Oh! Mr. Winsor, What Have You Done?

The second part of the Winsor Report was published Thursday much to the misfortune of police officers in England and Wales.

According to the recommendations by Winsor, Police officers' fitness could be checked annually with disciplinary procedures facing any officer who fails the test three times.

Whilst I do agree that there are certainly some officers who need to get fitter, the nature of the job doesn't always allow this as easily as it seems.

We rarely get down time. Eat poor food, usually reheated several times due to racing off for calls. So fast food and microwave meals are usually the order of the day as its quick to eat.

We don't get the time to sit as a team and eat a cooked meal. Mainly because we aren't all allowed to be back at the nick at one time. Even allocated meal breaks don't work as assistance shouts or I Grade calls take priority over every thing.

We don't get the down time to work out. Unlike other services we can't stay in the nick until a call comes out then react. So therefore we don't get a chance to work out on equipment and even if we did, there's rarely the room to store it or the budget to buy it.

And thanks to pay freezes etc, gym membership is now considered a luxury. Thats if you have the time to fit it in with your shifts and family life of course.

If it's recommended that we have annual fitness tests. Who's time do we get fit in? Ours or The Jobs? Either way, The Job should then provide equipment or subsidised gym membership to assist.

Winsor, says there should be higher minimum educational standards for new police recruits.

I cannot understand how he thinks that someone with higher qualifications are immediately better than someone without.

A colleague of mine, left school with no qualifications at all. After lazing around for a bit he joined the Navy. After leaving there he joined the Prison Service finally becoming a copper 15 years ago. He is now an Inspector and one of the best Inspectors I've ever worked with. He has common sense, a nose for the job and is a good leader and listener.

Why will someone with A Levels or a Degree immediately make them a better prospect than him?

Winsor says some should join directly as Inspectors and Superintendents.

This will create an "Officer Class" amongst the ranks. A division that cannot be crossed where possibly the rank of Inspector will become the equivalent of the Military, Non Commissioned Officer.

What chance has a Private becoming a General? What chance then has a Constable becoming a Superintendent or even Commissioner?
I was told that I was sensationalising on Twitter when I said that an inexperienced cop could end up running a Borough or investigating a major crime.

I don't think it's sensationalising at all.

It could end up with someone who's been fast tracked through their probation and given a rank ending up in charge of officers with many years of experience just brushed over.

I've seen many officers including myself, fail the Sergeants exam by a mere one or two percent and whist I appreciate that a miss is as good as a mile. I still see brilliant officers fail to meet the grade because they cannot pass an exam. Whilst those who can, some of those make crap senior officers because they were crap Constables.

How can you have direct entry to the police as Senior Officers?

How can, for example a Director for Hovis suddenly decide to apply to become Superintendent?

They will know as much about policing as I do about baking bread.

Whilst I appreciate that senior levels are about managing budgets and people which a director will be very good at but at times that senior officer will need to make tactical decisions based on years of experience and consultations with their colleagues.

How will a director for Hovis make tactical decisions about the Notting Hill Carnival?

How will that stand up with other people from the likes of the local council when they find out that the senior officer in their meeting about the carnival has only about two years policing experience and most of that was in a class room?

Who will they trust to make the right decisions?

The officer who has made it thought the ranks with experience behind them?

Or the one bundled through the ranks?

Chief constables would have powers to make police officers compulsorily redundant to cut costs - at present they can do this only if police have served for 30 years or more.

So you can see where this is going.

Officers with years of experience who cost too much will be made redundant. Eventually replaced with new starters costing a lot less. The front line will be replaced with cost effective youngsters with little or no experience and no one to learn from.

There would also be new powers to remove police officers who are on restricted duties and cannot return to work.

So under these plans the likes of David Rathband would have been sacked.

It's the same with many other jobs and services. There are always those who swing the lead. Take the money but want to sit at home with their feet up on long term sick. Yes I agree, these do need reviewing and if necessary get them off the expensive wage bill but if you are a genuine case of ill health especially if its been brought on through an incident at work then The Job should help them, not get rid of them purely because they cost too much.

Constables would be able to move up the pay ladder more quickly but a "specialist skills threshold" should be introduced at the final pay point of all officer pay scales.

