Watching briefly the TV news last night, I saw a vox pop on the police commissioner elections. Interestingly, the first lady to speak said she would spoil her paper, something which I had determined to do and which many people have told me they will do.

Newspapers are clearly catching that mood, the loss-making Guardian thus telling us that "apathy is the expected response from 40 million voters".

Actually, you can always trust the Guardian to get it wrong. This is not so much "apathy" as indifference – a slightly different thing. Elected police commissioners are not the answer to whatever problems are besetting the police, and simply reflect politicians' love affair with elections and their misplaced belief that they necessarily impart democracy.

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Edited by user 15 November 2012 11:55:04(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Make sure you DO vote, however, lest someone else cast a vote in your name for their Preferred Only One...

Richard wrote -



Indeed, and the other comments above deal with most of what's left of this subject. For my part I cannot see either retired politicians or policemen being anything other than putting a fox in charge of the chickens. The vested interests will prosper but the public come off worse.

In 1959 the Chief Constable of Staffordshire County Police was Colonel G.W.R Hearne, I was proud to be one of his constables.

I will not even go and spoil my ballot paper today!

Never heard of any of them, and will they (whoever it is) make a difference to police in cumbria? Nope.

So will I spoil my vote? No, Im not going to waste the effort going to the polling station.

I dunno, I've thought about this [on and off] for months.

The police are failing but another bureaucrat ain't gonna solve that.

But if you don't vote - then: you can't complain.

I feel somewhat compromised.

Edited by user 15 November 2012 09:41:13(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The better message, I would aver, is sent by the low turnout. That robs the process of any "democratic" legitimacy.

The beginning of the of the British police force was when they traded the bicycles for machine-guns !

"There are over 100 countries with populations bigger than West Yorkshire. "


Do you mean "with populations smaller than West Yorkshire."

That's fine. You shouldn't be surprised, though, if somebody votes in your name. When your Betters desire a good election turnout, they have the means to make that happen. I mean, do you have your ballot in hand? If not, what is to prevent them from giving it to someone else? Over here in West Pondia in the recent election, there are many reports of people showing up to vote and being told they had ALREADY voted. Of course, our "Law Enforcement" could not be bothered to do anything about it...