Once again it would appear that a significant political event is looking like it may occur unnoticed, as the title of this piece would lead you to understand I am talking about the elections in November to elect police and crime commissioners (PCC). For me this is a massive change in the political spectrum and one that I have personally supported for a long time, I am disappointed however that such a seismic switch in the political landscape should come without a referendum and a mandate from the people (As is happening for the elected mayors) obviously as a supporter of the idea I would have voted for it however there is a certain argument that could be put forward that the police service should not be accountable to politicians and that the Police must be free to uphold the law without being subject to the whims of the majority (Don’t forget that both Racial Segregations and Fascist Governments have been brought in by popular vote) so it would have been nice to have the debate first.All that being said this is now going to be one of the most important locally elected officials, I think you could actually say the most important after all this one person will have a real effect on crime and disorder in your area and this is something that will affect everyone, for the most part the local council services are passive to use where as when it occurs crime is intrusive – If you try you can basically ignore what the council is doing where as crime can affect anyone at any time. So for this reason I am going to give the Sussex campaign as much attention as I can so at least my two readers will know a bit more about what is going on.
I am also looking to leave any party political bias out of my writing of these campaigns, my personal ideal of an elected police commissioner would be for an independent, in fact I think these roles would be ideally suited to someone with Job knowledge who also knew how the political games worked, for example Ray Mallon who is the Mayor of Middlesbrough.
In the Next Few Days I will be reviewing the people who have so far thrown their hats into the rings but for now here is the information I obtained from the Police Foundation.
But as a start here are the people that are looking to stand in the election.
Name: Paul Richards
Party: Labour
Website: http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2012/01/13/power-to-the-pccs/
Occupation: Labour Author and Commentator
Political Experience: Losing Parliamentary Candidate in Lewes
Name: Ian Chisnall
Party: Independent
Website: http://ianforpcc.wordpress.com/
Occupation: Works extensivly in the voluntary Sector including working with Brighton Street Pasters and Sussex Churches Together
Political Experience: 2004 - 2009 Member of the Sussex Court Board, Since 2004 Member of he Independant Advisory Board.
Name: Peter Jones
Party Conservatives
Website: www.votepj.com/news.aspx
Occupation: Worked in Investment Banking and was a non-executive director for a number of companies, he retired in 1994.
Political Experience: Peter Jones was elected as an East Sussex County Councillor in 1997 and leader of the council from 2001, Peter was chairman of the Sussex Police Authority from 2005 – 2007 he was also Deputy Chairman of SEEDA
Other: He is married to Ex-Conservative MP Jacqui Lait (MP for Beckenham until 2010)
Name: Paul Dendle
Party: Conservative
Website: http://www.pauldendle.blogspot.com/
Occupation: Paul was Managing Director of Avro PLC until he sold the company in 1995, in his websites profile he lists his business interests as varied among travel, technology and property.
Political Experience: Paul was elected to Arun District Council (Arundel Ward) in 2003 and has been cabinet minister for central services since 2006.
