Police farce

THE farcical attempt to politicise the police fell flat on its face yesterday after the average turnout in the first Police and Crime Commissioner elections was revealed to be under 15%.

None of the 41 constabularies in England and Wales saw more than 20% of the electorate attend to the polls, an historically low outcome which has prompted the Electoral Commission to launch an investigation.

Perhaps the most abiding memory of this ludicrous episode in British political history will be the sight of a ballot box in Gloucestershire being tipped upside down - only for it to be completely empty.

Meanwhile, the highest turnout came in Humberside where the most high-profile candidate - former Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Prescott - was standing.

It all ended disastrously for the peer, however, and his political career was effectively ended after he was beaten by his Conservative opponent Matthew Grove.

Mr Grove acknowledged that the Police Commissioners elections had failed to capture the attention of the public at large but vowed to be a "visible, active, loud voice on behalf of the community".

And yet, in spite of almost total indifference across the country, Home Secretary Theresa May and Prime Minister David Cameron somehow defended the legitimacy of the mandate of the winning candidates.

At least, those - like myself - who do not believe the police should be politicised will be pleased to see so many independent winners.

However, even this has been spoiled by the news that the triumphant 'independents' in Hampshire and North Wales have close links to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats parties respectively.

Undoubtedly, the most ridiculous element of this all has been the cost of holding the election, which has been estimated to be around £100m.

It is not a figure which is well juxtaposed with the cuts the frontline policing, especially considering just how little information was available about the election.

An additional factor was that the motivation to go out and vote on a cold, grey November day could hardly be described as overwhelming.

Indeed, frankly, the mood of many of the election's detractors was summed up by the spoilt ballot papers, one of which read: "The answer is never 'more politicians'."

And yet, these new - and barely recognised - Police Commissioners will take up their roles next week on a career politician's salary of £65000 per annum minimum. 

Now, the defenders of the appointments have argued that the people in these positions will make the police more accountable to the public than ever before. 

However, the Police Authorities - which the commissioners have replaced - were not as unaccountable as they have been made out. 

For a start, approximately half of the members were usually local councillors who were subject, of course, to a democratic mandate from their own wards - a mandate which would usually be higher than the turnout which transpired on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, in order to prevent the committees from being too political, the other half of the panel was usually made up of non-politicians who lived in the area, at least one of whom was a local magistrate. 

The most powerful member was the Chair of the Authority - however, again, this was usually a non-politician and not chosen on a party political basis, as proven by Ann Barnes. 

Ms Barnes was the former chair of Kent Police Authority, and won standing as an independent. Sadly, the vast majority of the new commissioners do represent a particular political standpoint. 

Worse still, the feeling now persists that, once this commissioner role gets established as the norm, then it will be difficult to remove - and all this, in spite of their complete lack of legitimacy. 

Basically, this whole thing has ended up just being yet another policy which the government of the day has foisted, with impunity, upon the general public. 

To some, this may have been direct democracy in action. But, without an engaged electorate, it is barely democracy at all - and could be more accurately described as a complete waste of time. Sigh...
 

At least, meanwhile, there were some 'proper' parliamentary elections - but, here again, it was the same sorry story for the coalition government.

Labour comfortably held Cardiff South and Penarth and Manchester Central with increased majorities, and gained Corby from the Conservatives.

Candidate Andy Sawford pulled off a notable swing of 12% as Labour won a seat directly from the Tories in a by-election for the first time in 15 years.

And yet, despite the historical significance, the actual result was not a surprise and was largely in line with some polling done by Lord Ashcroft and Populus in the constituency.

Clearly, the nature of Louise Mensch's departure - to move to New York City for family reasons after just two years as an MP - had a further drag on the Conservative vote.

But, while to the Tories the result is just a case of the mid-term blues, from the perspective of Labour leader Ed Miliband, Mr Sawford's victory represents real hope for the chances of his party winning back power in the next general election in 2015.

There is, of course, no such hope for the Lib Dems, whose place in the coalition has caused them by-election embarrassment before.

Corby was another nightmare for leader Nick Clegg as candidate Jill Hope suffered another lost deposit for the party, finishing well behind Nigel Farage's UK Independence Party in third.

With UKIP also about level-pegging with the Lib Dems in the police elections, Mr Farage has some justification in referring to his party as the "third force in British politics".

Importantly, we are now just closer to the next general election than the last one, and so these are worrying times for the Lib Dems whose vulnerable position could leave them with just a rump of MPs in 2015.

Elsewhere, as mentioned previously, Labour held the other two urban seats in Cardiff and Manchester without a problem.

But, considering the by-elections were caused by the sitting Labour MPs resigning to enter - and win - in the Police elections, it seemed appropriate that turnout in those two elections was also pitiful.

