Without a doubt, our emergency services are world class ones with proud histories that form an important part of our national identity and our sense of daily security. Ambulance services of the NHS have, of course, been with us since 1948, The fire services have been a life-saving presence in Britain since the 19th Century and the police services of the UK have been with us, in one form or another, since the inception of the Bow Street Runners in the mid-18th century. Today's bodies represent something relatively different from their ancestors, however, and these services find themselves ever at the epicentre of the Labour-Conservative battle of macro-management vs. cuts to their funding respectively. Under the current Conservative-led Coalition all of our emergency services have seen drastic cuts to their budgets that have put immense strain on the good work they do.
First I feel I must inject some political reality in two equal measures. First of all, these cuts seem inevitable with the deficit and economic woes left by the Labour Party in 2010, and when the Conservatives outnumber the Liberal Democrats by more than 5:1 in the House of Commons, and the Tories have control of the Department of Health and the Home Office, fair-minded liberalism is far less likely to reach the emergency services. Furthermore, it seems less justified in its potential application when Labour's macro-management meant too many managers in our Hospitals and not enough front-line staff with a similar problematic approach in the Police services. Nonetheless, I feel this is one of the sole points upon which I must criticise my own party as I feel our stance on the Emergency (Public) Services is, at best, lukewarm. Sadly, in this case, our stance is very much representative of the public's view: that we are outstandingly grateful (in spirit) to our police, paramedics and firefighters but have no real drive to ensure that they have all the resources necessary to do the best job they possibly can, but rather give them "enough" to do a job that is "sufficient". It is a considerable step up from the Tory policy which seems to be to provide the services with the bare minimum they need to do an acceptable job, but seems a far way off Labour's championing of the public services. (Of course Labour seem ignorant of the fact that economic failure and mismanagement does not serve the emergency services well as they too have to suffer when the nation's budget is stretched.)
This is why I believe we need to take a firmer stand on the side of our public services that, with good financial backing and when provided with all the resources they need, can perform better than they do under the current circumstances under which they already give a stellar performance. The problem facing the emergency response services is predominantly a political one, however I believe there is a deep-seated 'social-contract' problem that underwrites it.
The British public are, on the whole, unlikely to slate their constables, paramedics and firefighters on the basis that they do jobs very few of us would happily do in their place and they operate around the clock for our safety. For the last half-century, at the least, this dedication and quality of service has spawned this concept in Britain of these men and women as somewhat "superhuman" and giving us a belief that they can overcome anything. The gratitude of the public is, effectively, a given, and this complacency gives rise to a nasty side-effect; we have come to expect far too much of our emergency services which is why when "Plebgate" broke out, people were shocked to find that corruption vs. corruption was not an alien concept to an officer of the Metropolitan police. Now, in Britain, we have this "superhero" problem that always turns up in some comic-book film sequel whereby the costumed hero, facing some personal crisis has shied away from his/her "duties" and when the world starts falling to pieces, everyone starts shouting "Where is (enter superhero here)?"
This could be a huge problem for Britain if we don't start backing our PCs, paramedics, nurses and firefighters with what they need, which is not a 'politicians-know-best' Labour-style top down over-management strategy. What is needed is something that sits incredibly well with Lib Dem ideology, which is for politicians to turn to these services and say "What do you need us to do?" and then, believe it or not, do it. Failure to do this and continuing down the current path could lead to a "ruler" moment. Think of our emergency services like a school shatterproof ruler, reliable and shatterproof, yet if we apply too much pressure at either end of the proverbial ruler, it may not shatter but it will certainly snap!
It must be remembered that John Maynard Keynes was a Liberal, and I believe, in essence, we need some "micro-Keynesianism" for our emergency services, investing in creating better results. For all those conservatives who would inevitably argue 'There is no direct financial return from these services, Keynesian policies would be fatal' there is one clear reply: "Nonsense!" Let us take policing as an example. Greater investment into our modern Bow Street Runners would bring crime down, including organised crime that seeks financial gain. The curtailing of such criminal activity would reduce the economic loss in black market goods and the burden on the NHS from drug addicts to name but a couple of examples. Society is made safer and in a way that makes long-term economic sense; in short we are given a Stronger Economy and a Fairer Society.
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