Have they got their priorities all wrong?

[anotheoldgit]

http://tinyurl.com/377lwbt

At a time when the police are facing massive budget cuts, which could mean a cut in officers on the beat, the top brass felt it necessary for a three-day exercise, involving hundreds of staff from four forces, at a cost of almost £1million.

The exercise in question, (no you are not reading it wrong) to prepare for a massive earthquake.

Over the past 1,036 years since records began in 974, only 11 people are known to have been killed by earthquakes in Britain.

Surely this money and the number of officers involved in the exercise, would be better deployed in an attempt to address the almost nightly stabbings in London alone?

[jackthehat]

It was a training exercise to discover and pass on skills and techniques..........
The scenarios themselves are unimportant.

[Ankou]

"A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said last night the exercise had provided an invaluable opportunity to receive specialist training, particularly in identifying bodies."

just because it hasn't happened, doesn;t mean it won't - it could even be a 9/11 scenario - and in theatevent i'd like to think they are prepared for it. £826k is peanuts it involved all the emergency services.

[anotheoldgit]

Ankou

/// It could even be a 9/11 scenario - and in that event I'd like to think they are prepared for it. £826k is peanuts it involved all the emergency services.///

I didn't think I would say this but I completely agree with you, although I don't know where you got the sum of £826k from, I thought it said £1million.

I was going to post my question as a conspiracy theory, that they were preparing for a British 9/11 scenario.

But knowing the flack this would have attracted I changed my mind.

[anotheoldgit]

/// "A Hampshire Constabulary spokesman said last night the exercise had provided an invaluable opportunity to receive specialist training, particularly in identifying bodies."///

Mmmmm! Identifying bodies, what does this mean?

That's a man, that's a woman, that's an adult, that's a child???

That's before they narrow it down even further, that's a white....., that's a black....., that's a tall ......., that's a short..... that's a thin.... that's a fat????

I always thought the only ways of positively identifying someone, would be by certain records e.g. Finger prints, DNA, teeth,. photograph.

That is not counting the most certain method, and that is being identified by someone who knows the person.

[Ankou]

no idea, maybe if you and i had gone on the course as well we would know.

the figure i quoted was from another report, you don't suppse £1mil sounds more sensational do yah ?

[jno]

£1 million is what is known as a 'headline figure' and is generally used by tabloid newspapers for any sum over 40p.

[rov1200]

I think they may have read James May book first. He offers advice from some unlikely scenarios in a factual way:

///The show is a spin-off from a new book May has written (astonishingly, his 12th). How to Land an A330 Airbus, and Other Vital Skills for the Modern Man does exactly what it says on the tin; it is one of those rare books that you can, and probably should, judge by its cover. So as well as informing 21st-century boys how to land huge planes, he also imparts such valuable advice as: how to invade and occupy the Isle of Wight, how to fight a duel, and how to prepare and eat your best friend (you go for the muscly areas, apparently, not the fat bits). There’s even a chapter that tells men how to play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (May studied music at Lancaster University).

Also in the book: how to deliver twins. Did he actually do this? “Well no, but I have been at a few births.” May, who lives with his partner, the dance critic Sarah Frater, has no children himself, but he once worked in a women’s hospital and, bored with the filing job, he asked to go and witness a few operations///