Chief Constables attack dishonourable Jacqui Smith.

Some of the UK's top police chiefs have spoken out against the government’s decision not to honour the police pay arbitration. The Police Federation have called for the Home Secretary to resign, and they are to ballot their members on the right to strike. It's good to see 160 MPs are backing the police in their call for fair pay by calling on the government to reconsider its shameful decision.

The Chief Constables from Kent, North Wales, Devon & Cornwall and Cumbria have used words like: Cheated, mean, unnecessary, shabby, dishonourable and untrustworthy to describe the government’s behaviour. In fact the head copper in Cumbria, Craig Mackey refused to pass on Jacqui Smiths Christmas message to his officers. Personally I can't believe the cheeky cow has the neck to wish the police a merry Christmas. Talk about rubbing salt into the wound.

This is a showdown that will end in tears. Jacqui Smith will probably carry the can, but I have no doubt that she is only following Gordon Brown's orders. I've heard that to honour the pay arbitration the government would have to find £30m. This is just a drop in the ocean when you consider that the Department for Work and Pensions spent £11m on 1st class train tickets this year. And according to Iain Dale: Over the next seven years Britain will send £71 billion to Brussels - equivalent to £10.2 billion a year. And with us being the lowest recipient of EU spending, we will only see about half of that money come back to the UK.

Though the police deserve their pay rise, this is not about money, it is about the government honouring arbitration, it's about trust and it's about honesty. Unfortunately those attributes seem to be in very short supply inside No 10 Downing Street.

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