Interesting article on the Guardian Unlimited website today which shows that its not just Kent police whingeing about their pay, seems that Peter Smythe vice chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation is more than tad miffed as well.
It looks like hysteria is now effecting the ranks with this character upping the anti by saying *"that London Officers are at war with the Government", if this is so, surely this would be treason, in which case lets hope special branch are still loyal to Queen and Country (you and me).
I reckon its time the police looked outside their own narrow world, and take into account how many of us don't get an automatic pay increase each year on time or even a month or two later.
For most coppers what we are talking about is a hundred or so pounds after tax, so maybe these police officers, who are so hard done by, might like to consider that they get fat pensions, early retirement, job security etc, I would swap my some what less reliable income for theirs any day even if I had to wait a week or two for a pay increase.
Back in the dark days of the 1970's, pay was poor for police officers and as a result not surprisingly, many officers particularly in the metropolitan police were tempted to seek er.. private sponsorship, this I do not believe to be the case today, yes of course they have been shortchanged slightly but again their still better off than most.
Its important that police are paid a fair wage, since they deserve it, and since they get more than me I reckon their OK. The vision of a few police officers bleating about society doesn't value them shows what an insular self-centred world some of the live in (did anyone else find that copper on local TV the other day extremely irritating).
Coppers know that when they joined the police force right or wrong strike action wasn't an option, which again is something shared in practice with large swathes of the work force, take the hundreds of thousands who work for agencies, if you don't turn up for work they just get another to replace you.
Lets hope I haven't upset the police, as well as the freemasons last week!
*To see this quote in its proper context click here for the Guardian article, just in case I've got things out of proportion
I'd love them to be able to strike. It might just proove to the British population how valuable they are.
ReplyDeleteTreason is to be disloyal to the Crown.
ReplyDeleteIf you read up on the Unison Committee for Action of the 70s (the right wingers planning to overthrow Harold Wilson's elected government) you should see that they researched this.