One of the criticisms of November’s elections for the new Police and Crime Commissioners was the lack of publicity garnered by the Government and the low turnout that inevitably greeted a vote held on a dark November day. Well, we’ve all certainly heard of one of the newly-elected PCCs now. The past few days has seen Kent’s PCC inadvertently pushing the maxim ‘any publicity is good publicity’ to the limit.
Last Thursday, Ann Barnes was busy touring TV stations with her newly-appointed, seventeen year old ‘Youth Commissioner’. For about 48 hours, it seemed like great PR – with Paris Brown talking eloquently about her desire to reconnect the police with young people.
But this weekend, as the Mail on Sunday splashed on the contents of Brown’s juvenile, silly and sometimes offensive Twitter feed, it was looking altogether a far less clever move. And this afternoon, Brown announced she would not be taking up the role after all.
The fact that someone in Ann Barnes’s office should have vetted Paris Brown’s internet history before recruiting her to a £15,000 a year job is indisputable.
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