The
Fire Brigades Union (FBU) have shown a change of tact this week in the build up
to their lobby of parliament with their 'They slash, you burn' campaign that
featured in a number of newspapers.
The
advert has caused ripples through various outlets, accusing the FBU of scare
mongering and preying on the fears of the public. Andrew Haldenby from the independent think
tank Reform has written a particularly vociferous article featured in the Telegraph
against what he calls a "misleading campaign" by the FBU challenging
the facts of their statements.
But
before we get into the facts as Mr Haldenby likes to claim, let us take a look
at Mr Haldenby and Reform itself.
Reform
was co-founded by Haldenby in 2001, he later became director in 2005. More
interestingly however and previously to his time with Reform, he worked at the
Centre for Policy Studies and the Conservative Party (1995-1997) where he
became head of the political section of the Conservative Research Department,
with the responsibility of briefing the Shadow Cabinet Minister and Leader for
key media interviews and appearances. Before even this latest outburst Haldenby
has been a regular mouth piece for political propaganda for the Conservatives.
Two previous articles that have featured in the last three years in The
Telegraph show that Haldenby knows not to bite the hand that feeds.
Of
the NHS and cuts to medicine for patients
Haldenby thought it would 'do' the NHS some good, adding this: "One NHS
doctor described the list to me as follows: “Nothing worrying there – most are
obscure drugs or very specialist or downright ridiculous – neutrogena, gluten
free pizza bases". Anyone with even shred of knowledge (or decency for
that matter) would have questioned the claim that a gluten free pizza base
should not be on the NHS prescription list. There are a section of our society
that suffer with something called Coeliac disease, which is an allergy to gluten
and wheat, that could lead to bowel cancer if the individual continues to eat
wheat based food. Gluten is basically the stuff that makes our bread chewy. At
£2.98 for a loaf of gluten free bread that tastes like cardboard, I am sure you
would appreciate a little help at the check out when food prices are already soaring beyond some
peoples means to cope.
In
Haldenby's other article, again in The Telegraph, he focused on the upcoming cuts prior to the last general election,
where he stuck his flag firmly in the camp of 'cuts not taxes' in true Tory
spirit.
He
said: "The politicians will inevitably sugar the pill by talking about a
reduction in "management" and "administration". In the past
two days, David Cameron and Gordon Brown have promised to "protect
front-line services", implying that it is managers, accountants,
secretaries and so on who face the axe.
"Yet
however appealing it sounds, this would be the wrong approach.
"The
waste in the public services lies, very largely, in that "front
line". The NHS will become more efficient only when doctors and nurses are
employed in different ways and its buildings used in different ways. A pledge
to protect the "front line" will just compound the current problems
this
kind of approach would make public services less efficient – which is why it
hasn't worked in the past".
So
there we have it, a brief history of Mr Haldenby and the rhetoric he sits
behind, in a newspaper that gives him the right platform and audience he
desires.
The
FBU and its members have long made the claim that to do their job both safely
and efficiently you need firefighters that are fully trained and fully equipped
on fire engines. The fact of the matter is the cuts for the fire service since
this unman dated government have been in office has been back loaded for the
upcoming two years. The first two years of the governments cuts were only a
small percentage of the proposed twenty five percent total by the government
but the net result of this so far is the loss of 1457 frontline firefighter
jobs across wholetime, retained and control. The potential cull of frontline
jobs in the coming two years based on these figures will leave services
decimated across the UK and severely handicap their resilience in dealing with
incidents.
This
may sound like some to now be the rhetoric and drum banging of 'the union' but
unfortunately for the cuts deniers this is a message that has been echoed by
the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA).
CFOA are
warning of 'a perfect storm' within the fire service as the
government pushes ahead with its cuts agenda in a recent publication. In it
they said: "That English FRSs are facing a 'perfect storm' of financial
pressures which, if not addressed, may lead to a drastic reduction in
firefighting capacity, increases in community risk, loss of vital prevention
work and a threat to maintaining national resilience. This comes at a time when
there is a high likelihood of an increase in demand for our prevention and
response services as a consequence of an gaining population and as deprivation
increases due to the economic recession". A damning report from a group
made up of Chief Fire Officers from across the UK and one that supports the
view and facts outlined by the FBU, which must be a first.
