Just one week’s spending on addicts would fund an entire year’s worth of arbitrated police pay & conditions.
Today Mrs May will announce the long-awaited reforms to the pay and allowances of 130,000 police officers.
BBC home editor Mark Easton says she is likely to accept a compromise deal broadly agreed between police and the independent Police Arbitration Tribunal.
But he says it comes with an additional cost of more than £13m a year, and with the service already facing 20% cuts, the question is how the missing millions will be found. These figures are incorrect in any case, but let’s go with them for a minute.
A review of police conditions of service by lawyer Tom Winsor was expected to have been implemented last October, but negotiations stalled.
These reforms would have saved an estimated £70m by now.
Here, for Mark Easton, and anyone else who wants to know, is where we find the missing millions:
According to Drugscope, is a breakdown of the annual cost of ‘treating’ people addicted to illegal drugs in the UK.
- £380 million of Pooled Treatment Budget
- £205 million of local (community care) funds
- £110 million of Ministry of Justice Drugs Intervention Programme funding
- £25 million adolescent treatment funding
- £19 million for the National Treatment Agency’s running costs
Total cost – £739 million per annum.
So here we have it. Just one week’s spending on addicts who can’t be bothered to take their own health seriously would fund an entire year’s worth of arbitrated police pay & conditions. One week. I’m not even asking for the programmes to stop.
To add insult to injury, it doesn’t even work with Drug Treatment and Testing Orders ( or the new version) showing the highest – nearly 90% – re-offending within two years. So, today, we can see who the Tory values more. Junkies or Police Officers.
First!
Great post, as always.
Can I recommend you read Theodore Dalrymple (either ‘Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass’ or ‘Our Culture What’s Left of It’ or ‘Not With a Bang but a Whimper’, I can’t remember but they’re all cheap on Kindle and iTunes as eBooks) on the lies they tell about the ‘illness’ of ‘addiction’?
When Chairman Mao said on the Friday that heroin addicts would be shot on the Monday, millions gave up over the weekend… Not likely to work with arthritis!
Dear Sally,
I believe the book you ‘re referring to is “Romancing the Opiates’ by Theodore Dalrymple. I enjoy quoting from it whilst in Custody.
Doctors, Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy is another one of the Dr Dalrymple’s great works on drug addiction. I spend a great deal of my working day refusing to add to the benzo/opiate load of methadone users who are on mult-benefits, long-term sick, and getting their fix on the state. Pisses me off no end.
Nice one. I know a paramedic who jabs them with Narcan as soon as they turn up. Pisses them off no end too!
first
So close!
First
B*gger! Third
First
1
heavens … not even a podium.
1st
First ?
No way near first! Doh!
How the hell are you lot so quick?
Easy when you know how
Never tried but nearly first?
Pass me a spliff! perhaps I can forget it all.
15th?
First to reply after reading the post and with a reply to said post!
I think Richard Branson has the right idea. Legalise it like some other countries have
Oh you mean that you can become an addict legally? Brilliant. More money wasted on druggies who don’t want to look after their health.
Some argue that its cheaper than what we’re currently paying out to treat them. There’s also suggestion that crime will go down as they won’t be ‘grafting’ anymore, and it’ll obviously put a lot of the dealers out of business. Allegedly.
Sayin that, the 24hr drinking laws & its ‘Cafe Culture’ were OK in Europe, but never really worked here did they?
Legalisation doesn’t prevent it from becoming addictive nor prevent the psychosis that it triggers in certain individuals.
Legalise the lot, and treat crime as crime, much like alcohol. Oh, and tax it. And then not only do we get tax revenue (currently we get nothing), we have a whole new job sector. Jobs that will also pay taxes.
The vast majority of recreational drug users do so temporarily, and pose no immediate threat (at point of delivery) to society.
sorry, that was *related crime as crime*.
One teensy-weensy snagget would be that once it’s legal and taxed, the smugglers and supply chain would offer cheaper non-taxed imports, just as they do with tobacco now.
Good point. That’s unfortunately what happens when you add so much duty to things that you are ultimately trying to cheat the market. But that’s an argument to lower the tax on cigarettes, not in favour of prohibition. We have another example in alcohol. It is cheaper to make your own than to buy it, thanks to the tax, but I bet most of the alcohol bought in the uk is legally produced and duty-paid. The fact is that making it – even perfectly legally brewing your own beer – is hassle, and unless you have the resources to sell it to a wide audience, you can’t exploit economies of scale. I’m willing to bet that the same is true of drugs,
One final thing; not legalising and taxing *ensures* that the only people who get rich are violent criminals When Prohibition ended in the states last century, the mobsters didn’t all say “oh, at long last!” and turn legit; they got into other contraband that provided the same high-risk/high-profit return instead.
Legalise drugs and the money spent on “interventions” set out in the above post will explode exponentially. The lie that all that the majority of addicts or users just want to stop needs to be exposed.
Branson is a fool who wants to move straight into drug sales if we allow him to do so. There is an argument that prohibition does not stop people offending. On that basis we may as well scrap the Theft and Road Traffic Acts as neither seem capable of curing or reducing the evil they try and address.
I don’t want a nation of drug addled zombies smacked off their tits 24/7 – Huxley gave us a warning in his novel Brave New World where Soma, a mass produced narcotic was freely available, produced and promoted by the state as an instrument of control.
It might be politic to ignore drug taking in prisons in order to control (indirectly) the inmate population but applying this to society as a whole? No fecking thanks.
if you like Brave New World, you might also like The Doors of Perception.
On a purely selfish note, I don’t want my grandchildren trying drugs, and telling me it’s OK because they’re legal. (Don’t want alcoholic smoking grandchildren, either)
Presently listening to (Sue Lawley?) on Radio 4 interviewing an American ex? crackhead regaling us with stories of his experiences on the street. Not what I want for any of my family. Unattractive to say the least. Founder of “Street lights” charity.
Drugs should not be made legal, and thus “respectable”
Fifteenth……..time for a celebratory mug of Rosie
Where’s my posts gone? They were there, now they’re gone?
And now they’re back again! Weird
What have you been smoking, Noddy?
Lol!
This is an utterly mad use of resources when we have troops in Afghanistan not engaged in destroying the Opium crops. This country has lost the war against drugs because the stuff is flowing in like the tide. Quite literally, if one of my cases was anything to go by. Mrs May needs to clamp down on this tide of corruption and it could be done if the shoreline was properly monitored.
That said, there must be facilities to help addicts off drugs because once they are on the hook, they will exhaust their own resources and then they will have to steal to get the next fix.
Trouble is we now have a whole raft of paid helpers.
@Brief Encounter”
“……………………flowing in like the tide.”
On this argument we are winning half the time, which we all know is not true – what have you been smoking in the robing room?
Are you sure you were ever a Special?
Thought I was 15th! Don’t know where my posts are going?
This is an utter injustice, I’m off to ECHR.
