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Is there a thin blue line for the new Police and Crime Commissioners?

February 9, 2012 11:15 pm

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Jon Harvey

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The process to select candidates for the new Police Crime Commissioners is underway. The Labour Party NEC will be long-listing at the end of February. The Liberal Democrats have, I understand, said that they do not intend to field candidates from a nationally organised position but will offer support to local parties taking the initiative. In the past, the Conservatives have declared that they will be hosting open primaries but no news is yet emerging on when and where these might occur. The plans of other political parties are much less clear.

In recent weeks – and perhaps unsurprisingly – most media discussion about these selection processes has centred on the personalities and ‘names’ who are counting themselves in or out. Both Michael Crick of Channel 4 and the Police Foundation are keeping a live log of people who have expressed an interest. (See here and here).

I have been watching the formation of this Conservative Party idea for elected police commissioners for some years now and I remain keenly interested in how it is now being enacted on the real electoral stage. However I am disappointed that very little of the debate, so far, has been about the policies that candidates will be competing on. This will change as we approach the election in November, no doubt. But I do urge Labour Party members to start having the debates now.

What policies should we be campaigning on? What discussions might we have on these web pages about such policies? Are any CLPs organising events to focus on this election from both a practical campaigning perspective but also from a policy one as well? The party will agree national policies of course (and some of the emerging findings from the Lord Stevens review will feed into this, I would expect). However, what are the local policing issues for (say) Thames Valley, or South Wales or Suffolk or South Yorkshire for example? It may well be these very issues that will connect with local people and get them out to vote Labour on a dark wintry day in November.

For example, has your local police authority accepted the one off grant from the government to enable them to freeze their council precept this coming year, or not? Given there is no guarantee that this money will be available next year, this could well poleaxe the incoming PCCs and what room for manoeuvre they have around precept that they will be setting. (Of course we can be sure that the Government is not or will not be doling out the grants this year and next with any politics in mind…)

And what of PCCs being empowered to “commission policing services from the chief constable (or other providers)…” [my italics]. Is this in anyway similar to the new GP commissioners being able to purchase health care from any willing provider under the bill currently going through parliament? Is the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 a privatiser’s charter? Or is this a natural extension of Best Value legislation and supportive of the new PCCs being able to source competitively the best possible policing services? What do you think? What does your CLP think?

What would you want your PCC candidate’s position to be on such matters? Is everything up for outsourcing or should there be a thin blue line beyond which the new commissioners should not travel? What principles should govern whether a feature of the police service should be up for competition or not?

As I have indicated, I would urge the party to debate these issues now, in all ways possible. It is my hope and belief that we will win the majority of the PCC positions by dint of our considered Labour policies and our set of credible candidates.

Anonymous

”
It is my hope and belief that we will win the majority of the PCC positions by dint of our considered Labour policies and our set of credible candidates.”

It is?

I am afraid both Tory and Labour parties will choose from a list of failed MP’s, ex-ministers who have seen better days, politicians of delusional self-importance – (expect to see Nadine Dorries and David Miliband throw their hats into the ring any day now) – party yes-men, loyal placemen who are owed a favour and scribblers. Of this latter group your own, your very own (and you can keep him) Paul Richards had this to say:

“These are big roles, and need big candidates to fight for them”

Nothing like kidding yourself, is there?. To be brutally honest I would have said the only thing “big” about PR is his ego and conceit.
- Anonymous
  
  I’ll put a bet David has other plans then stepping down, and to be honest I think he has a pretty good chance now.
  
  As for the rest yes people who are unable to find a seat, or have been told look we are not going to give you a seat, people like Bozier may well jump in a nice pay day.
  
  But of course you cannot blame the labour party for this crap it’s down to the Tories.
  
  They must have watched the American Police programs, saw the one about the New York Police commissioner who carries a gun goes out and ends the crime wave. Of course he gets shot grabs his arm then gets up and finishes the whole lot off while his men stand shaking behind him, before he falls to the ground gets rushed to hospital, lays on a bed near death, all his officers are seen crying saying what can we do what will we do No worry he pulls out the tubes put on his flashy shoes and returns to the job with blood still dripping from his wounds. A bloody soap opera.
  
  Nothing like following the Americans, perhaps we can offer Bush a job as the police commissioners commissioner.
  - Anonymous
    
    I think all these “of-course-I’m-not-doing-it-out-of-self aggrandisment- I’m-doing-it-because- I-want-to-make-a-difference” characters (no surprise to see Alun Michael, one of Blair’s oiliest loyalists, on the list), are suffering from an advanced case of LCS.
    
    Louise Casey Syndrome.
    
    Ms Casey, remember was the general purpose “Zsar” 0f this and that of the late 90s and 2000s, a fawning admirer of Blairism, she became ”Homelessness” Zsar, then “Respect” Zsar, God help us, who made an idiot of herself when, at a dinner in her role as “respect Zsar”, she made the elementary error of launching into a foul mouthed tirade in front of the audience.
    
    This didn’t stop her from her Zsaring, however.
    
    I think these people are self regarding and with monumental arrogance to think they can do a job they have no real knowledge of. I wonder what the constables and sargeants who do the real work will think of being overseen by some pompous preening has-been or never-was?
    - Anonymous
      
      Tsaring pays almost as well as banking apparently, Alan.
      
      Fury as families tsar gets £8.6m in one year (and the bulk of it comes from taxpayers)
      
      So much for “payment by results”, eh?
  - John Reid
    
    What’s Prescott and Alan Hicheal doing, Especially someone who bought French window for his house in the expences scandal, Labour were dead agiasnt this policy it’s become legislation so Now we’re feilding candidates .
    - Anonymous
      
      Exactly, John. Liam Byrne’s name has been touted, too, and he was caught up in the expenses scandal.
      
      How can anybody with some suspicion of personal dishonesty be regarded by anyone, not least themselves, as being of suitable calibre to fulfil a role which should demand transparency.
      
      Perhaps if fewer MPs who had “made a mistake” or who had suffered “a misunderstanding” had been allowed just to waive a cheque in front of the TV cameras, or blame “OCD” had ended up in the dock, it might have put an end to their pretensions.
      - Anonymous
        
        As with so many other New Labour chihuahuas in Byrne’s case it’s probably better to be a Police Crime Commissioner than “helping the police with their inquiries”, involuntarily, shall we say?

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