Reasons to vote tomorrow

A couple of reasons why I believe it is worth casting your vote in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections tomorrow (if you have not, like me, already voted by post).


1) Whether you think this post should have been set up or not, it has been, and somebody will be elected tomorrow. That person will have considerable power, including the right to set part of your council tax bill. If you don't vote you lose your say over who will fill that job.

2) Voting does not endorse the creation of another tier of politicians. The Police and Crime Commissioner will replace the existing Police Authorities, and should cost less that the existing system.

3) Operational day-to-day control will remain with the Chief Constable, but the Police and Crime Commissioner will set police priorities and have a big influence on what the police treat as their most important challenges.

Comments

Jim said…
I decided I would go and vote after all, you know nice guy and all. I went at 3:30 and was voter number 6 all day.

Then when I got there, found out this vote is being held under the AV system. That one the public overwhelmingly said NO to.

So I was really nice and treated this vote with all the contempt it deserves. I voted for all 4 candidates as my first and second choice.

it was a whole new experience though because i have never before crossed the box beside a labour or lib dem candidate.
5:05 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Your decision.

The voting system is the same one used for electing Mayors. It isn't quite the same as the AV system that the public rejected for the House of Commons, but I accept that it is close.

Using this voting system was part of the price the Lib/Dems extracted for supporting the creation of Police Commissioners.

As Bismarck said, "The less people know about how laws and sausages are made the sounder they'll sleep at night."
10:35 pm
Jim said…
I don't really care what lib dems wanted. The Public overwhelmingly voted no to this system.

I would argue with Bismarck too, see I think the more open these things are done the more peole can see that this is not democracy, This is elected dictatorship.
4:16 pm
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