Top 20 for what it’s worth
I suppose it goes to show who Ms May values more
To legalise would be madness………to let Branson stick his nose in the trough would be utter madness. I remember a few years ago when ‘Virgin Healthcare’ and it’s ‘Mates’ brand of condoms were launched. He employed some overzealous salesmen and it was reported that the Isle of Wight retailers had been stocked with more than 200 condoms for every man woman and child on the Island……..bearing in mind that a high percentage of inhabitants are ‘retired gentlefolk’ it seemed as if he was intent on having them ‘rutting like rabbits’ in order to make a profit. Exactly the same would happen if he was punting Crack and ‘H’. Branson is nothing more than a beardy hippy turned ‘breadhead’……
I would be very surprised if any of the junkies with I came into contact would have the wherewithal to even vote! So who is supporting these utterly ineffectual and costly ‘Drug Treatment’ programmes?
Step forward the left-leaning guilt-ridden Guardianistas and their ilk (Oh, and the companies who make every nice wedge out of it, thankyou…Oh and the Police Officers who seek advancement by propagating this rubbish…etc…etc).
I was at Wimbledon Mags Ct last year, Kingston CC was sitting there at the time. A certain young lady who was somewhat inarticulate but very loud was running around telling anyone that would listen, that they had to go and vote cos the Tories were going to take away their benefits. Well that helped me to decide which way to vote!
And while we are berating the man for things that he hasn’t actually suggested. (he wasnt talking about Crack, or H, for the record)..
…who does he think he is to suggest we murder each other in the streets for his own personal amusement.
(hey, its quite fun this)
(above snark directed at Jack Regan, not sgtfredcolon)
Please see attached article: I should be grateful for your thoughts. Is Melanie Phillips talking sense?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2093577/The-police-lost-way-answer-isnt-let-run-meddlers-like-Prescott.html
It is a daily mail article, so it is likely to be warped beyond any semblance of reality.
OK, so I have read it.
The ‘police’ haven’t lost the plot…. meddling politicians and promotion-chasers have thrown the plot away.
The preamble is the usual Daily Mail drivel, but proving that even a broken clock is right twice a day, this last bit is fairly good:
“In Britain, by contrast, the independence of the police from politics was, until fairly recently, one of the bulwarks of liberty.
The truth is that what is needed above all is to get politics out of policing, not put even more of it in.
…
The police are famously the thin blue line that protects a society by enforcing the law and promoting justice.
But since society itself is now governed by a perverse political correctness that gives hate crime priority over burglary, a human rights culture that turns right and wrong on their heads and a political establishment that believes enforcing the law against drugs is the problem rather than drug use itself, is it any wonder the police have lost the plot?
The British police were once the most effective, most upright and least coercive in the world.
It is not elected commissioners that we need but a restoration of our lost ethic of policing.
And that, in turn, depends on society recovering its own lost values.”
#kickpoliticsoutofpolicing
The woman is barking. Try being a recipient of hate crime involving attempted break, and targeting by a gang of feral scrotes and see if you agree that the priority given to it is “a perverse political correctness”.
Seemed fairly sensible to me, apart from where she says there is nothing wrong with the current structure of police governance in the UK. Although the context of her peice was PCCs vs Police Authorty she failed to mention ACPO at all.
Watching her on bbc news now – she’s accepting all recommendations.
hardly surprising given that we lost almost all of them
Mmh, I have a few but she won’t like them.
Getting pregnant when under 18 years: no right to any benefits for the next 10 years (we as a society do not want you to be pregnant, you have a right to do it but you will get nothing from the society).
Being on benefits and getting pregnant: a reduction of your benefits by 1/3, So three children on benefits = no benefits anymore. Your children failing a grade = no benefits for the next year.
The fathers will help with raising their children or at least pay for it. Not the 10 pounds a week but a minimum of a 100 pounds a week, and it can not come from their benefits they have to work for it (cleaning our streets and parks, helping in animal shelters for minimum wage, inforcement is done by ex-army guys, not social service persons. Failure to comply = 1 month in a work camp. (free contraceptives for everybody off course so they have 0 excuses).
These measures would affect 95% of the scrotes in ruralshire, and only them. It would cost a lot of money but probabkly less then the current programs who have 0 effect.
^ like!!
Trying to treat junkie who do not want to get clean does not help. Court ordering people to do it only results in wasted time and money of all parties envolved.
But this a lot more then the simple ‘what does the government value more’;
The entire system is broken: starting with families who are in some areas none excisting (the parents do not raise their children, fathers are often absentee, discipline is lacking), then the schools, then the social services, …
it’s all broken. And all our suffering from the same fault: personal responsability is no longer taught (you need reward and punishment for that, but giving a punishement is a big no no these days). Parents are only in the most severe cases punished, all other bad parenting is never punished. Schools don’t teach personal responsability either and social services just encourage a dependence on hand outs. This can not be a coincidence.
I am only 38 years old and I allready am appauled in the changes I have seen the last 20 years. I really, really fear what is going to come the next 20 years if we keep going in this direction.
You the police are in the front line of this and I really, really wouldn’t want to trade places with you guys. You are the last piece to fall. And the powers that be will do everything they can to make sure you will fall: low wages = get lower level recruites. Stupid targets so the guys on the job are very busy doing everything except policing. Lowering your numbers. And if despite all this you do catch somebody courts do not hand out decent sentences….
Damned, now I got myself all depressed …
Schools and teachers suffer as much as we do. They have so much political interference that it’s amazing they get time to teach maths. I know many, many teachers and all they want is to be left alone to teach and to have powers to deal with classroom problems properly. They are so hamstrung though, that they are unable to enforce any discipline on those that need it. To throw out a disruptive pupil is almost impossible.
They face the same issues we do and I stand with them in their frustrations.
Ha! Nice post Guv.
It has to be the Junkies are worth more. They have no ‘gold plated pension’. Bless them, they had a bad start in life. Must bring them in line with the fat cat police
I am awaiting the figures with anticipation. I have a feeling this will no longer be a job worth joining.
5yrs 8months to go!!
It probably won’t be a job worth joining in years to come, but there will still be thousands applying, as you don’t know the reality if something until you there.
Hell in a handcart springs to mind.
Junkies or police officers? Well, it`s got to be the junkies every time!
Too many powerful organisations have an interest in keeping the drug situation as it is. Big Pharma, the CIA (who have MUCH form for using drug money for financing operations in Central America and now Afghanistan) and state employees dealing with addicts and their consequences (not least the police service who are there to report crimes associated with usage)
This elite in this country lead us to fight a war (Opium War) for the right to monopolise opium addiction in China, so if you think there is even a remote chance of police officers versus junkies being an equal contest, think again.
Totally off topic, but when (not if) it all goes tits up again, I wouldn’t mind having these chaps on the line with me:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9046668/UK-riots-paratroopers-are-trained-in-riot-control.html
Heaven help the poor bastards who get ‘snatched’ by 3 Para mortars… :/
And which ACPO is going to have the cochones to sign over the streets to our milliray chums?
It states within the article, the decision would obviously be well above anyone of ACPO rank. But the next time our ‘right honourable’ representatives get dragged back from their two weeks of sunshine in The Maldives with their mistresses, you can rest assured they’ll be just about suitably pissed off enough to give it serious consideration. Had this option been available last year, it may even have been taken then. Don’t underestimate a politician’s ability to over-react.
Yes, but our politicans are so craven and spineless that I don’t think they would do it…..it would be an open admission that their recipe for policing is S**T and a surefire way to lose the next election
Snatch Squads. Ring Leaders.
