Don’t Let Apathy And Despondency Win

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Those of you who know me in my real life will know that I have never backed away from a fight with Management, even when it was blindingly obvious that I was destined to lose.  When I have seen injustice and unfairness or something else that wasn’t quite right, particularly in my latter years, I challenged it.  Mainly I lost, they were the bosses and I was not, but at least they knew that I had noticed it and challenged it.

Now that I’m retired I can challenge things as much as I like, although the Management have absolutely no reason to listen to me at all any more, but I would feel like I had given in if I didn’t pop up and challenge things that simply aren’t right.

Earlier I promoted Chris Hobbs’ letter to Theresa May, which whilst I accept she’s very unlike to read, let alone take any notice of, I thought it was a powerful letter, and completely fell in line with my ethos of not leaving things unchallenged.

In response I received comments such as;

This letter is a waste of time, she will not even read this let alone take any of the issue mentioned in it on board. We know exactly where we stand with her, what really hacks me off is the fact that yet again she is even attending the conference. How many time do the Fed JEC need to get kicked in the teeth by this women to realise that letters, meetings, and marches around London dont mean squat. We need a massive change at the top of the Fed as those that are there now have shown that they don’t have what it takes to fight this fight. Maybe not everyone’s view but its mine.

and

I dont think that sending letters is the way to fight as she has shown utter contempt for the Fed and its member and a letter, no matter how well written will have no effect whatsoever. The Fed Jec need to regain the trust of it members in order to be able to fight…a trust which I think has been lost.

and

A good letter but I am afraid that the present government have no interest in the police other than a source of saving public money and the being able to criticise when things go wrong. Expect more areas to be privatised, more cuts, more demoralised staff, increased sickness for which we will also be criticised, greater pressure on management to deliver more with less, and greater pressure on the front line staff. I wish every serving police officer and member of support staff the bet, you continue to do a great job in incredibly difficult circumstances. I am glad that I cannow look in from the outside.

and

The present government are committed to dissolution of the police service. Their main strategy is to render the service unfit for purpose and make it desirable that it be fully replaced. The tactics are to cut funding, damage its efficiency, cause poor performance and thereby reduce professional credibility. Why? Well to take it out of the public sector and put it on a paying basis. Follow the money.

Whilst I couldn’t honestly disagree with the sentiments of any of those responses, is the answer then to just roll over and have our bellies rubbed, or maybe slit wide open?  Just because The Home Secretary is Cruella and we are just mere plebs, does that mean that we can’t challenge her edicts and diktats?  If we don’t who will?  The Press aren’t about to jump on any bandwagon against her policies just at the moment.

Make no mistake, the changes she and Camoron and Milky have brought about in the name of Austerity and Reform cannot be reversed.  I’ve lost track of the number of Police Stations across the UK that have been closed and sold off, I seem to remember reading a figure of 63 for London alone.  If she suddenly had a change of heart and changed her mind tomorrow, those Police Stations are GONE, they cannot be re-iopened and there is no money left to buy or build new ones.  As I said, can’t be reversed.

This evening sees the latest doom and gloom proposals, from the Met, in the Standard.

Scotland Yard is planning to sell off more police stations and buildings in London as the force faces a further £800 million in budget cuts.

Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe warned the Met faces a “serious challenge” to find further savings in the next round of Government cuts, which he said would inevitably mean fewer officers and buildings.

He raised the prospect of a slimmed-down police force operating from as few as 100 buildings in the capital.

Is this what we want?

Is this what the Tory Voters really had in mind and supported?

If so, be very careful what you wish for because you might just get it, and it’s looking ever more likely.

As for me, I’ll just keep banging my head against the proverbial brick wall until I knock myself out because I can’t just sit back and say nothing, but don’t have the connections to get my views well known.  So if you suddenly stop hearing from me I’ve probably been carted off somewhere and shut in a darkened room.

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6 thoughts on “Don’t Let Apathy And Despondency Win”

  1. Alan,

    I share your despondency about the stance taken by the Home Secretary and to a lesser extent the national Police Federation.

    Even without the (arguable) need for reducing public spending enough people in the Conservative Party long ago changed their position on policing, some for ideological reasons, a good number after encountering the police – invariably in London, not where they lived and many that the police were ‘the last great unreformed public service’.

    We simply did not see this coming in such strength.

    What is remarkable, even after allowing for party loyalty, not one Conservative MP or councillor has publicly challenged what has happen. Let alone what may happen soon.

    1. retiredandangry

      Tory MPs seem unable to say anything until they’re told what to say by the Cabinet

    2. See the polfed article titled “Think tank reform say ‘more could still be done for ‘less’.
      Tells me all l need to know.

      Charlotte Pickles congratulated the service on doing a ‘tremendous job’ in delivering efficiencies in the last five years, but added ‘more could still be done for less’, at this year’s annual Federation conference.

      In another article “PCC asks who will stop London burning” as police are cut

      Charlotte Pickles, senior research director with Reform, said references to being kicked by the government were ‘not a helpful contribution to the conversation.

      Not helpful but bloody well true. You see they want us to just roll over and not make a fuss and not to tell the public what’s going on.

      1. retiredandangry

        Hi,

        Thank you. It’s hardly surprising that the lady from Reform Think Tank should use language such as that, as Nick Herbert was one of their founding members, hardly independent. And, yes, I agree, absolutely true regardless of what the good lady may think

  2. One of your commentors says, “I am afraid that the present government have no interest in the police other than a source of saving public money”.
    Oh but they HAVE an interest in them! AND great need for them. They are needed to carry out the physical work of silencing whistle-blowers, required of them by that other arm of The Forces of Law & Order, the Legal/judicial Mafia! Why else would a whistle-blowing WW2 veteran be forced to flee the land of my birth for safety in Ireland?

    1. Welcome to my new site Norman, good to see you. Whistleblowers are never going to be popular, particularly if they live on a nuclear submarine

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