Top 10 posts so far…

As at 17 November 2012 – these are our all-time most visited posts (not including Candidate Statements or ‘pages’ that are part of the site’s basic structure).

10) A matter of conviction – Bob Ashford stands down as Labour Candidate for Avon and Somerset, where Labour did not even reach the second round. A potted history of the reporting of the problems candidate were having with the wrong sort of convictions.

9) Another candidate withdraws for no reason – commentary on Labour candidate Alan Charles withdrawing from Derbyshire’s election due to a court appearance as a young man for stealing a woman’s purse while shopping. Here we point out that a conditional discharge is not a conviction, and so did not necessitate a withdrawal. Charles was later reinstated and went on to win. Though we advised him of the error immediately, he has never acknowledged this.

8) Expect More? – Commentary on the extraordinary case of Mervyn Barrett and his campaign manager.

7) Where Nadine Dorries went wrong – Fisking of Dorries error-ridden ConHome article.

6) On Stolen Pensions – concerns re. the morality and impact of retropective elements of police pension reform

5) Richard Hibbs is at Today’s Big Conference – Independent Candidate reported from drugs conference.

4) Michael’s Mate Asil’s Nadir – our most-contrived title for a prescient article pointing out 2 clear examples, in Hampshire and Surrey, where Conservative selection processes had produced enough resentment and discontent to turn the election into unofficial Tory primary elections between a Conservative candidate and a formerly-conservative candidate. In both elections, this led to the formerly-Conservative candidate winning as an Independent, as happened elsewhere in places like Norfolk.

3) Senior Judge Bans Magistrates from PCC Role – which led to a campaign to change the ruling, which was successful within a week. Ironically, none of the candidates who met the judge later went on to be PCCs, though some had been the favourites in their areas.

2) Reading the Runes – In the absence of previous election data we used Police Foundation research and opinion poll data to predict baselines before the election results were known – allowing us to tell which winning candidates had done particularly well.

And,

Wait for it,

Drum-roll please…

1. How NOT to shortlist for Police and Crime Commissioner candidates – covering unhappiness within Labour that certain nominations are either fixed to one candidate or to a Hobson’s choice shortlist.

This has in fact remained the most popular post since April 2012 when it was written, though some of this may be down to the fact that people keep checking to see what the most popular page is!

The ranks are done by numbers of views per page. If you like one of the posts enough to think it should appear in the top 10 then take to your favourite form of social media and promote it. Each article has links to Twitter, Facebook and the rest at the end to help you do this.