To state that the police is going to the DOGS (THE DOGS I TELL YA) with the appointment of Tom Wilson?

[QuintessentialShadows]

here

The entire MET is frothing.

Sorry Tom Winsor!

WINSOR

Him, and Barbra Windsor, what a carry on....

It's not just the Met - my dh is in another force, with friends spread across many other forces across the country. None have a good word to say about Winsor.

I'd have thought someone that is outside the force is the ideal inspector. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? and all that.

What cassette said. What a fucking stitch up.

I've worked with him in 3 separate firms (law is a small world) and he is a really strange guy. Obsessed with trains and just works 20 out of 24 hours and never stops. Also does not care what people think of him at all so a perfect choice I guess

He had to have a police advisor to help him formulate his report.

So no doubt alot of police advisors to help him in his new role.

Not quite sure what the Government are up to really with the police - they are really are not getting them on their side .

Just glad DH retires within the next couple of years.

YABU - hes not being brought in to be popular.

"At this particularly moment the Home Secretary has taken a deliberate decision, presumably, to say to the service not only are we not backing off to your objections to Tom Winsor, we are not going to be listening to your cry of pain in terms of what's happening to the service."

Ha ha 'cries of pain'. Enough of the dramatics!

It seems to be the way all public services are going though - run by managers as a businessrather than people with experience in the job.

I'm not sure as yet whether I agree or disagree with this ethos

Agree with lookstoshinford - this isn't a popularity contest. It is a decision to move the administration behind policing in a particular way.

Police T&C hadn't been reviewed since the 1970s (?) so it was long overdue modernisation. And what is happening here is no different to the rest of the public sector (yes, even MPs are on higher contributions pending outcome of review).

The bottom line is that we simply cannot afford what we thought we could a few years ago. If someone can suggest an actual alternative costed plan (not just headline slogan plus one tax), then perhaps things could be done differently. But there is utter silence on alternatives, plus general agreement that cuts/changes are needed.

I don't think anyone is saying that cuts didn't need to be made, but some of the changes that are coming for the police are ridiculous, and in some cases dangerous. I believe the Police Federation did suggest alternatives that would save the money required but this was dismissed as it is reform the government want, not just money saved.

I have no problem with reform - we have to move with the times , I don't really have a problem with a non police doing the HMI job - interesting to see how it pans out - however I think it is more the choice of Winsor that is the issue not that he is non police.

It's alright cut the police force and get work fare in

I agree cuts need to be made and the police should not be exempt, however the draconian measures that he wants introduced will have a massive effect on the service delivered to the public.

If you could see the effect thecurrent cut backs have had so far, morale is at rock bottom, we barely scrape enough officers together each day to answer emergency calls and yet more cuts are to come.

It is scary times

Police Pay, conditions etc have been chipped away at over the years - many times you don't get to hear about it because if it was any other public service or private come to that they would call a strike - obviously police can't strike so they have no redress to any changes and the Police Fed , basically police union, hands are tied.

Not quite sure what the Government are up to really with the police

The Govt wants to shrink the State

Police = part of that

Ergo

Shrink the police.

That's my v unscientific analysis ;)

PS YANBU. He is an extraordinary choice.

and every other emergency service calls on the police to help out when things get a bit tough for them - violent patient, police are called, ambulance can't gain entry to house -police are called , fire service been obstructed or stones hurled at them - police are called - it goes on and on.

Police officer alone in street getting head kicked in - people turn the other way .

DH is a police officer - though in keeping with many of his colleagues, not for much longer.

Listen up: he and many others are genuinely anxious for the state of the rule of law in the nation in the coming years. Already there are barely enough officers on response to tackle the tide of calls of help. They are now leaving in droves. The appt of Winsor is foolish on so many levels I can barely comprehend it.

Bah. A pox on the lot of them (not the police!)

Soz: YADNBU. Obviously.

My mate who is a police officer told me that they are cutting their end of service retirement bonus. It has been a real carrot as the pay is not spectacularly high, it means retirement could be nice and mortgage free. Many officers rely on this to pay off the final bit of their mortgage as they enter retirement. With this gone, they still have to pay mortgage from their pensions. Which are also cut.
No wonder many of them reconsider their career choices now.

Of course officers will leave the service. Just like nurses, teachers, doctors will also leave.

No-one likes a good thing to come to an end, but the golden public sector pay packages are no longer affordable or justifiable.

All that will happen is new officers, doctors, teachers, nurses will be recruited, but with a more reasonable expectation of what they will get on retirement.

I'd love my mortgage to be paid off when I retire. Aint going to happen! So the police have to join the rest of us plebs.

look are you putting your life on the line every day? Thought not.

Look Probationers joining my dh's force are so woefully paid that they qualify for income support. These are people putting their lives on the line every day.

They deserve a little more support than to be undercut, undermined by the government & underpaid.