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Should coppers be allowed to strike?
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7139771.stm
Have to say I understand why they're pissed off. So much for the government adhering to arbitration body's decision. 1.9% rise is shite and they shouldn't have to put up with it.
Having said that, anyone who's ever watched Robocop will know the full consequences of the police force striking
What are your thoughts Whowhere, and those of your colleagues?
Have to say I understand why they're pissed off. So much for the government adhering to arbitration body's decision. 1.9% rise is shite and they shouldn't have to put up with it.
Having said that, anyone who's ever watched Robocop will know the full consequences of the police force striking
What are your thoughts Whowhere, and those of your colleagues?
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
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Comments
The army I guess... (or those police not on strike)
Who is to blame for this? Our unelected Prime Minister, perhaps? His glove puppet of a Chancellor and the Treasury for refusing to fork out the extra £30million? (though they have no hesitation about funding non-jobs like smoking cessation officers and five-a-day co-ordinators, do they?) Or the absolutely shoddy excuse of a person we have as a Home Secretary? Mr Bean, speaking at PMQs, far from wanting to calm things down, just poured more petrol onto the fire. He said he would not give an inch. Therefore, in Gordon Brown-speak, you can expect a U-turn around about Thursday night, leaked out quietly after the Friday morning newspapers have gone to print.
However, I'm seriously torn on this question of whether to support strike action. When the topic of strikes have come up in the past, my reaction has tended to be - sack the lot of them and good riddance. That's what I said for the university lecturers, for example, and I stand by it. So, I should say this for the police as well. But I struggle to do that, because this government has treated them so appallingly. I'm therefore undecided at the moment.
The government, way back in 1919 agreed to reward the police force with regular pay rises that were in line with inflation and other benefits IN EXCHANGE for their right to strike.
The government hasn't met it's side of the deal, it's gone against the decision made by an independant organisation and in doing so will get everything it deserves.
Here are some facts and figures that helpfully make me look better
Number of Police Officers killed in the line of duty (murders, accidents) in the last 12 months: 10
Number of MPs killed in the line of duty in the last 12 months: 0
Number of assaults on Police Officers at work in 2006 (recorded): 60 per day
Number of assaults on MPs at work in 2006: 0 per day
Number of times per day Home Secretary is spat at, sworn at, told that a given person 'knows where you live' and is invited to reflect on the fact that all her immediate family may soon die of cancer: 0
Number of times per day average Police Officer is spat at, sworn at, told that a given person 'knows where you live' and is invited to reflect on the fact that all her immediate family may soon die of cancer: Fill in own score
Amount Jacqui Smith claimed in expenses in 2006 when she was Chief Whip: £158,313
Amount average Police Officer claims in expenses annually: £2.72 on mileage (if lucky) and cost of one doughnut
Amount an MP can take home in pay and expenses annually: £208,414
Amount a retiring MP can add in 'winding up allowance': £37,281
Amount an MP can claim in mileage for cycling (I kid you not): 20p per mile
e.t.c. e.t.c.
BUT if the government aren't keeping their side of the bargain, it's rather hard to expect the coppers to keep theirs.
Coppers shouldn't be allowed to strike, and the government should make sure this stays the case by keeping their side of the deal.
If the police went on strike, you'd notice the very serious consequences potentially very quickly. If our MPs went on strike, nobody would take a blind bit of notice. The country would still run, people would still turn up for their jobs, the economy would still function... I'd say it was actually a case for having FEWER of the leeching bastards. (the figure for Jacqui Smith's 2006 expenses as quoted earlier speaks for itself)
GPs get £100k!? Bloody hell, I thought they got about half that. I thought £100k was getting into surgeon territory. How much do surgeons get then?
The average GP earns 100K but don't forget that includes Private GP's based in London and celeb/royal GP's etc etc
To think average joe doctor up the road earns 100K is ridiculous
my GP gets £300k p.a. but employs another doctor and a nurse and two receptionists, so his take home pay will be significantly less than that.