Yeah OK then.
Can anyone tell me, realistically, how you target a ring leader and snatch him (or her, could be a lady) from a crowd potentially hundreds strong, who will do their best to stop you from getting them?
It would involve a lot of fighting, a lot of potential for injury to all involved and a lot of law suits for excessive force no doubt.
I’m fully supportive of our armed forces, and if it REALLY got bent then having them alongside us would be an asset in many ways, but the Police have the ability NOW to deal with disorder. The powers that be don’t want to provide the full range of tactical options (like baton guns) to us because they don’t accept the reality of it all and don’t really support us when we use any degree of force, but a trooper belting someone with a baton or shield is no different to a copper doing the same. Just a different uniform and probably a greatly reduced understanding of the ramifications of doing it (i’m not calling squaddies thick by the way).
They won’t do it because of all the similarities to The Troubles and the ensuing media bloodbath.
You identify him/her, hit them with a baton round, shield wall opens, snatch squad runs through the gap and they drag the now disabled ring leader back through the shields. The sound of baton gun being discharged usually scatters the front ranks of any groups.
Thats the way it used to work in Ballymurphy and Turf Lodge when the crowds were 1000s strong. Im sure there are many on here who will remember this tactic.
This was when the country had a leader with backbone mind you. OT but here is my post from the weekend protests in London. There are some shots of the OB at the American embassy protest.
http://mitchell-images-blog.blogspot.com/
top blog, some brilliant level-headed writing
many thanks
My prediction – they’ll try and use soldiers to boost numbers again, only it won’t be so pleasant so they’ll turn round and say “Hey, we need more bodies, so we’re hiring them from G4S”. Then lots of half trained G4S people get used as cannon fodder in the riots or disturbances or pub chucking out time. Followed shortly after by cries of “See, private companies can do it too, and cheaper, so we need to fully privtise the police”.
Well, that’s how I’d do it if I were an evil politician.
Two questions:
1. How many senior people at G4S are ex-Job?
2. If G4S have trouble handling the situation, will they call the police?
Just asking.
I did VW a couple of years ago. The “security” were G4S and they were complete tossers to a man (or woman).
But all the forces do riot training, we did it in the Royal Navy at Portland in the mid-80s when doing Disaster Relief exercises, on the basis that people may riot to get food & water etc in the aftermath of a hurricane. Luckily for us when it came to a hurricane in Jamaica, all we had to do was run some water pipes, electricity cables, and clean up chicken farms (I kid you not).
Well New Labour started the politicising of the Met with the appointment of Blair as Commisioner. The Conservatives disliked that so much they’ve given the police to Boris.
Boris ,ever the canny politician, has spotted the poisoned chalice and passed it to kit Malthouse.
Not a brilliant idea, and a ****ing disaster if Ken Livingstone ever gets re-elected.
Next time London votes it needs to remember it’s giving it’s police to a poitician, the last time it didn’t know..this time it will.
There’s no way back from this….not in our lifetime….the politicians have taken over the police completely and we are but a few years from elected Commisioners and Chief Constables like in America.
And look how well that’s worked………..
At least in the past the Top Man was a copper, albeit a shiney-arse, ACPO knob.
Now we’re going to get politicians like Brian “Chase-me, chase-me” Paddick.
shudder.
Bill.
Can’t believe it no post at 9:15 check again and its on, getting closer.
Guv, why not retire and stand for one of the Commissioner posts, there again a career cop so you won’t get it, you might reduce crime and put police where they need to be with the right equipment no it just wouldn’t work would it. Too much like common sense.
Think I need to train as a drug councellor the only job thats not going to suffer cuts by the list provided.
Naturally she accepted all recomendations – completely wrong foots the federation, we have no issue to go to the EU with and we get shafted.
She can also recoup ‘losses’ in Windsor 2 – well done fed – you have played a blinder.
OBE’s and pink Gins all round!
Whilst I agree with keeping politics out of the police, it is somewhat impossible.
Besides, it was after all a politician – Sir Robert Peel – Home Secretary, who created the modern police service.
drug councellor ?
Let’s be honest, saving money has nothing at all to do with this.
There are plenty of places the paltry amount of cash she is saving could come from and even if you were determined that it was coming from policing, plenty of other ways it could be saved, as the fed have already shown.
This is about breaking a police force who are still “resistant to change”, it’s about political ideology and it’s about steering cash from the public budget into private pockets.
Yes, it’s ALL about steering public budget cash into private pockets. That’s capitalism! Mind you, many on this site are critical of the alternative.
I’m not. But then I’m an old-fashioned Socialist, not one of you namby-pamby New Labour bedwetters or Guardian-reading liberals.
” Mind you, many on this site are critical of the alternative.”
Very true! The political indications given by many on this site do suggest that Turkeys did indeed vote for Christmas
I must confess to feeling a bit of a turkey now. However much the previous govt. naively crippled UK police, I don’t think they would make the cuts in as unfair and rapid a manner. I’ll never vote Conservative again.
Perhaps everyone who voted Tory should have the new deal and the rest of us carry on as before. That would teach you for voting for them!
I voted for change. I didn’t vote to earn small change!
As I have mentioned before, a lot of coppers voted Tory in 1979 because they were promised – and got – much better pay because the Tories promised to implement the Edmund Davies report, which the Callaghan-led Labour government refused to do.
I won’t say it’s just the opposite now – I’d say don’t trust any of them.
Funny old world.
So what about the Bobbies who voted Labour for 13 years that ultimately got this country into the financial mess we are now in????
I agree, with the police legal inability to strike or take any industrial action it seems this government is hell bent on the divide and conquer route and will do the same to the Police as the Conservative government did to heavy industry in the early 90s. The police do not make a profit and are the last real nationalised industry that costs big money, the conservative ideal would be to privatise, ie put county policing out to tender therefore making a great deal of money, with the private investor then being given funding to run each county as they please..elected commissioners are only the sharp end of this wedge……
According to the home secretary Theresa may despite the pay and conditions stick up policing will remain a well paid job! Were are doomed! The only light at the end of the tunnel is the fact that the prison officers association is trying to get their right to strike through the European Court of Human Rights like us they can’t strike as they have the power of a constable on duty! If they win they’ll strike and we and the army couldn’t cope!
Legalize (currently illegal) drugs? Please, NO!!!! Who would benefit? Mainly those who deal in drugs, just as at present. (I wonder how much the makers make out of Methadone?)
The junkies, however, are not the problem, although they are A problem. Junkies are like the losers with no income, but with a Blackberry or IPhone to make them feel better about themselves. Junkies need their fix for the same reason.
Drugs will remain a problem until dealers are dealt with, and despite my basic love of, and respect for, justice, I feel the answer comes in many varieties. (9mm being one) it’s also considerably cheaper than £40 k per year storage.
What of those who dispense such justice, Deathwish style? what of their sanity, their long term welfare?
The current system is flawed, but the best there is, at the moment.
…….and to cap it all, we will still be wasting police officers time and mileage collecting daily methadone scrips from chemists for heroin wasted pics and getting the FMA/HCPs out to serve it out to them because antiquated PACE says we must. Kinell.
