Saturday, November 10, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

On voting in ignorance

Posted: 09 Nov 2012 12:39 PM PST

In the absence of a U-turn, read the blurb, because ‘they’ want us to vote.

I was viewing it as a ‘God what do they want us to do now that we don't want to do, that we don't believe in?’

Remotely believe in, even.

And I had some vague hope it would go away – for I am nothing if not a firm supporter of this government's U-turns.

Then a woman from Ipsos MORI came by last week, to ask me what I knew about the Police and Crime Commissioner thing (PCC).

And I said ‘nothing’, because I had heard nothing about it around where I live.

No sightings of candidates, no hustings, no personal visits, no public debate on their beliefs, vision, wisdom, no way of seeing them, nothing.

And I was mildly pissed off about it.

Given that we have to vote on November 15.

So after she had gone, I looked around for info.

First – online – stop, the BBC. One link said, nice and clearly, that the elections for police commissioners take place across England and Wales – except for London – on 15 November.

‘The Conservatives – who made the pledge in their 2010 manifesto to introduce crime commissioners – say the role will make policing more accountable and transparent. Critics say it risks politicising the work of the police.

The Liberal Democrats nationally do not back the idea of police and crime commissioners, but are standing in some contests, including in Northumbria, where Peter Andras is the party’s candidate.

Northumbria's Lib Dem candidate, Peter Andras was not able to attend a hustings event organised by the North East Women’s Network 'due to work commitments'.

However, his agent, Anita Lower, attended in his place and said her party would not seek to interfere too much in the running of the police service if its candidate was elected, but would listen to what the public wanted.

“The thing about a commissioner is they are not there to run a police force,” she said.’

So let’s believe her.

Labour has defended its position to field candidates for police and crime commissioner elections, saying it is making the "best of a bad situation".

And Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that while the Labour party was still opposed to their introduction, it would campaign with its own candidates on a platform of fighting cuts.

PCCs, as they will be known, will be responsible for setting priorities for their police force, overseeing its budget and hiring the chief constable.

Commissioners will oversee the work of police forces and draw up a policing plan, taking responsibility for dealing with victims of crime.

They will not have control over day-to-day operational matters, which will remain the remit of the chief constable.

They will have the power in some circumstances to appoint and dismiss chief constables, but will themselves be overseen by a policing panel made up from local councillors and other co-opted members.

We are a bit ‘off‘ our local councillors round here just now, so that doesn’t look too impressive.

And I had already previously looked up my region's candidates and felt, largely, none the wiser.

Well, ‘mildly sick’ might describe it better.

But there was one article about how few women were running, pointing out that of the 193 people standing in the 41 police force areas across England and Wales only 35 (18 per cent) are women. And there are 41 seats, but no women standing at all in 15 of those areas.

So out of interest I looked up to see who these women were.

The list I found was in alphabetical order, by county.

Sue Mountstevens, a Bristol-born businesswoman who ran her own chain of bakeries in Bristol, Bath and Somerset, is an independent Avon and Somerset candidate.

Former youth worker Linda Jack, from Luton, is  the Liberal Democrat candidate – and running against the co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL) and vice-chair of British Freedom Kevin Carroll, and against Bedfordshire businessman and former Metropolitan Police officer Jas Parmar and community worker Mezanur Rashid.

Cheshire has two female candidates: for the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Louise Bours, currently at university studying social science, and the independent Sarah Flannery, a business owner.

Liberal Democrat Pru Jupe, a barrister and parish and district councillor, and independent Mary Robinson are running for Cumbria.

Labour's Nicky Williams and nine other candidates are standing for Devon and Cornwall, Labour candidate Rachel Rogers is running for Dorset, and Christine Gwyther is the Labour runner for Dyfed-Powys.

Linda Belgrove is standing as an independent candidate for Essex, with Val Morris-Cook the Labour candidate for the post.

Conservative candidate Victoria Atkins is a barrister from the Cotswolds and was selected for Gloucester following a postal vote of party members, and takes on three others including Labour's Rupi Dhanda.

Jacqui Rayment, who is standing as the Labour candidate for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, is deputy leader of Southampton City Council.

Sherma Batson is the Labour candidate, Marion Mason the UKIP candidate for Hertfordshire.

Simone Butterworth has been selected as the Liberal Democrat's candidate for Humberside, taking on, among others, Labour's John Prescott.

Independent Ann Barnes has chaired the Kent Police Authority for the past six years and is now bidding to become the person who replaces it, while Labour’s candidate is Harriet Yeo.

Leicester has Sarah Russell running for Labour.

Hilary Jones has been selected as the UKIP candidate for Merseyside, Paula Keaveney will represent the Liberal Democrats, and former Liverpool Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy has been chosen as the Labour candidate.

Vera Baird, a former solicitor general, is Labour’s candidate in the Northumbria force area.

The only candidates for North Yorkshire – the largest single county force in England – are women: Julia Mulligan, Conservative, and Ruth Potter, Labour.

Conservative Caroline Jones is running for South Wales – an area home to more than 40 per cent of Wales’ population. I hadn't known that.

In Staffordshire, Labour's Joy Garner is running against Conservative Matthew Ellis.

Jane Basham, a former chief executive of Ipswich and Suffolk Council for Racial Equality, has been selected as the Labour candidate for Suffolk's police commissioner.

Julie Iles was selected, from an initial shortlist of six candidates, by the Conservative Party to run for the post in Surrey.

Katy Bourne is a Mid Sussex district councillor and national chairman of the Conservative Women’s Organisation and is running, as a Conservative, for Sussex.

Patience Tayo Awe is an independent candidate for Thames Valley.

Former West Midlands Police detective superintendent Cath Hannon, now sitting as a trustee for the locally-based Rape and Sexual Violence Project, is the independent candidate for the West Midlands.

Geraldine Carter is the Conservative candidate for West Yorkshire.

And alphabetically last comes Wiltshire: Labour's Clare Moody, a Unite official, hopes to represent Wiltshire.

So there you go. This much we know.

You still have a few days to go and find out the important things you need to know about someone before you vote for them.

So do I.

Because this is really going to happen, and if we don't want the baddies to get in we had better vote.

At the very least vote for the lesser evil.