Police Commissioners? Why?

Yesterday, after much deliberation, I decided to vote in the elections for local police commissioner. Not, I hasten to say, because i knew anything about the candidates, or even about the role that they will have, but because this whole scheme has been formulated by the likes of Teresa May.  I happen to live in the bowels of Tory land and I am sure that their candidate will have gained the most votes, even if it happens to be a goat with a blue tie round its neck.

Here the polling station saw a steady trickle of people exercising their right to put a cross, or two, on a scrap of paper, an expensive exercise indeed as the tax payer will be footing the bill. Today all those bits of paper will be sorted and the successful candidate given the extensive powers that HMG have seen fit to bestow upon them. This includes the powers to control budgets and to hire and fire Chief Police Officers.

I feel that the running of the police force should not become a political animal, we endured Thatcher's private army in the days of the Miner's strike and that did the police no good at all. I was brought up to respect the police force and I still do, but should it become officially a political weapon, then I think that  I and many other law abiding people will lose that respect. This is, like many governmental schemes, ill considered, and the real losers will be the police themselves.