A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
A missed opportunity for reform, Sean O'Neill - Police Federation
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noisiest vehicle <strong>for</strong> that protest. There are hundreds,<br />
maybe thousands, of cops on Twitter but their<br />
outpourings tend to be aggrieved, angry and<br />
bitterly personal rather than in<strong>for</strong>med and thoughtprovoking.<br />
That same surly attitude prevailed at <strong>Police</strong><br />
<strong>Federation</strong> conference in Bournemouth this spring<br />
when Theresa May took to the stage. She was<br />
jeered, ridiculed and booed. Now, I’ve got nothing<br />
against booing Government ministers – it always<br />
makes <strong>for</strong> good newspaper copy. But this was the<br />
<strong>Federation</strong>’s conference. The <strong>Federation</strong> invited<br />
Mrs May and let itself down. If the Fed did not<br />
want to hear what she had to say (and, let us face it,<br />
her message was entirely predictable) why bother<br />
inviting her? Whatever tiny reservations she might<br />
have harboured about appointing Tom Winsor as<br />
HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, they must<br />
surely have dissipated in that moment.<br />
The entire policing community greeted Winsor’s<br />
appointment as some terrible insult to the history<br />
of British public service. It has been variously<br />
depicted as part of some terrible Tory conspiracy (in<br />
which the Twittercops see a dodgy share-deal, G4S<br />
and the devil) or (if you are ACPO rank) a disaster<br />
because the Home Secretary will not be able to call<br />
on the new Chief Inspector <strong>for</strong> advice on<br />
operational policing.<br />
Personally, I think Winsor is nobody’s patsy. He<br />
is intelligent, hard working and independently<br />
minded – a man who caused ministers many<br />
headaches when he was the rail regulator. His pay<br />
re<strong>for</strong>ms will see officers who acquire specialist skills<br />
reaping benefits <strong>for</strong> their ability rather than length<br />
of service. Far from being a Tory stooge he was,<br />
until not very long ago, a card- carrying member of<br />
the Labour Party. And rather than take the job to<br />
line his pockets, he has taken a substantial pay cut<br />
to move from being a bigwig City lawyer to being,<br />
90 Upholding the Queen’s Peace