First our politicians give us ‘plastic police’, now it’s ‘sham soldiers’

When the big-spending, big wasting (in my opinion)�liar Gordon Brown didn’t want to pay for too many more real police, Labour came up with the idea of ‘plastic police’ – PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers). They’re the often fat ones in uniform you sometimes see waddling down your high street, rolls of blubber bulging out of their fine uniforms. They’re the ones who are afraid to go into a�foot or so�of water to save a drowning person or child as they feel they haven’t been trained to take such a huge risk. They’re the ones the yobs, drunks and thugs laugh at and insult with impunity as they know they’re powerless to do anything.

Now the Tories have taken�Labour’s idea one step further. While protecting their own jobs, huge salaries, expenses and pensions – the average MP costs us�over �300,000 a year, enough to pay for almost 20 squaddies – our leaders are to make drastic cuts of 20% (20,000 troops) in the army. But do not fear. The MoD will be doubling the size of the Territorial Army (TA), giving us many more�part-time, much cheaper�soldiers.

Whereas our ‘plastic police’ really are a complete waste of an awful lot of skin, I have nothing but admiration for the courage and self sacrifice of TA troops. But are 20,000 TA part-timers really going to be as effective as 20,000 fully trained soldiers? And hey, if we had 300 less MPs, we’d save enough money to pay for almost 6,000 full-time, fully trained soldiers. I’d rather have 6,000 full-time soldiers defending the country against some mad fundamentalist maniacs�than 300 lying, expenses-fiddling, thieving, self-serving, multi-millionaire�MPs.

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