The Labour Party have encountered two extremes in their candidate selection process for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections:-

1) not having enough candidates to choose from by the time it gets to the shortlist. Shortlists of one have abounded, causing resentment among party activists who have claimed it wasn’t well advertised, or that longlisting and shortlisting were too harsh.

2) fully contested postal-ballot elections, with late arrival of certain ballot papers, and candidates turning to unions to fund mailshots to large numbers of members over vast areas.

Anyway, tomorrow is the last day for votes to arrive, so if you are in the Labour party and reading this, it’s probably a bit late for the post, but I’m told you can vote electronically here.

Across the country, Conservative candidates facing selection committees and a variety of meetings, where members of the party or the public will be crammed into halls where votes are taken on paper slips, will be making comparisons.