Re: Will you Vote ?

Hinch Wed Oct 24, 2012 8:53 am

Very sad but very predictable that many of the people who vote are just going with their same old party political choice. This just proves that the whole damn thing is just about maintaining the status quo at an additional cost to the tax-payer.

When you look at the cuts that this coalitition has been making at the bottom end of the ladder yet is splashing dosh around on these posts it is obscene.

past it Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:56 am

Jeanie wrote:
past it wrote: The sucessful candidate for Greater Manchester will have a large area to cover. I don't know how much consultation has taken place but I suspect that most people will vote along party political lines. There is an independant standing.

One news item in today's Times editorial has persuaded me to vote. The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair now Lord Blair of Boughton, in a TV interview advised the public to scupper the elections by not bothering to vote. The Times comments: "It is hard to imagine a more naked display of contempt for the role of the public in policing" The Times goes on to say "It would be richly deserved,and a welcome legacy,if the upshot of his comments were to encourage people,fired up by his patronising contempt,to go out and vote".

If anyone wonders whether to vote or not that should convince them to do so.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion ? why should this make you go out and vote or convince you ?

Of course they are entitled to an opinion! That is what I am expressing, an opinion. The comment from the Times suggests people should be worried about a former Metropolitan Police Commissioner telling people not to vote, if that does not worry you fair enough.
My last sentence is not an order, it's a plea. Some will heed it some won't.

Jeanie Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:30 pm

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1591942_only-two-people-out-of-50-can-name-any-of-candidates-for-police-commissioner-job

Say's it all really !

Chill37 Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:58 pm

I went on the website last night and it told me to check back on Friday when the list of candidates will be put up.

UP THE DALE Wed Oct 24, 2012 3:29 pm

I have already had some correspondence with Tony Lloyd on some law and order matters, and was impressed by his answers and knowledge. Not saying I agreed with everything he said but he knows the subject well. He is also a very experienced, and from what I know and been told about him, decent MP for many years. He knows how to relate to people and how to represent them, listen to their concerns etc. I would therefore be happy to have him representing me in this role. As there does not appear to be an alternative better than him from what I can tell, he will get my vote if indeed I do vote, which I probably will.

Ann M Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:00 pm

Of course we'll still be friends Jean. Wink

Hinch Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:05 pm

One of my worries is that the BIG £100K salary is too damned attractive. A great 'prize' for a retired Chief Inspector of police, an NHS computer geek or a forrmer MP. (So far, we don't know where the other two have come from.)

How do we know that they ain't just in it for the money and not for the public service? Answer: We don't. I suspect that, like sheep, those 20% of us who bother to vote will follow traditional party voting habits.

No chance whatsoever of getting a stong, able, independant person in. It will go to one of three favoured party apparatchiks who have managed to secure their party nomination by the usual methods; the least controversial one being patronage.

Charly Wed Oct 24, 2012 4:26 pm

I wonder what will happen if only a small % of the public vote?
Will they still appoint someone with a just few thousand votes?

UP THE DALE Wed Oct 24, 2012 5:37 pm

You are of course many ways correct Hinch. Sadly Independents have no chance. This government's two parties have made this a political appointment, therefore many will vote for other parties, just as an anti government reaction.

In answer to Charly, yes, as who ever wins will achieve the highest number of votes as per the first past the post system we hold most elections by. Many local councillors are elected with only a very small number of people voting for them.

Hinch Wed Oct 24, 2012 7:08 pm

Much of it by dubious postal or proxy votes no doubt?

Am so glad I left the Labour Party. I now feel free to vote with a far clearer conscience than I have since May 1997.

johnb Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:01 pm

I think it's going to be very difficult to make an informed choice because there is no real 'hustings' process.

Ian Blair may well be right - not voting makes sure there is no mandate for an unknown candidate.

Jeanie Wed Oct 24, 2012 9:28 pm

hinch wrote:Much of it by dubious postal or proxy votes no doubt?

Am so glad I left the Labour Party. I now feel free to vote with a far clearer conscience than I have since May 1997.

Me too Hinch I also feel free but even if I was still in council I would NOT have voted politically on this , up to now I am not prepared to cast a vote simply because I do not agree with one person in charge of the whole Police Force I can't see how it will work or be a benefit to us in our areas, this one person is going to be far to distant from what you and I want to see happen to keep us safe !

