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January 21, 2004
The worm may be turning ....
A Chief Fire Officer in the UK has recently been found guilty of discrimnatory practice by an Industrial Tribunal. The case was brought by a Retained Fire Fighter who had applied for a permanent (Whole Time) post and had undergone and passed all the normal selection assessments. He was also fully operationally trained, yet he was not appointed. Instead, at least one woman (untrained and unable to pass the selection tests) and one man from an ethnic minority group (under 5' in height and also untrained) were - after some very dodgy manipulation of the selection tests and the results.
This case has repercussions for almost everyone - especially those large metropolitan fire and rescue services which now run training courses for "under represented groups" in how to pass the selection tests. It also has huge implications for anyone practicing any form of "Affirmitive Action" or "Positive Discrimination". Essentially, the door is now opened to almost every white male who is not given the post applied for if he is the best candidate on the selection criteria. Clearly there is a lesson here for the Politically Correct, but I doubt that they will heed it, they will instead, just be a bit more devious and less open about what they are doing. Until they kill someone.
What seems to have been lost on everyone, including the senior fire service "managers" as they now style themselves, is that this is a job that requires stamina, intelligence, physical strength and a mindset that is prepared to attempt the impossible. In this age of "health and safety" we now have officers who are terrified of making a decision to commit to fire fighting in case they are wrong - and are then prosecuted for doing their job. In some Brigades it has got to the ridiculous position of "making up" at every opportinuty so that the buck passes swiftly up the line. When you consider that these are also Brigades where their new civilian (and often female) managers demand that the training staff do not wear uniforms (they're a barrier to learning) or enforce any sort of discipline (it traumatises and encourages bullying) you have a situation developing where sooner rather than later something will happen that, if dealt with by old style types would have been swiftly controlled and argued about later, will get out of control and kill a lot of people.
The Fire and Rescue Service is there to protect lives, property and perform rescues. No I am not arguing for a fire appliance on every corner, I am arguing for a fully professional, properly trained and equipped service not used as a political pawn or an opportunity for social engineering. It is a service dedicated to protecting people. Yes, this requires a degree of team work (and that means a form of elitism) and it also requires dedication and discipline. It cannot entertain indiscipline, it cannot function if its command structure is riddled with ex-supermarket managers, and it will fail to deliver if it is not lead by inspired leadership.
At the moment it lacks that last in spades and there are too many politicians and civil servants interfering in operational matters of which they have absolutely no understanding. Watch this space for more litigation as the PC merchants dig in, and watch the press for news of increasing major losses and fire fighter deaths.
An extract from the news report that prompted this post is supplied through the link below.
Extracted from The Mail on Sunday, 18th Jan 2004.
A Fire Chief has been found guilty of hiring unfit and unqualified
firefighters to meet Government targets for women and ethnic minorities.
An employment tribunal ruled that Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service
deliberately and illegally discriminated against white male applicants
to increase the numbers of women and minority groups in the service.
Fitness and safety tests were made easier for women and ethnic
minorities putting the safety of the public at risk. Fire Chiefs
overlooked the skills and fitness of white men applying for the jobs by
ignoring the results of the selection tests and constantly changing the
selection criteria. Basic job specifications were changed for women and
ethnic minority candidates. They were also given the chance to practice
fitness and skill exercises on their own before test to improve their
scores, but white male applicants were not.
When women and ethnic minority candidates still failed the tests, the
scoring systems were changed. They were allowed to pass with scores
which gave white men 'failed' marks.
The above is extracted from the Mail on Sunday report.
It shows just what can, and does happen, when a public body goes
overboard with the Political correctness that has been introduced into
our services and overrides the basic needs of that service. Our Fire and Rescue Services are there to provide emergency protection to the public - not to provide "jobs for our supporters and lobbyists".
Racism, Ageism and Sexism can go both ways. Its time to put a stop to ALL forms of discrimination. Being caucasian, male and heterosexual is not a crime, much as some authorities seem to think it should be.
Posted by The Gray Monk at January 21, 2004 03:30 PM
Comments
They'll do to Fire And Rescue Service what they've done to health care !!
Posted by: MommaBear at January 23, 2004 02:31 AM
Hear hear...
Posted by: Val at January 23, 2004 01:12 PM
Had that problem in the U.S Navy, women were allowed more test failures before getting kicked out of tech schools then males. Considering that a male was required to maintain a grade of 80% on the test and females were only required to have a 70%, the deck was stack from the begining. But the men got thier revenge years later during the downsizing, men could request to end thier servcie early with no penelty. But when the female tried they were all denied because there still wasn't enough female tech's. You could hear the screams of discrimination for miles, but they fell on deaf ears.
Posted by: Matthew at January 23, 2004 02:02 PM
It is getting pretty dire, but it is also frankly insulting to those women (and there are a few) and memebrs from ethnic groups who have joined, worked through the system and risen to posts they fill very ably. They are now stigmatised as having been "given a soft ride." This is insulting and unfair, as all those I have had the privilege of knowing and working with until this trash took over, have been really top line. And damned nice people too.
Posted by: The Gray Monk at January 24, 2004 12:00 AM
Disgusting, but what can we expect from a government that is afraid to stand up for its indigenous people and bow to the politically correct brigade, just in case they get an unfavourable report in the press.
It's about time PC was seen for the sham it is, in the U.K. A licence to print money for the laywers, millions of pounds being made by law firms using the appeal process to keep failed asylum seekers in our overcrowded island. Cheers SN
Posted by: sn at February 17, 2004 11:25 PM