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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/oct/30/police-and-crime-commissioners-police
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| A bad policy at a bad time. But it's here and Labour's candidates merit your support | A bad policy at a bad time. But it's here and Labour's candidates merit your support |
| (8 days later) | |
| On 15 November people from all over England and Wales outside of London will have the opportunity to vote for a Police and Crime Commissioner candidate to represent their area. Labour opposed these new positions and we have serious concerns about the way in which the elections have been handled, but Parliament has spoken, they are going ahead and people in the north need to get out and vote for their local Labour candidate. These are big and important jobs. Police and Crime Commissioners will set the direction and the budget for policing. They will be accountable to the public, working with partners to prevent and tackle crime and re-offending. We would not have held the elections at this time and at the cost of £100 million; this money would be better spent on 3,000 new police constables. To understand why this election is being held in November we need to listen to the former Tory Policing Minister Nick Herbert who jumped ship in last month's reshuffle. He was quite clear that the Liberal Democrats tried to 'sabotage' the policy by delaying the election. So at the cost of at least an extra £25 million the election is taking place in the dark and cold month of November where the Electoral Reform Society has warned that we are facing the prospect of: | On 15 November people from all over England and Wales outside of London will have the opportunity to vote for a Police and Crime Commissioner candidate to represent their area. Labour opposed these new positions and we have serious concerns about the way in which the elections have been handled, but Parliament has spoken, they are going ahead and people in the north need to get out and vote for their local Labour candidate. These are big and important jobs. Police and Crime Commissioners will set the direction and the budget for policing. They will be accountable to the public, working with partners to prevent and tackle crime and re-offending. We would not have held the elections at this time and at the cost of £100 million; this money would be better spent on 3,000 new police constables. To understand why this election is being held in November we need to listen to the former Tory Policing Minister Nick Herbert who jumped ship in last month's reshuffle. He was quite clear that the Liberal Democrats tried to 'sabotage' the policy by delaying the election. So at the cost of at least an extra £25 million the election is taking place in the dark and cold month of November where the Electoral Reform Society has warned that we are facing the prospect of: |
the lowest turnout of any nationwide election in British history | the lowest turnout of any nationwide election in British history |
| . The Government has also decided to go against the advice of the Electoral Commission by not sending voters in each police authority area a booklet with information about the candidates. Instead there will be a website and a phone number you can call if you want a hard copy. There are as many as seven million potential voters in these elections who have not used the internet at all in the last 12 months. Disproportionately they are the older, the poorer and the more vulnerable people in our society and they will be unfairly affected by this set-up. When the Government is not struggling to conduct an election, it is cutting 20% off the policing budget and cutting 15,000 police officers from our streets. The Government used to claim that it could cut this money without impacting on the frontline – however we know that this was a sham as 6,800 frontline police officers have gone already. The Tories are also making it harder for the police to use CCTV to prevent and solve crime, and are making it harder for the police to use DNA evidence to convict serious offenders. They are also scrapping ASBOs, and weakening powers to tackle anti-social behaviour – taking away the powers that our place need to keep our communities safe. So it is only Labour Commissioners that can make a difference and we have candidates standing in each of the 41 police force areas twelve of them in the three northern regions. We won't stand aside and let Tory and Lib-Dem Commissioners act as cheerleaders for Government cuts to policing, or leave the job to isolated independent candidates with no influence or voice for their local area. Not only does Labour have an excellent set of candidates, we have a proud record on crime reduction as crime fell by 43 per cent when we were last in Government. Labour candidates are making this election about supporting neighbourhood policing, tackling the scourge of anti-social behaviour, supporting victims, protecting the operational independence of the police, continuing and forming strong local partnerships and opposing this Government's reckless 20% cuts to the policing budget. Whilst the Tories want to pave the way for greater privatisation we have been clear that we don't want private companies patrolling the public streets of Britain; we want police officers and PCSOs doing the job. The Government needs to learn the lessons from the Olympics and G4S and ensure that any future contracts pass tough tests around value for money, resilience and security and on transparency and accountability. Crucially if the British model of policing is to survive and we need to retain public trust. | . The Government has also decided to go against the advice of the Electoral Commission by not sending voters in each police authority area a booklet with information about the candidates. Instead there will be a website and a phone number you can call if you want a hard copy. There are as many as seven million potential voters in these elections who have not used the internet at all in the last 12 months. Disproportionately they are the older, the poorer and the more vulnerable people in our society and they will be unfairly affected by this set-up. When the Government is not struggling to conduct an election, it is cutting 20% off the policing budget and cutting 15,000 police officers from our streets. The Government used to claim that it could cut this money without impacting on the frontline – however we know that this was a sham as 6,800 frontline police officers have gone already. The Tories are also making it harder for the police to use CCTV to prevent and solve crime, and are making it harder for the police to use DNA evidence to convict serious offenders. They are also scrapping ASBOs, and weakening powers to tackle anti-social behaviour – taking away the powers that our place need to keep our communities safe. So it is only Labour Commissioners that can make a difference and we have candidates standing in each of the 41 police force areas twelve of them in the three northern regions. We won't stand aside and let Tory and Lib-Dem Commissioners act as cheerleaders for Government cuts to policing, or leave the job to isolated independent candidates with no influence or voice for their local area. Not only does Labour have an excellent set of candidates, we have a proud record on crime reduction as crime fell by 43 per cent when we were last in Government. Labour candidates are making this election about supporting neighbourhood policing, tackling the scourge of anti-social behaviour, supporting victims, protecting the operational independence of the police, continuing and forming strong local partnerships and opposing this Government's reckless 20% cuts to the policing budget. Whilst the Tories want to pave the way for greater privatisation we have been clear that we don't want private companies patrolling the public streets of Britain; we want police officers and PCSOs doing the job. The Government needs to learn the lessons from the Olympics and G4S and ensure that any future contracts pass tough tests around value for money, resilience and security and on transparency and accountability. Crucially if the British model of policing is to survive and we need to retain public trust. |
| A vote for Labour on November 15th is a vote to protect local policing and send a strong message to the Government. | A vote for Labour on November 15th is a vote to protect local policing and send a strong message to the Government. |
| David Hanson is Labour MP for Delyn and Shadow Minister for Police | David Hanson is Labour MP for Delyn and Shadow Minister for Police |
| The full line-up of candidates for the 12 PCCs in the north is on a Northerner post which you can read here. More information is in a Guardian Data Blog post here. We would be delighted to hear from candidates and publish pieces by them. | The full line-up of candidates for the 12 PCCs in the north is on a Northerner post which you can read here. More information is in a Guardian Data Blog post here. We would be delighted to hear from candidates and publish pieces by them. |
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