UK “Police warn of 'morale meltdown' if pay is cut as promised” Guardian

[jody]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/mar/02/police-anger-pay-cuts-theresa-may

Police organisations have reacted with anger to comments from the home secretary, Theresa May, that cuts in police pay and conditions are unavoidable, by warning it will trigger a "morale meltdown".

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The 140,000-strong police service in England and Wales, along with much of the rest of the public sector, already faces the prospect of a two-year pay freeze, and now fears cuts in overtime payments and pensions, and the abolition of a host of additional payments and bonuses.

Winsor's report next week is expected to propose the first radical overhaul of police pay and conditions for more than 30 years. It is widely acknowledged that pushing through controversial pay cuts at the same time as wide-ranging reforms, including the introduction of elected police commissioners, will require a large amount of political capital. More than 20,000 police marched on Westminster to demand the resignation of Jacqui Smith in 2008 when as home secretary she refused to backdate a police pay award.

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Downing Street considers police pay a good place to start making savings. The police face a 20% cut in their Whitehall funding over the next four years. The home secretary had told a Home Office meeting that pay restraint and pay reform had to form part of that package because 75% of the £11bn total budget went on staff costs.

When government uses its power to create a monopoly on a service it provides, then unilaterally establishes the price of the service, then forces every citizen to pay that price, and allows the government agents that provide that service to finance the political campaigns of elected officials with whom it will later negotiate the price of that service that voters will pay, then don’t be upset when the majority of voters finally understand and shout “I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!”

That’s a predecessor to voter revolution at the ballot box and I hope we Democrats win!