A colleague of mine Constable Stephen Oake gave his life in the execution of his duty.
My Force recommended him for a George Medal because of the circumstances.
He has been denied this as the act was apparently "not gallant enough." One wonders what you have to do?
The Prime Minister says he has nothing to do with the allocation of honours. Oh really?
Recently 3 young women officers have been shot in the line of duty, one of them fatally. All these officers were probationers who the police reformists think are paid too much.
It seems the time has come when the fact that I am willing to put myself between the criminal and the victim is worth nothing. One wonders why we continue to do it.
Your views welcome, thanks.
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Comments
Aren't military honours awarded in a different way to OBEs etc?
I wouldn't want to be a police officer and you have nothing but my admiration.
The guy does need to be honoured though, just not with that particular medal.
It is awful to hear about these shootings, I wish you well in your job - its a hard one to do.
One medal awarded to Police Officers for services to policing is the Queen's Police medal. The lower ranks hardly ever get awarded one -it does make me wonder sometimes. Personally I've never been a fan of the honours system but this one wasn't about me.
The last George cross was to another soldier in the most recent Gulf War - he pulled some lads out of a burning vehicle that was under fire, despite being seriously injured himself. The reason he didn't get the VC was because the VC has to be won 'under enemy fire'. In this case it was the Americans shooting up the vehicle.
The Queens Police medal is a joke , it hardly goes to the workers. I didn't see my hubby for nearly 3 weeks after July 7th bombings in London. The case of Stephen Oake was a little to close to home for my liking as hubby does the same.
The shooting of PC Sharon Beshenisky shook both of us up as I was initally went back to work after my two children and was uniform response like her. It got to a stage that I was not prepared to put my safety and life on the line when I had two little boys at home .
Unfortuately as we have no power to strike , which I probably wouldn't do anyway , the police can be in a very weak position. However who will Blair be looking to when the firemen go on strike again. !
The clue was there I think.
Anyway I don't really want to widen the debate.
A different topic really but the honours system in general is corrupt. It's pretty clear that a good way to win one is to make a financial contribution to a political party. Not only that but it reinforces the idea that the high earning high profile people are the ones worthy of reward - often they reached that position because of ambition and connections as much as any particular worthiness. Not that I've ever had the chance to put it into practice but I would never call someone by an honorary title unless I knew why they were awarded it and agreed it was deserved.
I'd like to think I would but sometimes it's a recognition of one individual where a whole team or workplace has done good things and it would be disrespectful to your colleagues to refuse
But as a republican I'd hate to have to kneel before any of that set of goons.
Only when a death occurs is it deemed news worthy, or when a public servant cocks up whether a police officer, social worker or nurse.
Public servant- servant is the right word -seen but not heard..
BR - I suppose it depends on what the honour is. I certainly wouldn't be kneeling before anyone to get one that's for sure. It's like a lot of things though - how many people say they don't believe in monarchy but they still stand up for the national anthem.
...I'd quite like an Oscar or a Tony though ...or even a Palm'D'Or
I wouldn't normally recommend this but you can show your support by visiting the Sun's website and registering your support.
Thanks to everyone