Police Commissioners

Just had an unsolicited call from someone canvassing for the conservative one.
No way!

I had a look at an interview of the candidates in Durham. The conservative and UKIP ones said they would not oppose the use of private companies as it was in their manifestos. The idea of A4E or G4S doing policing makes me feel sick, so I am off to vote properly now before I pick the kids up.
Had G4S coming reading my meters and I was nearly charged for an extra 300 units - in the Summer! Imagine what they could do if they were involved in the police.

I haven't voted - I know so little about the candidates that it would be a nonsense to do so - this is why the whole process is totally undemocratic.

I don't know whether the PCCs will be a good idea or not but I did have a look at the candidates websites to find out what each of them stood for. Surprisingly I have gone for an independent. I went out to vote around 1.00 p.m. and the officials in the hall told me that since 7.00 a.m. they have had 16 people in to vote! I know I live in a small village but judging by that it will be a very small turnout!

How small does it have to be before it is declared invalid?

DH & I went to vote at about 6:30. Looking at the lists very few had a pencil mark by the name to show that a voter had been in. You would think that there would be a minimum 30% turnout required to make the election valid!

Interesting point, Mishap!

Will our votes be more influential if we are among the very few who voted?

Too late for me to vote now. When Mr HP called in to vote at about 6 pm he said the polling station had only 156 people to vote so far (potentially apx 9,000). It will be interesting to see what the turn out is and if it is low what message does this give.

I did not vote because the blurb on the web site did not give me enough information to make a choice.

Do they even care how low the turnout is? They can now claim that the 'winners' were democratically chosen...

what a farce. I would happily have voted if I knew who I was voting for but I refuse just to vote along party lines. In fact I think all candidates for these posts should be independent of political parties. Because they were not and I knew nothing about any candidates in my area, for the first time, I did not vote when I was able to. I know I could have sought information on line but on behalf of all those who cannot access information in this way and that must include many older people, I refused to do so. If they want my vote they must make some effort to get by at least telling me who they are and what they intend to do!

I felt the same so I filed my postal vote in the circular filing cabinet.

hicaz46 Even if you did go on line, the chances are you would find a few paragraphs by each candidate that were completely interchangeable with the other candidates' paragraphs. More police on the beat, reduce crime in our area, increase the clear up rate, zero tolerance of anti-social behaviour, walk on water…

I said that for the first time in my life I would deliberately not vote in the election for police commissioner, but when it came to it I couldnt not go to the polling station and collect my vote. Then I cast a spoiled vote. I wrote across the ballot paper 'I do not want a police commissioner I want a police authority' before popping it in the ballot box.

I was clearly not alone as I understand that a quite exceptional number of spoiled votes was cast yesterday. The Tory spokesman on R4 tried to infer that this was because some voters did not understand the voting system and filled the form in incorrectly but was forced to admit that many were deliberately spoiled.

Don't you love that Tory spokesman? How hard is it to indicate a first and second choice? Making the choice is another matter all together.

Flickety spoiled mine too but not in error either!

In one area - I think it was in North Wales - the turnout was thought to be as low as 5%. The only result so far declared was in Wiltshire, with a turnout of 16%. The winning candidate did not get a decisive 50% and the result was decided on second preferences. And I heard the winner on the radio this morning claiming that he had a 'mandate'. That's democracy for you.

I have a postal vote and reluctantly decided not to use it. I, naively thought that this was not about politics but about the right person to do "the job". However one look at the voting slip told me otherwise. this is just another local election in disguise with all the usual parties being represented buy "their" puppet. Where is the independence in that?

Well, at least John Prescott failed in his bid - lost out to a Conservative at that!

He lost to a conservative because the area included East Yorkshire and North Lincs which have a lot of tory voters. Having said that I didn't vote for Prescott although I didn't vote for the winner either. Just seen the winner being interviewed....bit concerned that he talked about improving policing in the East Yorks and North Lincs....seems to have forgotten he has to work for Hull too. Oh well that's a politicised police commissioner for you.

Quite.

Ana - Just read that too, it's like all my Christmas' have come at once! Allegedly told some reporter to b*****r off, doesn't sound like him at all!

P threatened to thump someone the other day lol

Without knowing anything about all this (and is that not a whole problem in itself?) I am in the 'If it ain't broke why fit it' party. Have there been dreadfull faults in the old system? Why the need for this change?. The only way to improve crime figures is surely to have more and better trained police officers doing their job without any political adendas!

Hear hear