National Police Force

[Nick Noble]

An interesting piece on the BBC News site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-16745395

Prof Jim Hunter has said the SNP would have to show "convincing evidence" that centralisation of services would not be a feature of an independent Scotland, he was speaking in light of plans for a single Scottish police force which had given Highlanders and Islanders "grounds for concern".

In response Rob Gibson said a single force was not a sign of greater centralisation and he added that independence would lead to more local decision making.


Now I am not in favour of increased centralisation, I cannot see how we are going to be better policed by a single police force, nor can I see how it makes sense to place the power to appoint the police board in the hands of he Justice Secretary (whoever that may be at any particular time) the appointment of the Chief Constable then rests with the Police Board, who are appointed by the Justice secretary.

To me that smacks of a great deal of centralisation, and no local decision making.

I could even stomach the proposal if say each local authority had an appointee on the board, that at least would give some semblance of local accountability.

What does everyone else think?

[John Little]

A single force is not a sign of centralisation? Is that not a bit like saying black is white?

If you have a single force then you have a single bureaucracy, a single administration, a single command structure, a single Chief.

Of course a single force is a sign of greater centralisation.

How on earth could it not be?

[DeHaviLand]

"In response Rob Gibson said a single force was not a sign of greater centralisation" in other services. Selective reporting.

[John Little]

Selective reporting or illiteracy. The difference between the two statements could hardly be greater.

Who was the reporter?

At any rate I do not think that a single force is a good idea. You may gain in some rationalisation and expense and even efficiency.

But the price may be the creation of a vast, faceless thing that is more controlled by central government than accountable locally. A bit like the large nationalised corporations used to be. Opaque, arrogant and bureaucratic. I think British policing was better and more effective back when forces were controlled at Borough and County level; at least as far as ordinary folks were concerned.

Other countries have several forces with different responsibilities.

[DeHaviLand]

Selective reporting or illiteracy. The difference between the two statements could hardly be greater.

Who was the reporter?



Nick Noble!

[DeHaviLand]

This was also said by Rob Gibson about the same non-story "Mr Gibson added: "In a free Scotland we can reconfigure local government to become local again.
"In a small nation it would be foolish, with the geography that we have, to see Holyrood centralising."

So you can see from that that he was clearly meaning that other services would not be centralised. Its typical of the way that BBC Scotland reports on anything to do with the SNP. If you read their news reports carefully, you will see their clear anti-SNP agenda.

[John Little]

Yes - that's interesting. It may be wishful thinking but it would be nice to see the debate on Independence free of this sort of thing.

It's a serious matter and all sides in the debate should lay their stalls out fairly and squarely so that all can see the goods on display.

[Phill]

It's a serious matter and all sides in the debate should lay their stalls out fairly and squarely so that all can see the goods on display.Aye, but politico's tend not to do fair & square.

[ducati]

The Fire Service is already well down the road of amalgamating all the 'regional' services into one Scottish Fire Service.

[Gronnuck]

Strathclyde Police will no doubt welcome a single police service so they can spread the debt that they've been carrying for the last few years to the other services.
A single service is not going to save money. The single greatest cost in any police service is salaries, particularly the salaries and pensions of the highest ranks. At the end of any rationalisation there's a very good chance we'll still have eight Chief Constables and eight Assistant Chief Constables and just as many Deputy Chief Constables only they'll call them something else. These guys built their empires over many years and they're not going to give them up easily.
The Police Service might well be able to pool resources but with the manpower securely ensconced in their comfy offices when the cuts come it'll be the rank and file that will go; and we will be all the poorer for it.