| This PCC idea is dangerous. Its going to make policing policy even more of a political issue. Commissioners with party political affiliations are going to control even more of what the police do.There is clear evidence that the public either do not understand what is is all about or, if they do have a handle on it, do not support the concept.
We need the government know how horrified we are by the whole idea. The best way to achieve this is to spoil your ballot on November 15th. Exactly how you do it is up to you. You could scribble out all the candidates names, write NONE OF THE ABOVE in big letters, before dropping it disparagingly into the ballot box. Here is another good suggestion from Yorkshire:
Some people think spoiling ballots wastes votes. Some people think it legitimises the whole thing and that refusing to vote at all is best. I disagree. When spoilt ballots are collected, they are shown to candidates to agree the ballot is actually spoilt. Which means the candidates should get to see whatever you write on the paper. Also, spoilt ballots are counted and announced as such – spoilt ballots. So it will be clear what kind of proportion of the voters disagree with this nonsense. I am not alone in this viewpoint. The national party GPEW has declared that it is fundamentally opposed to this politicising of policing, and I am not aware of any Green Party candidates standing (although with the deposit at £5000, we probably wouldn’t be able to justify the expense, even if we wanted to stand candidates). You can see further arguments, and some more (creative) suggestions on how best to ‘spoil’ your ballot paper here: Given the huge deposit, it is perhaps surprising to see two Independent candidates on the South Wales PCC ballot paper. As for the Conservative candidate – well, she is a Tory, so enough said! And as for ALUN MICHAEL, the Labour candidate – what appalling cheek by both the man and the party – in even standing!!! His track record is a disgrace, and is well documented here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alun_Michael#Controversy If there is any justice, he will lose his deposit. It will be interesting to see if the extraordinary blind faith of so many of the South Wales electorate in anyone representing the Labour Party extends to this appallingly inappropriate character! In summary – please don’t just ignore these elections. They provide an opportunity for us to express our opinions and have a say – spoiling it is not wasting it!! Andy Chyba |
Bridgend's Green Leftie
An ecosocialist blog
Bridgend's Green Leftie 
What amazing posts above. I do hope ‘spoilt ballot’ gets more ‘votes’ that both candidates combined. Politics must be kept out of policing but it’s been engineered by high deposits to keep the independent canditates out. The whole process stinks – even down to the deposit -£ 5000 for PC whereas standing as an MP the deposit is only £500. When you think of the alleged fiddles -sorry expenses- available to MPs, what must the PCs be able to coin in (allegedly) if shelling out 10 x the amount to stand? My spoilt paper went in early this morning…interestin g to see how few had been crossed off the list (voted) by then. If you disagree with this election, then don’t waste your vote by not going but please register a spoilt paper.
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