IT IS with some irony that we note the Police and Crime Commissioner elections only became interesting when the sheer levels of voter disinterest became apparent.

Across the country the turnout was pathetically low and the government has to take the responsibility for that.

It makes us wonder just how many of the elected commissioners can claim any real mandate.

Home secretary Theresa May was yesterday quoted as saying that despite the low turnout the PCCs would still be the "voice of the people' in running our police forces. A statement which beggars belief.

While we congratulate Ian Johnston on his win, through no fault of his own he was voted for by just 5.5 per cent of the Gwent electorate.

As the embarrassing turnout figures dripped in throughout the day, Downing Street attempted at one point to blame the media for the lack of interest, which again is ludicrous.

The government should look more critically at its own performance. It adopted the Tory-Party manifesto commitment to introduce PCCs and then did woefully little to promote the idea, or to educate voters about it.

The public had little information about the role, less information about the individual candidates and very obviously felt they had little compulsion to vote.

As a country we are £75m worse off today because of the cost of the elections. Money that, in our view, could surely have been better spent.