Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#1
Just in for immediate release...
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Taxpayer funding of candidates for PCC - Inherently wrong
The rules of the PCC election have been laid out for many months. Independent candidates entering the race did so knowing that there would be no free delivery; for independent candidates now to claim that this is somehow unfair is disingenuous.
The cost to the Kent taxpayer of a Kent-wide free election address distribution could be in the order of £1.2 million, enough to pay for 40 front-line police officers.
The facts of the PCC election
These are effectively an expansion of a local election for local authority councillors - the purpose is to elect a local person to be the local representative to cut crime; it is not about forming a government. There has never been a free election delivery for local election candidates, and nor should there be one.
To allow a free election delivery across the 900,000 households in Kent for a "modest" £5,000 deposit entry could allow bizarre and extremist candidates to get their message spread at public expense. Remember "Miss Whiplash" using the election address to promote her activities and website. Many candidates could emerge with no intention or desire to get elected, but simply to use the election as an opportunity for very cheap publicity.
The realities of political parties
Political parties are, in essence, a group of people with similar ideals. The Conservative Party is a broad church of different views, but with sufficient commonality to come together to advance a common thread of values. My own position is one of strong independent thought. If elected, I would not be in Westminster's pocket. I would use the mandate to benefit the people of Kent. Kent Conservatives are funded by supporters and activists making donations and enjoying social fundraising. This is how we will be financing the PCC election in Kent - not from public funds. With that goodwill, we shall have local party members and supporters distributing literature and getting involved. Contrast this with the unhealthy reliance by Labour on funding by the unions.
So-called 'Independents'
If 'independent' candidates are incapable of getting support from local people to do the same, it should not be the taxpayer who picks up the enormous bill for what may be a personal publicity or ego trip.
We note that Mrs Barnes has put herself at the forefront of demanding Kent taxpayers fund her campaign. This is the same candidate who, through various publicly-funded quangos she has been involved in and drawn a generous taxpayer-funded salary from, has campaigned vociferously against the whole concept of PCCs on grounds of cost. The reality is that the office of PCC will be far slimmer and efficient, financially and operationally, than the police authorities that they replace.
It would appear that many declared 'Independents' are far from being so. I note that there is no Lib-Dem candidate for Kent, perhaps because their popularity in Kent is at an all-time low. I make no obvious connection at this stage but, given that Mrs Barnes' campaign team is substantially made up of LibDems, with a campaign manager who has stood unsuccessfully three times in Parliamentary general elections for the LibDems, and various press statements made whilst campaigning against PCCs linked to LibDem peers and LibDem blogsites, I shall let the public decide whether Kent LibDems have found their true candidate hidden behind an 'Independent' façade and are now expecting Kent taxpayers to spread their message.
CRAIG MACKINLAY CONSERVATIVE CANIDATE FOR PCC- KENT
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#2
who is mackinlay when he is at home paul?
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#3
I should have spelt it with an extra a..Mackinlay on the headline.
He is the Conservative candidate for Police Commissioner for KENT.
See also the other thread...now on page 2
I'll get the name in a mo..here we are...
CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE FOR KENT PCC BACKS RSA CALL TO TRAIN PUBLIC TO DEAL WITH ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
But where he has suddenly emerged from i dont know...
here he is on the left launching his name to the public with Colonel Tim Collins
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#4
i can see his point about encouraging independents though.
i might have even stood myself if i had free mailshots, as for alex he would be in his element.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#5
This was big on the news this morning and this press release.. just in now .. was marked URGENT..so the story is gathering pace to the dismay of the political parties.
The Independents are claiming they dont have a level playing field.
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,709
#6
It is true that there is not a level playing field for independents as they do not have the party vehicle supporting them, getting people out on the knock, distributing leaflets etc. However this does not mean that I should be expected to pay for the levelling of that field; they should have got off their backsides and built a fund raising and media team to ensure they got their message across even if it was as blatantly party political as Mackinlay's.
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Guest 762- Registered: 12 Jul 2012
- Posts: 21
#7
Police should be outside the political arena entirely. Thought this was a bad idea from the start.............. and then it became political. party with the most money wins?
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#8
Indeed I m not sure why they thought politicising all this was a good idea, it just creates another level of qwango doesnt it....something the Conservatives were always against in those long years in the wilderness during the Blair era. Another body between Police and Government. Bit of an headscratcher but there must be some advantages..mustnt there?