Funny how the announcement ratifying the PAT decision has been shrouded in talk of crack downs on the anti social……
Buried in some guff about asb. And the papers fell for it as a byline of insignificance….
Malaysia appears to have the right idea where convicted drug traffickers and dealers are concerned.
‘DaDa is Death’.
Oh, and more seriously -Top 50!
Alternative method::
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Portugal
Food for thought. Anyway, I’m off to spark up a doobie.
Two’s up, I’ve got some Hob Nobs for after…
………..the chocolate covered ones it would seem!
Oh yes!
Iucky sods. I can’t afford the chockie Hob Nobs now after the Winsor shafting. Got some Tesco value digestives………
Thank you. I’ve just bought some shares in Tesco
The official document from Imelda is on the Fed website – she ends by ‘deciding’ to go ahead with pension contribution increases – so double shafting
Time to pull out of the pension then. No way am I paying 14% or whatever it’s going to be.
Er, before the windsor 2 has been published? If she has enough information anyway to come to such a conclusion, why did we let Windsor snort the gravy train in the first place?
Police will be forced to deal with anti-social behaviour if five households in one area complain about another resident, the government says.
Home Secretary Theresa May said a “community trigger” would prevent “horror stories of victims reporting the same problem over and over again”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16783270
Under the Freedom Of Information Act might Insp Gadget tell us how many commenters are banned?
As Gadget is not a public authority, why is he under any obligation to?
Sadly not, as FOI applies only to public institutions, not private individuals or enterprises.
You could just ask him from one person to another though, without feeling the need to give your quest a misinformed sense of weight and importance by throwing oft-misquoted legislation into it.
Website is hosted in the USA – try there!
….also any FOI requests have to include your name and address for correspondence.
Derek G Haslam, Lyswood, Antlands Rd, Shipley Bridge, Horley, Surrey, RH6.
Hello again Ciaran.
Who is Ciaran? Rehill? Broxted? Fergie? You are becoming paranoid Chewie. I will see you next time I visit the Uk;)
Not true. An e-mail address is sufficient.
Er, thats still an address, right?
That depends on how you are addressing me? But yes, technically it is.
National day of action 1st April 2012. Officers on the ground make the wheels of each service go round so time to grind it all to a halt. April 1st, hand in all voluntary tickets. No more good will. Strongarm this government. We have nothing to lose as we already lost it. Disgraceful.
You also have this bloated nonsense of an Olympics that you can help disrupt, £12 billion quid spunked up the wall by our elected politicians, doing the brewery and glasses trick yet again with the public purse.
The eyes of the world will be upon us this summer, your chance to get some meaningful coverage of your plight. Massive missed opportunity if you don’t. After all…………what are the Fed doing for you?
What are the Fed doing…?
Having their subsidised lunch while they contemplate another letter.
The concept of a fixed midday meal, termed by some in the eating community as “lunch” is outdated and oppressively restrictive.
Leatherhead are all for the “grazing” approach.
“I’ve not been able to graze as I wished, the staff restaurant have run out of alfalfa sprouts” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “We’re the Sweeney…….and we ‘avent ‘ad any dinner”
Not a single response from the Fed in their strategy on how to deal with this Pay and Pensions saga…i mean, even if they didnt want anyone to know their strategy, they could have obliged their members with some routes they are considering?
It seems that the Fed will truly fail Officers in this Pay and Pensions saga….
Here’s their response:
http://www.federationhouse.co.uk/langleys.html
“We also offer a fantastic selection of coffees using rainforest alliance beans”………..nice touch, I’d be disappointed if they were not serving certified beverages!!
‘…superb collection of wines, malt whiskeys and cognacs… all day grazing menu…’
‘Grazing’ menu. Too much ‘grazing’ been going on, methinks.
The Fed’s emblem should be a cow…
Keeps quiet, moo’s now and again, but ultimately goes back to chewing the flippin grass
moooooooooooooooooo
Gadget,
I admit to having become a junkie. I can go a few days without my fix but I’m inexplicably drawn back. Some days I’m on a high and then on others I’m on such a low it’s like living underneath a trailer at the park and listening to Frankie Cocozza on a never ending loop. It all depends on what you write on your blog. Today I’m on a bit of a low and I hate TM and her shoes. I’d better get along to Sainbury’s and buy some more spoons.
Here’s a little tune that TM expects you all to comply with.
http://tinyurl.com/6qhgddh
Ah good one AZZ. So apt and love QOTSA.
It’s a qestion of remebering – it’s 2012 and they must have an election in 2015.
In the words of the Who – don’t get fooled again.
Its just that I was in at 15th or should have been and none of my postings are getting onto the blog. Well either that or I am been blocked?
Sooner or later we will have to adopt the Portugese model for drug addicts. Lower addiction rates for less money than we spend now… not to mention lowering the drain on police time and resources. I know this touchy-feely-leftyism probably goes against your point of view, but what’s the alternative?
Lock them up? In our notoriously drug free prisons, right? And prisons don’t cost money, so that’ll be fine.
I just want politicians of all stripes to take an honest, evidence based (as opposed to ideology based) approach to drugs… and crime, come to think of it.
Totally agree. See my post above.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Portugal
What we have now isn’t working at all.
Steve, don’t know about the Portuguese model other than some woman was talking on Question Time a few weeks ago about it and it was apparently not the success they would like you to think it was. There was an official report done on it’s success which is allegedly flawed and there is supposed to be a conflicting report somewhere.
Can’t be arsed looking for it the web as I don’t agree with softly softly approach to drugs
I did scan the BBC website for news of the PAT decision, and finally found a couple of paragraphs buried in an article about a ‘new’ antisocial behaviour initiative.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16783270
Announcement on Police Fed site.
Or another way to put it, just around 14 drugs addicts across the country in their lifetime. The figures are from 2008, so allowing for inflation must be around £1,000,000 per addict by now.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/2125296/Drug-addicts-each-cost-taxpayers-800000.html
Hand the streets over to the troops?
I spend most weekends fighting with druken members of Her Majestys Armed Forces outside our public houses and night clubs
To the overwhelming majority of our troops that conduct themselves with dignity I apologise, rant over, a difficult weekend!
Totally off topic, but when (not if) it all goes tits up again, I wouldn’t mind having these chaps on the line with me:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9046668/UK-riots-paratroopers-are-trained-in-riot-control.html
Heaven help the poor bastards who get ‘snatched’ by 3 Para mortars… :/
Ex service, myself, so have a little experience of this. Send a bunch of guys into a classroom and a gymnasium, teach them to fight (and to kill) Let them out at weekends, add alcohol………….Best case scenario is that it all kicks off back at barracks, worst case is…bad!
While you’re at it, why not withdraw funding and healthcare for ANY conditions that may be self inflicted? No treatment for anything related to obesity (or any ill health related to bad diet/exercise), smoking or drinking.
Or just take some of the money used to detain and prosecute users or recreational drugs and put that in your pension pot?
The difference is that bad exercise, diet, smoking or drinking aren’t illegal in the first place.
Unrelated, but maybe interesting? Even peace-loving Swedes realize that tear gas might be useful in riot situations.
“Tear gas outside hasn’t been allowed at all, and that’s what the new rules mean, that it’s okay to use it in certain situations,” said Per Engström, head of the crime prevention division at the National Police Board (Rikspolisstyrelsen), to SR.
