The Government is planning to resurrect an alternative number to 999 that will charge members of the public 10p to report anti-social behaviour and non-emergency crimes to police.Wha..?
Are we sure this is an election year? Because normally, a tight hand would clamp down on anything that might
And this barmy scheme seems a little familiar, too:
The 101 number was introduced in 2006 to take pressure off the emergency line but was abandoned after pilot schemes showed it failed to significantly reduce the volume of 999 calls.Oh, well, now they have to pay to use it, I'm sure it'll be a rip-roaring success!
They've lost their minds, haven't they...? They haven't just jumped the shark, they've jumped an entire Seaworld full of great whites.
How many other crazy schemes can they come up with before even their own mothers wouldn't vote for them? As Blue Eyes points out, they are even employing people to lobby them for ever crazier policies.
Is anyone going to actually get a better service, say a response, if they have to pay for the call?
ReplyDeleteWill it get totally ignored unless it involves persecuting some innocent bystander dropping a fag end on the floor?
Nobody is going to pay twice for a service we don't get!
Will they have to put a warning at the start of a call in much the same way as you get if calling an 08XX number from a mobile?
ReplyDeleteI'd like to report my video camera stolen.
ReplyDeleteOK, from where did it get stolen?
The airport. I left it on a plane and when I went back on board to look it was gone
Me, (thinking that was a strange report because the airport was in another Police area an hours drive away) what is your address?
-- ------- ----- Overspillville.
The airport is nowhere near here neither is Overspillville. Why are you ringing me over here in Heathtown?
...you are the only one I can get through to.
What would have been a 5 minute job suddenly became a lot more involved when I had to ring the airport and the airline and the local Police who covered the area.
The phones get clogged up by Tracey reporting that Darren sent her an harassing text and Darren reporting that Tracey's is 'bang out of order' and 'doing my head in'
"Nobody is going to pay twice for a service we don't get!"
ReplyDeleteWell, with the 'death tax' we are looking at paying twice for social care in old age, and no-one's formed a mob with flaming torches and pitchforks to march on Parliament yet.
So I suspect they think they will get away with this too...
"Will they have to put a warning at the start of a call in much the same way as you get if calling an 08XX number from a mobile?"
That's an Ofcom requirement isn't it? I wonder if the government will grant itself some kind of exemption?
"The phones get clogged up by Tracey reporting that Darren sent her an harassing text and Darren reporting that Tracey's is 'bang out of order' and 'doing my head in'"
And they aren't going to be paying that 10p either. We will!