So they'll be massive queues for courses and the course grabbers especially those I know who sit behind desks getting a shiny backside and apply for courses because "why not" never use them and take up the quota for those genuinely want and need them.

What courses will be classed as "specialist" in order to get this wage increase?

I am a Response Driver, CBRN, Public Order, Search Trained and Optical Intelligence Evidence Gatherer. However, I use these skills regularly (apart from CBRN, one I hope I never have to use)

Those who gather courses to build up their wage but not experience will effectively be on the same wage as me and if not controlled properly, they will sit on these courses and watch them gather dust whilst their money rolls in.

At the moment, these courses are voluntary. That way, The Job knows that those who want to do it, are doing it for the right reasons.

The retirement age would be raised to 60 and a new system of negotiating pay rates set up.

So, I assume that this fitness test will allow for age like the military?

Also stated, it's going to be raised to 60 to bring it in line with other public services.

Do these public services suffer the same amount of stress and abuse with their jobs? Are they frequently having their days off cancelled, changed, lengthened? Do they have to work nights putting up with the evils of society while everyone sleeps?

Who wants a burnt out copper still walking the beat at 60? Theres a very good reason we do 30 years and that's because we're burnt out after!

I can't see anyone getting to 60 as they will probably be made redundant as they cost too much to keep them.

....or collapse under the stress of it all.


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The Ultimate Sacrifice

This week has seen the loss of two officers whilst on the front line helping those in need.

PC Mark Goodlad of West Yorkshire Police and Garda Ciaran Jones of Garda Síochána County Wicklow.

PC Goodlad was struck by a lorry on the M1 Motorway after he stopped to assist a stranded female motorist who had broken down on the hard shoulder.

Garda Jones, whilst off duty and in some of the worst conditions in living history, left his car to warn drivers that a bridge near his home was about to collapse. He was washed away in the flood water and believed to have drowned.

These two officers without a second thought for their own safety, went to the assistance of those in need. Something that takes place every day with every police officer around the world.

Is this bravery? I would say, no, it's the job that we do and is an everyday occurrence.

However, to be killed doing it brings home the very dangers that us officers face day by day.

Yes, soldiers face danger day by day, but with all due respect to them, if you sign for the Armed Forces you don't join to study the flora and fauna.

What angers me, is the total lack of media coverage for these two officers.

These two officers represent the majority of officers world wide. Those that join the job, serve, committed, professional and want to go home safe at the end of every tour.

However, the media chose to focus their attention on a Met PC call handler who "inappropriately handled emergency calls"

Whilst I agree that, yes, this does require attention, but to have on the tv full interviews with the IPCC and only give brief coverage of the two officers was simply not on.

It seems to me that lately the media only want to concentrate on the bad side of the police.

The riots, what we did wrong, the student protests, the sit in at St Pauls, Dale Farm etc, all concentrate on the "lack of police response" rather than, "the police finding themselves the targets once again"

Every day, an officer does something that can save or change a life. Do we hear about it? No of course not, it would become tedious as after all, if you speak to any police officer they will say the same thing:

"I was only doing my job"

However, it is about time that the media and government stop getting into bed with each other and realise that police officers are human. We have lives, we have feelings and if you push us we will break.

But we will always continue to serve

... even if we have to pay the ultimate sacrifice

Sucking Eggs

After reading the excellent article in Police Review w/e 3rd June 2011 by Hollie Clemence entitled “Officers urged to ‘look and feel’ cheerful” she reports that ACPO is drafting an Olympic 'Look and Feel' strategy document which they claim will provide a 'consistent message' on how officers on mutual aid during the games are maintaining the 'highest of standards'.

Summarising, it is basically telling officers working during the Olympics how to dress, how to talk and even to remember to smile.

ACPO have also stated that every officer must be trained in the fine art of egg sucking and will be trained to NVQ level although cut backs mean that you will need to provide your own eggs during the 12 week course.

Alright, I made that last bit up, but really, are they serious?!

First of all, exactly how much money are they wasting on this ridiculous and quite frankly insulting report?

Secondly, just exactly who do ACPO think they are?

