PCC elections ' 'jobs for the boys' (From Salisbury Journal)
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PCC elections ' 'jobs for the boys'
4:33pm Wednesday 19th September 2012 in Postbag
If you happen to have the time to visit Wiltshire Council ’s website and attempt to find details about the upcoming Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) elections on Thursday, November 15, you won’t find very much in the way of detail. And you can’t object.
What you will find is a message referring you to the Home Office and also to Swindon Borough Council’s website because it is collating this farce.
On that website it does tell you that you are barred from applying if:- You are a public servant, including: civil servants, judges, police officers, members of the regular armed forces, employees of councils within the force area, employees of a police related agency, employees of other government agencies, politically restricted post-holders, members of police staff (including Police Community Support Officers) or members of a police authority.
As Wiltshire is home to a vast number of people holding such jobs or who are retired from such positions, all of whom would be more than suitable candidates for this post, it becomes even clearer that this is a politically contrived exercise in social manipulation. It used to be called ‘Jobs for the boys’.
I do not doubt that there is a modern, subtle and politically correct phrase greying over the nepotism of this underhand practice.
It is not surprising then that Wiltshire Electoral Services will be canvassing on the doorsteps of those who haven’t yet registered.
If they turned up on my doorstep, I know exactly what I would tell them to do with that vote.
ERIC G HART, Salisbury
