Matthew Steeples takes a look at the farcical results of the PCC elections
A former ambassador to the US undiplomatically Tweeted the following an hour or two ago: “Prezza beaten. Humberside policing saved.” His dovetailed stooge, one Mowbray Jackson, added: “Tiresome tub thumper ‘Lord’ Prescott rejected in PCC election. There is a god.”
The first of this pair of social elevators loves a good old Ralph Lauren sofa and the second is often to be found lizard-like with a carafe swilling partner at the bars of London’s Hollywood Road. One stood accused by Prescott of doing “nothing” over phone-hacking whilst chair of the PCC, which probably explains his bitterness, but the other has little connections to the former Deputy Prime Minister other than a picture of himself posing outside 10 Downing Street on his Twitter handle. This image was taken at an event that a certain Lady Meyer hosted with “she so enthusiastic for PCC’s,” our “esteemed” Home Secretary, Theresa May. Dogs, fleas and all that.
From the start, I was very vocal in my view that the PCC elections were a waste of time. I personally couldn’t see the point of them but the one person I thought deserved to win was John Prescott. The right-wing columnist Peter Oborne agreed and summed up my views perfectly in a Daily Telegraph column on Wednesday:
“Most members of the Labour Cabinet [Prescott] served in are now off doing rather grubby jobs in the private sector and feathering their nest, whereas John Prescott, well into his 70s, is still filled with the desire to serve. Good luck to him tomorrow. It would be a magnificent thing for British politics if he wins.”
A Conservative government, though, should not have advocated this additional layer of bureaucracy and all the Police and Crime Commissioners will be is just such. Conservatives are meant to be about “less” rather than “more” government and that one polling station in Wales had a ballot box that, when opened, contained zero papers speaks volumes. It’s been a dismal day for democracy and frankly the government should “sock” the lot of these bureauprats before they have chance to do an iota of damage.
Read Peter Oborne’s article, “Why I hope John Prescott wins in Humberside tomorrow,” at: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100189605/why-i-hope-john-prescott-wins-in-humberside-tomorrow/