My piece the other day entitled 'A Dogs's Breakfast' about the impending farcical election for Police and Crime Commissioners seems to have struck a chord, well certainly with my mates in the pub. As we all know, major issues of the day are widely discussed in such institutions, where still available, and my suggestion to spoil ballot papers on November 15th was enthusiastically received.
If my circle of friends and acquaintances can be deemed as in any way typical of other people nationwide, despite the arrival of the government leaflet, there remains widespread ignorance as to what PCC's are all about and whether spending up to £100,000 on each one was a good idea or not. There is particular anger that absolutely no information about the candidates will be forthcoming and it can only be found online or as a result of telephone enquiry.
Well it emerges that the same young policy wonks that thought up the whole barmy idea at the Tory Party think tank Reform have some more brilliant ideas as to how the remit of Police and Crime Commissioners can be extended into other areas of public life. According to their latest report, they are suggesting that PCC's are given authority over commissioning probation, fire and ambulance services. They see this as a brilliant opportunity to extend the privatisation of all these services.
There is only one way in which we, the Electorate, can register our disdain for this whole sad miserable piece of political gimmickry and that is by taking the unprecedented step of spoiling our ballot papers en masse.
I'm glad I live in London as we only have serious politicians like Boris in charge of the Met ;)
ReplyDeleteI won't be spoiling my vote.
ReplyDelete1: That's what Gadget wants us to do.
2: The candidates are quite different, we have two in my area (N. Yorks), a Labour one who seems quite sane and says she'll fight to prevent privatisation of the police force and a Tory who doesn't say much of anything.
As I would prefer my local police force to not resemble something from the end of A clockwork orange, I think my vote will be being cast and for Labour -.o;
Those who boycott themselves into a bad situation have only themselves to blame.
Hideki,
DeleteWell to be fair, Gadjet wants people not to vote rather than spoil their papers.
I have to admit that if there was a candidate that was firmly campaigning resistance to privatisation, then I might be tempted to give them my vote.
Thanks for commenting.