Not only are they insulting the very officers their thousands of pounds trained and the vast majority have years of experience but instead of backing us up with the ongoing dispute with the government they are basically telling us to just “grin and bear it”

What with the Winsor Report pay and conditions biting into its first year by the time the Olympics come along many officers working the long tiring hours are not going to be wanted to told to “smile and be nice”

What ACPO need to realise is that police officers will continue to do the job we were employed for. It's the job we joined for and want to do.

So please, don't insult our professionalism. We don't need to be told how to dress and how to smile. We do this every day and don't need expensive reports to be reminded how to do it.

What I will ask is for you to declare how much this farce of a report cost and why the money wasn't better used for something more worthwhile, or better still, saved.


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Your Attention Please!

This blog entry is the email I received this morning and it brings me no joy to post this tonight for you all but it needs saying.  This is from DC Simon Steele the Chairman of the Constables Branch Board and serves with Sussex Police.  This message needs to be sent far and wide people so, copy, paste and send to all your colleagues!  Even send a copy to your local MP.

Dear Colleagues,

For those of you that are not aware The Police Federation held their Annual Conference in Bournemouth between the 16^th and 19^th May 2011.

I don’t apologise for the length of this document. You have a right to know all that has happened over the past week. Please read it in its entirety. YOURS and YOUR COLLEAGUES FUTURE are at stake and we need your support. Please feel free to forward this email internally to all of your colleagues. Now more than ever we need to stand as one.

This report is intended to update you on all the relevant points and issues that were discussed last week. It will also give you an insight as to what the Federation are doing to protect your pay and conditions.

Firstly let me make this abundantly clear, the next twelve to eighteen months are going to be the most financially challenging period that you will have faced in your lifetime. This is not scaremongery, this is not spin this is FACT. You will not like what I am about to say and you need to prepare for the tough months that follow.

On Monday I attended the Eve of Conference Meeting.

The Olympics.

The key dates for policing the London Olympics next year are 1^st May 2012 to 16^th September 2012.  The opening ceremony will be on 26^th July 2012.

Policing of the Olympic Torch Run will be conducted on a regional basis with mutual aid provided where necessary.

Each Force has been told of its Olympic Commitments in respect of Officer Number’s and specialist skills. (Apparently).

PFEW has issued guidance to Chief Officers suggesting they set an overall 7% restriction on leave during the Olympic period. Individuals with caring responsibilities should be given priority when leave is allocated at peak periods. Further support has been requested in terms of approaching schools regarding removing children classes during term time.

The more specialist the role you perform, the more likely you WILL be subject to restrictions on taking leave during the Olympic period.

The PFEW will support a minimum of doubling of the normal carry over allowance without prior approval i.e. 10 days or 80 hours. (I guess in Sussex’s case doubling nothing leaves nothing but I would hope a degree of flexibility will be offered and I will update you when a decision is taken).

The mutual aid pattern will be:

Day 1 Travel to Accommodation Venue,

Days 2 - 6 deployed on an 8 hour tour of duty with a minimum mandatory 4 hours overtime period (12 hour day)

Day 7 return to Force area.

It will then be down to each individual Force to manage returned officers rest days.

Two main accommodation sites have been identified. The vast majority will be housed at Hatfield University in Hertfordshire (subject to on going contractual negotiations).

The main accommodation for mutual aid to Dorset is a mobile home park on the outskirts of Weymouth.

Onto the gloomy bit!

The Economic Outlook.

To say that the economic outlook is gloomy is somewhat of an understatement.

We are now 18 months out of the longest recession since 1930. It has been the deepest recession since World War 2.

It lasted 1.5 years through six quarters. (Quarter 2 - 2008 through to Quarter 3 - 2009).

The cumulative loss in national income and output over this period amounted to 6.4%.

The economy has been stagnant for the last 6 months. It fell back 0.5 % in the final quarter of last year and this 0.5% loss was recovered in the first quarter of this year.

The economy is predicted to grow slowly this year and next year.

Inflation will be high and running ahead of pay. There will be severe cuts in expenditure and investment will remain weak.

The government are pinning their hopes on strong growth in exports but the truth is the gap is still growing.

The labour market is weak with unemployment standing around 8%.

Given the weak economic recovery it is likely that employment will start to rise again soon.