In Cardiff South and Penarth, only just slightly more than a quarter of the electorate bothered to vote.

However, that was nothing as compared to Manchester Central where only 18.2% turned up. It was the lowest turnout in a parliamentary by-election since the Second World War.

Apathy reigns - but, considering the politicians we do actually have, is it really any surprise?


RESULTS

BY ELECTIONS

CARDIFF SOUTH and PENARTH	LAB hold
Stephen Doughty Labour	9,193	47.3%	(+8.4%)
Craig Williams Conservative	3,859	19.9%	(-8.4%)
Bablin Molik Lib Dems	2,103	10.8%	(-11.5%)
Luke Nicholas Plaid Cymru	1,854	9.5%	(+5.3%)
Simon Zeigler UKIP	1,179	6.1%	(+3.5%)
Others	1,248	6.4%

Total votes: 19,436 Turnout: 25.3% Majority: 5,334

CORBY	LAB GAIN	from Con
Andy Sawford Labour	17,267	48.4%	(+9.8%)
Christine Emmett Conservative	9,476	26.6%	(-15.6%)
Margot Parker UKIP	5,108	14.3%
Jill Hope Lib Dems	1,770	4.9%	(-9.5%)
Others	2,044	5.8%

Total votes: 35,665 Turnout: 44.8% Majority: 7,791

MANCHESTER CENTRAL	LAB hold
Lucy Powell Labour	11,507	69.1%	(+16.4%)
Marc Ramsbottom Lib Dems	1,571	9.4%	(-17.2%)
Matthew Septhon Conservative	754	4.5%	(-7.3%)
Chris Cassidy UKIP	749	4.5%	(-3.0%)
Others	2,067	12.5%

Total votes: 16,648 Turnout: 18.2% Majority: 9,936

POLICE COMMISSIONER  ELECTIONS	Commissioners	% of total	% of 1st Pref
LABOUR	13	32%	32%
CONSERVATIVE	16	39%	28%
INDEPENDENTS	12	29%	23%
UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY	0	0%	7%
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS	0	0%	7%

England			Turnout
AVON and SOMERSET	Sue Mountstevens	IND	TBC
BEDFORDSHIRE	Oliver Martins	LAB	17.7%
CAMBRIDGESHIRE	Sir Graham Bright	CON	14.7%
CHESHIRE	John Dwyer	CON	13.7%
CLEVELAND	Barry Coppinger	LAB	14.7%
CUMBRIA	Richard Rhodes	CON	15.6%
DERBYSHIRE	Alan Charles	LAB	14.3%
DEVON and CORNWALL	Tony Hogg	CON	15.1%
DORSET	Martyn Underhill	IND	16.3%
DURHAM	Ron Hogg	LAB	14.4%
ESSEX	Nicholas Alston	CON	12.8%
GLOUCESTERSHIRE	Martin Surl	IND	15.9%
GREATER MANCHESTER	Tony Lloyd	LAB	13.5%
HAMPSHIRE	Simon Hayes	IND	14.5%
HERTFORDSHIRE	David Lloyd	CON	14.1%
HUMBERSIDE	Matthew Grove	CON	19.1%
KENT	Ann Barnes	IND	15.9%
LANCASHIRE	Clive Grunshaw	LAB	15.0%
LEICESTERSHIRE	Clive Loader	CON	15.9%
LINCOLNSHIRE	Alan Hardwick	IND	15.2%
MERSEYSIDE	Jane Kennedy	LAB	12.4%
NORFOLK	Stephen Bett	IND	14.5%
NORTH YORKSHIRE	Julia Mulligan	CON	13.2%
NORTHAMPTONSHIRE	Adam Simmonds	CON	19.5%
NORTHUMBRIA	Vera Baird	LAB	16.4%
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE	Paddy Tipping	LAB	16.4%
SOUTH YORKSHIRE	Shaun Wright	LAB	14.5%
STAFFORDSHIRE	Matthew Ellis	CON	11.6%
SUFFOLK	Tim Passmore	CON	15.4%
SURREY	Kevin Hurley	IND	15.3%
SUSSEX	Katy Bourne	CON	15.3%
THAMES VALLEY	Anthony Stansfeld	CON	12.8%
WARWICKSHIRE	Ron Ball	IND	15.2%
WEST MERCIA	Bill Longmore	IND	14.5%
WEST MIDLANDS	Bob Jones	LAB	11.9%
WEST YORKSHIRE	Mark Burns-Williamson	LAB	13.3%
WILTSHIRE	Angus Macpherson	CON	15.8%
Wales
DYFED-POWYS	Christopher Salmon	CON	16.3%
GWENT	Ian Johnston	IND	13.9%
NORTH WALES	Winston Roddick	IND	14.8%
SOUTH WALES	Alun Michael	LAB	14.6%