The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief
9:20 am - June 11th 2012
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contribution by Karl Davis
As a train driver, I never thought I would be talking about parallels between railways and policing.
But last week the government decided that Tom Winsor was the best possible choice for the post of Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
This is despite the fact that, under the guiding force of their own hand, the government are overseeing a period of unparalleled instability, with root and branch reform of police pay and allowances, 20% cuts, and the operational car-crash that is the Police & Crime Commissioner.
Winsor is responsible for the controversial report into Police pay and conditions, whereby he essentially labelled the majority of officers ‘overpaid and underproductive’, attacking the custom of protecting Police from redundancy, and choosing to ignore the effects that their vital and dangerous job has on their personal lives and their families.
As rail regulator, he presided over one of the most ridiculous systems of penalty and fine attribution, whereby rail operators ended up having to employ more people to deal with arguing over who was responsible for delays to trains than they did to actually oversee the delivery of the service to the passenger!
His time as rail regulator was a display of inflexibility, undying servitude to the letter of an almost incomprehensible regulatory framework, and a missed opportunity to promote positive change in an industry massively in need of re-focussing towards the customers it serves, rather than the private fortunes it bankrolls.
The Winsor report was bashing conducted for the benefit of the right wing gutter press and Tory faithful, and was another missed opportunity.
Even the most short-sighted veteran of policing couldn’t deny that that the service would benefit from reform, provided that reform is concentrated on necessary areas, in a considered way that works, and that it is implemented in an atmosphere of consensus.
The inflammatory approach of government to the Police is an extension of their disdain for organised labour across the public sector.
Unions and the public have a duty to support disgruntled Police Officers on this. Whilst there is nothing wrong per se in utilising the innovative ideas of outsiders to improve any service or industry, those changes must be implemented democratically.
After all, if we do not object when the government ignore the principles of consent and cooperation when fundamentally changing the working lives of our police.
How can we then protest if those rank and file officers police us without the obligation that comes with applying those same values to their everyday work?
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Karl Davis is a train driver and trade union activist, having held a number of elected positions within the train driver’s union, ASLEF and the TUC. He blogs here
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Reader comments
The police work to undermine unions and the public, helping them win their protests merely means that when our protests come around they’ll have greater resources and morale with which to crack down on us. It’s their job. Solidarity with them is misguided.
cylux, the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire voted not to strike in the 84 strike, so the police in unbluocking rads and letting the working miners who voted a part of theri union to work, the police sided with those unions, and lots of police donated large amounts to charity during the miners strike.
Another day; another error of judgement.
@2 This would be the same police that baton charged striking miners? Yes?
Winsor is responsible for the controversial report into Police pay and conditions, whereby he essentially labelled the majority of officers ‘overpaid and underproductive’
And he was absolutely right.
There are only two categories of worker more overpaid and less productive than the police.
Firemen and train drivers.
So lets hope, once they have got rid of the restrictive working practices endemic in the police service, they take on ASLEF and the FBU next.
The police force isn’t a business nor should it be run like a business. Cheapness will come back to bite them on the bum like it has done with the railways and will do will the fire service and armed forces.
@ 5 pagar
“There are only two categories of worker more overpaid and less productive than the police.
Firemen and train drivers. ”
How did you go about calculating that, exactly?
The OP is part of an unreformed lazy greedy vested interest, so of course it’s in his benefit to support another vested interest which is claiming that nasty Tory reform oughtn’t apply to it. The rest of us could do with the coppers getting a toe up their backsides, and the Tube being automated.
The OP seems to forget the Conservative Party doesn’t take orders from trade unions. Aslef and the TUC are paying for policy in the Labour Party, not the Tories.
This piece is completely false, and should not have been published.
The regime of delay attribution and penalty schemes was introduced by the Major government as an integral part of rail privatisation in 1993. Winsor was appointed rail regulator in 1999.
Winsor’s history on the railways was to end the farcical disgrace that was Railtrack, and shepherd in the largely safe and effective regime under which the railways currently run. If there’s anyone in the post-1985 railway who counts as ‘hero’ rather than ‘villain’, Winsor is it. “Promoting positive change” was *exactly what he did*.
In 1999, British railways were dangerously unfit for purpose; by the time he left the role in 2005, they were safe and reliable. A sizeable part of the process that happened over that timeframe consisted of Winsor compelling the government to (grumpily) spend a lot of money on rectifiying the disastrous corner-cutting that had occurred under BR and Railtrack.
I’ve no idea whether he’ll be an effective police regulator, or whether his police report is a much of a whitewash as the cops seem to think it is. But this piece is an outrageous and stupid slur on his time at the ORR.
4, yes some of the yorkshire and Welsh miners who were blocking the roads of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire who had a right not to have their roads blocked, And good on them too for supplying a democracy for those who voted in their union ‘to work”
@ 9 tory
Vested interests! The Conservative party take their orders from trecherous bankers and big business, vested interests which have no allegience to this country whatsover! The trade unions representing six million of our population at least have some democratic legitimacy and claim on speaking for a substantail part of our population.
Surely the fact that Tom Winsor is a partner in Case & White, the law firm that advise G4S on police privatisation, and thus for every police privatisation that occurs he will get a substantial slice of cash, thus being in absolutely the most positive light a massive conflict of interest (and in any other light blatant corruption) is plenty of reasons not to appoint him Chief Inspector of Constabulary, who’s role will be to decide if police force’s are failing (and thus need to be privatised).
http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/winsor-hmic-a-simple-case-of-vested-interest/
Link, with additional evidence at the link. There is no question that this is factually accurate.
@10
I suggest you ask yourself what Tom Winsor was telling the Major Government when it drew up the Railways Act 1993 which introduced this regualtory scheme – indeed the whole madness that is Rail Privatisation.
IN other words, he may not have been in charge at the time, but he told them what to do…
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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Liberal Conspiracy
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/PKLGsLRX
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cutchswife
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/PXdcZRPD via @libcon
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Jason Brickley
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/kTHycegy
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Jo & Jaffa clancy
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/PKLGsLRX
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leftlinks
Liberal Conspiracy – The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/YNPCgoaC
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saramo
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/PKLGsLRX
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BevR
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/AJcqEUp5 via @libcon
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Janet Graham
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/PKLGsLRX
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mutley
MT @InspectorCorner: Perceptive Train Driver on #Winsor appointment as HMIC http://t.co/jJH5mvaF < view from the other side of the tracks
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Tracey Hammond
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/MMVDJ5iR via @libcon
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Lisa T
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/MMVDJ5iR via @libcon
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phil dilks
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/MMVDJ5iR via @libcon
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Zoe
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/MMVDJ5iR via @libcon
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Darren Harris
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/MMVDJ5iR via @libcon
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Darren Harris
MT @InspectorCorner: Perceptive Train Driver on #Winsor appointment as HMIC http://t.co/jJH5mvaF < view from the other side of the tracks
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Malcolm Cooper
Perceptive Train Driver on Tom #Windsor appointment as HMIC http://t.co/iMviajYI
Look forward to more silly targets -
Mightymorph
Perceptive Train Driver on Tom #Windsor appointment as HMIC http://t.co/iMviajYI
Look forward to more silly targets -
Jay Ones
Perceptive Train Driver on Tom #Windsor appointment as HMIC http://t.co/iMviajYI
Look forward to more silly targets -
Pricey
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/p1lGJSpw
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James Patrick
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/p1lGJSpw
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Katherine Smith
The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/p1lGJSpw
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NORBET
RT @libcon: The Conservatives will regret appointing Tom Winsor as police chief http://t.co/URMzPeYY
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