In the 20 years up to 2006/7 public spending averaged about 40% of GDP. Government receipts also averaged around the 40% of GDP mark.

HOWEVER in 2009/10 spending increased to 48% of GDP and receipts totalled 37% of GDP resulting in the government borrowing 11% of GDP to make up the shortfall. This is known as the Public Borrowing Requirement (PBR). In 2009/10 this stood at 11%.

The Government debt (Accumulated PBR) stood at 71.3% of GDP in 2010.

In the June 2010 budget government announced their intentions to raise 113 billion pounds to combat the government’s debt deficit. 29 billion from tax increases and 84 billion in expenditure cuts. This includes 18 million (11 million initially) in benefits cuts and 63 billion in spending cuts.

Cuts in departmental budgets (other than health and overseas aid) amounts to a 19% cut in real terms over 4 years. 2011 to 2015. (Labours planned cuts would have amounted to 12% in real terms).

Police funding is to reduce by 14% by 2014/15 in real terms.

Central government funding is to reduce by 20%.

In real terms the reduction will be greater than 20% as the governments Inflation assumptions are unrealistic and too low.

The cuts are concentrated on the first two years so over the next 18 months we are all going to start to feel the pain.

These savings are going to be achieved by a saving in back office functions, modernising pay and conditions (Winsor Review), an increase in pension contributions (Hutton Review) and by reducing Police Numbers.

Effects of the Winsor Review Part 1. (REMEMBER THESE ARE PROPOSALS AND HAVE NOT YET BEEN IMPLEMENTED)

Abolish incremental Pay Progression from September 2011.

This will affect 55 - 60% of Constables.

On completion of training Constables will lose two increments amounting to a loss in wages of £3,186.

Don’t forget that you will lose the first increment in both years 1 and 2 meaning the cumulative loss will be £4,695 over the two years.

Pay Point 5 will result in a loss of £1,671 and a cumulative loss of £2,556.

This one recommendation will generate savings of £250 million over the next two years.

The abolition of CRTP will mean that 35 - 40% of Constables will lose £1,212 of pensionable pay saving 145 million over 2 years.

The abolition of SPP will affect 43% of Constables with an average payment in 2010 of £1203 and will affect savings of £175 million.

The reduction in casual overtime from time and a third to plain time will result in 82% losing a further £422 from your pay packets.

Replacing double time with time and a half for working rostered rest days will affect 65% of you with an average loss of £273.

The introduction of an interim Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance will benefit only 33% of you and amounts to £1200.(Non Pensionable).

The On Call allowance of £15 for each session beyond 12. (The downside to this is that The Chief Constable could instruct every single officer in the Force to provide 12 periods of on call cover during the course of the year without it costing the Force a single penny.)

Tow Winsor estimates that if implemented his recommendations will save the government 485 million.

You will not get a pay rise either this September or next September as a result of the Public Sector Pay Freeze. We are told that “We are all in this together” and yet the private sector experienced the pay freeze during the recession and at a time when inflation was in the negative so effectively real pay for the private sector rose. The pay freeze in the private sector lasted for one year and NOT two. Subsequent pay awards have made up some of the lost ground.

We are about to experience our pay freeze at a time of high inflation. The Bank of England predicts inflation at 6% for the remainder of this year and 4% for next year. The BoE persistently under estimate these figures so the likelihood is that these figures may in fact be worse than predicted.

Increased pension contributions are extremely likely with 3% rises recommended.

There is a likely reduction in real disposable income in excess of 10% over the next two years. For an officer earning £35,000 a year this equates to a reduction in pay of around £3,500 . (I did say you wouldn’t like what I had to say).

Unemployment is likely to increase due to the fragile state of the economy and there will be an increase in numbers looking for jobs due to welfare cuts.

A final word of warning, if you haven’t got the message yet - The next two years are going to be very, very tough and you need to start budgeting now for this difficult period.

A recent Federation survey revealed the following: From over 42,000 police officers who responded to the online survey, a 98 per cent said that morale has fallen owing to planned police budget cuts, the possibility of a reduction in police officer numbers, possible changes to terms and conditions. Meanwhile, 86 per cent of police officers believe cutting police officer numbers will have a detrimental effect on crime levels. As a result of the reduction in police officer numbers 78 per cent of respondents believe their workload has already increased or will increase in the future and 91 per cent of police officers believe there will be a decline in service delivery due to planned budget cuts.

