The Army are using a TA base near my home to cover SW London and last night I saw two Green Goddesses attending an alarm, or more accurately on their way to an alarm.
My god! They are ancient and incredibly slow. Going up a shallow hill they could not have been going faster than 25 mph, this was with blue lights flashing, police outriders and a navy team (presumably breathing apparatus) making up the convoy.
It really did look like something out of an Ealing comedy, but not funny.
I also think that there is a precedent for awarding a particular section of the public sector a larger than usual pay rise. Didn’t Mrs Thatcher greatly increase police salraies in the early 80s (this is from memory).
owlstretchingtime, you seem to have escaped the indoctrination…
Repeat after me “Tony Blair is God, he can do no wrong and will solve all problems in the world today if you vote for him and his successors perpetually.”
Granted it’s not snappy, but learn it or have yourself labelled a dark force
The one thing this is not about is party politics, but since you mention it, the firemen are complaining that they have fallen behind other public sector workers during the past 25 years, but 18 of those years were spent under Conservative administrations, and during that time there were frequent strikes in the public sector that shouldn’t need listing here.
The special pay deal for the police was worked out because the police were seen as a special case for entirely political reasons.
This is a classic case of the bind tories are in these days – having to oppose a “Labour” government as a matter of conscience, even when they apply a Thatcherite agenda. So you’re reduced to the bizarre hypocrisy of supporting a public sector union in a strike over pay. Does anybody here seriously believe that fire fighters’ pay would have been a priority for a government led by William Hague or Iain Duncan Smith? It certainly wasn’t under John Major or Margaret Thatcher.
Apart from the party name, is there any reason to believe Tony and his cronies are not Tories ?
I’ve seen some of the bollocks being bandied around as information, one of the worst is that firefighters are on around £6 per hour.
I earn pretty much the same as they do, I’m on just about £10 per hour.
Folk keep telling me how they would be worried about entering a burning building, I’ve been there, got the badge and I would point out that apart from not being able to see, it’s no big deal, keep to the walls and memorise the layout, houses especially have predictable layouts.
Firefighters on site have access to building plans, nowadays on laptops, companies are obliged to supply the fire brigades as part of their insurance conditions.
Firefighters have protective clothing, breathing appuratus and usually enough space to work in.
This is somewhat differant to Royal Navy types, the first response teams have none of this, just a couple of portable fire extinguishers and a portable floodlight, training and maybe a certain amount of madness.
The second response teams have all the good stuff.
I just cannot see £30k in a firefighter.
The most dangerous trades in the UK are the construction industries, agriculture, police and prisons.
Painfully true, and they wouldn’t be getting a sniff of 40% whether we had a Labour or Conservative government. I do believe that the fire fighters are worth (and will get) more than 11% though.