I will await the papers and read in depth each candidates "plea" but from what I have read so far has not given me any enthusiasm in fact again it is on the cards from the start of it all who the winner already is ???

Poppyanna555 Thu Oct 25, 2012 11:18 am

Posted by Chill: I went on the website last night and it told me to check back on Friday when the list of candidates will be put up

Well, just received my booklet through the post, told me little really but I decided to check on the website for my local candidates....was told to check back on the 26th (tomorrow). Why keep moving the dates? doesn't bode well with me i'm afraid. Rolling Eyes

Jeanie Thu Oct 25, 2012 9:41 pm

Poppyanna555 wrote:Posted by Chill: I went on the website last night and it told me to check back on Friday when the list of candidates will be put up

Well, just received my booklet through the post, told me little really but I decided to check on the website for my local candidates....was told to check back on the 26th (tomorrow). Why keep moving the dates? doesn't bode well with me i'm afraid.

All very confusing what a waste of time effort and money is that booklet! this position is costing absolute thousands of £'s on top of a £100 k wage.
Joe public will have a couple of weeks to decide ? and even if like me you don't bother to vote again it has already been decided who is given the post Mad

Mulldog Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:46 pm

I am voting for the Independent candidate.

Hinch Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:58 pm

I am in the Lancashire area so can't vote for any of the GMP candidates.

So far, reading their online stuff, The Tory bloke doesn't impress. Says he will be an independent voice but has 11 years as a councillor under his belt in a party that has slashed police provision.

The ex-copper (LD) would not attract as I don't think that this should go to anyone with recent history in the police force. Not really studied the blurbs from the rest yet.

I'm voting Commissioner Gorden with Chief O'Hara as his running mate for Gotham City; both strongly endorsed by Batman. (Mind you, they keep locking up the super-villains but they soon seem to escape. Sounds like G4S are running the real show here!)

Pow! Sok!, Blamm!!!! Zowee!!!!! All together now... da da da da da da da da... BATMAN!!!!

Hinch Fri Oct 26, 2012 5:29 pm

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/74642/police-commissioner-election-fails-to-excite-voters

Irishman Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:34 pm

Not voting full stop! Sleep

Jeanie Fri Oct 26, 2012 11:29 pm

Irishman wrote:Not voting full stop!

Me neither totally disagree with it but the sad thing is we cant stop it happening as Laurel & Hardy said "another fine mess" Mad

Striding Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:54 pm

If you believe, as I do, that the post should be independent of the political parties and the police, then that only leaves a single candidate. I don't know much about the candidates, and they all seem to say similar things, very much along the lines of what the public wants to hear.

Jeanie Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:02 pm

Striding wrote:If you believe, as I do, that the post should be independent of the political parties and the police, then that only leaves a single candidate. I don't know much about the candidates, and they all seem to say similar things, very much along the lines of what the public wants to her.

If I was to vote it would be for the Independent Roy Warren this post should have been kept non -political but yet again we are seeing thousands of ££££ 's being ploughed in by the Labour party ! just again another FARCE .

Hinch Sun Oct 28, 2012 11:22 pm

God, you seem to be changing your mind quickly Jeanie! I thought you weren't voting???

Call me judgmental but he looks a well-heeled, swarmy, expensively-suited sod.

Gives me the creeps just to look at his photo. Looks like Tiny Rowlands!

You talk about the money that Labour is putting in but this guy just on his own must also be putting thousands in. £5K at least if he gets less than 5% of the vote! And that's besides publicity and other costs. Mind you, with the look of his suits, he can afford it.

UP THE DALE Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:38 am

I would be very surprised if Labour can match what the Tories spend on this election. The Tories always outspend Labour in elections, in total spend.

Cllr Duxberry says, anyone standing as an independent, has to be well off-certainly not an ordinary guy who knows the problems us ordinary people face in our neighbourhoods.

Atlas Mon Oct 29, 2012 1:03 am

If it becomes 'political' and overtly so then boycott it. It isn't supposed to be a 'political' post.

Hinch Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:32 am

... and the band played, "Believe it if You Like.'

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