The Liberal Democrats are inviting potential candidates for the new Police and Crime Commissioner posts, which, if the legislation is passed, are expected to be elected in May 2012.
The party wants to encourage the widest possible range of applicants so the membership can select from the best possible choice of candidates.
So if you’re interested in applying, you need to be an approved Parliamentary candidate:
The Bill to create directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners is currently before Parliament. The first elections of Police and Crime Commissioners are expected in May 2012.
The English Regional Parties will be inviting applications to be candidates for Police and Crime Commissioners in the autumn. All candidates will be required to be on the Party’s list of approved parliamentary candidates. Therefore anyone who may be interested in being a candidate who is not currently on the Party’s list of approved parliamentary candidates should now apply for approval. Applications for approval should be made by Friday 29th July to enable them to be considered by September.
Application packs for approval can be obtained from the English Candidates Office, 4 Cowley Street, London, SW1P 3NB [email protected] 020 7227 1204
This advert will also be appearing in this week’s Liberal Democrat News.
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19 Comments
Can one question whether this is a waste of time and money? The post of Police and Crime Commisioner is pretty pointless anyway. For the Lib Dems, who aren’t going to get any candidates elected or even run any creditable campaigns, to spend time and money on this is almost criminal.
Of course it is a well known fact that the skills required to be a parliamentary candidate are exactly those needed to run the police force.
Because the party insists on these ridiculous rules is one of the main reasons why the party rarely selects from the widest possible range of candidates – just the same old selection of middle aged men in suits.
Not happy with the 2 week deadline to apply (for non PPCs) most potential candidates wont even be thinking of this election yet. It might change when the bill finally makes it through parliament and gets a bit of media coverage.
Ha there even been a debate within the party about whether we want to contest these elections on a party political basis? Even if there are good arguments for having elected Police Commissioners it is a big leap from that to believe that they should be party politicised.
And then, as Dan points out, even if we decide we should contest them on a party basis, surely we should have an approval and selection process based on identifying good candidates to be Police Commissioners, not parliamentary candidates?
And are we really allowing this to go ahead in May? Haven’t we learnt any lessons about coinciding local elections with other ballots which will inevitably turn out those of a right wing bent?
These elections are just a GOTV campaign for the Tories.
I thought our peers were trying to block this ridiculous idea?
@Catherine
I bloody hope so.
Very sad to note the defeatist tone of some of these comments. Whether one approves of these elections or not they are going to take place — probably next May — and must be taken seriously. In the area covered by Avon & Somerset police, we secured a lead of about 5000 votes over the Tories in May 2010 with Labour a poor third.
We hold seven of the sixteen parliamentary seats in the area — as do the Tories — and Labour hold two. Although the electoral climate has obviously moved on since then, it should also be borne in mind that these elections will be conducted using the supplementary vote system so it is perfectly realistic to aim for victory in areas such as the South-West. As these are the only elections taking place in much of the South-West next May – where we hold 15 Westminster seats – we dare not, and will not, let them go by default.
David Hughes
Regional Secretary
Western Counties
Could someone inform me which meeting of which body determined that these posts should be contested for the Liberal Democrats only by ‘approved parliamentary candidates’ and set the deadlines for the process? Although there is a subset of skills which may be required by both police commissioner candidates and ppcs, the skill sets of Parliamentary Commissioners and MPs are VERY different. One is executive. One is not.
I believe the Lib Dems should boycott the vote. The last thing we need is politicians running the police at the moment and Lib Dems are never going to win anyway. In Essex, the police failed to act on corruption within the council due to close political association and it was left to Scotland Yard to investigate Paul White aka “Lord Hanningfield”. Only now he’s been convicted have they slowly got around to investigating his council expenses. It will be as bad as the absolute dictatorships of the mayoral system and the cabinet system Labour introduced. Power should be devolved and diffuse, not concentrated.
I think there will be an extremely negative reaction from the public against poitical parties who contest these elections on a party basis – I fear it will be seen as contaminating police process (and I say that being aware that certain sections of the police are already in deep reputational mire!) Before I read these comments, I gave it 5 seconds thought – would I be able / have the skills etc to do this job? And I quickly came to the view that I would not – and I think my record as PPC stands up to scrutiny, and I would be reasonably confident that if elected I could do a halfway decent job as an MP.
@David Hughes is right we need to have a positive approach to these elections now they appear likely to happen next year.
Yes i would have preferred wholly elected Police authorities but they are not on offer!
These elections will give us an opportunity to lay out our policies in this area and in the Thames Valley like the South West we can put up a strong campaign in a part of the country where Labour are generally weak.
I think given that PPC approval is only a prerequisite to being selected it seems a fair one. The roles of PPC, mayoral candidate or commissioner candidate are different but all will involve representing the party and its policies to the public. I am quite sure that whoever selects candidates will conduct additional interviews or assessments relevant to the actual job.
Personally, I would like to see us trying to avoid making these elections too partisan – we can back candidates without standing them as “party” candidates. We might even attract some support from other parties or organisations which wouldn’t be forthcoming if our candidate had a Lib Dem bird next to him/her.
Given the overall slant of these comments (with which I broadly agree), shouldn’t someone be putting a motion into conference about how we approach them? It is not much good complaining about the strategy adopted if there is isn’t an alternative for the party to consider….
Read all the above with interest as I, too, was surprised when I read in the ad in Lib Dem News that only people on the approved list of parliamentary candidates are eligible to stand. The skill sets needed are entirely different and therefore the approval process for candidates should be different.. And who decided this policy? It’s totally wrong. The process should be open to party members who do NOT want to become MPs but who could be interested in being a Commissioner. As a party loyalist and activist since 1974, I intend to take no part in any Lib Dem election campaign for a Police Commissioner unless this high-handed policy is changed. And yes, Mark G, there should be a conference motion on this.
i understand that many are not happy with ther way things are turning out. As the LD Lead Member on Gloucestershire PA I have been implacably opposed to the PCC’s. We will fight aginst it until the end but it does look as if the tide has finally turned against us, so barring a miracle (I look for one daily) the legislation is likely to go through around October 2011. So we have to get ready to deal with things as they will be and not as we would like them to be. Having said that and moving on, I am not happy with the proposed selection process for PCC’s. I am not sure why only approved parliamentary candidates only can apply, as the motivation and skills of candidates seeking to be a MP are not necessarily applicable or relevant to those who may seek to be a PCC. I understand and accept there is the need to be a selection process but it should be a separate process. Just taking the easy way out and grafting on the PPC process and by default the approved parliamentary candidates is not the best or most sensible way of doing it. Who agreed to this?
If we contest these elections it will be the referendum all over again; a big drubbing for us, Tory victories and another 400-500 council seats lost. The intelligent thing to do is to strongly declare that this should be non-political and ask a strong and experienced independent member of the Police Authority to stand and back them. As this is the intelligent option, naturally we won’t be taking it….
Tory 10%, BNP 5%, Labour 3%, Lib Dem 1%, stay at home 81%.
All these comments are interesting, but we must contest these Police Commissioner elections. Our policy in Scotland for elected health boards and our desire to bring decision-making to the local level make contesting these elections perfectly compatible with our priniciples and our past record. It is a pity that there won’t be a Police Commissioner election in London, as it would give us a chance to outline our alternative policies for the Met – break it into smaller units – disband it?. For example every “Stop and Account” – the new term for stop and search, costs the taxpayer £11 – and the vast majority of these yield no evidence or lead to persons being charged. Then there is the fact that 70% of those stopped and searched are from BME communities – a massive waste of taxpayers money and a surefire way to undermine trust in the impartiality of the police. When Chief Constables grumble about cuts, let’s ask them about the cost of stop and search. For another example of the wastage involved in this issue see Christian Volmar’s excellent campaign on the issue of trainspotters being threatened with arrest by BTP under the terrorism Act –
In my experience, in both Northern Ireland and London, the Police would actually like to have a critical oversight of what they do, and often things are done a certain way purely for historical reasons. The independence of the Police in operational matters SHOULD BE independent, but in practise, certainly in London, with the Home Secretary it is not. These elections should be contested by us, and by good calibre candidates, with good campaign backup.