Off the Record

It has been a testing year for the Kent crime commissioner Ann Barnes and she had to endure some more ribbing when she attended a meeting of the Kent Police Federation. Federation chairman Ian Pointon made a speech in which he said the world was full of unexplained mysteries, such as whether there was life on other planets and what happened in the Bermuda Triangle. But there was, he added, “one mystery that is greater than all these... Mrs Barnes, will you please explain the meaning of ‘the onion.’”

That was a reference to the fly-onthe-wall Channel 4 documentary “Meet The Commissioner” which saw Mrs Barnes trying – unsuccessfully – to describe a new policing model.

Back at County Hall and the politicians have lost none of their anxieties about uttering anything that could be construed as indicating a cut or, conversely, an increase in charges for particular services.

Cllr Susan Carey, the deputy cabinet member for finance, got into a tangle when explaining why there had not been the anticipated reduction in applications for KCC’s new Young Person’s Travel Pass, which replaced the Freedom Pass.

“I should not say it is a price rise... it is a reduction in subsidy,” she told cabinet colleagues.

Liberal Democrat leader and deputy PM Nick Clegg was conspicuous by his absence