Misfits, Dad's Army Types et al...
Discussion
wildcat45 said:
ClaphamGT3 said:
Has it ever occurred to you that YOU are a member of the public, you pompous twerp.....
I don't want to criticise the guy as I really have no idea about what he does, however you point out something I have noticed in the past. Referring to members of the public as if they are not part of that group themselves. Unless you are Royalty or in the military you are a member of the public. That includes police, councils, coastguard and other civilian groups with official powers or authority over OTHER members of the public.Somebody was telling me recently about Radio Hams. There was some sort of event, all organised and risk assessed and some Hams turned up to "manage comms" before proceeding to get in the way, try to call the shots and generally bugger about.
Back to my OP. I forgot to mention another priceless individual. There had been brief mention as part of an overview that the police would have a Bronze Command on site. This was in a gathering of 100-plus people. The man is H. The organiser is O:
H: Will we get radios?
O: No.
H: Why not?
O: Your role won't require you to have one. The person supervising you all will have one.
H: If there's an incident, I'll need to be updating the Bronze, no the Gold Commander.
O: You won't.
H: But if there's an incident, how can I take charge if you won't give me the tools to do the job. I will need a radio with access to the police commanders. I need to be able to...
And so it went on until he fell. Silent. Then, a little later.
H: What about uniforms?
O: I was coming to that, we'll be giving you all Tee shirts.
H: What about a High-Viz jacket? Will there be badges? How will people - the general public, participants and the police be able to recognise my status if there aren't any badges?
So basically this inadequate bloke wanted to be a policeman.
To be clear, the volunteer role is to act as a friend to teams of participants. Many will be from overseas. The role is to pass on info from the organisers and make sure the participants are having their needs met.
I just thought it might make a nice few days break from the routine over the summer. A chance do something different and maybe learn some stuff from people from China, Kenya, Brasil or whatever while having fun. It seems instead I'll be in constant piss take mode doing my best to annoy pompous self important t
ts.The first mistake the organisers made was in giving him a radio. The second mistake they made was to give us one.
On the day of the event we entertained ourselves all day long by radioing Geoff with numerous, ever more creative crisis and absolutely pissing ourselves watching him scuttling across the field, weaving through the stalls and marquees to handle the problem.
It started off with simple issues such as asking him to bring a case of water to the furthest stall as someone had fainted. As the day progressed and we drank a few more ciders the radio messages became ever more creative including sending Geoff on a secret mission to find a pair of shoes for the mayor and bring them to him ASAP.
When we went to collect our payment the organisers gave us a load of extra beers and thanked us for our hard work while commenting that they probably would give out so many radios next summer.
nicanary said:
(Like the 4X4 response guys.....)
Yes a great idea ruined by tools, political infighting and at least one fraudster.I was actually a founder, but in my defence I will say that simply involved a bunch of off-roading mates responding to police requests for assistance by getting off our arses during the massive floods in 2007 self organising through word of mouth to report to various silver command requests to report to Police stations in and around Hull and Humberside.
It was post-flood that it all went wrong, the publicity caused a rush of what we called Ambulance Chasers and the first thing they usually asked is where do I get my blue lights?
I need to stop now, my bitterness is starting to show through.
Dr Jekyll said:
Volunteering for the right reasons is fine. But volunteer organisations by their very nature get infested with people who enjoy meetings for their own sake and therefore should never be put in charge of anything. Also the types who insist on 'taking charge' when everyone else is getting on perfectly well with doing something useful.
So?I am just glad there are people out there who are prepared to devote their time to help others for free.
Next time I give up my Boxing day to answer a callout to ferry district nurses through floodwater to their housebound patients, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I spend all day standing in the pouring rain, copping vile abuse from entitled members of the public who think they can ignore an approved road closure put in place for the safety of a St George's Day parade, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I'm running late for work, but stop to tow a broken down car off a dangerous busy road to a nearby carpark, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I spend a snowy Christmas sober, sleeping with one eye on my phone, I'll remember your kind words.
The next time a handful of people work tirelessly to extract thousands of cars from a rain-soaked festival, I'm sure they'd be overjoyed to hear your kind words.
