On 16 Nov 2012 at 12:45pm Southover Queen wrote:
If you were one of the 83% of the Lewes electorate who didn't vote, or you did vote and spoiled your paper because you wanted to protest, you might be interested in this petition which allows you to say so!
Check it out here »
On 16 Nov 2012 at 1:07pm Major wrote:
Who is to blame for this farce? Tory or Labour or Lib Dem or all three?
On 16 Nov 2012 at 1:47pm Independent Thinker wrote:
Thanks SQ, I'll be signing the petition. The one thing I wasn't was apathetic about these elections. Sickens me seeing the Government trying to spin this by saying we just aren't used to the role yet, and will grow to support these elections. No, we didn't want them and think £100m could have been spent much better on, well, pretty much anything else.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 2:24pm steve watts wrote:
Excellent work your majesty !
On 16 Nov 2012 at 2:29pm huw wrote:
Don't normally get involved in the politics threads, but it's interesting to see at the moment that two thirds of PCCs voted in used to be politicians whereas only 1 in 6 have previous experience working in the police force.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 3:13pm Southover Queen wrote:
Exactly, Huw. I'm a very political creature (no, really - who knew?) but I am very firmly against the involvement of politicians in day to day policing. We'll end up with policing strategy being decided by the Daily Mail.
I believe this is a Conservative idea, Major. And yes, it's a farce - a very expensive farce.
That's what I liked about the petition, Independent Thinker. If enough of us sign they really will have to change their tune about us poor confused voters not understanding the form, or not knowing about the election at all because the London media didn't cover it. I suspect the answer is that most people made an active choice to not to vote. So sign and be heard.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 4:29pm Slarty wrote:
Wish I'd known about the tumblr.com page before I put my ballot in the box. At least it shows some people are not accidentally spoil their paper and did it as a statement.
Check it out here »
On 16 Nov 2012 at 4:52pm Southover Queen wrote:
Thanks for that, Slarty: I shall pass it onto my other online networks.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 5:39pm Independent Thinker wrote:
With the Sussex results in, looks like Katy Bourne (the Conservative) secured the first preference of a massive 4% of eligible voters. That rises to an even more spectacular 6% of eligible voters when it went to a second round, giving her the win. Well, that's a rock solid democratic mandate if I ever saw one! Far better than those unelected police authorities that were presiding over the frankly unforgivable falling crime and rising public confidence in the police we had before. £100m very well spent indeed.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 5:51pm steve watts wrote:
Slightly surprised at the very poor showing of the Lib Dem.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 6:31pm jrsussex wrote:
The apathy that many of you believe to be a good idea has given the county a conservative PCC, our policing will now be controlled by Westminster.
I am interested to know on what grounds Adrian Howard can state that the old style Authority is superior to the new role of a PCC given that we have no idea yet as to the standards etc that a PCC will set. I prefer to wait and see and if the idea fails well in 4yrs time I can vote that person out. Also for any petition to be worth its salt it should always have another petition alongside it for those to sign who disagree with its object.
Finally the cost of a PCC will be considerably lower than those of the defunct Authorities, if it transpires it is not then you have some solid ground on which to base an argument to dispense with the role.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 7:37pm Student wrote:
In all honesty what does the commissioner plan to change ?
People will still be arrested for committing crimes.
There will still be a lack of uniformed officers on the street
There will still be a strict ruling on whether the police attend an incident depending whether its a police matter
There will be an ever growing amount of pcso's
Its a pointless job with a pointless title yet she is going to make thousands off it. SICKENING !
On 16 Nov 2012 at 7:40pm Peasant wrote:
... is not surprised at all by the very poor showing of the LibDem. Indeed, surprised that he managed to trail in 5th so closely behind the "interesting" UKIP candidate.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 8:19pm Southover Queen wrote:
JRSussex: I'd be amazed if in the end this county had returned anything other than the Tory. People just can't help it.
You say our policing will be controlled by Westminster: well, that nice Mrs May insists that these are non-political appointments and when they take the oath of office they'll have to swear to be impartial. (That does of course beg the question of why on earth the deposits were set at a level which put anyone but political parties off, but anyway). And what will happen when Mrs May is voted out of office at the next election? The idea is fundamentally flawed: politics and policing should be kept very much at arms length. In my opinion, obviously, but curiously it appears to be an opinion shared by many.
As to the petition: there was a petition alongside it. It was called "an election for PCC". There was nothing on the ballot paper which allowed you to say "this is a totally rubbish idea; don't do it", so this is the alternative.
It has cost £100m to "elect" these PCCs; I doubt the Police Authorities cost anything like that. Why not just elect the members of the Police Authorities, rather than some arbitrary failed politician? What on earth can a single person do when they have no money or resources or actually any effective power (except sacking the Chief Constable)? This is a political gimmick and it simply cannot work.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 8:47pm Old Malling wrote:
Huw probably had more experience of policing than most of the candidates seeing how often the employees of the old nick dropped in to the Ellie!
On 16 Nov 2012 at 8:47pm bloodied but unbowed wrote:
Result as expected. lovely scribble on my vote. nothing is pure - not even the police.... but politicians involved -NO! My ninety five year old mum did the same - and believes the same.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 9:17pm Southover Queen wrote:
Oh brilliant: hats off to your mum!!!!
On 16 Nov 2012 at 9:20pm Independent Thinker wrote:
JRSussex, even the Tories aren't claiming the new PCCs will save money, they only claim they won't cost any more. And the Torygraph disputes that, saying the PCCs will cost over half a billion pounds over the next 4 years. And the only people to blame for politicians now running the police, are the politicians who introduced this insane idea in the first place. Don't blame apathy, I've not spoken to anyone who was apathetic about these elections, they actively opposed them. And the only way to do that was either stay home or spoil their ballots. Corby had a 45% turnout which shows people were prepared to go out and vote yesterday if they believed in what they were voting for.
On 16 Nov 2012 at 10:18pm Phfellow2004 wrote:
We must now move on because, like it or not, we have a new Police Commissioner for Sussex in place for the next 4 years and there is nothing anyone can do about it. Perhaps we all should try and use the new PC to our advantage to secure the best policing in our county.
Casting an eye over the voting figures for Lewes District, it is noteworthy that the LD vote fell surprisingly below not just Labour and UKIP but also the Independent Candidate.
Times are changing!
On 17 Nov 2012 at 12:08am Pets wrote:
I'm with Boris - if a union doesn't get over 50% of its members voting for a strike it should be declared null and void - hold on 6% .....
On 17 Nov 2012 at 1:05pm Ed Can Do wrote:
Phfellow2004, the only reason the independent guy did as well as he did was that of the few people who did vote, a lot thought that political parties shouldn't have been involved in the process at all. A vote for Labour or LibDem in Sussex is essentially a "Not the Tory" vote, if either hadn't stood, the other would have won.
On 20 Nov 2012 at 11:21am PLUMPTON LAD wrote:
Phfellow2004, you are wrong - the Lib Dems came third in Lewes District on the first preference votes, ahead of Labour and UKIP (details on the LDC website).
The votes of the leading 2 candidates across Sussex were the only 2 then counted for the second round, so the second round information is a bit misleading.
On 20 Nov 2012 at 11:25am PLUMPTON LAD wrote:
Peasant - the Lib Dem came third in Lewes District, (which is a wider area than Norman Baker's Lewes constituency) ahead of Labour and UKIP