After a Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner hustings in Great Shelford on the 20th of April 2016 I took the opportunity to ask the Conservative candidate Jason Ablewhite about something which had not come up during the event, his plans to appoint a deputy commissioner:
Richard Taylor: Councillor Ablewhite, are you going to appoint any deputies if you are the Police and Crime Commissioner?
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: Yes, I would appoint a deputy.
Richard Taylor: and who would they be?
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: Ah well I’m not going to tell you who it is.
Richard Taylor: How will you select them then?
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: Well what I think we need is a geographical split. I think having a deputy in Cambridgeshire when Peterborough very much think of themselves as their own entity in essence, they broke away from the County in 1995, very proud of their local area, and their identity and I think it is important and I do believe in having a deputy.
Richard Taylor: Just one?
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: Just one, oh yes.
Richard Taylor: Just one and in Peterborough, and appointed how, would it be appointed by the city council, would you ask them to recommend someone?
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: I would go through a process with elected city councillors, because I’ve got a thing about the problem that the deputy is a non-elected individual and one of the things that I’d like to do is ensure that is an elected councillor, so therefore they have got a mandate from the local public at least.
Richard Taylor: And how much would you pay them?
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: Well I’ll try and get away with paying them nothing of course. I wouldn’t pay them any more than needs be.
Richard Taylor: I expect a councillor might do it as a voluntary role.
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: They may do yes.
Richard Taylor: They would have your powers delegated to them in Peterborough would they?
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: No they won’t have the powers delegated but what I would ensure is that you’d have that individual who’s there very much as a somebody within the local community that people could go to. It’s a big place Peterborough you know you forget when you’re on the hustings you realise just how big Peterborough is you know.
Richard Taylor: Why can’t we have one in Cambridge? If we’ve got a deputy for Peterborough why can’t we have a deputy for Cambridge?
Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite: Because you’ve got me.
Current Position
Our current Police and Crime Commissioner Graham Bright appointed his friend Brian as deputy on a salary of £28,000 per year for two days a week (My report from the confirmation hearing).
My View
Jason Ablewhite’s proposal is pretty sensible.
I have some concerns though, one is that he’s not delegating any real powers to the deputy, and the other is that Cambridge, Fenland, South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire are not going to have someone performing the role envisaged for the deputy in Peterborough. I’d also rather have clear statement promising the role won’t be accompanied by a publicly funded salary at the expense of front-line policing.
Given Ablewhite said: “I’m not going to tell you who it is” I wonder if he has a specific individual in mind; if he does I think he should name them so the electorate can consider the candidates for Police and Crime Commissioner and Deputy as a pair. (Labour’s Dave Baigent has named his “running mate”)
I think it’s sensible, but not essential, to identify a deputy, and agree that person should be an elected councillor. I’d pay them a nominal £1/year so they could be considered an employee of the Police and Crime Commissioner as the law enables a member of staff to be appointed acting Police and Crime Commissioner if required.
That said I’m very happy with Nick Clarke of UKIP’s position of simply saying he won’t appoint a deputy.
7 responses to “Richard Taylor Asks Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jason Ablewhite About His Plans To Appoint Deputies”
I’ve been questioning the Labour candidate too:
The UKIP candidate says he won’t appoint a deputy:
You could have asked Ablewhite about his disparaging remarks on facebook on the 30th November 2010 between 17 07 and 18 00hrs about Spanish asylum seekers (sic) in an inflatable grotto lorry, or ‘Pikey’s’ caught on camera!’ This was picked up by your own favoured national-chauvinist candidate Nick clarke.*
* https://nickclarkecambs.wordpress.com/2016/04/25/doubts-about-cambridgeshire-conservative-pcc-candidate-emerging/
Very lively hustings in Wisbech last night when the issue of Ablewhite’s racism was raised. He was very unconvincing and not helped by an intervention by his agent who said it is normal to describe the Irish as tinkers! There is a clip of this exchange here https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xfYmMmfIqa4. Ablewhite was appalling last night and said he would continue as a Councillor if appointed as PCC. IMHO, none of the candidates came across that well. It was a very well attended meeting and there is a lot of strong feeling and passion in Wisbech about the lack of policing. Dave Baigent shot himself in the foot by saying he would put Wisbech at the top of his list for action, clearly forgetting that only moments before he listed Cambridge, Huntingdon and Peterborough as his top priorities. Rather than admit he had got it wrong he became loud and waffled. Not a good performance. Nick Clarke gave lots of strong signals but could not make his figures add up when it came to how he could afford his initiatives. The Lib Dem might as well have not turned up as he had nothing to say and no presence whatsoever. At the end of it all many voting intentions were polarised around political party loyalty, but there were many leaving the meeting flabbergasted at just how poor they all were.
Richard, is your question rhetorical? If not, the reason is business as usual. The new PCC has praised the ‘golden legacy’ left by the previous incumbent and presumably that includes employing your mates without any public accountability. By the way, the openly racist remarks made by his agent at the Wisbech hustings (saying Irish people are known as tinkers) has gone unchallenged. Rather ironic that one of his Tory chums at the same hustings said it was disgusting that Labour was attacking Ablewhite’s own racist banter when the Labour Party was mired in its own anti semetic row. I have subsequently pointed out to that Tory councillor that Labour has suspended those under investigation, wouldn’t the Tories now do the same to the agent? The answer was, “the agent is a private employee, not someone in public office.” He then went onto allow the same agent, Debbie Clark, to post comments on his blog. It is a disgrace that the Tory Party such people to act as agents and it is surely no surprise that the new PCC is just carrying on as the old one did, with the added absurdity of him continuing as a district councillor and claiming the expenses for being one. It will be interesting how he deals with the obvious conflict of interest.
I have written about Cllr Andy Coles’ confirmation hearing at:
http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/coles-white-middle-class-male.html