Cuts proposed by the government have resulted in much criticism, one area being policing I just wonder if there is another way, recently police officers senior and junior have gone to the media griping about the governments proposed cuts and I just wonder if there is another way.
One employee rep pointed out that its the case that something like 80% of the police budget goes on wages, therefore meaning efficiency savings elsewhere would be of minimal effect. The conclusion therefore has to be wide scale cuts in staff, resulting in much more crime, civil disturbance and the end of civilisation as we know it.
Without a doubt many police officers, are by the very nature of their work at considerable risk, unlike most of us, as an example, chatting to a British Transport police officer, working on the railway, telling me criminals had in the past attempted to throw him onto the conductor rail (750volts (always live) not a pleasant end ), so I would suggest that earnings and benefits are rightly above average, however currently we are experiencing a unique economic crisis.
Now even accepting that police officers (those actually out doing the work) are worthy of the money they currently get, the fact is that, we are told, the publics money has been spent (note left by retiring by shameless Labour minister), so why isn't anyone suggesting police take a pay cut, or for that matter the whole public sector.
Every day some Labour politician or public sector spokesperson is bleating about cuts, to jobs and true to type I've not one heard one make the suggestion that they've been doing alright for the last few years (according to recent reports about £7,000 per year better than the private sector) all of this crowd are talking about civil unrest, social cohesion and all that malarkey, so how about the public sector take a pay cut around 15-25% they'd have to adjust maybe drop expensive holidays, chose value products rather than finest, in a few months I'm sure they'd adjust and since even now public sector jobs are almost bomb proof what could they complain about.
Out in the commercial world such cuts are not unfamiliar, and have been occurring for some years now in construction and agriculture, since Labour accepted and actively encouraged the principle of importing cheap labour, to be ruthlessly exploited undercutting British workers and social institutions like education and health.
Nobody is forced to join the police service or indeed any other service, so surely pay could be adjusted to balance the books, millions in the private sector have had no choice in pay cuts, except of course, changing jobs however that is pretty limited although most papers are still have plenty of public sector non- jobs.
Currently this country is divided, on one side you have people who work in the market place and get on with what's on offer, and then you have what the government refer to as the special pleaders! which as well as the police includes public sector workers and workshy scroungers, its about pleading time, the later shared the wealth!
I do find your constant comparison of the public sector to areas such as construction interesting. Many skilled trades in construction earn fantastic salaries when times are good. In comparison public sector salaries are modest in the good times. Yes there has been a rebalance but as a professional with a degree earning less than a plumber in the good times I don’t think I am overpaid.
ReplyDeletePerhaps rather than ranting about the public sector you may consider the cash in hand nature of much of the construction industry which deprives the exchequer of tax resources. You may consider what caused this mess in the first place was more to do with banker greed rather than public servants.
For your sake I hope next time you need health care, education, police services, social services, local government services that they are there for you. These people you seem to despise and wish pay cuts, cuts in holidays etc are there for you when you need help. Where are you for them?
Tony your right!
ReplyDeleteThe previous comment or bleating probably comes from a labour supporter with a cushy job.
And if anonymous 4:06 read your blog he will understand, you accept some like the police are worth the money, its just a pity New Labour flushed the money away.
Lets hope for idiots like him, those working in the commercial world keep paying tax.
Nice to see a considered response.
ReplyDeleteWho isn't worth the money then? Nurses, doctors, teachers, road sweepers, binmen, social workers, care assistants? Get rid of the amount of public sector staff that some people are demanding and you will see society fall apart.
What I object to is the vilification of hardworking people in the public sector. Some people appear to see these people as easy targets.
I would say that the public sector is a soft and easy target.
I believe that we should all realise that the problems detailed are due solely to the last Labour Government andthe prudent chancellor.Its no good the TUC bleating, what goes round comes round, spend more than you have and the result is unhappiness thank you Labour for leaving us with a decade of misery to look forward to
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems in the public sector is that it is nigh on impossible to get the sack. Hence, staff are often retained even though their job is no longer necessary. MOD is a prime example of this being about a third over staffed in many places, not by soldiers, but by civil servants.
