{"id":6712,"date":"2012-11-13T18:49:03","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T18:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/?p=6712"},"modified":"2013-02-07T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T11:27:00","slug":"what-voters-really-think-of-the-elections-for-one-police-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/?p=6712","title":{"rendered":"What voters really think of the elections for one police commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is not America you know,\u201d said the man impatiently, pushing past a slightly embarrassed-looking Roy Warren as he stood clutching his curriculum vitae<\/em> leaflets.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not voting. It\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Warren is the only independent candidate standing in Greater Manchester in tomorrow\u2019s elections to appoint a new police and crime commissioner. It is no easy task.\u00a0 As well as the party machines of the other candidates for the post \u2013 Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Ukip \u2013 he is up against not just voter apathy but voter hostility.<\/p>\n

Turnout is predicted at a record low for any UK election when the polls open to appoint 41 of the new commissioners all across England and Wales. Standing by Mr Warren, as he lobbied keep-fit enthusiasts as they entered his local gym at Hale Country Club, you could see why.<\/p>\n

The new commissioners are a Conservative flagship scheme to replace the nation\u2019s old police authorities, which were made up of local dignitaries, councillors and magistrates. This most radical reform of the police service for 50 years was intended to make the police more directly accountable to the general public. The new commissioners will have the power to appoint and dismiss the local chief constable.<\/p>\n

But the first half dozen voters Mr Warren stopped revealed the range of problems candidates \u2013 and in particular independent ones \u2013 have been facing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know anything about these elections,\u201d said sports agent Matthew Southall, aged 28, \u201cI\u2019ve never even heard of them\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only know about them because my children\u2019s school will be closed for polling,\u201d said Sam Jones, a 38-year-old PA, as she left the gym with her husband. \u201cBut I probably won\u2019t vote; I don\u2019t think I know enough about it,\u201d she added, despite the leaflet Mr Warren had helpfully pushed into her hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already voted, with a postal vote,\u201d said Donal Murphy, 46, a plant manager. \u201cI don\u2019t think a police commissioner is a particularly good idea because it will politicise policing but I think you have an obligation to vote. But there\u2019s been a disgraceful lack of information from the Government on it. I got more information on the candidates for my children\u2019s school governor than this. So I just voted Labour, which is what I always do.\u201d<\/p>\n

This confirmed Roy Warren\u2019s worst fears. A local magistrate, who was till last year chair of the Trafford bench, he spends more time sitting as a JP than he does running his property business. \u201cThe reason I stood \u2013 putting up \u00a35,000 of my own money as a deposit \u2013 was that I did not want a politician to get the job and there were no other independents standing,\u201d he said. His fear is that those who do bother to vote will do so on tribal party lines.<\/p>\n

Nor can he compete with the campaigning capacity of the local political parties. Candidates are allowed to spend up to a limit of \u00a3356,204 on campaigning \u2013 a figure that provokes a hollow laugh from Mr Warren.<\/p>\n

To cover this massive constituency of 2.6 m people he has just himself, two fellow magistrates and his daughter who does his IT. The night before she had replied to more than 300 emails from voters wanting assurances that Mr Warren did not favour police privatisation and asking if he was linked to any company likely to benefit from being awarded police contracts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to reassure them on both counts,\u201d he said, \u201c but it tells you something about the suspicion the public has for politicians\u201d.<\/p>\n

What baffles him most is the lack of enthusiasm and effort the Government has put into the implementation of the 2010 Tory election promise. It is funding no mail-out for his manifesto. It has imposed a \u00a35,000 deposit which deters a diversity of independent candidates. It has chosen a dark cold November day for the poll. \u201cThere isn\u2019t even a list of the candidates names on the polling card,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole thing is shabby and ill-thought out.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a survey by the think-tank Policy Exchange only 34 per cent third of the public support the idea of directly-elected Police Commissioners. Another 34 per cent say they are a \u201cbad idea\u201d and 32 per cent \u201cdon\u2019t know\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Electoral Reform Society is predicting a turn-out of just 18.5 per cent but Mr Warren reckons they\u2019ll be lucky to get 10 per cent of voters to the polls, which will call into question the democratic legitimacy of elections which have cost the same as 3,000 new police officers would have. The only comfort for Roy Warren is that a very low turnout might favour independents like him.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is not America you know,\u201d said the man impatiently, pushing past a slightly embarrassed-looking Roy Warren as he stood clutching his curriculum vitae leaflets.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not voting. It\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d Mr Warren is the only independent candidate standing in Greater Manchester in tomorrow\u2019s elections to appoint a new police and crime commissioner. It is no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,37,38],"tags":[102],"class_list":["post-6712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coalition-britain","category-politics","category-society","tag-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6712"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7216,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6712\/revisions\/7216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}