At the Constables Central Conference the chair Julie Nesbitt called on the Home Secretary to reject the proposals to freeze incremental pay and scrap the CRTP. She accused the government of being dishonest when they say cuts are needed to protect officer numbers. She also accused ACPO of attempting to become more powerful than it is today.

Policing Minister Nick Herbert attended conference on Tuesday and was attacked from all sides. He was asked by one delegate “If crime goes up as a result of a reduction in Police Numbers will you tender your resignation”. Like almost every other question he was posed he failed to answer it satisfactorily. He appears to hide behind refusing to answer “hypothetical questions” as he uttered the same response when asked if he would make the findings of any future arbitration panel binding, as his party had promised whilst in opposition.

Chairman of the Sergeants committee John Giblin asked “Is it not too late to call off your pack of hounds, return them to their kennels and do the right thing before others cry havoc, and let loose their dogs of war”.

Mr Herbert defended the governments decision to spend billions of pounds on foreign aid stating the money was “saving lives” across the world.

It is clear that those in the Home Office do not wish to listen to officers concerns. There appears little willingness to engage on their part and both Nick Herbert and Theresa May avoided the many difficult questions that were posed of them. It will be particularly difficult to influence a government that has thus far shown no desire to listen and they are using the public debt to legitimise their actions.

The highlights of Conference week for me were the key note speeches by our Chairman Paul McKeever and Home Secretary Theresa May.

Paul McKeever gave a quite brilliant speech in which he systematically dismantled the Home Secretary. For 40 minutes he spoke without notes, without auto cue and he did not let the Home Secretary off the hook for one minute. I have copied a link below which you can cut and paste into your browser and see the contents of his speech in its entirety. I would strongly urge you to read it especially if you care about your future.

http://www.polfed.org/Paul_McKeever_conference_speech_2011.pdf

Mid way through the speech he switched to a recorded video message from David Rathband the PC who was shot by Raol Moat. He told the Home Secretary how much he earnt last year (£35,000) before posing the question “Do you think I’m worth it - Home Secretary).

Our Chairman accused her of being absent without leave at a time when Liam Fox had been fighting and winning to get the cuts in the defence budget lowered .Theresa May did not fight our corner and remained silent.

Paul McKeever received a three minute standing ovation following his speech and the Home Secretary took the floor to complete silence, endured complete silence throughout her speech before leaving the stage to complete silence. She was left in no uncertain terms how angry the rank and file officers are with her and her government.

If you wish to see the Home Secretary’s response you can find it on the Federation website. Its fair to say she came out fighting, all guns blazing and like another famous Conservative female it is abundantly clear that this Lady is also “Not for turning”. We have a fight on our hands to protect our rights, our pay and conditions and it is vitally important that we all stick together over the coming months.

Ian Rennie our General Secretary and Chief Negotiator on the Police Negotiating Board also addressed conference and started by attacking the absence of ACPO Chief Sir Hugh Orde who was otherwise engaged in Canada. He was also critical of Tom Winsor who also declined an invitation to attend conference and explain his proposals for reform of the Police Service.

He emphasised that the Winsor recommendations would have a negative effect on female officers and “could make them an endangered species in policing”.

Mr Rennie highlighted the fact that the removal of CRTP would result in officers being £800 a year worse off in their retirement. Mr Rennie reiterated that Windsor’s report contains little or no evidence to support recommendations. Mr Rennie was further critical of ACPO and damned them for expecting us to pay an annual fee as a membership subscription at the same time that they supporting a reduction in our pay and conditions. He called for ACPO to stand up and support those people they purport to lead.

The phrase “More for less” has crept into the Police Service recently and Mr Rennie highlighted the point that the only thing that you get for less is in fact “LESS”.

He too called for a Royal Commission in Policing, a theme that was repeated throughout the week but apparently falling on deaf ears.

On Thursday we held our annual general meeting and two significant motions were passed at conference.