ReplyDeleteThis bleat about underpayment is also false. Civil service hours are 37 per week with a half day on Fridays, any work falling outside of those hours which frequently occurs in the civilianised military enviroment, is at overtime rates.
Drivers, for example, required to work in an evening, may often sit at home all day paid, because of restrictions on driving hours, and then get overtime for the evening run. Sensibly they would be paid for 37 hours as and when needed but then, that would screw driver's perks and excite their union.
The civil service is riddled with poor working practices and over staffing. I am sure the police are no different.
This notion that services will collapse if cuts are made is political scaremongering. Good management practices could make huge savings without detriment to
results.
The alternative is national bankruptcy.
I actually agree with you about the civil service.
ReplyDeleteI did work myself there before and I wasnt impressed. A lot of waste and a number of jobs which I thought were iffy. Not sure about the terms and conditions but it is not just civil service jobs that will be affected.
I am now a teacher and i can assure you I earn the national average salary, work on average 50 hours a week and get no overtime payments. The only perk(and it is a good one is the pension which is now being reviewed).The holdiays are generous but then I do 12 hours a week unpaid overtime.
Where I work a number of people have already been made redundant and more will lose their jobs. You talk about fallacies, but real people, providing real services are losing their jobs.
You will find the same stories with other public servants such as nurses etc.
I have not actually said there should be no cuts. What I object is to vilification of very hard working people providing services. Public servants did not cause this mess.
Btw I did not vote New Labour but nor do I blame them for all this mess, the banking crisis was caused by the greed of bankers. That seems to be forgotten now as people such as street cleaners and nurses are blamed for really just doing their job.
What vilification?
ReplyDeleteWell, generally at the moment public servants are portrayed as an overpaid and protected species singularly responsible for the current economic mess. I would argue that is not a correct portrayal. I think also the original article on this site does provide a misleading picture of public servants and I do not think that is justified. Don’t get me wrong, there are people in the public sector who are wasters and inefficient. But lets keep those numbers in perspective.
ReplyDeletePeople in the public sector will be losing their jobs.It wont be just pen pushers in Whitehall but nurses, teachers etc. As with anyone else it will be tough. If I was made redundant as a teacher I am not sure what role I would carry out in the private sector. Yes I could take a lower paid job which I was unqualified for but is that a good use of people? Having spent years getting where I want to be these are uncomfortable times (yes I know this has happened in the private sector as well!)
The point simple as it is, concerns wages, Labour cooked the books spent all the money, but despite the country being on its knees the public sector representatives and of course Labour keep bleating of course.
ReplyDeleteAll were getting from the public sector is how essential everyone is why they should keep their snouts in the trough irrespective of economic reality.
Police are wonderful, nurses are brilliant (and more educated than most), but come the end of the month where is the money coming from.
Bleat is an interesting word. Definiton
ReplyDelete"the cry of a sheep." Thats an awful way to describe people in public service simply doing their job.
I understand your a new grandad. Who helped deliver your grandchild? Who will educate the child? Who will look after you when you need care?
The people who will do you call "bleaters".
Change may be comming but some dececy and compassion for people who did not create the mess should still be shown.
Bleat is an interesting word. Definiton
ReplyDelete"the cry of a sheep." Thats an awful way to describe people in public service simply doing their job.
I understand your a new grandad. Who helped deliver your grandchild? Who will educate the child? Who will look after you when you need care?
The people who will do you call "bleaters".
Change may be comming but some dececy and compassion for people who did not create the mess should still be shown.
At the end end of the day we can only pay what we can afford to pay.
ReplyDeleteA large amount is spent on pensions police and firemen retiring at 50, inflation proof pensions. Chief executives of district councils on over £100,000 and East kent has 5 of them. When times are hard you have to cut the budget to what you can afford. TDC spent hundreds of thousands on the council building, no private company would dare spent that sort of money in the current climate, it would be a recipe for disaster.
Hell what else could you call a continued demand for money with no justification and certainly no acceptance of the true economic pain in the market place, Bleating it has to be, the I'm alright jack attitude and stuff the rest society is something I've paying for to long .
ReplyDeleteI clearly except that many are hardworking selfless but how much more do you Shtraining think you should squeeze out of people like me, whoose prospects long term have been screwed for many a year to come.
