Saturday, December 08, 2007

The Policeman's Blog Hits Back

The Boys in Blue ain't happy. The Policeman's blog has a brilliant comparison between the lot of a police officer and the lot of a Member of Parliament HERE. Here's a sample...

Amount Minister Ed Balls claimed as subsidy for 'second home' in London where he
lives most of the time: £27,000

Amount Police Officers who live out of area can claim for second homes: 0

Amount Mr Balls and his wife Yvette Cooper rake in in MPs' and Ministers' salaries and allowances annually: £240,000 per annum

Amount husband-and-wife PCs earn annually (1 Sgt, 1 new PC): £64,000

Size of Jacqui Smith's majority at last election: 2,071

Chances of Jacqui Smith being voted back in at next election: slim

Number of tears that will be shed on Coppersblog: 0

I half expected it to end: "And for everything else, there's Mastercard".

26 comments:

Fitaloon said...

Could I suggest a visit to Planet Police to see the level of complaints being made. Seldom have I seen the police so angry as with Jacqui Smith and her Government. Police are supposed to be non-political but some very experienced coppers are ignoring this due to the lies and hypocrisy that has come from Labour. Even the superintendents are angry

K S Rees said...

Who would have thought that a Labour government could have been so adept at alienating just about every public service.

A Swansea Blog

Fitaloon said...

Try this Link to Planet Police.

Andreas Paterson said...

So Iain, do you actually agree with what's being said on coppers blog?

Do you think that MP's should maintain both a London address and a constituency address out of their own pocket with no allowances.

Do you really think that £120,000 is too much for a minister?

This didn't seem to be the case a while ago?

Anonymous said...

Quote from the Superintendents Association Press Release.

"What is the point of a regulated pay negotiation system, which is set in statute "

Poor souls. Don't they realise that rules and regs don't seem to apply to Nulabour.

strapworld said...

Iain,

Look back to the 70's. Callaghan was prime minister. He had ordered a review into police pay and conditions.

Lord Edmund Davies wrote his report recommending great increases in the pay of all ranks.

Callaghan, who had in his past been the parliamentary adviser to the Police Federation!, said we will pay it in stages.

The trouble you see today was what occurred then!

Margaret Thatcher and Willie Whitelaw promised to pay the enquiries recommendations in full!

When elected one of their first jobs was to do just that.

Maggie stuck by..what became known as The Edmund Davies Formula..for many years.

When Ken Clarke became Home Secretary he set up a review under the chairmanship of the BAT chair! (Sounds familiar).

The police were VERY angry at the recommendations! Resulting in a public meeting at Wembley at which over 20.000 police officers attended.

Tony Blair, who was shadow Home Secretary,spoke at this event...very much against this report.

Ken Clarke was moved on and Micheal Howard came in and it was shelved!

The police could refuse to carry firearms. drive police cars. ensure they did the job by the book.
They would hardly ever leave the station!

My money is on the police.

Unsworth said...

So the cops aren't happy.

Well, what else is new?

And Strapworld: "The police could refuse to carry firearms. drive police cars. ensure they did the job by the book."

Frankly the world might be a lot safer if they did just that.

As for "they would hardly ever leave the station", well, what else is new?

John M Ward said...

From the quoted bit: "Amount Mr Balls and his wife Yvette Cooper rake in in MPs' and Ministers' salaries and allowances annually: £240,000 per annum

Amount husband-and-wife PCs earn annually (1 Sgt, 1 new PC): £64,000"

Amount local councillor John Ward receives: (just gone up to) £8,696.67 p.a. plus vice-chairman's allowance of £3,648.95.

Bearing in mind that I need to put in a good 50 to 60 hours per week, so had to give up my former employment completely (I had already switched to working nights) , this is in effect my entire income.

I live alone, and have a modest mortgage. If I can do it...

Anonymous said...

