Douglas Carswell's Blog

Elected police chiefs: an idea whose time has come

It's almost exactly a decade ago I first proposed the idea of directly elected police chiefs, in my pamphlet Direct Democracy: empowering people to make their lives better.

This week the primary legislation to make it happen comes before the House of Commons. I've rarely been quite so keen to vote for something in the Commons.

When I first mooted the idea in a 2002 publication, more than a few Westminster people told me it was mad. Then, after being hired to flesh out the idea for the Party's Policy Unit, they said it might be fine in theory, but impractical.

I'm delighted some of those same folk now have such a powerful attachment to the idea, they actually believe it was their's all along. I even see competing think tanks tripping over each other to claim it as their win. Success.

Now all we need to do is get them make the rest of the localist / direct democracy agenda actually happen ..... Let's hope that doesn't take another decade.

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