Essex Police Commissioner
My nomination papers have now been accepted to stand for the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, or as I prefer the more manageable title, Police Commissioner for Essex.
If elected to a Police Commissionership it would give us considerable power and influence over key aspects of the State’s enforcement ability. So if you are in Essex or nearby please do come forward to help us, in this case, in Essex
Here is a reminder of our manifesto positions:-
1.6 The English Flag
1.6.1 We call for the compulsory flying of the English flag, the cross of St
George, on all state-maintained public buildings in England.
2.11 Policing
2.11.1 Policing is an increasingly difficult job due to changes in our society, which now lacks the social cohesion and shared values that once gave us a mostly peaceful and well-ordered way of life. Our cities have become places where it is impossible to perform traditional communal policing.
2.11.2 English Democrats seek a return to a system of policing which recognises the principle that all citizens are treated equally. In their efforts to prevent crime and catch criminals the police should not be hindered and demoralised by unreasonable ideological constraints.
2.11.3 We should not lose sight of the fact that the basis for the maintenance of law and order in England rests on a firm foundation of active participation by law-abiding citizens. A relationship of trust and co-operation between citizens and police is essential to effective policing and the prevention of crime. With that in mind, it is reasonable to expect that policing should not be oppressive. The aim is a peaceable society in which liberty and justice can flourish.
2.11.4 It is essential that the police force be adequately trained and resourced.
2.11.5 Police forces should be more democratically accountable than at present. This would require the election of Chief Constables or the Police Authorities which appoint them.
2.11.6 English Democrats call for the creation of a scheme enabling businesses to pay for their security staff to train and register as Special Constables, their powers of arrest applying to their place of work and its neighbouring streets.
Such registered security staff would be subject to Police staff performance monitoring and discipline.
2.12 The Legal System
2.12.1 The primary role of a legal system is to provide the means for settling disputes. It should enable those who suffer loss, in the form personal injury, theft, or damage to property, to be properly compensated by the party at fault. Laws, and the penalties for breaking them, should comply with the principles of natural justice. As societies have become more complex, so have their law codes. To a great extent, this is unavoidable.
2.12.2 However, states and their governing elites are extending the reach of law into areas that infringe upon individual liberties. The result is a body of law which is more restrictive and complex than it need be.
Many of the customs and principles of English law are being undermined in the political quest for greater conformity with Continental ideas and practices. Law is being used as a tool for imposing dogma. One of the consequences of these changes is that the police are increasingly being made the enforcers of political doctrine and moving further away from their traditional role of upholding the delicate balance between Order and Liberty.
2.12.3 To obtain justice, citizens must feel able to consult and employ the services of the legal profession. Many people are deterred from this by the procedures and costs of the present legal system. Improvements have been made in recent years but more needs to be done to make the system user friendly and efficient.
2.13.4 The English Democrats favours less law and a simplification of law. There are far too many matters currently covered by the criminal law. There should be a drastic reduction and rationalisation of the number and extent of criminal offences.
2.13.5 We must reform the jury system but not abandon it because the jury provides a democratic check on the legal system. The law is not the property of lawyers; it belongs to the people and should serve their needs.
Our preference is for a return to comprehensible, just and effective law. Given its current chaotic state, the law should be codified.
2.13.6 Once the criminal law has been properly codified, the English Democrats would ensure that the criminal law is vigorously policed and enforced.
2.13.7 Except in an emergency there should be a single annual implementation date for new law. This will help rectify the current muddled situation where no one can be sure, without considerable effort or expense, whether a clause of a new Act has been brought into force or not. Also, some rules, for example the Civil Procedure Rules, are being rewritten so frequently that new editions are being published more than once a month! This lead, not surprisingly, to the shameful situation where no-one, not even the judiciary, can be sure of the current rule in force without first making unreasonable efforts to research the point.
2.13.8 To avoid such excessive complexity developing again, a monitoring system should be devised which ensures that new law is unambiguously comprehensible and properly and efficiently enforceable. This could be a function of a reformed Second Chamber.
2.13.9 The English Democrats respect the right of victims of crime to defend themselves and their property against criminals. The English Democrats would extend the right of self-help.
2.13.9.1 People should be allowed to use simple non-lethal means of self-defence such as pepper sprays, or CS gas sprays.
