DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived post-Murdoch era

oh okay --

But the profoundly embarrassing truth was that the story was false. Not only was it a fairly straightforward case of mistaken identity, but this fact had been known about by journalists for more than 15 years. Messham's claims, however well-intentioned, had been examined and rejected by the official Waterhouse inquiry in 1997. Simple checking would have revealed this.

McAlpine's cousin, Jimmie McAlpine, a prominent local businessman, was the one originally named by Wrexham inmates as the object of rumours. There was no evidence of actual sexual abuse in any event. These rather devastating facts are explicitly recorded in transcripts of the Waterhouse inquiry.

most of the versions i've seen haven't bothered explaining some of this background, just 'newsnight said that there was a tory mp who had abused children, and people were naming that tory mp on the internet, and that tory mp was obviously exempt from suspicion'

this is more than a bit annoyingly-self-congratulatory-grauniad, but

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/10/newsnight-mcalpine-scoop-rumour

has anyone looked up their possible local police chiefs? or actually going to vote?

i'm sure they're all fine people who'll do a great job

the statements on the website are the worst. oh hey you are the 'trustee' on a local boxing club or you were a teacher for a while and have an it degree and have no actual statements about policing? these people cant write a fucking decent cv let alone tell me why they should be a pcc

No, don't be daft (xxp). These elections are useful ammunition for union leaders if the Tories ever try to bring in some sort of legislation on percentage turnouts on votes on industrial action. Good work, Tories!

K3v C4rr0ll of the Ee Dee elL is standing for PCC of Bedfordshire, as the "Br1t1sh Fr33d0m P4rty". Aside from his other previous, he's currently bailed out on Conspiracy To Cause Public Nuisance charges as a result of the Ee Dee elL removal van/mosque attack fiasco in October.

(Paranoid googleproofing perhaps, but better to be safe)

lol at gove trolling teachers

ugh newsnight still carrying a candle for bagshawe

I have received 0 leaflets through the door about who's standing and after a few minutes of Googling have only found the name or any information about one of the candidates (maybe there is only one candidate), so, fuck casting a vote

^ voter apathy in the 21st century

This page is about one specific issue (where the candidate stands on privatising police services) but you'll probably get the measure of the candidates in your area from it (i.e. most of them don't have a clue what they're getting into):

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/pages/police_commissioners_vote_tomorrow

Pretty much every candidate in Cambridgeshire claims to be against privatisation iirc (whether they're telling the truth is a different issue obv).

Ok Cambridge CON guy is evasive and sounds like an idiot: I am certainly not impressed with G4S and I have no business connections whatsoever with such organisations. My business has been involved in the food industry.

We got this clown:

It is my view that public services which depend on a 24hr 365 day unpredictable demand cycle are generally unsuited to privatisation

Thanks Nick! I now have a good idea who not to vote for, but still not much the wiser about some of the less obviously nutjobby/out-of-depth candidates. Prob won't vote but depends how many nightmares I have about the UKIP guy who wants guns for every officer tonight.

Several of the Thames Valley lot's first response to the privatisation question was "I have no business connections with these organisations" too. Not sure what to make of that.

got a choice between Prescott, several Tories of various shades, an ex police superintendent and some bloke who looks like he writes a lot of letters to his local newspaper. must set my alarm so i can get to the polling station nice and early.

fuck these are TODAY? i'm not at home right now but i'm 99% sure we haven't received polling cards...so i don't know how to vote, where to vote or who to vote for

oh never mind

There are no elections here
There are no elections for police and crime commissioners taking place in the area you have specified. The London Mayor is the police and crime commissioner for London. The Mayoral elections that were held earlier this year determined the police and crime commissioner for the London area.

I thought we had it bad with our motley selection of string-'em-up nutters and stealth Tories, but your PCC is BORIS

Oh, Thames Valley not only has a nutty UKIP candidate but also a stealth UKIP candidate (former Slough UKIP councillor running as an independent - dude has also run for councillor in a Labour hat and a Tory hat and seems to put himself up for any position going). Woo.

Best Democracy in the World

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TtlVqQzL0Ww/T3nH12r2QZI/AAAAAAAADb4/kSa9x8E213A/s1600/dish-and-dishonesty.jpg

Strong policies for a better Britain.

