There’s an election? Really?
October 15 2015
Of course, we all know about the US Presidential election taking place on November 6th. But how many know about the other elections taking place in November?Those elections being thePolice and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections taking place across England and Wales on November 15th.
The concept of PCCs is one of the Government’s ideas, aiming to make policing more accountable. The idea is, that by replacing the local Police Authority with a directly elected Commissioner, there will be greater accountability. However, the critics of the system question whether it is right to have the power to set policing priorities in the hands of one person.
The PCC elections are forecast to have the lowest turnout of any election in living memory with some forecasts as low as 15%. The problem with such a low turnout would be that the whole concept of making local policing accountable would be undermined. How can someone claim to represent the public if they are only elected in based on the opinions of 10% of the electorate?
Of course, the good news about the PCC elections is that it provides the left with an opportunity to win. It gives us an opportunity to show that the Tories and Lib Dems are unelectable. What the PCC elections also mean is that, if turnout is as low as expected, one of the Tories flagship policies will be completely undermined and it will show that the public has little desire to be part of David Cameron’s Big Society.
You can already sense the Government’s nerves about this experiment with the policing system. They’ve heard about the polls, they’ve heard about the turnout forecast. So, they’re stepping up the public awareness campaign. Over the past few weeks there’s been a TV and radio campaign launch. But, this still hasn’t had the impact that the Government were hoping for. Polling still shows that the vast majority of the electorate know nothing about the PCC elections, or about the whole concept itself.
It’s interesting too that the British media devotes so much time to the US election and barely mentions the biggest change to policing in this country in a generation. So, make sure that you use your voice to spread the word and let’s use November 15th to show the Government that we don’t want their reforms and we don’t want them.
Find out who is standing in your area: http://www.policeelections.com/
Make sure you are registered to vote:
http://www.getoutandvote.info/vote-police-crime-commissioner-elections/