Still
the debate rages and the FBU advertising campaign has divided opinion, but at
least it has got people talking. The Department for Communities and Local
Government have waded in on the issue, supporting Mr Haldenby's claims that the
FBU are scare mongering with partisan campaigning.
A
spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said:
"The
FBU is wrong and trying to scare the public with its partisan campaigning. It
is disgraceful to suggest that sensible savings cannot be made in areas like
procurement, joint working and tackling outdated working practices.
“Their
wilful scare-mongering overlooks that fire-related deaths and arson have been
falling and continue to fall.
"Every
part of the public sector needs to play its part in cutting the deficit we have
inherited from the last Administration. Contrary to the FBU claims, we have
protected frontline uniformed services as much as possible. Fire and rescue
authorities only need to make savings of 2.2% of their spending in 2011-12 and
just 0.5% in 2012-13: there is significant scope to deliver these without
harming the quality and breadth of the service that the public
receive.” The omission here of course are the savings to made in 2013-14
but why would you arm the public with full facts?
The
statistics now being thrown around are arbitrary, as is always the case with
statistics, it depends on how you read and manipulate them.
The
previous twenty four months may well have shown a drop in arson fires but is
this because of the work done in prevention by firefighters and the support
departments or because of the record breaking rain that has occurred during the
holiday periods when most kids would have been out fire setting? No one set of
figures can be used to prove or disprove a theory without looking at all the
evidence at hand. Unfortunately this is not a scientific method or approach
used by partisan governments or Senior Mangers it should be added. The DCLG
claim that fire related deaths have been falling is also true, but again this
statement has to be taken in context. Fire deaths have steadily fallen over the
past thirty years, and yes firefighter personnel have also reduced in this
period, but this is not to say that there is no correlation between the number
of firefighters and the number of fire deaths. Key legislation has been
implemented in this time that has helped reduce fire deaths, namely the Furniture and Furnishings Regulations
1988, Health and Safety Legislation and the Health and Safety
Executive, all of which have been cut, compromised or relaxed.
Another
issue with the statement that fire deaths have reduced is again with how a
cause of death is established by a coroner.
Two
of examples are whereby a fire started by a child striking a match, resulting
in the death of his brother and mother was recorded as a malicious fire by the
coroner, another case where a man who had been drinking died as a result of
injuries received jumping out of a window with his home on fire.
Add
to this that the fire service statistics for rescues of members of the public
are no longer recorded properly and Freedom of Information requests are
required to collate the data, something that has created no end of work for the
FBU and is a scandal in itself. Since 2004 the Fire and Rescue Services
Act has made it a statutory duty for firefighters to rescue the public. This
has formed the basis for role maps (that are open to interpretation) and a
variety of incidents including (but not limited to) road traffic collisions and
water rescue that we attend if called in an emergency. Some managers would
have us do a lot more than this, some of which is clearly way outside our role
maps.
In
short accidental fire deaths represent a small percentage of the rescues
carried out daily across the UK by firefighters.
Another
omission from both Mr Haldenby and the DCLG on accidental fire deaths and the
decrease in the number of them is the correlating INCREASE in the number of
people dying when they do occur. Government statistics show that the number of
people dying when a fire does occur is increasing and unfortunately we have had
a number of high profile cases just this year that support
this evidence. Alongside this there has been a general increase in attendance
time of 20% as opposed to 10 years ago, which the government has blamed
congestion for, but this increase in attendance time has occurred at both day
and night attendance performance indicators. Is this due to the modernisation program
embarked upon by management across the UK? Who knows, but what is certain is
that some FRSs across the UK have dealt with this issue by increasing the
attendance times for incidents, meaning that you and I will have to wait longer
for a fire crew to turn up if we are ever in a situation unfortunate enough to
warrant dialing 999.
Once
again I would urge you to check those facts yourself. Ask a firefighter, go to
one of YOUR community fire stations and ask the question. Email your councillor
or why don't you contact the brigades themselves and see what they have to say.
Don't
believe the hype, the media is manipulating you. Ask more questions.
