Baird comments reveal fundamental distrust of public she’d serve

I have said consistently that I believe the primary duty of an elected PCC will be to improve communications between the police and the public, and that if elected that will be my priority.

So you can imagine my concern when I saw the reply Labour candidate Vera Baird sent to a member of the public who asked her a simple question about whether those who burn poppies should be arrested.

Vera Baird’s reply – “Who’s asking?” – is revealing in a number of ways. It displays a suspicion of the public she intends to serve. It displays an unwillingness to divulge information to the people whose Council Tax she intends to hike up. Most seriously, it demonstrates that for all of her talk about openness and improved communication, Vera Baird remains at heart a New Labour political hack, with a fundamental distrust of the people whose votes she is asking for. If this is how Labour’s candidate treats the public, it’s no wonder that so many people have complained about lack of information on their PCC candidates.

Let’s not forget, also, that Vera Baird recently called on people not to exercise their full voting rights in the PCC ballot and to use only their first preference vote. In a position that is supposed to bring democracy to the police she is anti-democracy, and in a position that is supposed to improve communications between the police and the public she refuses to communicate. Is this really the sort of person people in Northumbria want as their first elected PCC?