Home Secretary and the police.

Frosty relationship over pay

The relationship between Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and the police forces of England and Wales could hardly be any cooler after her decision, backed by Gordon Brown, NOT to backdate their pay award as recommended by the review body. Full payment will be made in stages and police consider that their pay is to be effectively cut. Scottish police will receive the pay rise in full and backdated, courtesy of the SNP administration of Alex Salmond.

The Home Secretary must have woken up to more than frosty weather this morning as the news was handed to her that police are meeting today to decide their next steps in the dispute, and many are calling for a change in the law which would allow the police to take industrial action, in the same manner as other public servants , however it is most unlikely that a Labour Party which has supported mass industrial action when in opposition would even consider supporting changing the laws when in government.

Police Minister Tony McNulty has confirmed that the government will not back down in the dispute, thus driving another wedge between the English and the Scots and heightening the perceptions that England and Wales subsidise the ambitions of the Scottish nation.

With the government pressing ahead with it’s anti-terror plans, early prisoner releases, and increased detention without charge the support of the police could be a vital filip, but it seems thay are uninterested in helping the moral of the forces of law and order south of the border!