Yes but mo but yes but

Number of policemen who would catch a burglar in a striped shirt carrying a bag marked SWAG = 0%
Number of policemen who would call and tell the householder it is all their own fault = 90%

Anonymous said...

"Amount local councillor John Ward receives: (just gone up to) £8,696.67 p.a. plus vice-chairman's allowance of £3,648.95."
im sorry mate but if that was it you wouldnt do it.dont give me that public service hogwash either you want your snout in my wallet and frankley ive had enough.
As to the police when they do their job properly instead of meeting targets id have sympathy as to the pair of balls they are useless and should be laughed out of office.

Anonymous said...

If plod actually did anything to catch criminals instead of pushing paper then there might be a case for a pay rise and a proportional amount of sympathy from the rest of us.

As it stands the matter is akin to any other jobsworth trying to stick their nose into the public finance trough.

Oink, oink!

John M Ward said...

I note that Mitch missed the point completely, even after quoting those key last few words of mine: "If I can do it..."

Why should I or anyone else have any sympathy for a police couple on more than five times what (in this case) I receive, let alone MPs -- who are, after all, in the same line of work that I am -- who receive even more?

I'd suggest that a bit of evening-up is in order!

Anonymous said...

Iain,

I have no sympathy with the police. They have allowed what used to be a public service, to be turned into a heavily politicised, self serving organisation. For many it is simply a 'nice little earner', time spent hanging around in police stations waiting for the happy day when they can draw their bloated pensions.

Now, they are reaping what they have sown, and I expect they will get little support from the long suffering public.

Anonymous said...

"A policeman's lot is not a happy one (happy one)". Twas ever thus.

Anonymous said...

Chuck Unsworth - says in the case of the police refusing to carry firearms: "Frankly the world might be a lot safer if they did just that. "

Really?

The whole world? If the English police refused to carry firearms, there would be no more islamic terrorism in Britain, France, Spain, the United States, Thailand, the Philippines, Argentina, Canada and various points in Africa? Gosh!

And no more hoodies on the streets of Britain, shooting other people's fathers who complained about their noise? No more rapists mainly from the crapholes of the world?

Are you mad?

The police killed one person in error. Boo hoo and all that, but if he hadn't been in Britain illegally, he wouldn't have been on that tube, so my sympathy is limited.

3:45 agreed.

GS 4:07 - I don't think we're discussing the same thing. G&S were referring to police having to deal with miscreants. We are discussing police having to deal with an overmighty government.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but I have no sympathy at all for those PC (GEDDIT?) sedantary form fillers comically referred to STILL as 'the thin (surely invisible) blue line' by the Daily Mail who have turned ignoring prospective murder victims into a national sport (five documented case this year).

Not a penny more for the plods until we see 'em plodding about...

Anonymous said...

Oh dear touched a nerve did I.What i realy meant was local councilors are usually lying scheming scumbags in it for personal profit.
How did you get a mortgage on such crap money with no real prospects, like being voted into unemployment.get a real job earn real money and be part of the profit instead of the loss! you parasite.

Anonymous said...

I think the question of one's views on MPs pay depends on how keen the commentator is to be an MP. The position is very similar with the EU. Police are hard working, dedicated people who are oppressed by the state (as are soldiers, nurses, etc) and taken for granted by citizens. Consequently an "appropriate" salary for a police officer is considered to be around £30K for someone experienced and long-serving. MPs on the other hand are supposedly worth about £100K a pop, plus another hundred in "expenses" (additional salaries for one's nearest and dearest) at least if you believe Iain Dale when he wants to be one. Obviously I am sure we all agree that MPs are worth every penny. Tee hee.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6.40 - I hope the next time police come to your aid in a crisis, you are able to wrench yourself into forgetting your comments above. Or will you remember them but cynically dial 999 anyways?

Anonymous said...

The Scotch Government in England has decided that English policemen will not get their payrise backdated, unlike those policemen in Scotchland, whose Scotch Government in Scotland says they can have their payrise backdated because the English are paying for it.

