Add a comment October 8th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
European Parliament and English local council elections are to be held on the same day - 4 June 2009.
Good.
Of course there is always the argument that Labour has done this in order to save face, and not lose two elections inside four weeks. This would, of course, minimise the damage that they would face, having only to defend bad results - and work out how to claim that it was actually a victory - on one occasion, rather than two.
However, even if this is Labour’s motive I still support it, as it will encourage a higher turnout - hence more democratic legitimacy - and cut the costs of having two polling days so close together.
In fact, to hold them on separate days so close togther would be the height of stupidity.
2 Comments September 14th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
New and politics “where you are”?
The BBC mantra of news or politics “where you are” is wrong. Whenever they say that, I then get shown the London news or poltiics show. I don’t live in Lodon. I don’t work in London. I don’t have a vote in London. Yet I only ever get the London information.
It is annoying, because it simply doesn’t affect me. I live in Watford, Hertfordshire. Not London. So why would I be interested in local news and local politics that don’t affect me at all? And why can’t I get the news and politics that actually affects me, and that I can vote on?
When will the BBC sort this out?
2 Comments March 27th, 2008 by ThunderDragon
I can’t help but think that this would just be a waste of police time. We pay the police to do this for us. To know and understand the problems in a community and to deal with it. It may well sound good to say:
Every community of the country is going to have neighbourhood policing with police to call upon - with their mobile phone number available - to be able to call them up and have local meetings to discuss the local issues you’re concerned about…
That will lead to neighbourhood contracts, where local residents and police come together to decide ‘here are the priorities, this is what we’ve got to do, this is how we can make it a safer place’.
But in reality, it’s a load of bollocks.
The police already know - or damn well should know - what the crime problems are in any given area. Giving out mobile numbers of police officers won’t help anything, except distract them from their actual job of dealing with crime even more than the current target-focused policing that this government has introduced. It is just a waste of police time.
Nevertheless, a greater level of contact between local police forces and local communities is desirable - but on a more manageable and less of a free-for-all basis. Such as, maybe, monthly meetings when residents can give their thoughts on crime issues to a local police force?
But one thing which would certainly enable more police to be communicating with local residents would be through reducing the ridiculous number of targets that they are expected to meet and the amount of paperwork that they are required to fill out foe every little thing, thus enabling them to actually patrol the streets in the way that we expect them to and come in to contact with the community that way.
As David Davis said: “The public want [the police] on the streets, not on the phone.”