The first has instructed the Joint Central Committee to write a letter to ACPO stating that the PFEW have no confidence in them to act in the interests of British Policing. As you are no doubt aware ACPO have remained silent of late and appear reluctant to stand at our side in protecting our pay and conditions.

Secondly a motion was proposed to deal with the issues of lawful orders and the motion instructed the JCC to seek changes in this regulation so that the words Lawful Order are replaced by the words Reasonable Request. The motion also calls for the right to challenge such decisions at an employment tribunal.

The Treasurer Martyn Mordecai reported a further welcome drop in expenditure and he assured Conference that he intends to continue to drive costs down further. He has reported that there is no need to increase Federation Subscriptions next year which in this current climate should be applauded.

On a personal note I thought that it was a hugely successful week. It was exactly the response I was looking for from the Federation. Mr McKeever was undoubtedly the star of the show. The delegates that attended Conference were challenging and forthright in their views and have left both the Home Secretary and Police Minister in no uncertain terms how angry we are about this unprecedented attack on the Police Service. Paul McKeever has shown to me in this past week that he has started the fight back to protect our futures and the future of The Police Service. He has shown to me that he is up for the fight and we now place our trust in Ian Rennie as our chief negotiator of the PNB to secure the best deal that he possibly can at the negotiating table.

Negotiations of the PNB start in earnest this week and there is a table of meetings scheduled to take place between now and the 26^th July which is the deadline set by the Home Secretary. If no agreement can be reached then a failure to agree motion will be tabled and the matter will be referred to the Arbitration Tribunal for them to decide on the outcome. The Home Secretary will then have two options - accept or reject the proposals. She has the power to impose all of Tom Winsor’s recommendations but she has been put on notice that this would be a particularly dangerous path to follow.

One thing is clear and that is there will be NO winners. We are all going to have to sustain some pain over the coming months.

Prior to Conference Ian Rennie asked you all for a “call for assistance”. We need your support, now more than ever. Please continue to lobby your MP’s. Please continue to call for a Royal Commission in Policing. Please continue to support the fight for fair pay and conditions.

Over the coming months I will continue to keep you updated on developments. If any of you have any ideas as to how you would like to see the Federation respond over the coming months please let me know and I will pass your views on. What would you like to see the Federation in Sussex doing over the coming months? We are here to represent you so please give us your views.

If any of you would like to become a Federation Representative then please let me now as we still hold some vacancies.

Ensure that your voice is heard over the coming months and remember one thing “WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER”.

Detective Constable Simon Steele CS597,

Chairman of the Constables Branch Board

Detective Constables Federation Representative

Sussex Police Federation.

Stand and Deliver!

Well, it's Budget day today and we have experienced the usual "Robbing of Peter to pay Paul"

There was a mention of public sector pensions and George Osborne accepts Hutton's review of the pensions contributions.

I guess that means it's going ahead and we're all doomed.

Well, the government are claiming we are living longer and therefore contributions must rise to accommodate the short fall but what with everything else on the increase, inflation, food costs, job loses and fuel rising who would want to live longer?

Oh wait, fuel increase has been frozen.  Well hallelujah, we are saved! There was me thinking that we had the most expensive fuel costs on earth and there is Osborne stopping the 1p increase until at least 2012.

The problem is, it's not 1p, it's 1 penny plus VAT and 1 pence above inflation so you will not find your fuel pumps only going up by 1p.

I finally received my letter today from my local MP to whom I wrote with regards to the Winsor and Hutton reports.  The letter I received was not impressive.  But what do I expect from a Tory fat cat who is probably claiming for two houses and a moat to be regularly maintained whilst her husband sits and watches porn all at our expense (allegedly)

The letter which she could have sent via Twitter,as it was that short, basically stated that Winsor has to find cuts in the police service and during these hard times we all have to take a large bite of the shit sandwich kindly brought to us by those wearing Gordon Gekko braces, drinking coffee somewhere in one of the City's banks.

As for the pensions, well, sorry but once again, we are all having to save and this is the best way (apparently) to make cuts.

I am going to reply in a similar manner and suggest they freeze Parliamentry expenses for MP's for the next 5 years as that will save a fortune in public money being wasted and see how she responds to that.