Fortunately I have not used any inflammatory language, as did Merseyside Fire chief who having cut 40% of staff at Mersey's fire service noted no detrimental effect and commented that some public sector staff were "bone idol", still we're lucky he didn't use the term parasite I suppose.
Necessary cuts in public expenditure are being turned around, for political point scoring purposes, to somehow blaming the public sector workers for the recession.
ReplyDeleteThat is not the case. Many public sector workers do excellent and necessary work on relatively modest salaries. Then again there is a lot of fat arising out of the last government's tendency to create non jobs in order to keep unemployment figures down. That is false economics.
Yes, many commentators are right that the banking crisis, mainly in the USA, led to the world recession. However, poor economic management and government overspending in the preceeeding good years meant the UK was less able to cope than most developed countries.
As a nation we now have massive debts. We have an aging population with pension demands likely to exceed the capability of the working members to support. Our company and private pension sector was decimated by Gordon Brown's tax assualt leaving many people facing bleak retirements.
The problems have to be faced and dealt with otherwise the prospects for all of us, public or private sector, are indeed grim.
No doubt, sooner or later, the present government will be kicked out for their efforts to put things right and then back will come Labour to screw everything up again. All very tedious.
Labour done a great job its The Torys and the clowns that are going to ruin this country. You cant blame Labour for the greedy bankers. We need Tony Blair to run this country again then we will become GREAT BRITTAIN once again.
ReplyDeleteMy dear chap, Anon, Tony Blair is far too busy running the 'I love Tony's bank balance' to have time to run the country again and why pick on clowns.
ReplyDeleteHow would you like to wear baggy trousers and a red nose, fall off ladders and get dowsed in custard every day just to earn a crust. They don't even have a clown's union though Bob Crow looks like he'd make a good leader if they did.
Accepting your Labour 'done' a good job as tongue in cheek, I assume you are also joking that UK's debts are entirely down to the 'merchant bankers' and not Gawd the Terrible.
Thanks for lightening my day.
10 07 Face no matter how many Labour apologists bleat about its not their fault, nobodys taking them seriously.
ReplyDeleteThis summer Alistair Campbell, new book Ker-ching, Peter Mandelson new book Ker-ching! Tony Blair new book Ker-ching! You don't hear that lot complain, too busy raking it in.
Labour sleaze balls or what?
We need to scrap Community officers, who in Margate seem to have a sole purpose of issuing 80 pd fines for litter and appear to be just fund raising. Also community police should be reduced. Both of these groups have no power of arrest etc. The money saved then put back into real police officers.
ReplyDeleteAny comment about politicians cashing in on the fame they acquire after election cannot exclude Tories such as the revolting Ann Widdecombe, whose latest venture appears to be smearing herself across the screens in "Strictly Come Dancing". How edifying. Then there's Jeffrey Archer, not only a money-spinner, but a crook too. Nigel Lawson and his diet book, Michael Portillo and his media career.......
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Archer was a successful novelist before he gained further fame as a politician. That is totally different to cashing in on a senior political office and information gained from that position.
ReplyDeleteAs to his crookedness, it was perjury because he lied about a liason with a lady of the night. I guess 9:07 PM must be that thoroughly holy type who goes home to his wife and says "Sorry, darling, but I just spent half your housekeeping on a screw with the painted lady in number 17."
Mind you then, for these Labour folk are much more down to earth and honest than Tories!! Look at Presser, the bonking peer, for good, solid, smack in the kisser, get yer kit off politics!
What a stupid post, Anon 10.32 - at least the second paragraph of it. My point was simply that those criticising exploitative behaviour on the part of Labour politicians should not forget the Tory history (long past and recent). You seem to be confirming my point, so thanks.
ReplyDeleteTouché, Anon. Point well made so let us leave it that sleaze and politics frequently go hand in glove, or should that be pocket, and no party seems to be exempt. I suppose the difference between Tories and Socialists is that the former are the rich seeking to get richer whilst the latter are the pretend poor seeking to catch up but forgetting to take their voters with them.
ReplyDeleteUs rank and file are quickly forgotten whoever is milking the till!