Festus Akinbusoye: I’m a Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner. And here’s why, were I a footballer, I’d take a knee.

The first part of a series on ConHome this week about the politics of race in Britain today.

Festus Akinbusoye: What serving as a Special Constable taught me about 21st-century policing

My front-line experience will be invaluable to me if I am elected to serve as Bedfordshire’s next Police and Crime Commissioner.

Festus Akinbusoye: The scandal of rising assaults on police officers. And what must be done to help reduce them.

We may need to move towards a mandatory minimum sentence to send a clearer message.

Festus Akinbusoye: The Home Office’s latest anti-knife crime campaign is not racist

However, its current focus on urban chicken shops risks excluding rural areas, where ‘county lines’ criminality is a growing concern.

Festus Akinbusoye: Ministers must clamp down on schools which misuse exclusion as a tool to raise exam pass rates

Bright but disruptive pupils are allowed to stay while less able but equally troublesome children are dumped. It is illegal, but it happens nonetheless.

Festus Akinbusoye: We should be the party of small businesses – not big multinationals

We must turbo-charge the vehicle of British entrepreneurship as we drive across the Brexit bridge which should connect us with the rest of the world.

Festus Akinbusoye: Prisons need more help to cut re-offending rates

Without sufficient staff and resources, governors will find it impossible to deliver the programmes prisoners need to avoid recidivism.

Festus Akinbusoye: We must end our fixation with degrees

Our universities churn out more graduates than is useful whilst necessary skills are under-supplied by the neglected vocational alternative.

Festus Akinbusoye: Cameron is right to put equality front and centre

Fighting to ensure a level playing field is essential for capitalism to work at its best, and is a very Conservative thing to do.