After all, Ken Clarke was being paid a small fortune today and yet he fell asleep during the Budget.  And Yes I can say he did fall asleep and no allegedly too, as it was noticed by Ed Milliband, TV cameras, The Telegraph and bookies who have paid out at 16/1.

If they dock him pay for the length of time he was asleep during PMQ's and Budgets there would be enough to run a hospital for a year.

I ask you, what other career can you be paid and sleep during your shift?

....Ok, who said "Fire Fighter" ? Right, Get out!

This Saturday sees a demonstration in London TUC, Unison etc with regards to the cuts.  I bet many of us that are policing it would actually like to be there protesting with them, I know I want to be but I'm having to make sure that Whitehall doesn't end up looking like Tripoli after dark if the idiots who ruined the Student protests turn up again.

So if you are attending, please play nicely people.  Get your point across and leave without destroying anything.  Remember that there are others who are looking after your demonstration who agree with everything you're demonstrating about.  The main differences being, we can't voice it on Saturday and we can't go on strike.

Problem is, with fuel prices soaring, cost of train fares rising beyond a joke etc etc

.....Who's going to be able to afford to actually go?

Feeling The Pinch!

Well, today finally came and it's a day where we were hit by people we thought needed us the most.

Tom Winsor, a former rail regulator swung upon the police forces of this country with what can only be described as another "Beeching Axe"

The fact that escapes the members of parliament is that the railways of this country are a disgrace, an under funded shambles run by people who only want a profit and it grinds to a halt come rain, come shine.

And they've let a former regulator of this mess attempt to cull money spending within our force.

...I'll let that sink in for a moment.

I won't bleat on about what Winsor has said and what he has found as it's pointless and been done to death by now and the last thing you want to read is yet another blogger repeating what he's already stated.

What angers me the most through all this, is the media and parliamentary spin that the unsuspecting public who are not in any way connected to the force have had to endure.

We have seen a member of the Green Party come out on TV and state, that it's not fair that we have 30 year pensions completely forgetting the fact that pensions are now for 35 years and have been for a few years now.

I watched in dumbstruck awe, as a retired police officer sat there and stated on TV that he has had times where he has finished "5 minutes into his rest day and claimed 4 hours at double time"

First of all, to that retired officer, Thank you very much for that! You have held onto the handle of the blade this government has taken and helped stab it firmly between our shoulder blades!

You've got your pension, you've secured all your rights and you earned your money so what made you even think to go on National TV and practically pull the rug from under our feet on the very people you served with?

"Pull the ladder up Jack, sod the rest" springs to mind!

Whilst I don't deny that there has been some gross over spending in areas of all forces, don't take it out on the front line for God's sake!

The Barclay's Brothers and their little empire, giving themselves massive pats on the back bonuses whilst all this is going on, adds insult to injury, especially when it was mostly the unregulated banking industry that screwed it for every body!

The fact that we get paid for what is a dangerous job again escapes them.  Policing has the highest rate of all occupations for divorce and sickness.

Why?

Simple, long stressful and potentially dangerous hours with the fact that we at the last minute can receive a rest day cancellation for court, urgent policing matters never minding what you had planned with the family.  We can never have a "life" so to speak, as we are constantly expecting it to be cancelled.

You don't see Tom Winsor, Theresa May or David Cameron policing the streets single crewed at 3am.  Or policing New Years Eve on flat rate money because the Bank Holiday hasn't kicked in till 06:00 hrs.

You don't see them turn up to deliver a death message to a woman who's been out of her mind with worry wondering why her husband hasn't answered his mobile.

Or holding onto a child that has been involved in a car crash and watch their life ebb out of them because there's nothing they can do to save them.

Every time something like this happens, I leave a piece of me at that incident.  There's only so much of me to go round.

We deserve the pay we get for what we have to endure!

What has happened today will effect each and every household across the country.  You won't see recruitment drives any more and officers won't be replaced when they leave.  So don't go screaming that no one has turned up to your burglary because pulling items from magic hats only works for Paul Daniels.

How about this one Mr Winsor? Try going to London Underground or other railway companies and try sweeping cuts in something you do know something about.

Then see how long it takes before the capital and the country grinds to a halt again with an all out strike.

Something I envy them for at times!

Here endeth the rant.