However we are where we are at this juncture.
I saw Ann Barnes handing her letter in to Downing St on the evening news..it seems the independent candidates have been caught out. But Ross is right there...why should Joe Soap fund her campaign and all the other campaigners too. I mean cash is tight. But a pity at the same time that independent voices cannot be heard any more. The party machine of one side or another always wins through.
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
#9
Presumably the eventual winner will be on a huge wage have no Police experience and will be led by Senior Police officers, would it not be better to let the Senior Police officers get on with the job of running the Police?
Audere est facere.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#10
Taxpayer funding for this may well be "inherently wrong", but taxpayer funding for Political Partys less so, it would appear.
However, the greatest wrong committed throughout politics in the UK is committed by the electorate;each and every one, and that is the thinking that Politics is about Politicians...it is most definitely not so.
Politics is ALL about the electorate;each and every one.
So what, that in this particular case, £5,000 is but on loan/deposit from the big partys, but lost as payment to the public-fund by the lesser partys and independents. It is only so because 'we-the-people' so willingly play the big-party game.
Why not have each of the candidates for this (thoroughly useless) post create their own thread here? And have them post their Manifesto here?
Then, as this forum is so widely read across Kent, could 'our' readership not then declare their support for whichever candidate in their own front window?
Politicians are NOT the problem, Politicians are NOT the issue. The ELECTORATE are what matters. What are we, each and all, afraid of?
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#11
i think the current method of having a police authority does the trick, this new post sounds like something the americans like.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
#12
does that come with a brown paper bag howard.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#13
Tory police and crime commissioner candidate Craig Mackinlay spent nearly £100k on failed campaign
"The Conservative candidate in the race to become Kent's first police commissioner spent nearly £100,000 on his campaign - the highest amount of any candidate in the country - and £10,000 more than the actual salary for the post.
And the eventual winner Ann Barnes spent the second largest sum - £64,676 - wooing voters across the county.
The campaign by Conservative Craig Mackinlay saw his team spend £98,751.46 - nearly half of the permitted level of £228,338 - in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to win the race in last year's election.
That was the largest sum spent by any contender in the nationwide poll for the first 41 commisssioners.
Mr Mackinlay, from Medway, entered the race with high hopes of securing the post but was beaten by the independent candidate Ann Barnes, who fought on a platform of keeping party politics out of policing..."
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/tory-spent-highest-amount-in-5641/ Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
#14
Theres quite a lot on this issue which we should beware of;
Im fully with Ross on his view on the Indies, quite wrong to expect you and I to pay for there campaign.
The Indies should have raised the dosh before the election.
Of course its also correct that Ann Barnes does appear to employing failed Lib Dems like Peter Carroll a failed parliamentary candidate at least 3 times in Shepway.
Rather a worry shes making a non political body into a political one.
Already the costs for the Ann Barnes office is high
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#15
it does seem a political thing keith with ann barnes trying to distance herself from the yellows whilst people threw a lot of money into campaigning to get the non job.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
#16
Surely the money available to any PCC is a sum set down from the get-go. Come the end of their terms I imagine that they will argue about their respective under-spends.
This entire non-event was all about solidifying Party Political (central) control over the Police as Local Authorities could not be relied upon to be of the 'right' colour.
I wonder how, at all, interest in this will be drummed-up come the time for re-election?
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#17
i will have the same interest in the next election as i did in the last, i honestly don't see the point of the job.
come to think of it i don't see point of having a chief constable either, let's spend the money on frontline policing.
Guest 756- Registered: 6 Jun 2012
- Posts: 727
#18
Seems Mrs Barnes will be funding her newly elected Youth Commissioners £15,000 out of her own budget of £85,000. I remember the days when she did it for free!
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#19
Electing an expensive political official merely to hold the chief constable to account is fatuous. Why not just elect chief constables?
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
#20
Unfortunatly Peter the police are known to look after there own, so for me that's not the best option,
What we now have though is a lib dem office at that a failed one.
Ann Barnes has made an error of judgement over some of the people shes employing.
She has also made an error judgement on stating her non political belefs, yet employing very active lib dems.
Her fiasco over the youth representative did her a lot of harm.
The cost of running her office is far to high
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
