Sorry, how much?

Posted on 23/02/2012 by samchapman

Whatever the motives of Huffpost’s source, they were not about promoting the Conservative cause or the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, and they have certainly got people talking. Tim Collins has been pushed into denying to Michael Crick that he is withdrawing. Labour candidates have been storing quotes to produce later in the campaign, and Conservatives who want to be TopOfTheCops are breathing easier at the thought that someone else will pick up the nomination and campaign tab after all, while also feeling miffed at being included in the group at whom number 10 are greatly disappointed.

So let’s test another of the points from Huffpost – especially the suggestion that “Another issue has been on pay. Some high-fliers who initially expressed an interest in standing cooled off when they discovered the salary range, between £60,000 and £100,000 depending on the size of the police force.”

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Perspectives, Resources, Selecting Candidates | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

HuffPost Tory source tells all

Posted on 22/02/2012 by samchapman

The Huffington Post has published an article revealing details from ‘a senior Tory source’ about the potential group of Conservative candidates for Police and Crime Commissioner. Edited highlights as follows, with commentary:-

  • Number 10 are disappointed with the general quality of candidates. Over three quarters have a background in Police Authorities.
  • Constituency Associations are angered by suggestions they should pay £5,000 each for open public selection meetings, and the campaign that follows. Do they even have this money available?
  • 220 potential candidates have registered with the Conservatives so far – many more than have declared openly, or been rumoured about – over 165 would have police authority backgrounds.

    • Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Media coverage, Selecting Candidates | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

TopOfTheCops elections – Who pays the piper?

Posted on 22/02/2012 by samchapman

Is it me, or is John Prescott everywhere at the minute? You don’t seem to be able to turn on a news programme, open a paper, or even take refuge on a desert island without bumping into him. Can he keep this up for 9 months till the election? Can the media put up with him for that long? Can we?

It’s likely that we won’t have to. Prescott may give the impression of running for the November election, but the real electorate he’s interested in are the Labour party members in Humberside, who he has to convince to pick him from a range of other candidates in the next few months. Given the nature of that electorate, we can also expect a degree of partisanship over the next few months until the nominations are resolved, despite that likely being an unpopular approach with the public for the actual election.

If you can stomach a little more Prescott, it’s probably worth a read of this interview in the Hull Daily Mail, which covers his age, his motivation for running, and one important item generally overlooked, namely campaign finance, which in Prescott’s case will be part of the money he got from Murdoch for being targetted in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

Continue reading →

Posted in Campaigns, Conservatives, Labour, Media coverage, Selecting Candidates | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Many Thanks

Posted on 21/02/2012 by samchapman

Thanks to Douglas Carswell MP, tireless defender of Parliamentary sovereignty and father of what has become the elected Police and Crime Commissioner for encouraging his 6,000+ Twitter followers to follow this site, and listing us on his roll of favourite blogs at TalkCarswell.com

Thanks also to the other…er… father of PCCs, Dan Hannan MEP for similarly sharing the site with his 14,000+ Twitter folk.

Douglas and Dan are authors of the Plan – those of you who date current policies to the Coalition Agreement or Conservative Party Manifesto are not looking far enough back. These guys made the ideas what they are, and others will probably get the credit – buy the Plan and you may have an early view of policies yet to come!

Posted in Conservatives, Resources | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Leicestershire Candidates for TopOfTheCops consider cuts to PCSOs

Posted on 21/02/2012 by samchapman

Until recently, the race for PCC in Leicestershire was limited to two people, but as of yesterday the race has heated up with the Leicester Mercury naming 6 more candidates for the post.

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Independents, Labour, Selecting Candidates | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Are you now or have you ever been a Tory?

Posted on 19/02/2012 by samchapman

In the United States in the 1940’s, just before McCarthyism got in to full swing, the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities achieved fame when investigating Hollywood, with the memorable question “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”. This historical gem jumped into my mind this weekend when, having read about Peter Hain’s worries that allegedly independent Councillors were actually closet Tories, I then happened across John Harvey’s item on LabourList – “7 Questions for ‘Independent’ Police and Crime Commissioner candidates“. It begins with worries that the government parties might be stealthily seeking the election of candidates under an Independent banner who actually are supportive of the government, before moving on to his first question – “Are you or have you ever been a”… Wait for it… “member of a political party?” Ah! So near, yet so far!

Continue reading →

Posted in Conservatives, Independents, Labour, Perspectives | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Operational Independence and PCCs

Posted on 19/02/2012 by samchapman

Keith Hunter gives his personal perspective on operational independence, based on his experiences as a senior police officer in Humberside, where he hopes to be the Labour candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner. If you have a perspective to share on TopOfTheCops.com let us know.

The creation of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) initiated widespread debate and significant resistance. The objection that most often came to the fore concerned politicisation and loss of independence of the police. As a former senior police officer I have personal experience of the potential effects of political interference in policing.

Continue reading →

Posted in Labour, Perspectives | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

The Hashtag Question

Posted on 18/02/2012 by samchapman

When ‘Direct Democracy‘ first appeared in 2002, proposing what was eventually to become Police and Crime Commissioners there was no such thing as Twitter, but even without a 140-character limit the group managed to settle on a title for the job that was a little more compact – Sheriff. It probably sounds too American, which as Dan Hannan and Douglas Carswell never tire of pointing out, is a little ironic, seeing that us Brits had Sheriffs long before the Americans did.

So, when the Conservatives settled on a title for a proposal which itself was being accused of being excessively American, they ditched the Sheriff title for something descriptive, technical, and letterhead-defyingly long. Not only is “Police and Crime Commissioner” a bit of a mouthful, but it is also not twitter friendly. As the conversation develops on Twitter, which hashtag should people use? Settling on a common hashtag is what keeps the conversation together.

Continue reading →

Posted in Resources | Tagged , | 4 Comments

An exercise in presumption – the Local Government Association attempts to annexe policing

Posted on 16/02/2012 by samchapman

Remember Herod? Jewish King in Judea? Didn’t fancy the competition from the “King of the Jews” and so was all nicey-nicey with the visiting wise men before ordering all the kids to be killed? Yeah, that one.

Well, the Local Government Association have just decided to do something a bit like that with Police and Crime Commissioners, except in a different order.

Continue reading →

Posted in Resources | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

In praise of political parties

Posted on 16/02/2012 by samchapman

Paul Richards, Labour hopeful for TopOfTheCops in Sussex has published a brave article on LabourList arguing that Independents are not all they are cracked up to be, and that political parties are in a sense inevitable and useful. Check it out.

Of course, we should not forget that the current UK style of political parties is not the only form of parties that can exist. In the US for example, parties can be quite different, so even if parties are inevitable, this type of party need not be.

Posted in Independents | Tagged , | 3 Comments