DICTATORSHIP IS BUT A VOTE AWAY.

Today is election day, not for a President or Government but for Police and Crime Commissioners. It is set to be a watershed for supposed democracy in the UK.

 

No one wants these people and it seems that the candidates themselves aren't particularly enthusiastic either. Even though the process has been hijacked by the main political parties, publicity and campaigning has been minimal and I've seen nothing whatsoever about 2 of the 3 candidates I'm expected to choose between. All that I've received is a tabloid-sized news sheet about the Conservative candidate, a retired senior RAF officer; how such a background has prepared him to oversee a police force has not been explained.

 

The other 2 candidates remain almost entirely unknown. One assumes that campaigning has been concentrated in the city at the centre of my police area, a city around 50% of whose population is of recent immigrant origin; one might also assume that the successful candidate will quite probably be the Asian standing as an independent.

 

That my police service may well be handed over to the control of someone who hasn't bothered to canvas for my vote and whose support comes from an almost entirely alien part of the population is frightening; that this choice may well be made by the votes of as few as 15 or 20% of the total population of the police area, even more so. There is nothing at all 'democratic' about this process which has been foisted upon the people as a purely political mechanism and with almost no attempt to improve its legitimacy.

 

Politicization of the police is a major step along the road to dictatorship. The monsters of recent history - Hitler, Stalin, Mao and the rulers of communist Eastern Europe amongst others - all used state controlled police forces to impose their tyrranical regimes. While I may not like the idea of my police force being under the thumb of someone with whom I have nothing in common, at least he would be answerable to at least a part of the population. Once the political parties in this country have full control of our police services allied to the vast range of electronic surveillance available today, GOD HELP US.