We can’t be selective in which votes we accept or reject

WHAT is the validity of a voting system? In the instance of appointing police commissioners, it appears that we have to accept the polled verdict even though the number of votes cast were of abysmal proportions.

In the short span of time to the Church of England’s vote on the introduction of women bishops, we have the ecclesiastical opinion that the result is wrong. Indeed, reference is being made as to human rights!

We can’t be selective in which votes we accept or reject.

If the voting system is legitimate, then we must accept the outcome. The alternative could be a government diktat bypassing any electoral necessity.

From: Ken Holmes, Cliffe Common, Selby, York.

bullets and rockets were flying, bombs were dropping and sirens wailing in Gaza and Israel, but one man in particular got the hell out of there, and hot footed it to our beloved Yorkshire, to take part in a photo shoot in a Chinese restaurant in Hull to support is former sidekick, who was trying his utmost to be elected a police commissioner.

I refer to the Middle East 
peace envoy, Mr Tony Blair, 
and joker extraordinary, Lord John Prescott. Now the result is known, I hope the pair of them have been taught a salutary lesson being that Yorkshire folk weren’t as daft as they thought we were.

From: The Rev PN Hayward, Allonby, Maryport, Cumbria.

THE coalition has only itself to blame for the police electoral fiasco – £100m on a project for which there was no urgency.

I suspect that ministers have so little experience of thrift in their own lives that they have no real conception of multitudes struggling to make ends meet.

The obvious and realistic thing to have done was to announce that such a scheme was in the offing, but would have to wait until the economic crisis was over.

From: David F Chambers, Sladeburn Drive, Northallerton.

NOT being a computer user, I received not a word about the election of police commissioners beyond the delivery of my voting card. At the polling station, I noted from the voting slip that each candidate was designated by a political party. I accordingly spoiled my vote, entering the word “neither”.

Should a chief constable, appointed by an elected authority, be subject to a commissioner with powers to decide his budget and even his fitness to remain in his post? Even worse, should that commissioner have any connections with a political party?

Cannot even a chief constable these days be trusted to do his job without close supervision?

From: Nigel J Starbuck, Carnarvon Close, Bingham, Nottingham.

IT is customary to convey: “congratulations” when candidates win elections; but as regards the police elections I cannot do any other than wish the new commissioners well.

If the public keenly supported reforming the police, they would have sourced the relevant facts for themselves and voted accordingly.

From: Mrs Wendy Abbott, Boulsworth Avenue, Hull.