Swedish police have previously only been permitted to use the substance indoors, for instance when attempting to get people to leave a barricaded apartment.
“It’s really very hard to say when this might be used, but we’ve built in a number of decision levels to ensure that this is used in an absolutely correct manner.”
Parallel with the introduction of tear gas, rules for when and how police may use pepper spray have been tightened, after harsh criticism from the Ombudsmen for Justice (JO).
“For instance, restrictions will apply inside arrest cells, an area which has previously been totally unregulated. Vehicles are another example,” said Per Engström to SR.
The new rules for tear gas will come into effect on February 1.
Strange how their rules have changed to coincide with the release of a ‘new’ ABBA song. “From a Twinkling Star to a Passing Angel” is due to be released soon and I’d like to know, are the Priscillas of this world likely to go on the rampage? I’d have thought that there was enough lachrymosity amongst them already.
LOL Paul Mckeever on BBC
Presenter.. Is there anything you can do about it?
Mckeever .. We have to keep persuading….
Err Yaeh right cos that strategy has worked well so far hasn’t it
I have read the home secretarys statement to be honest i dont understand it. What does she mean by pension increase? I knew something was in the air but was to be revealed in winsor part 2, am i right in thinking its just being brought in anyway??
i do understand one thing though, i shall be contacting the fed on wednesday to cancel my subs. I refuse to pay for 4 star hotels and buffets for a bunch of ineffective wasters any longer.
One of my friends has just been given a pay rise taking his basic earnings to £70,000 and with bonus this could easily come in at £98,000 he has not even turned 30. He asked me about my pay and conditions….. I laughed…..
so basically they are spending my pension on treating junkies.
brilliant!
@ disgruntled,PPS dealt with by HUTTON along with the other public sector pension schemes. The increase is 3% across the board which will be implemented gradually yearly up to 2015. You are looking at roughly a £35 PCM increase in contributions this year 2012-2013.
Don’t think so…. I’m cancelling mine. I can’t get the full 30 in anyway, so this makes it even more worthless
I’m thinking about doing the same. I can’t do my full 35 – my ‘new’ pension was already going to be worse than most of my colleagues. If I’m paying an extra third, I reckon the £330 a month might be better off in my pocket.
Be wary of doing that… we are shafted at the moment, left, right and centre… I hate these changes but there is little we can do and they know it….
In the case of the pension even with these changes it still appears attractive to those on the outside who know of the every day work of a police officer and the toll it takes over many years. In my case the best I can hope for is about 17 years on the NPPS… unlike the 1987 scheme it based on a 9.5% contribution with a flat rate proportion of 70% of income per year served used to calculate the final pension…. if this means paying 3% to get the same amount then that doesn’t seem like a good deal… oh and what of the employer contribution are then going to put in more or cut that back as well.
As I say be wary… look at the alternatives… for me retirement is just 20 or so years away… I honestly do not know how I and my missus (who hasn’t paid into a pension for 13 years since we had our first child) are going to get by in our retirement.
Actually perhaps I should have learned from my parents mistakes…. my father is now dead…. worked all his life, fought for queen and country, took a average local authority pension for about 5 years before his death; mother now gets a small widows pension and has a small lump sum in savings. She only ever did low paid/unskilled type jobs… home help, cleaning, bar work etc… to bring in some pocket money and still be at home for the family. Anyway my mother is now in sheltered accommodation and pays for everything pretty much…. most of the other occupants (some still in late 40′s) seem quite capable of work etc. except they dont for whatever reason and have everything paid for them from benefits. It make my mum’s blood boil when she hears them moaning…. that’ll be me in 30 or so years… but it will probably be worse!
The coal-it-ion reckon that every person, whether they pay NI or not, will receive a basic OAP of £140/wk.
So that covers your wife.
You may well have to get divorced and live in the same house as individuals.
Oh, and they also believe in the institution of marriage.
People tend to work their way around these things now….strange how many people are finding ways top get around government-caused problems nowadays……almost as though we regard them [government] as the thing to avoid.
I wonder if they know how much they are despised ?
I wonder if they care.
I wonder if I care whether they know or care ?
I wonder………………..
Inspector, as a long time reader of your informative blog, I am absolutely astounded at the level of hyperbole eminating from your post.
No one is attempting to place a comparative value on the work of the police service and treatment of addicts apart from you.
What I see is a laudable attempt to cut crime by increasing resources to assist in early prevention in drug addiction, which in the long term would save much more money across society than simply placing users prison with no treatment, as you and your colleagues would prefer.
Also, with other public services feeling the squeeze, I don’t beleive that the proposals from Winsor are so bad as there is no change in basic pay – infact, frontline officers will receive extra payments!
“And the total savings will represent less than 2% of the total police pay bill. Policing will remain a well-paid job.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/30/police-pay-deal-theresa-may
Quite. Police salaries are quite generous, with an Inspector’s salary I believe to be around £50k per annum, and coupled with a juicy pension, you are not experiencing the level of cuts such as the disabled and unemployed are facing (some of the poorest and most vulnerable in the country).
Wow £50k per annum – thats nearly as much as a tube driver!!!!
lol very droll
Tube drivers don’t stand by hugging the radiators whilst folks like Mrs Pilkington and her kid are hounded to death. You then provided protection for the Simmonds family (culprits). The police really are lower than whale shit.
Gold Commander again
You utter hoop-twitch.
Victor – although you do have a point I belive you will find that the Police are being disproportiantly targeted. Some have interpreted this a political spite, others that we are prime for exploitation as we cannot strike!
The end result is that we negotiated in good faith and have ended up with actual cuts in pay of between 10 and 20%. The end result is a demoralised and disaffected Police service. The public will get the service they deserve.
Not forgetting the demoralised and disaffected population.
The problem, of course, is government.
Everything they touch turns to shit.
Thought I’d just point out a couple of things, that generous Inspectors salary of £50 k per annum and a generous pension.
isn’t
Gadget works in Ruralshire (therefore no London weighting top band) salary is £ 50571 LESS the 11.2% for the pension = £44907 + pension
No overtime, No limit on days working, Night Shifts, violence, weekend working, no bank holiday rates, no union memebership, no right to withdraw labour, always on duty, any illegal or questionable behaviour at any time is job threatening, the kind of working environment that leads to various stress disorders.
Top rate PC £36591 less pension, less NI, less Income tax = approx £22000, That’s £4k less than the inhumane benefits cap that was rejected
Victor,
I appreciate you, like others, think police officers live in some sort of ‘bubble’, divorced from the rest of the world’s problems but I have members of my immediate family who are either disabled, unemployed, or both.
I take your point re the disabled, with services being cut or greater payment required.
Benefits have been guaranteed to increase by inflation this year (a 5.2% payrise?). The only cut is to maximise the total benefits for a family to the equivalent of a £35k salary. (Something you describe as ‘quite generous’ above – and that’s if you’ve worked for it!!). My wife and I decided we couldn’t afford a 3rd child, so guess what? – we didn’t have one!
