Petition to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

In the UK any citizen has the right to create an online petition to the Prime Minister on a subject of importance to the petition creator and anyone else who may feel moved to support the aims and objectives of the said petition. A deadline for signatories is set and upon reaching that deadline the Prime Minister has undertaken to reply by e-mail to everyone who signed the petition. The one that has prompted me to post these details on my blog has been submitted by Nick Aldworth and concerns the interference by this Government in the provision of police pay, conditions of service and pensions. Whilst this primarily affects new recruits it can, and should be, perceived as the thin end of the wedge. How long will it be before our pensions are modified or diminished?

This is the actual wording of the petition;

Since 1979, the police have had an effective and fair means of negotiating their pay through the Edmund-Davies formula. This recognised the unique status of police officers and their inability to take industrial action to secure fair pay deals. The Home Office are now seeking to undermine this agreement and create disturbance and unrest in the police service.

The petition calls upon the Prime Minister to stop the Home Office from interfering in the negotiation of police pay. As of today there are 26,798 signatories and it is growing rapidly. The deadline for signatures is 3rd February 2008. I believe, most sincerely, that we retired officers owe it to our serving brothers and sisters to support them in their campaign to stop any further erosion of their pay and conditions of service. If you share my views I invite you to add your name to the list of signatories by clicking on the link below or copying and pasting this link into your browser. It requires a UK postcode, however if you're an expatriate, you're in an overseas territory, a Crown dependency or in the Armed Forces without a postcode, you can still vote by selecting from a list of appropriate options;

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Fair-Police-Pay