A Reluctant Aristocrat: Assorted Memories of My Unconventional Life - New Chapters

By
Guy Mackenzie

Postscript Part Four - Hurrah for Shabana

Devon & Cornwall PCC, Alison Hernandez, & Cornwall's Costly Chief Constable Crisis

Extracts from the September 18th, 2025 edition of the Cornishman.

An image of Guy's letter to the September 26th 2025 edition of the St Ives Times & Echo newspaper.

Then on 13th November 2025 came the (not entirely unexpected) announcement and here is the heading in the following day's The Guardian:

Excerpts from an article in the Friday 14th November 2025 issue of the Guardian newspaper regarding the scrapping of the Police Commissioenr role.

Alison Hernandez, Devon and Cornwall's Police and Crime Commissioner, has not held the Police to account on my behalf!

I emailed Alison Hernandez on 2nd July 2024 advising her that I had criticised PC Lee Mallatratt 11385, Insp Billy Elliott 15453 and, especially, Sgt Andy Cloke 5625.
As already stated, I did get an acknowledgement from her office that my email had been received and that I'd receive a response within 20 days.
She has still not replied.

However I was better off than a friend of mine who'd emailed her on 3 occasions and never had any response at all!

However what Alison Hernandez didn't know is that my friend's uncle just happens to be a well known Conservative ex-Government Minister & is now a Member of the House of Lords!

In conclusion, if the person who claims "to hold the Police to account" doesn't bother to reply to a "member(s) of the public", it's not surprising that the Police follow her example and don't bother to reply to me! All I've ever wanted to know was why the Police acted in the way they did and to provide me with an apology. I've had neither.

And don't start me off by saying that I should make an official complaint. At a recent count there were, I understand, 1,600 official complaints outstanding against Devon & Cornwall Police! And who deals with the complaints?
It's Devon & Cornwall Police themselves!

All together now (to the tune of "The Old Grey Mare")...

Cornwall police ain't wot they used to be,
Wot they used to be, wot they used to be,
Devon and Cornwall Police ain't wot they used to be,
Not so many years ago!
Tra La La La La...

January 26th 2026 Update:

For Whom The Bell Tolls...

Shabama Mahmood was appointed Home Secretary on September 5th 2025 and hit the ground running! On 13th November she had announced that Police and Crime Commissioner posts would be scrapped.
Then just over 2 months later a Government White Paper "From Local to National: A New Model for Policing" was published. This included:

Reducing the number of Police forces from 43 to between 10 and 12.
Mandatory professional licencing for police officers.
Ministers given new powers to intervene directly in failing forces. -The Home Secretary to have the power restored to sack failing Chief Constables.

My opinion? If these reforms had been in place in 2022, I don''t consider that I would have found myself in the situation, outlined in these chapters, which resulted in my "battle" with Devon and Cornwall Police.

So what now for Devon & Corwall Police?

The Bell has Tolled... it has Tolled for you!