This is the official blog of ex-Sgt Ellie Bloggs. I was a real live police constable then sergeant for twelve years, on the real live front line of England. I'm now a real live non-police person. All the facts I recount are true, and are not secrets. If they don't want me blogging about it, they shouldn't do it. PS If you don't pay tax, you don't (or didn't) pay my salary.


(All proceeds from Google Ads will be donated to the Police Roll of Honour Trust)

Thursday, April 08, 2010

May the Sickth

As usual the media machine is fully in motion after the announcement of the upcoming election. Hardcore election politics has very little to do with the work of a front-line police officer. It's safe to say we all agree the current government has undermined, diminished and degraded the role of constable to within an inch of our sworn status. It's safe to say the next government will do nothing to reverse it.

The Election General will have three main effects on my life:
  1. I will be unable to take leave on May 6th.
  2. I will probably not finish work in time to vote on May 6th.
  3. I will start to resent and loathe those people who are off work and voting.
In Blandshire, morale is rock bottom. In fact, we've hit the bottom so hard that pieces of us are spread all over our two counties.

Thank goodness for criminals and the quirky hard-working public they target. If it weren't for good honest police work, I wouldn't bother turning up.

The Election? I can take it or leave it.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Diary of an On-Call Girl' is available in some bookstores and online.

12 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why not apply for a postal vote at your local Town Hall? Then you will be able to cast your vote early.

08 April, 2010 21:30

 
Anonymous Lance Manley said...

I'm on postal vote from Italy, which has a notoriously bad mail service. The forms are sent out April 26th First Class leaving 10 days to get the form here, me cross it, sign it and then get it back.

So it looks like you're not the only one who will be hating those who can vote.

09 April, 2010 06:30

 
Anonymous CFM said...

Hello Ellie

can you do a poll of how many officers think they will not get to vote because of working on May 6th? If this is widespread it should be addressed and changed!!

09 April, 2010 09:24

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's not too late to register for a postal vote, that way you get your ballot paper a week before the election, and your voting is all done way before May 6th...

09 April, 2010 12:28

 
Blogger lizw said...

I know it's not quite the same, but you know you can get a postal vote or a proxy vote, right?

09 April, 2010 15:45

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

postal vote

09 April, 2010 15:45

 
Blogger PC Bloggs said...

Yes, postal vote is great, except that you have to KNOW you won't get to vote and organise it in advance. If your shift is suddenly changed last minute, or you end up doing unexpected overtime, you may not have thought it would be a problem. It's no fun if you are actual able to vote but can't because you've already done a postal vote.

09 April, 2010 17:54

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Amazingly enough, I already have some days off over the election date, booked in advance on a guess which proved correct. This means that I will vote, but I will choose the craziest candidate from the list presented to me on the day, since anything else is a waste of time. I will then spend all night watching the Channel 4 comedy election night special and have the next day off too! Happy Days!

09 April, 2010 18:34

 
Blogger Metcountymounty said...

How about an amendment to number three - I will start to resent and loathe those people who are off work and NOT voting.

Especially if they bitch and moan about anything to do with politics or policing later on. If you have the chance to vote and choose not to, then you should lose all right or expectation to complain about anything that you had the chance to influence and couldn't be bothered.

A 'none of the above' option might help, but while there isn't one; vote or stop bloody whinging.

10 April, 2010 23:08

 
Anonymous NottsSarge said...

You'd be better off amending (3) to - I will continue to resent and loathe those people who don't work, won't work, have no intention of working yet whose vote carries as much influence as my own. Democracy eh?

I have always found it quite amusing to visit Polling Station after Polling Station, avoiding any contact with the lurking candidates but having a nice cup of non-partisan tea with the overseers.

12 April, 2010 18:18

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You tell them MCM. One chance to get rid of NuLab and all their box ticking nonsense.

Could you be relied upon MCM, to round up any "can't be bothered's" and frog march them to the polling station with instructions for them to only vote for decent and honest political candidates?

In plain clothes of course, as the political "rules" say that you/we cannot be seen to be "politically active".

But....does that actually apply if the politicians are lying, deceptive crooks? I don't think so, and in IMHO you/we would be doing your/our duty and a great service to the public, if you/we were instrumental in sweeping away the political crooks who have been and are conning the public.

Just a thought......Thinking is not a crime, [yet]is it?

MRO

13 April, 2010 01:22

 
Blogger Defence Brief said...

I've said for years that Labour have been an ultra socalist government. True, they may have made the richest richer (but then again none of the ruling elite or their friends in the Soviet Union were hard up); but their real acheivement is that workers are ever more harmoginsed. Lawyers (legal aid ones anyway), police, doctors and many others are trodden underfoot by a sea of government crap to the point that its difficult to distinguish one from the other... we all have perforance targets in one way or another, all have to reduce spending while doing more, all are shown little or no respect for their knowledge of their specalist fields by government. Far from being fat cats, most professionals earn the same or even less than those who we typically think of as the working class.

True socalism is alive and well in Britain.

15 April, 2010 15:22

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

 

View My Stats
eXTReMe Tracker