Police and Crime Commissioner elections

Why isn’t London included?

London has a directly elected mayor, who acts as the police and crime commissioner for the Metropolitan police area. The police and crime panel is formed from a committee of elected London Assembly members. The commissioner of the Metropolitan police will continue to be a Royal appointment on the advice of the home secretary.

15.82% turnout in my home county of Sussex, shouldn’t take them too long to count…it’ll be interesting to see how many papers were spoilt in protest.

A large number of people saying they didn’t have enough information about the position or the candidates to decide whether a) they were bothered and b) who to vote for. The Government didn’t fund a mail-out as they do in general elections so it was down to the individual voter to have the time, inclination and access to the internet to research their candidates. Anyone who doesn’t have access to the internet…tough! Where people did manage to find information on their candidates, many were dismayed to find the information provided sparse and disgruntled to find that the majority of the candidates, if not all, were aligned with a political party for what is supposed to be a non-political post.

Put that with the election being held on a cold day in November and is it any surprise that there’s a low turnout?

And how do Downing Street react?

Downing Street blame low turnout in part on lack of coverage by London media.”The national media have not covered themselves in glory.”

No 10 say would not have been appropriate at a time of austerity to use taxpayers money for free mail shots for Police Commissioner election.

So they used taxpayers money to set up a structure and elected position that the majority don’t want, to run an election that no one was interested in, on an advertising campaign that still left people feeling uninformed but they wouldn’t fund one mailout and now blame the media…yeah right. :roll: