Cuts ,just had this sent from my cousin in Manchester .

My SiL is a firefighter. He has been in the service for almost 20 years now and has several promotions. His income is well below my DD who now works as an self employed consultant. He now has 2 different degrees ( photography & law) but chooses to work as a FF . However he has spoken of the dire cutbacks, nonsensical targets and policies not necessarily originating from the brigade HQ but as a direct result of gov. policy and action.

You're right gilly but at least that implies a degree of open-mindedness.

I think some of us are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea (politically speaking).

lemon sorry to burst the bubble of your vivid imagination but the only time I voted Labour was when Tony Blair was elected (and I have no intention of supporting Corbyn.)
One might even think that you jump to incorrect conclusions.
My political (note the small p) opinions are not just based on party politics.
The more I see entrenched right-wingers supporting this government 's shameful policies, the more I shall voice my disagreement.
Why should that come as a surprise or be open to criticism?

Oh mcem and Maizie you can’t wait for the Socialist Paradise that will arrive with Corbyn in number 10,
When there are droves of policemen on every corner and all is perfection.
Yes, of course our fire services and police forces are being run properly, they are prioritising and changing working practices.If your house is on fire they will be there.

Mothers from black communities

Where do you get this information from please?

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/05/police-stop-and-search-knife-crime

Police won’t stop and search black kids for fear of being racist. Meanwhile a woman has full police attention because someone beeped their horn at her in a petrol station.
Are we in some kind of parallel universe ?

Mr Khan is doing a sterling job isn’t he ?

That’s not fair ! Are you seriously saying that knife crime is not on the up ? It seems that every single day in the news there is yet another murder in London !

In a little Tory - blue world of her own maizie!!

The fire service is still being run properly, as is the police force.

What bl**dy planet are you living on, lemon?

Glad you are so easily amused oldbatty
The stop and search practice on grounds of ethnicity was stopped ( and I understand why) but many Mothers from black communities wish it had never done so.So many boys from African backgrounds and West Indian are in knife carrying gangs.

Knife crime is rising and it’s time that stop and search was back as it has risen since that was stopped

Hilarious

I've read many a right-wing post on GN defending appalling cuts and justifying disgraceful policies but this thread is approaching disgusting.
(By the way my father had a long and successful career in the Fire Service and he called Fire Engines machines!)

I often agree with you Iam but can’t on this ( we can agree to disagree)
The fire service is still being run properly, as is the police force.Fires are responded to and so is crime, priorities are put in place though, of course.
The deaths claimed by the union rep ( the article quoted by the OP) are not proven at all, and it’s easy to say things like he did, knowing a lot of people will all go ‘ooooh, that’s awful’.
Money was saved in all kinds of ways including work practices, but our fire service and our police are still working well.
Knife crime is rising and it’s time that stop and search was back as it has risen since that was stopped.
The cuts have impacted our public services, no doubt about that, but sensationalist articles citing death by fire are untrustworthy IMO.
Since the economy is improving then gradually public spending will start to rise in all areas.

Yes, the recorded crime rate had gone down so cuts were made accordingly. However - the crime rate has gone up again.

Years ago I recall that changes were made in the way that the police recorded crimes too.

That was under a different administration, so plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I think the story in the OP is three years old but has just been raised again online because no progress has been made and in fact, more cuts are planned.

I despair at the level of denial, dismissal and ridicule shown by some posters here to genuine concerns about the impact of cuts on our public services.

Thanks to crystal tips and granniesue for attempting to bring some serious balance here.

'A low priority crime' That's unbelievable.

I wish more money had been given to the police in the Budget, but even then it's about more than just numbers isn't it?

Surely the money could be found from somewhere. I suggested the foreign aid budget.

Prompted by my son and DH, I watched a program last night about the rising theft of keyless cars . The thieves buy special equipment cheaply off the internet and use it to duplicate the signal from your keyfob (usually stored inside the house) . It was quite horrific . One young father said the burglars came into his house while his children slept in their bed ! When called the police didn’t even turn up ! A spokeswoman for the police said they see this as a very low priority crime! I couldn’t believe my ears to be honest .

It has gillybob

We all like to think that, perish the thought, if we were burgled, the police would come running, but sadly I don't think that would happen.

What is really terrifying for us all is that the criminals are very well aware of the current situation.

Exactly what I mean JenniferEccles this country has gone bonkers !

Or how about that case of the police being called to attend to a 'hate crime' at a filling station.

A woman motorist beeped her horn at the customer ahead of her, as she was faffing about and holding the queue up.

The woman who was tooted was black. She got out of her car screaming abuse at the other woman, played the racist card of course, and stormed into the petrol station demanding the police be called for the supposed 'hate crime'

Somehow the police seemed to have the manpower to attend that non event.

I can’t remember which daft politician said rising crime had nothing to do with police numbers. Might as well have none at all by that logic. I’d rather have a police service that did respond to burglaries, fraud etc and were visible on the streets to deter street crime , and ambulances which didn’t take hours to arrive. Let’s hope those apologists for cuts to emergency services aren’t in need of one of them any time soon.

We live in very strange times . It seems that the Police are more likely to turn up if someone is called a name than if a house is burgled in the middle of the night .