On Thursday I did something I never thought I’d do. I went
to a meeting aimed at helping select a Conservative Party candidate.
I’m not in to party politics and I’m certainly not a signed
up member of the Conservative Party but this event represented a genuinely
interesting political experiment: rather than restricting a ballot on who the
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner candidate for the West Midlands should
be to registered members, anyone could vote. All you had to do was be a registered as a voter in the region and register to attend in advance. This event took place at the Erdington Conservative club and was the first of four conservative Open Primaries currently being held across the West Midlands.
Now for those not in the know (as far as I can tell the vast
majority of the population who, unlike me, don’t have a job that requires them
to research the topic) Police and Crime Commissioners are a brand new exciting thing
that will come into existence this November. Each police force will have their own democratically elected PCC who will
have a series of specific powers, including setting a five year plan for the
force, which could result in significant changes to the aims, emphasis and
delivery of police services in their individual regions. Essentially the PCC
will entirely replace the current system of Local Police Authorities.
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There has been much to-ing and fro-ing regarding the pros and cons of
creating PCCs. Supporters argue that they represent a much more democratic and
accountable approach to policing and will force the police to respond to the public’s
concerns, as well as being a more effective means of scrutinizing police
spending. Those against the idea refer to how it may politicize policing
priorities, potentially threaten cross regional delivery of police services
and, with the position's average £100,000 a year recommended salary, represent
another tier of bloated bureaucracy of ‘jobs for the boys’ style pointlessness.
However, regardless of where you stand it is happening and,
curiously, unlike the Mayoral system, the general public don’t get the chance
to vote in a referendum on the matter.
But back to the Erdington Open Primary. Aside from an ill-fated
conservative party BBQ my dad organized when I was about 9 this was actually my
first experience of a local party event, and I was impressed. The candidates
had already been whittled down to two: Joe Tildesley (http://topofthecops.com/2012/04/24/candidate-statement-of-joe-tildesley/) and Matt Bennett (http://topofthecops.com/2012/06/12/candidate-statement-of-matt-bennett/).
Matt Bennett went on first, did his speech and answered a diverse range of
questions, then Joe Tildesley came on and did the same. The venue was packed full and the post speeches Q&A rounds were
lively and thought provoking.
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| Potential Conservative Candidate Matt Bennett |
Most surprisingly of all I found that I was actually quite
impressed by the candidates themselves. Despite the fact that I have met a fair
few entirely pleasant politicians now, for some reason I'm always still
slightly surprised when they turn out to be genuinely decent human beings.
These two, whether I entirely agreed with all their policy points or not, certainly
seem to care deeply about the communities they are battling it out to
represent.
Their speeches, however, contained the kind of vague promises you’d
expect from such an occasion ‘I’ll be tough on crime’, ‘let’s put victims and
witnesses first’, ‘I want to outsource backroom functions and add more visible
police’. The kind of general ideas that make me want to shout ‘But,
specifically, what would you DO?’.
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| Potential Conservative Candidate Joe Tildesley |
Joe Tildesley, in fairness, had a very valid response to a
question on that theme posed by another audience member – he can’t answer the
specifics yet because PCC candidates aren’t allowed to view the police force
finances. That’s right, PCC candidates are currently having to come up with policies
and promises without the slightest inclination as to the regional force’s
financial situation…unless they happen to already be on the local police authority
and thus privy to this restricted information that is. I hope this is an issue
that will be swiftly resolved because, let’s be honest, what’s the point of voting
for someone if they themselves have no idea if their ideas are feasible or not.
And that was that. Speeches, questions and balloting over
the event closed. In my (unfortunately long) wait at Erdington station I took
some time to reflect on the evenings proceedings. The event wasn’t perfect. The
format of candidates doing their speeches and Q&A sessions entirely separately
to each other was unnecessarily long winded, especially given that many of the
questions posed in the separate rounds were very similar (a one round panel
like approach to the Q&A would probably have sped things up a bit).
Likewise, despite the attempt to get more general members of the public in, the
audience seemed largely dominated by conservative party members.
That said I actually really enjoyed the event and really
welcomed the opportunity to get involved at this early stage. There are still
another couple of Open Primaries coming up and I would genuinely recommend
giving it a go. It’s not often enough that political parties open up their
doors to politically engaged but unaffiliated members of the public and I believe
that this is an approach that should be encouraged. (For details of the next
primaries see here: http://www.birminghamconservatives.org.uk/police-commissioner-elections).
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Yvonne Mosquito, Labour Party Deputy PCC Candidate |
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| Bob Jones, Labour Party PCC Candidate |
I really do wish both
candidates the best of luck and will be keeping an eye out for any up coming
Labour PCC events featuring their candidate Bob Jones and his running mate for Deputy PCC, Yvonne Mosquito, as well as events featuring Lib Dem and any Independent/other
candidates. So far the only events I’ve clocked are party member only, an ethos
I really do plead with all candidates, regardless of party, to move away form
in the coming months. Policing and crime are sensitive issues that affect and
inspire passionate debate in everyone, regardless of their political
affiliation.
Right now less than a handful of my friends and colleagues
have heard of PCCs. In Birmingham this year’s local elections and Mayoral
referendum achieved just a 29% turnout. If we want the citizens of the West
Midlands, and indeed the nation as a whole, to turn out to vote in numbers that
represent anything like a democratic mandate in the stand alone PCC election in
November parties need to get engaging, now. The Conservatives have made a welcome
start with their Open Primaries initiative. Now we need all interested parties
to get out of their comfort zones and start communicating with the public.
The same goes for any members of the general public who
might be reading this. There are probably going to be lots of community
awareness meetings coming up over the coming months, why not go and get
involved? You never know, like I was surprised to find, you might just
like it.
For more information on PCCs check out the Home Office
Website:
or the PCC specific website: http://www.policecrimecommissioner.co.uk/
And for the latest PCC news: Top
of the Cops http://topofthecops.com/
H.B.