But hey, what would I know? I'm only a member of a highly professional organisation, trained by time served off road instructors, that the normal emergency services often turn to for volunteer manpower, or logistical help in extreme circumstances.
[/quote]
the thing with this though, is all of it is irrelevant.
so what a district nurse doesn't have the right car: well surely to god in their profession, if they're in the middle of nowhere, they need to have any old 4 x 4 car to drive. Eg amongst other things, my company provides 24/7 care staff, i.e. a response team for about 7000 households with old/disabled people in them, plus sheltered housing scheme management. guess what, those staff drive skoda octavia scouts.
as for a load of morons who get themselves stuck, so what. they got stuck, boo hoo. Keep a big coat and some boots in yr car and walk home.
Next time I spend all day standing in the pouring rain, copping vile abuse from entitled members of the public who think they can ignore an approved road closure put in place for the safety of a St George's Day parade, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I'm running late for work, but stop to tow a broken down car off a dangerous busy road to a nearby carpark, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I spend a snowy Christmas sober, sleeping with one eye on my phone, I'll remember your kind words.
The next time a handful of people work tirelessly to extract thousands of cars from a rain-soaked festival, I'm sure they'd be overjoyed to hear your kind words.
But hey, what would I know? I'm only a member of a highly professional organisation, trained by time served off road instructors, that the normal emergency services often turn to for volunteer manpower, or logistical help in extreme circumstances.
[/quote]
the thing with this though, is all of it is irrelevant.
so what a district nurse doesn't have the right car: well surely to god in their profession, if they're in the middle of nowhere, they need to have any old 4 x 4 car to drive. Eg amongst other things, my company provides 24/7 care staff, i.e. a response team for about 7000 households with old/disabled people in them, plus sheltered housing scheme management. guess what, those staff drive skoda octavia scouts.
as for a load of morons who get themselves stuck, so what. they got stuck, boo hoo. Keep a big coat and some boots in yr car and walk home.
4x4Tyke said:
nicanary said:
(Like the 4X4 response guys.....)
Yes a great idea ruined by tools, political infighting and at least one fraudster.I was actually a founder, but in my defence I will say that simply involved a bunch of off-roading mates responding to police requests for assistance by getting off our arses during the massive floods in 2007 self organising through word of mouth to report to various silver command requests to report to Police stations in and around Hull and Humberside.
It was post-flood that it all went wrong, the publicity caused a rush of what we called Ambulance Chasers and the first thing they usually asked is where do I get my blue lights?
I need to stop now, my bitterness is starting to show through.
when i worked local to home i thought about helping the local group. the guy i spoke to was so up himself about what i had to adorn my car in to make sure it was recognised i decided not to, i also didn't really think i needed a winch and yes i do go offroad and greenlaning.
now i just help my friend who runs a home care company if i'm about and the weather is really bad. funnily enough i still get the carers through to the patients in snow etc, despite not having any flashing lights or orange and yellow striping on my car.
jesta1865 said:
i fully understand.
when i worked local to home i thought about helping the local group. the guy i spoke to was so up himself about what i had to adorn my car in to make sure it was recognised i decided not to, i also didn't really think i needed a winch and yes i do go offroad and greenlaning.
now i just help my friend who runs a home care company if i'm about and the weather is really bad. funnily enough i still get the carers through to the patients in snow etc, despite not having any flashing lights or orange and yellow striping on my car.
The most important piece of equipment is common-sense.when i worked local to home i thought about helping the local group. the guy i spoke to was so up himself about what i had to adorn my car in to make sure it was recognised i decided not to, i also didn't really think i needed a winch and yes i do go offroad and greenlaning.
now i just help my friend who runs a home care company if i'm about and the weather is really bad. funnily enough i still get the carers through to the patients in snow etc, despite not having any flashing lights or orange and yellow striping on my car.
Eric Mc said:
I hope the next time any of you are in some sort of roadside distress and a volunteer turns up to help you will have the courage of your convictions to tell them to their face that you don't avail of the services they provide.