2.13.9.3 The Government has the right to request the National Standards Authority to prepare reasonable Standards for the preparation of such devices. They may pass a law that requires the manufacturers of such products to follow the national standards.
2.13.9.4 Such devices should be no more harmful than tasers currently used by the Police
2.13.9.5 The police in England seem increasingly unwilling and unable to help our people when attacked or burgled. So, if elected, our Police Commissioner candidates will require their Chief Constables to grant firearms and shotgun licences for personal protection, as well as CS gas and pepper spray items (of the sort commonly available over the counter on the Continent). These will be for the purposes of citizens protecting themselves and their property.
This is in accordance with the actual law. We will direct Police Constables to ignore the unlawful Home Office, politically motivated, guidance to the contrary.
2.13.9.6 The English Democrats respect the rights of citizens who are victims of crime to defend themselves and their property against criminals. The English Democrats regard this as no more than the traditional English right of self-help.
2.13.9.7 Furthermore it will be Force policy that no police officer who is called to a scene of a burglary or other situation where a victim of crime has defended themselves or their property against a criminal or criminals shall be permitted to arrest the victim. If, in breach of this policy a police officer does arrest the victim, then the Chief Constable will be directed to indicate to that officer that their chances of promotion within that constabulary are thereby ended.
2.13.9.8 Any Chief Constable instructed as above who does not comply with our Police Commissioner’s instructions shall be forthwith dismissed by our Police Commissioner.
2.13.10 The English Democrats believe that every victim of a criminal offence should have the right to address the court on the question of sentence and for the court to be required to bear the victim's views in mind when passing sentence.
2.13.11 It is not acceptable that 100,000 hardened criminals commit over half of all crime in the U.K. Once a criminal is identified as beyond effective rehabilitation he or she must be kept out of the community until no longer a risk.
2.13.12 Prisons should be designed and equipped so that prisoners are not subject to degrading conditions. Prison space should be increased rather than release offenders early, and there should be sufficient prison space to allow the imprisonment of deserving offenders.
3.19 Political Correctness
3.19.1 The English Democrats share the public concerns as to the harm caused to
our society by political correctness.
3.19.2 The English Democrats unreservedly condemn this intolerant creed. We
reject the self-righteousness of political correctness and condemn the ideology
as an evil. Political correctness is incompatible with a free and democratic
society.
3.19.3 One key aspect of political correctness is that a person, an institution
or a government is politically correct when they cease to represent the
interests of the majority, and become focused on the deliberate subversion of
English national culture and interests, the denigration of English history and
of the English themselves, and the promotion of the objectives of minority
pressure groups.
3.19.4 Political correctness is grounded in the capture of state institutions,
with official spokespeople, legislative powers and sanctions for breaches of
political correctness. It is this capture of state institutions which makes
political correctness so oppressive and dangerous. This must end.
3.19.5 The English Democrats will take whatsoever measures are necessary to
remove political correctness from both national and local government, including
the various quangos and other government bodies funded either directly or
indirectly by the taxpayer. These measures will include the following three
steps:
3.19.5.1 Firstly, those educational establishments, legal establishments,
quangos, departments or other government organisations that are promoting
political correctness will be fundamentally reconstituted and/or have their
funding withdrawn or, where appropriate and if possible, be closed down. In
particular, the so-called Commission for Equality and Human Rights will be
closed. Private organisations that promote political correctness will not be
awarded government contracts.
3.19.5.2 Secondly, the English Democrats recognise that those institutions that
are run by state appointees are the most detached from public opinion and are
more likely to become politically correct. The English Democrats will, where
practical, ensure that senior public employees, such as police chief constables
and senior judges, are democratically approved by the community they serve.
This will be achieved either via direct elections or via approval by
democratically elected representatives. Many senior public posts will be
subject to a maximum occupancy period, for such senior public employees to be
accountable to the public will form a part of a bulwark against political
correctness.
3.19.5.3 Thirdly, the English Democrats will carry out a review of all laws and
regulations, and will amend or, where appropriate and if possible, completely
repeal those laws and regulations that foster and promote political
correctness.
3.20 St George’s Day
3.20.1 The people of England should be able to celebrate St George’s day as a
National Holiday.
