That only one in five people voted shows that there remains widespread indifference and misunderstanding about police commissioners.

We were told in 2012 that the low turnout then -16% - was because the policy was new and that this time, the public would be more engaged. They weren’t. The apathy factor prevailed and had there not been council elections in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, the turnout might well have been on a par with 2012.

The election system for crime commissioners was skewed to the mainstream political parties with larger resources and activists prepared to knock on doors. Unless the government is prepared to act to create a level playing field, it will remain virtually impossible for independent candidates to make a meaningful challenge. That the one independent candidate managed to get 26,000 votes from a standing start and very few resources is a reflection of that.

THE public don’t like the idea of police forces being politicised. Although commissioners swear an oath of impartiality, the fact that they are allied to a particular party is always likely to mean they are liable to answer to and be accountable to their political masters at Westminster.

UKIP is not going away, especially in Kent. That it came close to winning against a well-organised Conservative machine shows that it remains a political force to be reckoned with - and that should worry Labour, who performed well in some of its stronghold areas but lost out in others, notably Medway.

While the Liberal Democrats were annihilated in the general election, they haven’t quite been given the last political rites. Mind you, they still have a long way to go before they can recover the ground that has slipped away from them in recent years.