As for Inspector’s pay. I directly line manage 48 people spread over 4 locations and at any one time am overseeing more than double that in the absence of their own managers. For 2/3 of the time I am on duty I am the senior officer for half a very busy county adjacent to the Met. All day every day I am required to make fast time decisions with regard to risk assessment (threats to Life, Missing persons, incidents in progress, prioritising outstanding incidents etc.) that if I get them wrong have the potential to cost someone their life, lose me my job or have the real possibility of jail time. I also still get my hands dirty on a regular basis (in fact 99% of the jobs I actually attend involve rolling around with someone).
Many of my friends have management roles in the private sector and they laugh at my salary (including pension benefits), based purely on the number of staff and location I cover, before you even factor in the additional ‘political accountabilty’ and ‘fast time’ nature of police work.
Seriously guys, don’t waste your time responding to Victor/Ciaran/Derek. He trots out the same rehearsed paragraphs again and again, only to disengage once debunked. Troll, who brings nothing to the discussion. Treat as such.
Why does Vic have a different IP address in a different country to Derek? Could it be (gasp) that MORE THAN ONE PERSON THINKS YOU ARE CRAP? Now Ed if you can’t keep up go sit at the Kiddies table. Back to looking at the sports page of “The Sun”…yes..that’s it you twat.
Are you really saying that you don’t know how to set up multiple inc. ‘fake’ IP addresses, including countries of choice? Oh dear. And oh, how you do shock everyone with your silly potty-mouth. I’m going to go off and cry now in the face of such devastating wit.
Vic, do come in and see us again………when you’ve got less time.
How am I a troll? My comment was perfectly valid. Police pay and perks and funding on crime prevention strategies are two different things and can not be interpreted as a derserving cause against a non-deserving cause.
Most crime is linked to drug issues and expending as much effort as possible to combat it is commendable, is it not? As for police pay, it is unfortunate to cut any service, but the police cannot expect to be cocooned from reality. Many services and people are feeling the pain, and the police will have to take their fair share, like it or not.
They are not interested in defending against opposition merely in re-ifying like the nonces they are.
1. Keyboard warrior
2. Lefty scum
3. What would you do without us? (Gee that is tough, given how fucking crap you are plod
I’ve no problem with a fair share. When do MP’s get their salaries, pensions, perks and expenses cu…modernised?
Victor, I’ll see you next week, the day after Monday
Victor – Oh yes, yes, a joly old Tory race-to-the-bottom.
Some slum dwellers in Rio earn nothing at all, let’s all earn nothing at all then. Some people don’t own their own house. Let’s all give our houses away.
And drug treatment does not prevent crime. 90% re-offend within two years.
No change is basic pay you say. Very Wrong. A colleague of mine will be around £ 2000-£3000 per year worse off, as will a lot of younger in service officers, due to increased pension contributions and no pay increment for two years.
Please note that the pay increment is part of the basic pay structure sold as part of our conditions of service so by freezing this it is effectively a change in the level of basic pay.
We will see how well paid a job it is when the next recruitment drive comes along, if it ever will. You and the rest of the like minded biased Tory media like to show how well paid we are but always seem to quote sums that are either made up or are only paid to senior ranks. Look online you can easily find the start pay and package offered to PC’s. Oh and don’t forget to ignore the incremental scales coz the mean fck all now.
Interesting ….
BBC started off dishonestly whining that the nasty police had delayed pay reform and the country now had to find extra money….
Perhaps one of their execrable hacks got a shoeing, because BBC News is now referring to the Home Secretary’s announcement as ‘big pay cuts for the police,’ which is the truth of the matter.
I wonder how that happened?
Maybe some can answer this:
1) If i leave the PPS or NPPS, does that mean in event of ill-health or medical retirement there is no pension/provision for this?
yes
Time for the right to strike I think!
Just checked the BBC website – the policing headline for today: “Anti-social behaviour: Police ‘will be forced to act.’ ” Is Imelda trying to draw attention away from her and Cameron’s vindictive changes to police pay by announcing another futile soundbite measure?
There are about two sentences at the bottom of the BBC story about the changes to pay and conditions. Good to see the BBC has its priorities right.
well..
my search licence and other skills that earn me a bit of O/T will be handed in in the morning…my time is more valuable elsewhere. RD today and my job phone has rung four times (none answered)….its now off and wont be answered till 4pm tommorrow when i start again.
time to research additional income form elsewhere i think.
My job phone now goes in the same locker as my airwave when i finish duty. The job no longer has my personal mobile number, why should they, they don’t contribute towards it.
I changed my phone number when I was in the job to 0207 230 1212 and ask for Bernie. No one noticed!
Save if for 01/04/12
If the police went on strike…who would notice? We’d love to kettle the scum in blue…
Except whenever you try, you can’t quite manage it can you, and society suffers as a result.
And we don’t wear blue, chum.
LOL!! I have never heard such a witty and original comment. ‘if the police went on strike’ hahaha…. haha…’who’ hahaha…. ha… ‘who would notice?’
Oh goodness that has cracked me up. Also- have you noticed the police sometimes catch people for speeding? I dont know why nobody ever makes reference to that?
Brilliant comment, are you a professional comedian or do you just act like a prat in your spare time?
I wasn’t going to lower myself to respond to your tripe, but I cannot resist it any longer, you waste of space CRO gutter wipe parasite.
And who mentioned striking, idiot?
Put your trust in your sword, and your sword in the police.
There is no ‘I’ in team, but there are four in ‘platitude quoting idiot’.
Ciaran again, he’s a one-man anarchist group.
Interesting to see that the ‘special skills’ extra payment goes to neighbourhood Officers. So 24hr response get nothing, but 9×5, eating biscuits with old ladies is rewarded.
Time to stop SIOing Road deaths, hand in my FLC and FLO tickets, forget TPAC, stop interviewing death by dangerous and just make tea and eat custard creams. I quite like the though of not working when it’s dark.
That has not been awarded yet, put back to Winsor Pt2.
May says that the cuts will be used to pay front-line officers more. Weird, I’m a front line officer in one of the busiest boroughs in the crime-ridden MPD, and I stand to lose 5-6k over the next two years – BEFORE I factor in increased pension contributions.
I feel so valued!
Me too!!… only option really is promotion…. but the longer I work the organisation I become more and more dependent upon it…. I just dont know what to do for the best…. take my chances in the private sector?
If I could get 40K a year I’d be gone
And the Junkies have it.
Next time i arrest one i will ask if they can spare some change for a mortgage payment.
London 2012 – Tube workers reject Olympic pay offer
Mon, 30 Jan 08:36:00 2012
Workers on London’s Underground rail network have rejected a bonus offer covering the Olympics, raising fears that services could be disrupted during the Games this year.
I’m not a fan of Bob Crowe, due to the inconvenience he and his members have caused me on many occasions over the years………..however, if I was a member of the RMT, he would be worth every penny of his £130k salary. He understands what tools he has to negotiate with and when is the optimum time to use them. I have just heard him on the radio, mouthy as ever, but he gets the best deal for his members……………..he makes the fed look like the ineffectual, amateurish bunch of freeloaders that they are. Who, having set themselves up in a luxurious, expensive and rarefied atmosphere in Surrey, seem to be so out of touch with their membership and have developed such a flabby underbelly that they only have the stomach for ‘all day grazing’ rather than the stomach for a fight with the kitten heeled one.
