Elections. In Cranfield. Today

Whadymean elections? Says sleepy parishioner walking the dog at 7 am in a foggy Mill Road. Dog's tugging to sniff at a gatepost and 'mark' it. Bloke wants home for tea and a piece of toast.

Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire. Village Hall voting. Five candidates who if elected will give overall direction to the chief constable and sack him or her if they think they are not up to the job. 

Dog is now going bonkers and seen another dog on the far side of the road. Man wants to get on. Well there was something on the news - how do we get stuff? You just go on the government website.

Oh, one of those like that Trouble in Cranfield website? Frankly I can never be bothered. Disappears into the mist with dog wrapping lead round his left leg.

Well its all true.  This is what they would call Super Thursday in US elections with three parliamentary by-elections, one mayoral election in Bristol and elections for police and crime commissioners in 41 police forces in England and Wales.One of them in Bedfordshire

Pasted in below is material from 38 degrees a campaigning organisation I belong to. It is avowedly anti-privatisation so you can take that into account. But it also reproduces responses from all five candidates. So if you are starting from scratch this might help.


In a few hours private security companies like G4S could be on their way to controlling big parts of Bedfordshire police. The new police and crime commissioner elections are tomorrow (Thursday 15th) and there’s a big danger that pro-privatisation candidates could get in with just a few votes.

That’s why we need to sound the alarm and get our friends and family to the polling stations armed with the facts. Over the last few days, 38 Degrees members have emailed all the candidates to find out who supports privatisation. You can see what your candidates say about privatisation at the bottom of this email.

Please forward this email to your friends and family to get them to go and vote.

Hardly anyone knows that these elections are even happening - experts reckon less than one in five people could vote. That means there’s a huge danger that we could end up with commissioners that few people even voted for privatising our police forces.

Voting is easy - you just go along to your polling station, probably the same place as you would vote in a general election. Polling stations are open from 7am until 10pm so it's easy to go before or after work and you don't even need to bring your polling card with you.

Please forward this email to your family and friends, and remind them to vote in the police elections tomorrow, or share a reminder to vote on Facebook by clicking this link:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/police-election-fb


Thanks for being involved,

James, David, Hannah and the 38 Degrees team


Here’s what the Bedfordshire candidates said to 38 Degrees members about privatisation. Not all of them have given a clear answer about privatisation, some have made a distinction between “back office” and “frontline” privatisation. Others have said they won’t privatise but may consider outsourcing - having a private company take over some parts of the work that police forces do.


Linda Jack (LibDems):
As my manifesto makes clear I am totally against privatising the police in general and the G4S contract in particular. I have also got a statement on my website on the issue here.

As a Bedfordshire resident you may remember that as Branch Secretary of Beds CC Unison (as Linda Weerasirie then) I campaigned against the disastrous HBS outsourcing which ended up costing us all millions. I frankly despair at the marketisation of public services which if elected I would continue to fight against. So to answer your question, my opposition remains whether that is G4S or any other private company.

I have no links to any private companies, further since the PCC does not take a whip my first loyalty (as it always has been) will be to the people of Bedfordshire.


Mezanur Rashid (Independent):
No response forwarded to office

Olly Martins (Labour):
I am happy to confirm that if I am elected as Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner next week I will not sign up to the contract to privatise large parts of our police to G4S, or anything similar. This has consistently been my position since the proposal first emerged this summer.

My Tory opponent on the other hand seems to have taken a number of different positions. I would therefore ask you to consider whether on this issue you should trust someone with a consistent and principled position such as myself, or someone whose position seems opaque and moveable to say the least.

I can also confirm that I have no connection to G4S or any other firm seeking privatised policing contracts.

Jas Parmar (Conservatives):
Privatising the police force is a figment of imagination of the Labour Party and Unison. I certainly aim to streamline and cost save. I hope to achieve this by working with other police authorities not just Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire but Suffolk, Norfolk and maybe Essex.

Some of the other authorities have excellent departments covering HR, payroll, IT etc. and I would much prefer to contract with them for such services.>>

However, there may be cost savings available but any such move would have to guarantee the same service that is available now. I am not prepared to rule anything out or anything in at the moment. I am certainly not impressed with G4S and will not be rushing to sign their contract. I have no business connections whatsoever with such organisations. My business has been involved in the food and retail industry.

My role would be to find efficiencies and pass any savings on to the funding of front line police.My political affiliation has never affected my everyday dealing with the public or job in hand. I will be elected to serve the public without the political influence from the party and I would do that impartially.

Kevin Carroll (British Freedom Party):
No response forwarded to the office