Today sees the formal beginning of the election process for Police and Crime Commissioners which will end on 15th November when we all get to vote. The BBC got wind of this and this morning at 08:28 @BBCSussex tweeted the following:

“The starting gun’s been fired in the race to become Sussex’s first-ever  elected Police Commissioner. What would you want them to do?”

To date my favourite response comes from someone called @Blakey_999 who has responded with:

@BBCSussex 1. Make Sussex safer 2. Support their staff 3. Reduce crime 4. Not be allied to a political party Try this guy… @Ian4PCC

I love this because @Ian4PCC is my twitter address and I am standing as Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex. As it happens I am not allied to any political party (I have never been a member of any party despite being 52). I will certainly work to reduce crime, make Sussex safer and believe that a key part to this is to support the staff and officers of Sussex Police.

In case you agree with all of this apart from being sure about the lack of party political involvement, you might like to know that across the South East of England, when asked “To what extent if at all do you approve or disapprove of candidates for local police commissioners being supported by a political party?

 66% of us disapprove or strongly disapprove whilst only 13% approve or strongly approve so @Blakey_999 is definitely on the money. In fact with these numbers one wonders why the Political Parties have not done what they have all committed to individually which was to search out people who are Independent of any of their parties.