Meanwhile in the lala land of the Evening Standard:-
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24032006-taser-and-cs-could-make-a-deadly-combination-met-officers-warned.do
Are they planning a sequel: “Sticking knives in police officers could injure or kill them”?
No, I thought not. Who gives a shit about us?!
We got trained about this a couple of years ago.
Are they trying to suggest we dont know about it?
Or are they just saying obvious things to try and make us sound like we are out with electric flame-throwers? Because we are! and they rock!
It’s just Neyroud saying ‘Me, me me me notice me’..old news.
Mind you, slag bursting into flames sounds like great fun. Shame you have to get close to them, though.
Bill.
PS: I don’t think Victor ‘is’ Derek…far too coherent.
Has anyone been able to make head or tail of the civil service redundancy packages that we are supposed to be able to have applied to us as per Winsor 1? I did a bean count on the back of an envelope and they didn’t seem to add up to much…?
Insp. & CI are now the winners with this award. They will now get 10% of basic wage when they work between 8pm -6am and most will still get their housing allowance.
OT never applied to them as bought out years ago, but they still get day back when they work a rest day.
This is an award for Senior management to reduce labour costs & save money from the workers on the ground and give it to Supt, Bonus in year 3 (only suspended for 2 years).
How fair is this!!!
” Insp. & CI are now the winners with this award. They will now get 10% of basic wage when they work between 8pm -6am and most will still get their housing allowance. ”
Of course they are!! Why do you think Gadget has buried this important debate with a following “distraction post” within such a short period of time?
Gadget Groupies are simply stupid!
Hmm, cops in the US are paid more (alot more) and aren’t universally hated by the public and their own government.
Miami looks quite warm too.
Im running out of reasons to stay in this country. It’s a shit hole and there soon won’t be many of us stemming back the tide of human effluent.
Only been to the US once… New York… but I was struck by a few things…
1. In and around Manhattan there police officers everywhere, almost every street corner.
2. The merchandising… NYPD and FDNY everywhere.
3. A genuine love among the general public towards their “Protectors”!
Perhaps it has something to do with not being perceived as revenue collectors for the Government?
Despite their well publicised budget problems Gloucs Constabulary advertising for transferees at PC rank. http://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/Recruitment/Job%20Vacancies/item11077.html
Yes, looks like the Fed have rolled over.
Let’s see.
2 year increment freeze for me (missing 9th year which is worth £ 1800) along with 2 year pay freeze followed by 1% for 2 years.
Combined with 3.2% extra into my pension and I think I might, just might mind you, lost s but money.
Message to the general public. You can all go and F… Off! You will be getting the absolute bars minimum from me!
Let’s see.
2 year pay freeze followed by 1% in next 2 years.
Plus Increment freeze for 2 years (missing 9th year which is £1800.
Combined with extra 3.2 % into my pension.
To the general public, you can all go and F… .ff if you think I will put myself out again!
Me too, Just miss out on the 9 year payment by a whole month as usual
What if five of the bullies had called the police on the Pilkingtons?
Well, if its 5 then we are forced to act. Cant have us using discretion.
Been to an HPDS intro session with my force today (it was on offer so I thought I would go along and see what all the fuss was about)…. having been along I have hit on a cost cutting idea…
Dump the whole, complete, elitist, “I’m better than you” scheme… I don’t know how much it costs…. but 60 places from 130000 UK officers doesn’t seem to me to be a good way to spend public money. Then get back to supporting and mentoring the many rather than just those “special” few.
Suffice to say I have a life outside the job, am a normal person, and wont be applying.
Was listening to LBC earlier this afternoon… I often do and especially enjoy the police related discussions…. often poised to ring in although I never have…
Anyway on Julie Hartley Brewers (I believe) show a tube worker did not appreciate being challenged on his £45k a year job and justified the refusal to accept a £500 bonus for working in the Olympics….
I was gobsmacked… and thought….. if only you knew how lucky you are… I think if I were a tube driver I’d be keeping my head down… driverless trains anyone?
The Victoria line and a couple of others are already automated. The train still has a driver who is fully trained and can manually take over at any time. The reason being automation is good, but not great. Driverless trains also worry me. Computers cannot complain. Private companies are known for taking the piss. In this country we use BABS to manage train movements. BABS (British absolute block signalling) is the single safest signalling method known. Computers like I say can’t complain if this system is not observed, which is a real possibility because other methods are cheaper but more dangerous. Consider a modern 4 car train (which is small) weighs in at about 160 metric tons when empty. That is the same as 3 articulated lorries when fully loaded plus another half a lorry and its load. A big train, 12 cars weighs in at 480 Metric tones, some older stock will be upto 540 metric tons or over 12 fully loaded artics. Once you have a thousand people or so on board plus their luggage well its very very heavy. Consider that from 60 miles an hour in clear, level and dry conditions it takes a modern electric train 3/4s of a mile to stop when empty. Imagine slightly downhill section of track where trains are run too close together on a drizzly day (drizzle is worse than heavy rain) if something goes wrong the potential for disaster is huge. Drivers have had strikes over safety before. Computers won’t.
Gadget,
This could be your theme tune…..
http://tinyurl.com/5szhm7t
What if you tell someone they have only 4 families complaining which is not enough? Will they ‘bully’ a family into joining in their complaint? Should be fun and definitely not a gimmick… no sir…..not a gimmick !!!!
You all seem to have missed the bit about 3 calls from the same person complaining about anti-social behaviour then the force has to investigate those allegations.
What about for eg a small cul de sac of only 5 houses, one housing a shitbag? There will only ever be 4 complainants then.
As an aside, when I was a ‘beat manager’ I always acted at the first sign of a complaint. Kept the lid on it. We shouldn’t need to be ‘forced’ to act, should we? Will this be extended to other matters?
“Sorry your son has been killed, but until there are another 4 killings, I’m afraid we’re unable to break away from the Pushing Off the Climbing Frame Caper which most of us are currently working on. Five kids been subjected to that, you see…”
I’ve just seen the latest IG post, I’ll put that there, more relevant
Then no doubt a tragedy would have been avoided. Or would it still have happened!
Idiots!!…..and I don’t mean the drug users!!
False economy!!
My fed subs are getting cancelled on wednesday, yes i have personal reasons but their total failure on the pay/pension issue has been the final straw for me.
I am sick of subsidising 4 star hotels and meals and getting bot all in return.
Yes, the federation have shown themselves to be weak and ineffectual as a representing organisation, having been pretty much ignored on everything. I know where the first cut will be made on a lot of peoples pay packet as a result of this and it would be out necessity for many rather then out of disgruntlement/disgust. If enough people leave the Fed the government could have made a rod for there own back as the Fed will no longer have a mandate for those they are supposed to represent to do so.McKeever will have to go after this I think, he backed us into a corner and the home sec drove the steam roller at us!
Well i am finally leaving and i reccomend others do the same. I have had enough of the toothless tiger.
Just watched a prog on BBC2 about Social Workers.
Damned if they do and damned if they don’t maybe, but better to be damned for erring on the side of action I’d say.
I’d rather hand all of it over to the more sensible decisions that are likely to be made by Police Inspectors than leave it with social workers.
