Pleading Insanity

During the initial effulgence of the Osbornomic miracle, with the happy connivance of the Liberal Democrats and of a Home Secretary whose name escapes me for the moment, the Conservatives cleared away simply oodles of red tape and sacked simply oodles of unnecessary proles. Among these expendables were a good many police officers and back-room staff, yet there still remain a few delicate snowflakes who seem to think that being worked into a nervous breakdown is somehow bad for morale. Mental illness, always good for a snigger among the gleeful cripple-kickers of the Bullingdon Club, has become a matter of concern for the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales. Such lily-livered liberalism is hardly what England and Wales have a right to expect from what the late Head Boy once memorably characterised as A Force And Not A Service; and Nick Hurd, the Minister for Meritocratically Being the Son of a Former Minister, will be blithering into the breach to set the matter straight. His response is expected to be nothing less than the standard blah-and-rah about how much money the Government has been spending on this very issue, and how everyone just needs to buck up, pull themselves together, count their blessings and get on with hunting down the enemies of the people. It will certainly be a great comfort to the police superintendents of England and Wales to know that the Government has much the same degree of respect for them as it has for prison officers, NHS staff and teachers.