Dines' Days : The police deserve better

The police deserve better

THE actions of this Government are fast becoming irrational. Ministers are lurching from one crisis to another, from one strange decision to yet another.

Take the police pay review - and before the usual emails keep pinging my way this is not an anti Scottish rant.

The independent arbitration panel recommended that serving police officers should receive a 2.5% rise, backdated to September. In Scotland, where policing is a devolved issue, the executive has agreed to implement it in full, including backdating.

But in England and Wales, where the police are subject to the political control of the Home Secretary, she has decided not to backdate it, which in effect means the rise is only worth 1.9%.

Good luck to Scottish coppers. English and Welsh bobbies should be treated the same.

While it's true the difference is only about £200 a year for a constable, that is not the point. Arbitration replaces the right of the police to go on strike. A deal is a deal. Why should English and Welsh taxpayers fund a full pay rise for the Scots but not the English and Welsh?

Or put another way. Why should police officers in Gordon Brown's constituency get a bigger pay rise that those in Jacqui Smith's in the West Midlands or indeed where I live in Suffolk Coastal?

Smith says she decided to limit the rise to under 2% as part of the Government's pay restraint policy. But it's not her job to do the work of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. She has a duty of care to the police service, and she is failing in that duty.

There muat be no difference between the pay of an officer stationed at Berwick-on-Tweed or Carlisle, with are both in England, and North Berwick or Dumfries just across the border.

posted on 07 December 2007 18:41 by Graham Dines

Comments

06 January 2008 17:42 by John w

# re: The police deserve better

Why is it that just because the Police do not strike they should be given inflation busting pay rises.The days of strikes are almost over now thanks to the efforts of Mrs Thatcher and the well published efforts of the police themselves.To use the threat of strike albeit indirectly but the police are still using it,is exactly what the miners were doing when officers were employed to shall we say controll them..Are they to go down the same route as the firemen who have all but lost the respect of the public.
In this day when we all are told to have a variety of jobs during our working life the police officer who is not satisfied with his lot may consider doing something else,or are they immune to this also?
It goes without saying that we all need an efficient police force but not one that holds us all to ransom.
As for the Scottish argument it would only hold up if all Scottish English and Welsh conditions were to be the same especially for health and the care of the elderly.The Scots have the best of both worlds but the voters in England deserve what they get....