What are the Police For?…. BBC Radio 4 programme tries to look at the impact of the cuts (30 mins) http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01b9hjq/What_Are_the_Police_For_Episode_1/
I am all for paying police more, unfortunately we never see many police are way, and when I have the experience has been pretty poor to be honest. The idea of prioritising money in society, less waste and more focus on those who provide a service is critical for fixing the damage caused by the last Government. What does IG think of decriminalising drugs, the money made on taxing them could be used to pay for the police and thensome?
Great apostrophes Gadget, well done Sir.
“Mmh, I have a few but she won’t like them.
Getting pregnant when under 18 years: no right to any benefits for the next 10 years (we as a society do not want you to be pregnant, you have a right to do it but you will get nothing from the society).
Being on benefits and getting pregnant: a reduction of your benefits by 1/3, So three children on benefits = no benefits anymore. Your children failing a grade = no benefits for the next year.
The fathers will help with raising their children or at least pay for it. Not the 10 pounds a week but a minimum of a 100 pounds a week, and it can not come from their benefits they have to work for it (cleaning our streets and parks, helping in animal shelters for minimum wage, inforcement is done by ex-army guys, not social service persons. Failure to comply = 1 month in a work camp. (free contraceptives for everybody off course so they have 0 excuses).
These measures would affect 95% of the scrotes in ruralshire, and only them. It would cost a lot of money but probabkly less then the current programs who have 0 effect.”
To the person who posted this i would like to express my disgust at your apparent delight in literally calling for “work camps” and ex-army enforcers as you fetishise your dream of a orewellian/brave new world style future for us where your ideals and no one elses are met, do you really have that little civility or empathy for others? And the way you casually bring in the notion of work camps is disgusting, with the historically loaded nature of the term “work camp” or more usually in actuality “death camps”,such as the ones in North Korea currently where the 15million strong work camp populations are fed on 400calories of food a day whilst being forced to labour to death, or the historical examples Nazi,Chinese or Russian Work/Death. All of these examples are united by their abborant inhumane actions and desires towards their own and other people. Calling for work camps in the uk disgusts me and frankly makes me despair for Britian, not because of the supposedly broken society but because of you and people like you with no empathy and little understanding. If your vision of our society is ever realised, i will live to see it burn….
Im usually totally with you gadget but you honestly seem to be having a ego trip recently and have been making less and less sense, while the blog is more and more beggining to sound you desperatly trying to support your point of view without any real evidence or cosideration. For example for every pound invested in drug treatment the uk tax payer saves nine pounds. As an extreme example, even if as you claim, the addict is back on drugs in two years thats more than 700 days without them commiting daily crime to feed their habit. Lets say ‘Bob’ has a (modest) £100 pound a day smack habit. So he steals £500s of goods shoplifting or burglarising each day and fences it for the £100 he needs. If he is not doing that for two years because he is clean then thats £700,000 of goods alone kept safe let alone all the money spent on resources chasing his crimes…. When you consider that some peoples crack habits easily run into £400 a day, then yes on a purely monetary level us spending money on rehabilitation saves much more than investing in heavier policing and sending people to prison where heroin is easier to get than on the streets. On a social level of course we should help the needy in our society. If your family member or friend was an alcoholic you wouldnt lock them up, you would treat them as if they were ill….
I more honest comment than my own but definitely close to what I was trying to say. I did not find the comparison to drug abusers particularly relevant, and just weak attempt to justify policing costs ( we are all suffering). I hope we move off the subject of police wages soon since it is getting a bit monotonous. I hope the real IG returns
I understand why those not in the job would find the whole pay thing monotonous, some police officers do as well… but the fact remains that I and many of my colleagues will be out of pocket to the tune of many thousands of pounds and it’s easy to see…. I won’t get a £1000 incremental incremental for the next two years, I will be paying 3% on top of my current 9.5% pension contribution (I am on the newer pension scheme that was revised in 2006, but the government now want to go further) and inflation is running at around 5% currently per annum. So yes everyone is suffering but I would suggest some more so than others……. (still at least I have a job…. but for how much longer?).
FED update on pensions…. http://www.polfed.org/mediacenter/AA0BB6E740D74BF38994AD4594857443.asp
If we’re told we all have to work till we’re 60 (at least), will it be worth switching to the new pension and paying less contributions. The new scheme meant they had to do 35 years. It seems we’re all in the same boat now.
Already doing it via a three year break from the pension scheme, stick the increases where the sun doesnt shine!!! Then if I dont find another job first at the end of the three years ill rejoin the newer pension scheme. Your allowed to opt out, your current contributions are frozen technically until your 60 unless you rejoin a pension. To rejoin you simply apply through your personnel then you pay for a simple medical and bobs your auntie. Simple government rule introduced in the last few years stipulates employers must provide a pension scheme, in it or not thats your choice. Ill save my three years worth of 400 pounds pay of some debts and get some qualifications and ill feel good as its my own mini protest!!!! Now if more than one person did that it would sting a little who will pay for the current retirees!!! oh they redirect those funds dont they, not if they havent got it they dont!!!
I mentioned this about 5 or 6 months ago and emailed our local fed who told me that it was too ‘confrontational’ ….too f**kin confrontational they are walking over us and we are being shafted massively compared to the other Public Servants. Funnily enough the reason why they don’t get shafted like us is they can strike!!! We cannot strike or cause disaffection this is neither…..
The only way we can hurt this government is if we all take a break from the pension scheme……I would say in 6 months they would be negotiating….
The only language this government understands is money we need to be united and start to fight back
Just a thought! The government want to minimise pension liability. What is to stop them allowing a certain number of employees to take a break from paying into the fund and when the figures add up, changing the regulations thereby blocking any resumption of payments (and “top up” payments) by those who have taken a break. Such a policy would effectively take out much of the future liability (and leave those officers at the mercy of the private pension sector)
The governement cannot change the rules on pensions otherwise they risk upsetting thousands of other occupations. They made it law that all employers should provide their workers with a pension. I think if they suddenly decided to block people from re entering the pension scheme they would be liable to all sorts of challenges. I mean think about it if you are a late joiner to the service you can join the current pension scheme and even top it up with an old one so to stop others from doing it would certainly be challenge worthy in any court. Tthe difference with what they are doing at the moment is changing conditions of service this is not set in law it was an agreement many years back which they have effectively broken. My letter to withdraw went in to day. There are problems with the career break in that if you were in the old scheme when you rejoined you would have to go into the current scheme for new joiners meaning you pay a little less get less at the end and work longer. The thing is after Windsor part 2 you’ll be doing that anyway if you have more than ten years left.
They cannot wipe out past contributions these must be frozen so its untouchable. I have taken control of my own future Im not waiting for some jumped up pompous arrogant politician to decide my future.Two old friends of mine paid into the scheme for thirty years and lived for the day they picked up their hard earned pension. One of them got run over by a bus three years short of retirment and killed the other has been retired six months and has now been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
By how much are teachers, nurses, firemen etc… having their pay and conditions cut??? Anywhere near the levels of the Police??? I doubt it.
Headline in the Daily Snail today:
“Undercover police ‘can’t be banned from having sex with targets”
I presume this will be taxable and to be shown on expense claims in light of Mrs Red Shoes views on policeofficers bearing in mind the cost of condoms”