SG - why the politician bashing? everyone in public services is underpaid by definition, including mps.
I'd argue there's slightly more chance of being seriously hurt as a C though. Think of it as 'danger pay'.
Coppers get paid much better than soldiers for example (a major bone of contentin in Northern Ireland) and have some pretty good overtime schemes (try asking your platoon sergeant for overtime and he'd piss himself laughing). They have better job security than MPs (and despite what the gutter press such as the Mail or Guardian says most MPs work bloody hard for their money).
Come to that MPs expenses isn't quiet like suggested. Jacqui's Smiths expenses will also be to pay for her staff for her job as an MP (which won't be done by Civil Servants). and unless you want to all MPs to come from London, she needs to travel to her constituency and run an office there. Its not like she's pocketing the cash to pay for a new Prada bag or something.
The police aren't terribly paid, by any stretch. But as they can't strike the Government should honour the pay deal. that seems to be the issue, not the amount they're paid...
I think MP expenses are a bit iffy, like you can buy second homes and some of it can come from expenses. But in a way it's a 'perk of the job' and being an MP is a 24/7 job. Imagine trying to be PM, the only time you have to yourself is when you're asleep. Breakfast with your kids and your advisors, then the driver takes you to the airport to greet the delegates from Kuala Lumpur who you need to memorise in the car on the way there, and so on.
A few hundred = less than 100
GPs are partners in small businesses, they decide their own salary from the income which the practice generates - partly through services it offers and partly through hitting various quality targets.
As for the Police, they earn enough but that isn't the point. The point is that a promise was made and it isn't being kept. That is a disgrace and all public officials should be sticking up for them... there but for the grace of god etc
MP's are the only people in public services who aren't underpaid!
It depends on what part of the body they aim for
I'll get my coat...:D
As for the idea of a strike, New Labour, being led by nutters with grandiose visions, has always been ignorant of history, so they might want to remember this. You do not insult those who you depend on to maintain your authority. Take Tsar Nicholas II in Russia back in 1917. When people started rebelling against his rule, the police and military backed him up, kept order. But eventually, they got fed up of the way he treated them, and they stopped taking his orders. When they stopped taking orders, he could no longer govern. (and does anyone suspect that the government's doing this as revenge for the police daring to investigate them AGAIN for financial irregularities?) Laughable considering the money that he's getting, isn't it? He gets his salary, and when he's finally kicked out of Number 10, he'll be on a £116,000 a year pension. This from the man who's destroyed the pensions system in this country, having deprived it of over £100billion in ten years thanks to his decisions. This from the man who's currently blocking a £725million package designed to help people who worked for a company that went bush. (I forget the name right this second) We shouldn't take any lectures about money from this bloated (in more ways than one) individual.
Noboddy can win with you though, you are so paranoid that any disagreement results in you crying and bandying 'bullying' around, but people aren't always going to agree with you, what do you suggest people who disagree with you do? Say nothing to not hurt your feelings? Maybe on the rest of the boards, but this is P&D!
A couple of point.
If you watched Gerry's programme last night then you would have heard him say, and seen him demonstrate, that NHS managers aren't "useless" but are hamstrung by the politicians. That was the over point of his whole programme FFS.
Secondaly, you should take most of what he said about "saving the NHS" with a large pinch of salt because he was only interested in "the hospital" which provides less that 20% of all the healthcare in that area. Hospitals aren;t the place that the NHS is in need of saving.
That is, however, a different thread.
I don't see anything wrong with salary of £100k a year considering their responsibilities... BUT that would be assuming you had the best people filling those positions and politics doesn't work like that - you have to rely on a decent person wanting to stand as an MP and then a decent person being elected, etc
And even if they are decent then their party policies might stop them doing as good a job as they can, etc
You'd never run a multi billion pound company the way you run a multi trillion pound country.
Don't forget how many years of study it takes to become one when you're NOT earning a penny. Forking out for school fee's - triple if you're not an EU student - rent, food, etc.
Becoming a GP in the first place is a long and hard road - so why not a good salary at the end of it.