Many police officers may begin to understand what ‘economics’ means from today. It means working for Chinese wages or being replaced (outsourced) by the likes of my Zambian trained Laotian Guard who work for a couple of bowls of rice a day and shelter. Our police have been overpaid since the Thatcher gold-seam when they were needed to cosh miners and could pay off the mortgage through overtime. Of course, ‘overpaid’ is a tricky term when one considers bankster bonuses or compares the Re4sponse (not a typo – you’ll be working for Group 4 soon) officer’s lot with the work done by those in suits I mix with carrying warrant cards, but somehow not doing police work.
What happened in our factories and mines is now coming to the police. The question not asked is why this has taken so long and who is responsible for that – the answer being the ACPO ranks. In the factory model they would be delayered and sent packing because they have failed for so long and would not be seen fit to use the new broom. They have also failed to do anything to press for substantial changes in administrative law and the rest of the CJS.
There is little doubt we can recruit cheap cops and people with specialist skills, because the rest of the economy is well-shafted. Muppets have degrees these days, so increasing the qualification threshold will be easy too, though I doubt the IQ average will shift much on account of this. And cops will now be subject to fat notices and removal if their health fails, much like Boxer in Animal Farm when his health failed. All long overdue – so get ready to get down to Gadget-country job centres and take the jobs the Swampees refuse in droves. This is what you turkeys voted for a couple of Xmas back. The vibrant, private sector cavalry economy. It would be here even if we’d voted Nulabour in droves – our votes don’t count anyway. I didn’t bother.
Asked to cost police pay against the labour market, I came up with a £15K basic on probation, rising to about £25K at the two-year mark – the latter only for those working shifts. I don’t mean this is what I’d want to pay – but it is the comparator I’d stick with as a manpower services consultant. There is no competition for labour and a glut in this market. Cops were as badly paid as this until about 1974 when the labour market was tighter. You can get academics for around £25K.
I doubt Winsor goes far enough for Gadget’s ‘dark lady’. She should be interested in the unit costs of police processes and bringing these down to manufacturing levels. I’m sick and tired of efficiency in these terms. It’s why Apple has so much offshore money and manufactures in dangerous factories in China – even using a nerve agent to clean its i-Phone screens because it’s quicker. We are dumb to believe any of it – but until now cops have been so dumb they haven’t seen it coming their way and haven’t cared at all seeing it happen to others,
We have no politics of anything else, so if you want to do anything about it, you’ll have to threaten strike action and then do it. The standard response in industry is to declare the strikers in breach of contract and replace them. There is no right to strike in the UK. Hard times to come and not just in the annual fitness tests! My best wishes and sympathy – but we all know where that lies in the dictionary.
I’m surprised the Home Secretary hasn’t prepared better. I’d have recruited some large lads for weekend duty by now, in order to have a black-leg backup. If you aren’t familiar with Winsor-type plans, there is always another one to come. This one will be the most acceptable. Once they have cheaper recruitment under way, they will expand into getting rid of more costly workers through redundancy. No one cares I have years of varied experience these days because they can get my subjects taught for buttons by someone with a PhD who has never seen a factory – but then, they are teaching people who will never see one either. You will find they don’t really care about your long-honed skills either.
Police are about to be the latest victims on the war on labour. The stupid thing is we could all get decent living wages. I’m off abroad. I’m too unreliable to remember to switch the lights off.
Allcoppedout's Blog 