Looks like they're AV as well. Hard enough to pick one competent candidate from this line-up, let alone two.

lol@ the Thames Valley candidate who lists her PRINCE2 qualification as a reason to vote for her.

But blimey, I'd rather cast a vote and get someone ineffectual than not vote at all and risk a nutter getting in.

I was sort of assuming that Other People would have enough sense not to vote for an obvious nutter (ha), but this stealth UKIP guy has me a bit worried as he has an inoffensive blurb and lists some vaguely relevant-looking experience from his lifetime of getting himself on every local political board going, which may attract some voters who would otherwise go "UKIP, hell no"

emil.y, did you vote in this yet? still no idea who I want to support in this thing

lol@ the Thames Valley candidate who lists her PRINCE2 qualification as a reason to vote for her.

Expired PRINCE2 qualification.

I would vote for her as the candidate whose name sounds most like an ILX display name.

http://www.policeelections.com/candidates/thames-valley/patience-tayo-awe/

if i saw that as an ilx display name i think i'd assume 'inscrutable ilf joke', so yes.

as all of the candidates are mental or incompetent we should've got a few ilxors in the game, how could we lose?

patience: taiwo awesome

as i think i counselled r|t|c last season

I think I'm going to spoil my ballot tbh, tell me what to write on it

UR ALL GAY

I know the results don't mean anything at all, but the LibDems are getting completely annihilated in the PCCs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/nov/16/pcc-election-results-police-crime-commissioners

Ended up voting for the Labour candidate last night btw. Went down at about 9.30 and I'm pretty sure I was the only person they'd seen for an hour, I was like a one-man last minute stampede.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-20358207

^video of them opening an empty ballot box. Turnout was 17%.

Meanwhile UKIP beats LibDems in Corby

Corby by-election result

Andy Sawford (Lab) 17,267 (48.41%, +9.71%)
Christine Emmett (C) 9,476 (26.57%, -15.63%)
Margot Parker (UKIP) 5,108 (14.32%)
Jill Hope (LD) 1,770 (4.96%, -9.48%)

http://pccspoil.tumblr.com/

^ tumblr of spoilt ballots. Sadly the funniest thing I saw on there is that the Surrey UKIP candidate is called Robert Shatwell

Bah, we have a Tory PCC. May as well just have drawn some cocks for the spoilt ballot tumblr. (Not that I thought my first choice had any hope of getting through, or knew anything about him)

If you'd asked me a year ago if election candidates should stop sending reams of useless and annoying leaflets and the poll card should just have a little bit of text saying "Go to this website to read about the candidates" I might have said it sounded like an OK idea (apart from the people who don't have convenient internet access, of course), but in practice I didn't read that bit of the ballot card until I left to vote and just felt pissed off that I was supposed to vote without having received any information whatsoever.

If that is the new system, then some brightly-coloured leaflets the first time round to tell everyone that's how it works now wouldn't have gone amiss. Or maybe it was hoped that as few people as possible would bother to vote, in which case, job done.

h8 living in tory crim land

Kevin Hurley, independent "Zero Tolerance" candidate, is elected on second count in Surrey.

At least he won't 'jack' your body...

dealt with crime and anti-social elements from walking the beat in London and Surrey to writing the National Policing Plan for Iraq.

just looking at the Surrey result and the only person who Robert Shatwell managed to shat well on was gosh, who'd have guessed it, the poor old LibDem guy

Tories lost their deposit in Manchester byelection, Lib Dems lost theirs in Corby. Hohoho.

:)

Totally did not know that electing Sheriffs was Only an American Thing.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/freud-poor-should-take-more-risks-16241291.html

"We've got the circumstances now where... people who are poorer should be prepared to take the biggest risks - they've got least to lose.

"We have, through our welfare system, created a system which has made them reluctant to take risks so we need to turn that on its head and make the system predictable so that people will take those risks. I think we have a dreadful welfare system."

people think i'm joking or being some dumbass extremist when i say cunts like this need killing. i'm not.

the lower orders needs an enterprise culture

in nigeria, a young impoverished working class man is prepared to borrow £10,000,000 and offer nothing but his can-do spirit as security

what the shitting titting bastard fuck

and belfast telegraph? nothing against them lovely people i'm sure but this should be fucking drudgesiren newsflash in mile high skywriting across the country.