Keeping our fingers crossed

Well, after congratulating him maybe we should also be offering him our sympathy: it hasn’t exactly been a ringing endorsement, has it?

The plain fact is this whole PCC process has been deeply flawed, and needs to be completely re-thought. Whatever else it was, it certainly wasn’t democratic.

Of the 81,477 people in Wiltshire who troubled to vote (only 15.83 per cent of the county electorate), just 30,000 made him their first choice. Alarmingly, there were 2,683 spoiled votes, presumably many of which contained messages denouncing the politicisation of the police. Because that’s what it is.

With a very few exceptions, police forces throughout England are now controlled by one party or the other. Commissioner Macpherson was the Wiltshire Conservative candidate and hence from the outset odds-on favourite to win. He was opposed by Labour, Lib-Dems and UKIP and two unknown independents who, lacking the manpower available to political parties, never stood a chance. After listening to five of the candidates attending a pre-election meeting, I felt underwhelmed and very nearly didn’t vote. But marking a ballot-paper is depressing when you feel that it’s a token gesture because local politicians have got the whole process sewn up.

So what should be changed in future? Perhaps the Home Office could take a leaf out of the NHS book and follow the same national practice for electing Foundation Trust hospital governors. A single document, circulated to every eligible voter, with each candidate’s photo, biographical details and short policy statement limited to (say) 150 words. Elections to be every three years and no candidate permitted more than three terms in office.

The great advantage of this kind of scheme is that it protects us from being asked constantly to re-elect people who have outstayed their welcome and have got stale. And, besides being much more democratic, it’s a way of recruiting newcomers with fresh thinking.

This county has roughly 600,000 voters. A tiny, tiny handful picked our new Police and Crime Commissioner in the belief that he is the best man for a difficult and demanding job. Let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope - for all our sakes - that they are right.

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