I think we expected this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20352539



Looms like lack of information and general bewilderment about the job is to blame.

Where I live, I've heard nothing about the candidates. I expected some kind of leaflet drop from the, especially from the big parties, but nothing came around, and there was definitely no canvassing or campaigning at the level we were seeing on the TV. As far as I am concerned, if you can't organise a leaflet drop, you are not likely to be able to organise a police force.

Unlike local or general elections, it was decreed there would be no expenses for leaflet drops in the PPC elections. That's why you've not seen any leaflets.

I managed to forget to even go and spoil my ballot. We'd been out to the osteopath, did a quick round of vets and chemists for drug collections, picked up some provisions and some fish and chips, got home, ate the meal and then remembered we'd forgotten to pass the polling station.

We had 5 candidates standing in Northampton - but again we have heard nothing really about any of them.

The Labour candidate was also barred from standing 2 weeks before so although his name is on the ballot paper he won't be allowed to take up the roll should he 'win' - he did a minor offence like 20 years ago!

I think if turnout is below a certain % - say 25% - then the election should be declared void as how can that be considered a mandate?

There's been a lot of muttering about this on the wires. The government refuses to accept a <20% turnout in trades union ballots as a mandate, but seem quite happy to accept the same for this election.

Incidentally, Dan Snow (@thehistoryguy) tweeted this just now:

So? They can fund them themselves. They are chasing a 60K+ job, are expected to show some initiative in communicating with the people who are supposed to have voted for them. The deposit was a couple of thousand, so anyone standing has access to funding. In the case of the main political parties, who all fielded candidates, a leaflet drop is not beyond the wit of their legion of volunteers and local members.

There is no excuse for not doing this.

In the recent council elections, I was even phoned up by the Lib Dems local candidate. They phoned me. A wasted call, but it clearly shows how important these elections are if the main parties, especially the power crazed Lib Dems, don’t try some kind of contact.

Put this another way. If you were applying for a job, you would not leave your CV and letter of application somewhere and expect employers to find it. You actually have to post the thing to them to even be in with a chance. As far as I am concerned, no job application letter = no vote.

I’ll be finding out the candidates over the course of the next day or so and writing/emailing them to tell them just why I did not vote for them. This is one of the reasons. Sadly, I was unable to debate the other points (ie keeping politics out of the police force) as they were clearly unwilling to make contact.

Radio news this morning said the turnouts in Manchester central and... the other one that isn't Corby were less than 20%. Both are safe labour seats so didn't expect a high turnout but even with the BBC political journo trying to spin it (November, cold, etc) that's a damning statement on the level of disenfranchisement the general population feel in our current system. 4 in 5 people couldn't be arsed. How either of those two MPs will ever be able to claim they represent their constituents with anything like a straight face...

Corby will probably be higher as it's a more marginal seat but if it gets more than 33% I would be mildly surprised.

Oh, I totally agree.

No-one seems to have been bothered to tell anyone anything, from what I gather. I was quite happy with the old system of police authorities. Was it so broken that we needed to replace it? The whole thing is a scam of the highest order.

Apart from no information why should we vote for another politician to stick their nose in the trough and get paid for probably doing nothing. It is no more accountable than the system that existed before, even if we did not vote directly for them. None of the candidates had any relevant experience so why should we vote for them?

When I was working at the DHSS in the 1980s, the Secretary for State for Health & Social Security was directly responsible for what we did in the office. If someone complained to their MP, or a question was raised in the House of Commons about a case or the way the law was interpreted by the department (i.e.. the rules we had were based on the law, and these rules were often modified and refined). There were a few times where the minister was “embarrassed” by questions raised in the house. And rightly too - a minister has to be accountable.

So, some bright spark in government had the idea which was this: if we spin out the DHSS offices - ie those people who do the work implementing the social security benefits system into an external agency, then this means that this separate entity can be wholly responsible for the day to day implementation of the system. The minister would not be wholly responsible. So if someone asked their MP a question or complained, that complaint would not get to the Social Security minster - the agency would handle this internally. No more embarrassing need for the minster to be responsible for everything. And thus the Benefits Agency was born.

This PCC lark is no different. It is effectively taking the responsibility of the day to day policing of the nation away from the Home Secretary and handing it to these elected officials. So the Home Secretary can order a cut in expenditure across the police force, and the PCCs will be responsible for deciding what gets cut and what says put. The Police Authorities did this too, but their controlling hand was the Secretary of State. No longer - the buck will stop with the PCC, not a government minister.

At the same time, the police has just become politicised. There is a oath they have to swear about being impartial, but only a naive fool will believe that that will happen. The politics of the PCC will come to play, and their hand will be guided by party politics. When it comes to the inevitable whinging about how the police is run, again, the politics will kick in and it will become more of a political football than it already is.

I have no wish to see the police becoming a politicised, and really I have no wish to see the government disconnect so wholeheartedly from their responsibilities. Yet this is what we have, and with turnouts as low as 15%-16%, I hardly feel that there is a mandate.

I got a postal vote with four candidates. Three political and one independent. I've not had any information from any of them on what they stand for in terms of policing or what their policies would be.
No wonder nobody gives a crap.

RE: ministerial responsibility - I believe the same thing has happened in the ministry of health. previously, there was effectively a direct chain of command between any NHS doctor or dentist and the health minister. It was quite a long chain but nevertheless it existed. The recent health reform bill, among it's other controversial aspects, severed that chain at a lower level. Now the minister has responsibility for policy but not implementation, which of course in the real world means he can't be held responsible for anything at all.

The political elite seem very much interested in retaining wealth and power but divesting themselves of the responsibility that comes with wealth and power.

Jon

+1

There is no now legal duty for the government to provide a health service. Policy is meaningless if there is nothing official to implement it.

Given how so few people have been reported to vote, they're taking a fair while releasing results for anywhere other than Wiltshire...

Maybe they are having recounts?