In November 2012 electors outside of London voted for Police and Crime Commissioners to provide governance for the 41 English and Welsh Police forces. This was a new role and replaced the work of the Police Authorities, enacted the last time we had a Conservative Government in 1986. The Police Authorities were made up of 47% Independent members and 53% Political members, balanced to reflect the political makeup of the area covered by the Police Force and its geographical stretch. Although the coalition Government made it clear that they wanted to see candidates elected who were not part of the usual political structures it was inevitably only a matter of time before they declared that the candidates being discussed were not up to the job (they did this 6 months before the list of candidates were published!) and the Conservatives felt obliged to put their own candidates forward in all 41 seats. The Labour Party went through a similar agony. They opposed the PCC concept because unlike their similar proposal it was introduced by Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and so they too wanted to see Independents stand, rather than support the despised policy. However after a lot of shouting, they realised that too many of their own ex-Ministers wanted to stand, and so they too decided to put up candidates in all 41 contests.

In Sussex the politically dominant, and extremely well funded Conservatives were successful in their campaign to elect Katy Bourne, who has now been our PCC for 11 months. In the end Katy and her huge team outspent her four rivals combined by a ratio of more than 4:1. I stood as the only Independent candidate and came third, close behind the Labour runner up. Inevitably one of the issues that was raised during the campaign was the risk of Politicising the Police. The Party Political candidates including Katy hid behind a fig leaf that the Government handed them at the last minute which continues to be called an ‘oath of impartiality’. Their idea was that by promising to be unbiased, that the political dogma which propelled 29 of the 41 PCCs to success, would disperse as though it was morning mist. Katy duly made the promises in the so called oath (lawyers have pointed out that this is not an oath in any legal sense). Shortly afterwards she appointed a Tory Councillor to be her deputy, following a pattern adopted by other Party Political PCCs. Since then she has been tireless in her spare time, canvassing for MPs and Councillors in many parts of Sussex. Although she doesn’t claim to be doing this whilst she is ‘on duty’ as PCC, nevertheless electors are left in no doubt, their PCC expects them to elect the Conservative candidates in the various elections.

Having pushed, pulled and stretched any vestige of impartiality as far as it could go locally, Katy is now in Manchester on her holidays. She decided to miss the National Police Memorial Day Service in Cardiff, because she clearly could not be in two places at once. Manchester is a fantastic place, with Millions of Acres of walking routes, sailing including on the ship canal and riding. There are many luxury hotels including some in the city centre and Millions of square feet of high value shops. As it happens Katy has discovered that whilst she is in Manchester, so too is the Conservative Party, having its annual conference. Once they discovered that she was in town on her holiday, she was even asked to speak at a number of the fringe meetings as Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex. What is strange is that the Labour Party who also believe in the ‘oath’ of impartiality did not invite Katy to speak to them as part of their national conference, when they were in Sussex last week. Instead they relied on some Labour PCCs who were coincidentally on their holidays in Brighton. We get to vote for PCCs again in May 2016, so presumably the Autumn holiday destinations of 29 PCCs can be anticipated for the next two years?