Eric I don't think anyone is saying anything derogatory about volunteers, not that I have read anyway, I suspect everyone on here has a lot of respect for people giving up their time to help others, without looking to be awarded in anyway, be that monetarily or by status. The comments appear to be aimed at those people who volunteer with the sole aim of self-elevation, who believe that having a 4x4 or a hi-vis jacket is akin to putting on Superman's cape which somehow lifts them above the oy-polloy in terms of importance. We've all seen it.I recall we had a guy faint in our office; the head of security somehow seemed to believe he was an SAS commander barked into his radio "man down, man down" to much sniggering and looks of amusement.
Oldred_V8S said:
Eric Mc said:
I hope the next time any of you are in some sort of roadside distress and a volunteer turns up to help you will have the courage of your convictions to tell them to their face that you don't avail of the services they provide.
Eric I don't think anyone is saying anything derogatory about volunteers, not that I have read anyway, I suspect everyone on here has a lot of respect for people giving up their time to help others, without looking to be awarded in anyway, be that monetarily or by status. The comments appear to be aimed at those people who volunteer with the sole aim of self-elevation, who believe that having a 4x4 or a hi-vis jacket is akin to putting on Superman's cape which somehow lifts them above the oy-polloy in terms of importance. We've all seen it.I recall we had a guy faint in our office; the head of security somehow seemed to believe he was an SAS commander barked into his radio "man down, man down" to much sniggering and looks of amusement.
This is volunteering. It represents 99.9% of typical volunteers and everyone is immensely grateful for them:
This is the 0.1% being mocked here:
ChemicalChaos said:
Next time I give up my Boxing day to answer a callout to ferry district nurses through floodwater to their housebound patients, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I spend all day standing in the pouring rain, copping vile abuse from entitled members of the public who think they can ignore an approved road closure put in place for the safety of a St George's Day parade, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I'm running late for work, but stop to tow a broken down car off a dangerous busy road to a nearby carpark, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I spend a snowy Christmas sober, sleeping with one eye on my phone, I'll remember your kind words.
The next time a handful of people work tirelessly to extract thousands of cars from a rain-soaked festival, I'm sure they'd be overjoyed to hear your kind words.
But hey, what would I know? I'm only a member of a highly professional organisation, trained by time served off road instructors, that the normal emergency services often turn to for volunteer manpower, or logistical help in extreme circumstances.
I absolutely love this, it's made my week!Next time I spend all day standing in the pouring rain, copping vile abuse from entitled members of the public who think they can ignore an approved road closure put in place for the safety of a St George's Day parade, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I'm running late for work, but stop to tow a broken down car off a dangerous busy road to a nearby carpark, I'll remember your kind words.
Next time I spend a snowy Christmas sober, sleeping with one eye on my phone, I'll remember your kind words.
The next time a handful of people work tirelessly to extract thousands of cars from a rain-soaked festival, I'm sure they'd be overjoyed to hear your kind words.
But hey, what would I know? I'm only a member of a highly professional organisation, trained by time served off road instructors, that the normal emergency services often turn to for volunteer manpower, or logistical help in extreme circumstances.
You civvies don't know what it's like being part of THE PATROL. Imagine sleeping under your wagon on New Year's Eve, on hard routine because you never know what can and will happen. Have you ever tried to píss into a Tizer can? Do you know how hard it is staying out there on full alert, tensed like a panther ready to go and help someone before the police arrive and do it properly? Do you know what it's like crapping into a ziplok bag while you can see your wife and kids inside drinking pop and watching BGT? I'll tell you how it feels: lonely.
Lonely but it's a job that needs doing. Nobody else is out there doing it. Apart from the police. And the AA and RAC and GreenFlag and all those local recovery idiots who think they're so great with their council mandated recovery contracts and free hivizes. We're here in the front line and what thanks do we get for it? Nothing, that's what. Apart from once a year when me and all the other EMERGENCY RESCUE HEROES get together at a campsite in Skelmersdale and see who can dress the closest to that one off B2Z who drank the nuclear water. Now there's a proper bloke, he knows what we're doing and gets it. He's giving a speech at our next meeting. Well we think he is, Dave from the Lincolnshire branch knows a guy who knows his mum who is going to ask him next time he's back.
I need to see him anyway, see what he thinks is best of Spetznas or Gurkha webbing because I'm competing in the world paintball championship in Holland next year and am hoping to come away victorious.
Edited by benjj on Friday 13th May 10:44
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