to expatbrit
my father is a firefighter.
"for every place in the service their are forty applicants"
by this logic then we shouldnt pay our polititians at all since they are massively outnumbered by potential applicants. Or why pay doctors ? since med schools around britian have massive compatition to get in leaving many out .
Firemen risk their lives, contribute 10 percent of their wages to their pensions to help improve them, and then get accused of having too large pensions.
the government paid a firm to decide on the level of pay they were entitled to. When the fire service paid THE SAME FIRM it was ridiculed.
The fire service is given NO goverment funding to attend road accidents. they simply use their fire budget and dont moan. They have NO extra funding to deal with terrorist actions, despite the fact that they will be some of the first people dealing with them.
Perhaps when you have helped the victims of the omagh bombings and countless other disasters survive, and cried yourself to sleep because people have died in your arms, you will be able to complain about their pay.
josephus