2012-03-30

Gorgeous George and Bradford West

Fair play to George Galloway, he managed quite the upset with his win at the Bradford West by-election. I do find it interesting that he no longer wishes to represent a London constituency. What's wrong, George, did your stint as Bethnal Green MP prove unfortunately revealing to the local populace?

Inspector Gadget, with whom I do not always agree but whose opinion should be considered, has an interesting position that GG's election should warn people away from elected police commissioners. I'm not sure that I agree with his conclusions, but put forward his argument for consideration:

Before the last general election, I raised the issue of extremist PCCs personally with an influential Conservative politician. He informed me that it didn’t really matter because the PCC has no real power over operational policing. I wondered what the point of them is if this is true. The fact remains that they can 'hold the police accountable' and 'dismiss a Chief Constable'.
I'm reminded of the maxim in the financial markets that "if the market can move freely, it can move stupidly". That's not necessarily an argument against having either a market or an elected PCC, but the point deserves thought.

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