks that a union should have to get a majority of all their members to vote in favour of strike action for the vote to have any validity. However, it's absolutely fine for police commisioners to get in with a majority of the 10% who turned out.
You just couldn't make it up, hilarious watching them try and justify why it's perfectly ok to have a 8% turnout. Even some of those Tory tossers must be realising that the end is in sight. Time for hem to jump ship to their nice little directorships etc.
Sadly, a political hack got it in Wiltshire. There I was hoping an independent would get in. 🙁
Just thought I'd resurrect this in light of whats just happened in [url= http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-councils-second-in-command-jim-battle-5327841 ]Manchester[/url]
A failed labour politician, beat the failed politicians of the other parties to become Police Commissioner last year, on a salary of £100 grand a year. And whats the first thing he appears to have done? Says he needs to appoint a deputy, and gets one of his mates in to fill the £55 grand position.
Neither of these clowns has any experience in policing
You've got to love democracy, eh? 🙄
This has been happening all over the place, and everyone's acting surprised... I... I mean, it's just so... 👿 😕 🙄
here's hoping the next lot repeal it. Stupid idea, badly executed.
unklehomered - Member
This has been happening all over the place, and everyone's acting surprised... I... I mean, it's just so...here's hoping the next lot repeal it. Stupid idea, badly executed.
your assuming the next lot arent this lot al over again
and Id be seriously surprised if they do repeal it, too many party members now in position of tin pot influence
unklehomered - It does indeed look like its happening all over. The [url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9728959/Fears-of-cronyism-as-police-commissioners-appoint-deputies.html ]Telegraph[/url] have picked up on it. It sounds like just more seats on the taxpayer funded gravy train!
Blimey! And I thought Manchester was obvious cronyism! [url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9996774/Police-and-Crime-Commissioner-critcised-for-appointing-Labour-colleague-as-deputy.html ]This one seems another blatant one.[/url]
[i] One, independent West Mercia commissioner Bill Longmore, is reported to have intended to appoint his campaign manager as a deputy.
John Campion, a Conservative councillor scrutinising the prospective appointment as part of a panel told the Times he would be “very surprised” if the public felt “somebody should be handed a £50,000-a-year job without any competition whatsoever just because he happened to be the winning candidate’s election campaigner”.[/i] 😯