I wouldn't be surprised if English policemen didn't start arresting everyone they heard talking with a scotch accent on the grounds that they are probably illegal immigrants. It could take quite a while to establish their right to be in this country

Johnny Norfolk said...

The only thing that has supprised me about Labour this time around is that it has taken 10 years for the public to find out just what crap they are.
They are unfit to govern this country. Evry area of public life is a disaster that has been caused by Labour interfearence in areas that they no nothing about and just will not listen to those do.pgznawx

Unsworth said...

@ Verity

You may be right in your definition of 'World' - I suppose that depends on one's perceptions. Maybe I should have limited my comments to the 'civilised' world. To quote Nancy Mitford, "Abroad is bloody, and foreigners are fiends".

As to the (British, not 'English') cops killing only one individual, you are, simply, wrong. No doubt you believe that having large numbers of relatively inexperienced, possibly incompetent, boys and girls deploying lethal weaponry on the streets adds to everyone's safety. I do not. I'm old enough to recall altogether far too many 'accidents' involving accidental or deliberate discharge. If increasing numbers of police are armed it is a logical certainty that the risk of 'accident' is similarly increased.

And the exact circumstances of some of these killings are remarkably unclear. Perhaps you might care to look at the Rules of Engagement and then examine the realities. That makes for very interesting reading.

Am I mad?

You bet.

Anonymous said...

@Strapworld 12.57

Margaret Thatcher did NOT pay the award in full. She did NOT backdate it to the previous September but merely implemented it from the Election date onwards which amounted to around a month or two rise.

Anonymous said...

strapworld said...

"The police could refuse to carry firearms. drive police cars. ensure they did the job by the book.
They would hardly ever leave the station!"

If only. No police: fewer traffic jams, fewer innocent people murdered for no reason, less perjury, the public free to defend itself against criminals etc etc. It would be wonderful.

Anonymous said...

There are plenty of things FRONT LINE police officers can do that would bring the important and very sharp end of policing to a grinding halt without resorting to strike action. The bean counter and pie chart meisters could still function - but thier charts would be so much more interesting.
Strike action is a long way off these days, and frankly I think any serving officer who compares his/her situation to colleagues serving back in the late 70's needs to think again. Back then they were almost on subsistence wages and unlike the fire brigades were unable to take on second jobs (although I know many did, but their shift patterns didn't make it easy). Low pay rates were also the cause of much low level criminal corruption. That and the growing militancy of the left and the unions, perhaps highlighted by Brother Dromey and his colleagues at the Grunwick dispute in North London way back then, also made governemnt a tad more aware of what they should do. Edmund Davies set up the formula after his commission, but Callaghan wasn't big enough to implement it. Thank God Thatcher was and did!
Today the police's problem isn't pay and conditions, it is their leadership and the political interference from the heart of government. No longer our protectors but a branch of a large social engineering project aided and abetted by ACPO.
Things, however, never change on the front line, the domestics, child abuse, drunken violence, not so drunken violence and the new risks imported along with the criminal wastes from the world through free for all immigration. Somehow it all seems to be ignored in the war on figures and targets.
So, boys and girls out there, check your vehicles thoroughly, and book them out of service for anything (and as you are supposed to), spend time filling out all the forms you have to do (not that you have to try very hard), use Health & Safety as often as possible, fill out those 'near miss' forms for everything and anything, use the system as it should be used and not how you make it work, it'll grind to a halt very quickly.
Of course if firearms officers handed in their tickets and all drivers failed to pass their eyesight tests, or officers messed up their officer safety training....well, who needs to strike?

Anonymous said...

Do you really think Balls and Mrs. Balls give a stuff? What they do has bugger all to do with politics and everything to do with making Balls a shed load. They are just more grasping greedy wankers. If it was not tragic it would be laughable. They are dellusional.