A force of one

The office was empty the other day but I found my attention being drawn continuously to the door of the boss. It was open a little bit wider than usual, often an indication that he wanted to know who was passing and my spidey senses were getting twitchy, detecting a strong strand of Weariness coming from within. He had been in conversation with those who live on the upper floors and an orange docket was on his desk.Not a good combination.

Unfortunately,today I was the only chicken in the coop.

One of the reason's my backwater was so bereft of officers is due to the fact that my part of the Metropolis had undergone a number of 'Strategic changes and ongoing evaluations' They turned out to be so 'ongoing' that morale had dropped lower than an Estate agents bonus prospects. People were avoiding the place, turning up briefly to collect paperwork and doing their enquiries on the hoof so to speak.
Moves off were discussed regularly but HR have been huffing and puffing about manpower staffing levels,'priority borough' policy and looking to 'avoid' people moving off.

Change in the Metropolis is invariably down to 3 factors once you whittle away the management speak.
1.New in post. Needs to make his /her mark
2.Been in post a fair bit....promotion board /SPP or equivalent bonus coming up
3.Reaction to statistics (usually flawed and out of date)which decrees that resources are not being applied properly.

Factor 3 often turns up in factors 1 and 2.

Two of the lads in the Team behind me talk so much about various and ingenuous ways to get over the wall that I have mentally named them the 'Tunnel kings'.

Any way,enough of my musings.I realise the boss was on his mobile to an old mate of his and he had walked to the far window to look out over the station Yard.

Time to make my move.

I grabbed my jacket and notebook and slipped quietly towards the corridor.
I glanced across. Still by the window? I was on my way....

'Dibble step in a minute and take a seat'
'D'oh' How did he do that?
Clearly his spidey senses were on heightened levels as well.

I turned back and sat down in the hot seat.He handed me the docket 'Those above want this looked at'
I flicked through..'Ahh eh...come on Guv I have only just kicked into touch the other pile of ..er..the other job gave me'
'Your the man for the job Dibble' he said holding my gaze long enough for me to know 'discussion' was over.

I trudged back to my desk and flicked through the file again.
Still,I thought to myself,you have got to stay positive. It could have been the Congolese old Bill asking for help with the British connection for this job

Flame grilled?

Good to see the lads and lasses of the MET getting stuck in over the decidedly long haul of the Olympic Torch via the streets of London to its destination...er .. Downing Street?
Fair play to the teams keeping up with the torch itself. I would be pulling up for a cough and a spit after about 4 miles myself.
For those on duty that would be a helluva haul.

Sadly despite our best efforts to keep the flame alive, it ends up the other side of the channel and apparently gets extinguished three times.

A previous post makes positive about French old bill response to disorder

However despite my disquiet I would like to point out that this has nothing to do with the protest. This is purely a French response to a European Commission directive 612233456A which dictates that there should not be a naked flame of this size if the surrounding crowd capacity exceeds the average of 32.7 Kilogramme per cubic metre.
OK, I cant be sure ...it might be Directive 612233456B

Fortunately the rank and file in MET don't care about such things and when we are given a job to do it gets done(Aka 'That's my flame fella don't try it').

The media are in a bit of a turmoil at the moment.Are we again the heavy handed foot soldiers of the oppressive state?

Was it the visit from China last time when there was such a furore over the police tactics that there was an enquiry? It was decided it was down to 'over zealous' actions of the junior ranks.....This was from those sitting on the summit of Mount Teflon.
I hope that the conclusions from this event are that those on the ground did what they had to do try and make this Government sponsored 'spectacular' work

We'll see.