Runners

Since the last full update the following candidates are now running:-

Keith Hunter , Mike Caseman-Jones , Vera Baird (interviewed here with a leaflet here) and Bernard Rix

What’s up? Names sound familiar? Know about them already? Uh-huh. Check the links. I meant “running”, not for election, but as in that activity that looks like walking gone wrong and tests out the condition of middle-aged candidates’ hearts. They are all running and tweeting about it, like they’re proud instead of mental. Bernard Rix is doing a freakin’ marathon. What is wrong with these people? Is the local election doorstep not enough?

In the running

Ah yes, that’s more like it – the following hopefuls have all declared on Twitter that they have made it on to the respective shortlists for the Labour nomination in their areas, which means they will now be on a postal ballot form for local Labour members:- Jordan Newell in Essex, Olly Martins in Bedfordshire, Paul Richards in Sussex, Harriet Yeo in Kent, Jon Harvey in Thames Valley, and Tal Michael in North Wales. On the web we also have Steve Carter, seeking the Labour nomination in Cheshire, and Ibrahim Master, after the Labour nomination in Lancashire.

Their presence on a shortlist as opposed to being a selected candidate also indicates that that there is at least one other person on each of those lists who we may not know at this stage.

Other things we don’t know are precisely who this was saying they would not run in Humberside (hat-tip to Jon Collins for spotting that), and the names of any selected or shortlisted Tory candidates, though Kevin Horkin’s tweet that he has taken part in the first round of official selection interviews for PCC suggests this is because the shortlisting is incomplete. Indeed, this article, in April, still seeking new Conservative applicants in South and West Yorkshire, or ‘lambs to the slaughter’ as we might call them if the Police Foundation research is anything to go by, suggests it may be some time yet before it’s all wrapped up.

In the meantime, this article has Cllr Mike Jordan applying for the Conservative nomination for PCC in North Yorkshire, and suggesting Ian Gillies, Leader of the Conservatives at York City Council, is doing the same, joining North Yorkshire county councillors Carl Les and Jane Kenyon, and “former police inspector Peter Walker”. I hate to split hairs seeing as it was only 5 ranks off, but he was actually a Deputy Chief Constable.

This article has Conservatives Humfrey Malins and Andrew Povey interested in the role in Surrey, where Nick O’Shea is rumoured as a possible Lib-Dem candidate. Well-done to that journalist for finding a Lib-Dem candidate in the wild. They are rumoured here to be an endangered species, and this stacks up with my own experience where Chorley Borough Council only has one ward where a Lib-Dem is standing. If this keeps up, soon there may be no-one for no-one to vote for.

Which reminds me…

… of the Survation/Mail On Sunday poll giving UKIP and the Lib-Dems joint third place on 11% each, leading Nigel Farage to complain “UKIP on 11% in the polls, neck and neck with the Lib Dems. Yet the BBC will still insist on promoting the Greens…”, which may be a reference to the Newsnight selection of participants for their Mayoral debate.

Farage also said “And anyway, The pasty tax has been tried before, in 19th Century Cornwall. The pie-rates of Penzance.“, which is more corny than Cornish, and isn’t as good as the gem Brony Rudkin found in the Independent on Sunday “Tory cash spin” is anagram of “Cornish Pasty“