Cycling UK Forum

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-so ... e-17698865

The Harold Bird Show has reported that the new chief constable of South Yorkshire intends withdrawing police from uniform patrol and replacing them with PCSO's (whose title will be changed to blur the difference.)

I presume there's political manoeuvring going on, but I'm unsure what it is. Is it intended to provoke a protest to help in the fight against cuts, or an "eye-catching" government-led initiative which will lead to something similar everywhere? Perhaps there's no real plan at all.

Anyway, Sheffield MP and former Home Secretary, Blunkett, who introduced PCSO's is keen to distance himself from this:

Mr Blunkett said: "Community support officers are intended to be part of neighbourhood beat teams and not a replacement for them.

I believe you David, but thousands wouldn't.

Sir Robert Peel, largely credited with laying the foundations of the British police service is remembered in the name "bobbies" and to a much lesser extent "peelers." I've never heard anybody refer to a "dave" in this context, but somebody did coin the expression "Blunkett cover."

Anyway, careful where you ride your bikes in Sheffield: cycling on footpaths - illegal or not - is one of the few things they are presently empowered to deal with.

Classic modus operandi.

Introduce a change but call it by a different name and deny it happened. Then later, call it what it is and say this is how it has been in reality for ages.

Teachers replaced by assistants,
Privatised dentists, GPs,
Armed Police on the streets,
removal of free speech,
etc etc.

None of these things actually "happened" they just are.

meic wrote: ... Introduce a change but call it by a different name and deny it happened. Then later, call it what it is and say this is how it has been in reality for ages....

I'm sure you are right. My wife immediately remarked "That's how it's been around here for a long time" (and the new chief in S Yorks was previously the dep here.)

Well, they're on for a field day, then!

So many of the 'facilities' in Sheffield are shared use pavement style things. It's hard to tell where they start and stop. And, they sometimes stop a few yards from where the next begins. The result is that even experienced cyclists ride on the pavement, either unknowingly, or because they can't be bothered to dismount for a few steps when no one else is around.

The other day I was out and remarked "lot of Police about, whats going on?" Turned out it was strategic placement of coppers, cars and vans because of the Saints-Pompey match. We rarely see them about now, mostly PCSOs down here.

Oh and just a thought.. I know "peelers" is rarely used now, but didnt "keep 'em peeled" arise from the same..?

downfader wrote: but didnt "keep 'em peeled" arise from the same..?

The figurative sense of keeping alert, by removing any covering of the eye that might impede vision, seems to have appeared in the US about 1850.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kee1.htm

here's Shaw Taylor on the subject - he doesn't explain where he got it from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaw_Taylor

Cheers
OT I met Shaw Taylor once (when working at a hospital). Very nice man, what you would call a Gentleman.

meic spot on - what a world our children and grandchildren are going to live in. Add to the list the motor vehicle which has forced children indoors and killed any sense of adventure in them. Where do we go from here?

pga wrote:meic spot on - what a world our children and grandchildren are going to live in. Add to the list the motor vehicle which has forced children indoors and killed any sense of adventure in them. Where do we go from here?

Arab spring?