There are seven candidates vying for your vote to take the job as the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Humberside. In the first of a series of features, Jenna Thompson finds out more about them
IT WAS a chat over a pint of bitter that persuaded Godfrey Bloom to stand to become Humberside's first police and crime commissioner.
Encouraged by his friends during a few drinks at Pocklington Rugby Club, he decided to join the race for the job.
Although he describes the role as both "impossible" and a "poisoned chalice", Mr Bloom could not resist the challenge of taking on Labour candidate Lord Prescott.
"If it hadn't have been Prescott standing, I wouldn't have done it," he says.
"So many people came to me in the pub, knowing the political dynamic of the area and they were saying, 'Godders, if we're not careful, Prescott will be a shoo-in'.
"So I thought, right, I've got to do my bit."
He insists it is not the thrill of a political battle motivating him to stand, more a belief Lord Prescott is not right for the role.
"This is not a knockabout political game and it is not the job for a career politician, which is what he is," he says.
"This job will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, with rising crime and falling budgets. Although Humberside is a well run police force, it still has one of the highest crime rates in the country and this is a very serious problem."
Mr Bloom is confident he could manage the force's £180-million budget and 4,000 staff, having spent 35 years working for fund management companies and 30 years in the Territorial Army.
"This is a strategic job and I am a graduate of strategy," he says.
"I know what I'm doing, everyone else, it seems to me, is an amateur.
"I've done this for a living; I've looked at where you allocate resources, what you get rid of and I can make the hard decisions."
With a six-figure salary as a UKIP MEP, and a successful career in the City behind him, he is not going for the £75,000 salary.
"I don't need money. All I want to do is go to the pub or Pocklington Rugby Club, that doesn't take much. Money is not a driving force for me," he says.
Mr Bloom is sitting in his private office, a converted garage in the gardens of his home in the sleepy village of Wressle, near Howden, which was inherited by his wife Katie.
The couple have no children, but almost every inch of wall space in the office is taken up by photographs of their "adopted daughters" – the Cambridge women's rugby teams he has sponsored for more than ten years.
Bookshelves lining the room heave under the weight of dozens of titles on British and military history.
In the acres of land attached to the property are stables for his six horses and the UKIP regional office is housed in a converted barn in the grounds.
Although he describes himself as a "normal dude", it is clear he lives a privileged life a world away from the estates of Hull and Grimsby. So can he represent the people who live there?
"In my time as an MEP, I have seen families from hell, pensioners living behind steel shutters. I am not new to this game. I have done my homework. I'm not a Johnny-come-lately, trying to get elected, that insults me."
As he speaks, he flicks through a file of local newspaper cuttings – ranging from Asbos to the most serious of crimes – from across the region.
"I think I could make a real difference. I could seriously cut crime if I was allowed to run it my way but government won't let you.
"Historically, around eight per cent of crime was actually found by bobbies on the beat, but now there is nobody on patrol. You just don't see them. So that is eight per cent of crime that is allowed to happen."
Instead of being out on patrol, he believes too many officers are "hiding behind hydrangea bushes with speed cameras" or filling in reams of forms.
"We have to ask ourselves, is sitting with a radar gun a good use of the policeman's time? Every time a good citizen is caught going 35mph in a 30 zone and then get told there aren't enough officers to come out when their house is burgled, they resent the police," says Mr Bloom.
"It is the same with the drink-driving campaign; they stop 2,500 drivers and catch ten. This is a bad use of their time and it is bad for the police. People don't feel the police are their friend anymore. In four years time, I want people to feel that yes, the police are under-resourced, but they are doing the best they can. I want to make the police look better to the public and the public more sympathetic to the police. I am getting lots of e-mails from serving officers who say they have to go through lots and lots of box-ticking that takes hours.
"If I have to get rid of politically correct nonsense, that is what I will do. I don't want policemen sitting in offices, filling in forms in, doing statistics, I want them doing real jobs."
Also in his sights is the promotion system within the force.
Mr Bloom says: "I want to know, how do you get promoted? Is it by being politically correct and using the right buzzwords? Is somebody being promoted just because they are a woman? That will be stamped right out. It will be a complete meritocracy. I'm suspicious that it isn't at the minute."
He also hopes to use the position as a platform to campaign for stronger sentencing, including more whole-life terms for prolific criminals he believes are "beyond rehabilitation".
"If someone is in and out of prison with 65 previous offences, he is not going to get better. We should simply not let them out," says Mr Bloom.
"These are bad people, they are scum people, and they are making good people's lives a misery."
At 62, Mr Bloom is at an age where most people are thinking about winding down. But he is ready for the challenge if elected, he says.
"I think my wife thinks I work too hard and do too much, and she might be right," he admits.
"I can't do anything unless it is my best though. If I get the job, I will give it 100 per cent."
That said, the prospect of being handed that poisoned chalice is still an unnerving one.
"Coming in a good second might be the best result, actually," he laughs. "You get the good results, without having to do the job."
