PRP For The Old Bill? No Thanks!

The Daftest Idea I've Heard In A Long time award goes to the 'think-tank' that has recommended performance-related pay for the police.

PRP is a crap idea anyway - its criteria are necessarily arbitrary and/or unfair; workers who don't put in unpaid extra hours or kiss management arse don't get the dosh; it encourages division, bitching and back-stabbing amongst workers who would get a better deal if they stuck together; and in any case, we don't have performance-related bills or mortgages, do we?

But for the police - double bad. What will it be? A PRP bonus for the number of arrests or crimes solved? So the cops come upon a 'disturbance' - say a heated argument in public or a picket line - and with their eyes on the next pay packet, it is in their interests to nick everyone in sight. And if they haven't got enough collars for this month's target, then how about a trip to the local cruising ground to create some victimless crimes to bump up the figures? I could go on and on, but really the dangers of this should be obvious to everyone, let alone people awarding themselves the title 'think'-tank'.

And which 'tank' has come out with such nonsense? Why, it's the Institute for Public Policy Research, labelled by the press reports as a 'left-wing' body. Left-wing, my arse.