Is time moving a little quicker these days? I know I’m writing this before the clocks spring forward, but a tweet at the beginning of the week from the Association of Police Authorities about their transition seminar began with “246 days till elections decide“, whereas a tweet from Crest Advisory just 3 days later began with “With 236 days till the PCC election...” Now, even if Einstein was on to something, they can’t both be right, but obsessive about the elections as I may be, I’m not so far gone that I’m going to work out which it was.

However reader, please pause and give a moment’s thought to those police officers who are on a quick changeover tonight, and will find they have one hour less sleep because of daylight saving time. When I was a PC, it worked with the cruel twist that the same shift who suffered this indignity also later in the year got to work an hour longer when the clocks went back, and so lost both ways. If there are any of you in this position, we salute you!

Candidates

As Labour’s selection process rumbles on, we’ve had a little of the results. By and large people who are not longlisted or shortlisted are not shouting about it, so reporting on it is somewhat difficult. However, a few details have emerged. Jane Kennedy has been shortlisted in Merseyside, but is still campaigning for the nomination, and picking up endorsements left, right (for the left) and centre-left. As John Ashton has not said he has applied, and as Les Byrom has confirmed he didn’t make the longlist, it’s a fairly safe bet that Peter Kilfoyle is at least one of her rivals.

The Yorkshire Post’s Rob Preece confirmed that former Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes has made it on to Labour’s long list of potential candidates for the South Yorkshire PCC election, whereas in Northumbria The Journal was reporting that Henri Murison was withdrawing from the race as he had spotted a better candidate.

In North Wales, Tal Michael left his role at the Police Authority and felt the fresh air of being able to speak without worrying about political restriction rules, and so headed here to talk about the Budget. Been there myself. Feels good!

On the Conservative side, the Police Foundation reported that Angus Campbell, Leader of Dorset County Council, had confirmed he was seeking the Conservative nomination for PCC, and in Lincolnshire Lee Rotherham launched his very impressive website featured in the graphic above.

Articles galore

Cllr Jon Harvey, who obsesses on Police and Crime Commissioners almost as much as I do, was writing on LabourList: “why a simple ‘all outsourcing is bad’ policy cannot wash“

Dr Tim Brain was scribbling away in Policing Today on graduate direct entry schemes.

The Daily Politics were asking “Who wants to be a police commissioner?”, looking at how the political parties approach the elections.

And in the Guardian someone pretending to be John Prescott strung together not just a sentence, but a whole article, the point of which was to repeat the plea made on TopOfTheCops for space for candidates in the Electoral Commission’s PCC brochure.

In other news

There was evidence that the Police and Crime Commissioner election has been accepted into the British way of life. Firstly, the former Home Secretary Alan Johnson made reference in the HuffPost to Nixon’s comments about how difficult it is to get the toothpaste back in the tube, as his way of saying that Police and Crime Commissioners are here to stay, which takes things just a little further than Shadow Justice Minister David Hanson did a fortnight ago.

But the real proof is the news that Lord Toby Jug, local leader of the Monster Raving Loony Party, is standing for PCC in Cambridgeshire. Ahh, so good to see the resurgence of a British institution.

Favourite Tweet of the week belongs to Jake Berry MP for this:-
“One of my new followers is the BBC obituaries editor. Is that a good sign?”