Kent Youth Police and Crime Commissioner

Actually, can someone tell me what the job will consist of. On a day to day basis?!

Yes you can - expect maturity at that age, I mean. With guidance (and due diligence in examining her back ground!) she might have been OK. But the whole concept is flawed; a liaison person, not necessarily a "youth PCC" might have been better. Or a panel of young people who, undoubtedly, would have seen her for what she was.

And in her apology, she claimed that the comments she made were taken out of context; can anyone explain in what context they would have been acceptable?

I saw that too, Ariadne, and thought exactly the same! How can a tweet be taken out of context anyway?

It seems so sad that a 14 year old would routinely use that sort of language. I don't think my friends and I would have known some of the words at that age. I suppose the problem with social networking is the temptation to come out with this stuff in the hope of looking"cool".

Apparently, as a result of complaints from the public, the tweets are now being investigated… by the Kent police.

Hate for anyone to quote back at me anything I had said 'off the cuff' aged 14!

I agree! But when we were her age, Hilda our comments vanished into thin air! As someone else has pointed out, once you e mail, text, or tweet, your words will follow you.

Moved, you were right that Ann Barnes is paying a proportion of Ms Brown's salary out of her own pocket - it seems to be confirmed by the press that she's paying £5000 towards it.

She's also admitted that no checks were made on the Twitter account because that's not part of their normal recruitment procedure. Bet it will be from now on!

Thanks Ana. Why were the checks not made? I feel like going down there and giving them some basics on recruitment! It isn't that difficult.

It does make me wonder about these Police Commisioners, are we going to find out that she already knew this girl? Our own PC has appointed a deputy on £75k pa who is a personal friend. Big outcry, condemned left right and centre but he said he didn't care and was only doing one term so it didn't matter to him! No accountability to anyone it seems.

Yes Ariadne - folks nowadays need to remember that when they commit to social networks etc its almost like publishing - I don't think youngsters appreciate that. Mind you even so called 'grown-ups' have put some pretty daft stuff out there for all to see.
I grew up in a somewhat stiffled household where , as children, we were expected to almost edit our thoughts before we spoke out loud. I don't recommened it as such but it does mean that, as an adult I do have quite a well developed filter on the stuff I say out loud. A bit of the old 'unless you have something nice to say - don't say anything' would not go amiss at times.

As DD who is staying with us + DG"s

Don"t tweet when you are in wine !

Nonu

Hilda I agree, publishing is a good analogy - all the content of Social networking sites is for sale, regardless of privacy settings and it's there, forever. I believe there is a programme to permanently erase your presence on Facebook but once done, you can never go back. I pity the young, I would hate to have my past sins paraded to haunt me.

Oh go on Sel tell all

movedalot memories, memories (that was an enigmatic smile BTW)

Well she has resigned from the role.

I have a little empathy for her and sadly feel it was a disaster waiting to happen. Also given the crazy vile things people can get away with by being anonymous I think she could well have gotten a lot of nasty messages. We read too often about internet/twitter bullying and she was prime for this to happen. That is the sad malais of todays 'society'.

It also confirms to me that 16 is too young to have the vote. You cannot on one hand say 16 year olds are old enough to take responsibility to make a political decision and call them children if and when things happen such as this case.

I truly hope she gets over this but I suspect she might be experiencing a lot of personal upset.

Movedalot - you are spot on about the new commissioners. Private Eye has revealed some shocking examples of nepotism and cronyism.

It was probably the right thing to do .

Well, doesn't this whole fiaso illustrate how little youth is understood by the organisations that are charged with helping them? There's abysmal resourcing for further education, voluntary and apprentice progammes, and tailoring work to youth ability and need, then they muck up a radical initiative like this. I despair!

It will be interesting to see if she is replaced and, if so, who by?

Greatnan I am beginning to wonder if it is possible to get into high positions and still have high moral standards

Re PCCs - when this whole sorry system was set up (and for once you can't blame GB) it was actually allowed for the appointment of Deputy PCCs to be completely in the gift of the PCC - only a handful have advertised the post. I find it astonishing!

I think it makes sense for them to appoint their own deputy just think they should not appoint their pals.

But if you allow them to appoint whom they want, you can't stop it!! One solution would have been for them to have run on a joint ticket in the election so that at least the electorate( the few that voted) would have known who they would get if they voted for a particular PCC candidate.

I think Robin Cook had high ethical standards in politics if not in his private life. It was very instructive to see the amount of expenses each MP claimed and also how often they attend debates. I don't think this is a left-right issue, as many MPs seem to choose their allegiance on pragmatic grounds - i.e. which party is most likely to give me a safe seat.

Stupid girl! Thank heavens she has resigned. She should have been sacked from her job or at least given an official warning.

Like others I think her claim of "her words being taken out of context" is complete bol****s totally unacceptable. I don't think immaturity is an excuse either.

Given what she has said it is clear that she shows at least bad judgement and at worst her attitude to the minority groups she slagged off is really how she feels. She is not suitable for that position.

She is likely to be dealing with the public and she has just made a number of offensive remarks about various groups of people. I would not trust anyone who has expressed such views without a great deal of evidence that they had changed their ideas and were truly sorry.