I was a bit surprised to read the following post on Nick Herberts facebook page today

“Reform becomes real as I meet first Conservative PCC candidates ……….”

I am sure he is mistaken because I know that Nick has said quite a lot about the need to attract independent candidates to the Police and Crime Commissioner elections such as in his speech on 25th November 2011 at the Institute for Government. I mention that because Nick and I met on 17th April and during our discussion he restated his commitment to Independent candidates like me standing. Having said that he did say that I stood no chance against the Conservative party in Sussex, but that is after all down to the electorate, unless of course Nick has a system that ensures outcomes of such things. However even if we accept that Nick has more enthusiasm for the principle of Independence than the practice – he is after all a tribal politician, there is still a flaw in his posting today. Nick was part of the stageshow on 4th October that took retired Colonel Tim Collins to Manchester where he was celebrated as the first PCC candidate. Of course as we know Colonel Collins has in any case gone off the idea.

So just to recap, the reform should have become real when he met me, even if not when he met Tim Collins, because I was the first PCC candidate to declare for Sussex, the same area that contains his constituency. Truthfully I don’t have his certainty regarding the Sussex electorate, I believe that they are much more open to change and discerning than he thinks. If the voters do elect me on November 15th, I would be delighted to make an early call to Nick as one of the 16 MPs on my patch!