Author Archives: samchapman

More on the Federation

My last article on the Police Federation prompted a number of comments, two of which were to the effect that I’d got it wrong, and that membership of the Police Federation was not compulsory. Now, as it happens, it is … Continue reading

Posted in Perspectives | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Federation Politics

I was once a member of the Police Federation. This was not by choice, other than that I had chosen to be a police officer, and I couldn’t do that without being in the Federation. I don’t remember feeling any … Continue reading

Posted in Perspectives | Tagged , | 6 Comments

What on earth are Lancashire Labour up to?

As regular readers will be aware, I am a Conservative in Lancashire, rumoured in the press to be interested in standing for the Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner post. I try to be straight with people, and welcome the contribution … Continue reading

Posted in Labour, Selecting Candidates | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Say “No Way” to the L.G.A.?

The Association of Police Authorities has been commissioned by the Home Office to provide an interim successor organisation between the election of Police and Crime Commissioners in November and the end of their financial year next March. This could provide … Continue reading

Posted in Perspectives | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Long Weekend Update Part 3- Monday 9 April 2012

Candidates Dorset Independent Candidate Martyn Underhill launched his campaign website and Facebook page, with the theme ‘Keep Politics Out Of Policing’ – this seems to be a common theme with Independents, though I’m sure they mean “party politics”, as the … Continue reading

Posted in Updates | Tagged | Leave a comment

Weekend Update Part 2 – Sunday 8 April 2012

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Updates | Tagged | Leave a comment

A Holiday treat for fans of “The Thick of It”

I stumbled across some BBC filming a week ago in Westminster, and used a photo of Peter Capaldi practicing his lines as “Malcolm Tucker” to Armando Iannucci, who makes this stuff happen. My point was that passing American tourists had … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

More from “The Thick of It”

Simply mentioning “Thick of It” character Malcolm Tucker (played by Peter Capaldi), together with this photo of some filming I came across a week ago at Westminster has caused a lot of excitement on the Capaldi-obsessed parts of the net. … Continue reading

Posted in Media coverage | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Passover Weekend Update – Part 1 – Friday 6 April

Frequent flyers here at TopOfTheCops will know that a constant stream of news and views made for none of our regular updates last weekend, but the good news is that we now have a four-day weekend to make up for … Continue reading

Posted in Updates | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

…and Paddick makes three

Brian Paddick’s crime policies are, well, not as exciting as you’d think. He is the only one of the London Mayoral candidates with police experience, and plenty of it, at a senior level, so why are the crime policies so … Continue reading

Posted in Campaigns | Tagged , , | Leave a comment