Labour police commissioner candidate forced to quit

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Labour police commissioner candidate forced to quit over conviction

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/3 ... date-quits" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lee Barron is the third Labour candidate forced to quit police commissioner contests over minor conviction in youth


Labour is facing the embarrassment of having to withdraw from the Northamptonshire police and crime commissioner election in two weeks time after its candidate was forced to quit on Monday.

The party has launched an inquiry into the suspension of Lee Barron, a regional secretary of the Communications Workers Union, as its official candidate after it emerged he had been arrested and fined £20 for willfully obstructing the police during a pub incident 22 years ago.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, is hoping for a high-profile Commons byelection victory in the Northamptonshire constituency of Corby but now faces the prospect of not contesting the county's police commissioner job. Nominations closed on 19 October.

Barron is the third Labour candidate to be forced to quit the police commissioner contests because of a minor conviction in their youth. He has been a magistrate for the past 10 years and in a statement said: "I was a young lad at the time. I don't think society takes a view that if you do something wrong you should be punished for the rest of your life. That night was a sea change for me. From that moment on I pledged I'd never get into trouble again and that's why I have been a magistrate for 10 years."

Barron said he was arrested when trouble flared as he was watching an England football match in a Northampton pub in 1990. A friend was arrested and Barron, aged 19, at the time tried to intercede. He was himself arrested and fined £20 for obstruction.

A Labour spokesman said: "We are disappointed to learn from Lee today that he has a previous conviction which bars him from standing as a candidate. He has been suspended with immediate effect and we have withdrawn our support pending an investigation."

Several candidates have been caught out by changes to the rules governing the kind of convictions that debar police commissioner candidates. The original legislation specified that only those which carried a custodial sentence would count but this was widened to all convictions, a move which had the support of Labour.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

This policy is completely idiotic.

Would you ban a previous smoker from ASH.
Would you ban an recovering alcoholic from the board of a drinks giant.
Would you ban a novice becoming a Nun because they had been married



Would you ban an MP from standing for parliament after using the claims system to get as much money as possible legally (actually in this case I would)

Surely, to my way of thinking the best people to become Police commissioners are those that have been through the system at least to some degree. As long as the crime was minor as in not punished by a custodial sentence (including suspended), and spent; then they should be able to stand.

[fishtank]

Although i agree the policy of banning potential candidates for minor offences years ago is completely ridiculous,Mr Barron and those supporting him must have been made aware of this change in policy and should have known that it would have invalidated his standing as a candidate.

It is as i have already said though...a completely ridiculous policy pandering to the "must be squeaky clean,no negative publicity" paranoid misinterpretation of what the public actually wants from a serving official.
This is fed of course by partisan newspapers who will dig up any past indiscretion and paint it as the crime of the century not in the public interest but in the interest of furthering their own political agenda.

The public don't particularly want squeaky clean because generally that means very little life experience.
The public again in general only want honesty,if you've made mistakes in the past as long as they are not serious and you have paid for and learned from them then they,as teebs points out should be seen as a positive not a negative.

[TeeferTiger]

Being convicted of something minor as a kid when you're stupid and more likely to go along with your mates is a far cry from doing it the year before running for election.

It's the same in the child adoption thingy. My cousin and her husband can't have kids so they tried to adopt. They both have good jobs, their own house in a nice area with garden etc and yet because he was done for arson (setting fire to nothing major and no one died) when he was a kid, they weren't allowed to adopt 35 (felony free) years later. Fair enough, he shouldn't have done that when he was a kid, but it's not as though he'd be encouraging the child they adopt to go set fires to things, is it?!

[Lounge Lizard]

This policy is completely idiotic.

Would you ban a previous smoker from ASH.
Would you ban an recovering alcoholic from the board of a drinks giant.
Would you ban a novice becoming a Nun because they had been married



Would you ban an MP from standing for parliament after using the claims system to get as much money as possible legally (actually in this case I would)

Surely, to my way of thinking the best people to become Police commissioners are those that have been through the system at least to some degree. As long as the crime was minor as in not punished by a custodial sentence (including suspended), and spent; then they should be able to stand.

And presumably had Jimmy Savile still been alive he would be able to stand in the Police Commissioner elections.

[Wessex]

I thought you also had to have a clean record to become a magistrate .