Clicker,
Thanks for the info (couple of pages back) - a reasoned and informative response. Of course I understand that the police have increasing commitments with limited resources (who doesn't under this Govt?).
The fact still remains, however, that Chief Constables are given a rather frightenening degree of freedom to decide on policing priorities in their Force's patch, and an awful lot of them are getting it so, so wrong. Even those Force's who 'aim' to attend a reported burglary in "90 mins". Bottom line is, the fastest way to get a copper to you nowadays is to walk out onto the street and shout "Nigger!", "Paki!", or "Faggot!" at somebody - you will have somebody from the local "Hate Crimes" unit on your ass faster than greased weasel sh*t. And if you're quick enough, you can get in first and report your burglary / assault / vandalism before they subject you to a 4 hour lecture with menaces.
Add to that the fact that, unlike most countries, the great British Bobby still has an extraordinary amount of discretion to play with when deciding how to deal with an offence, and you can see how it's not all down to the Gov - not even close.
Hey Laarbruch - almost forgot you!
1: I hung around in Bahrain getting pissed on the taxpayers money, making the occasional twice fortnightly soiree into (safe as houses if not off camp) Kabul to get my medal, whilst moaning about the danger at 30,000 feet. (See Basrah)
2. I shat it at a UK base moaning about doing CCS.
3: I spent a month in Basrah (safe as houses if not off camp also) moaning about the mess facilities, and the danger of the ground to air threat just to get my medal. (Even though there are no credible enemy air forces or ground threat operating in any current theatre!)
Be VERY, VERY careful here my friend. I'm quite surprised you were allowed to get away with that comment.
Try telling the guys currently on det in Kandahar or Basrah about the "no credible enemy air forces or ground threat operating in any current theatre". You are obviously WELL out of the loop on current ops. Best not to comment on things you know nothing about, old boy.
16B