Report to the People
27th December 2004
Emergency Workers
So,
did you mange to consume your own bodyweight in mince pies?
Did you avoid a greeting match by remembering to get all the right
batteries for the kids’ toys? Did
your brother-in-law refrain from drinking every last drop of your decent whisky?
If
you answered “yes” to any of the above, I think you can safely say you’ve
had a successful Christmas.
Not
everyone, of course, is so lucky.
While
we tucked into our turkey or settled down in front of Harry Potter, hospital staff, the police, ambulance crews,
fire-fighters and others were on duty, keeping us safe.
And,
in return for forgoing the (albeit at times mixed) blessing of a family
Christmas, these essential workers receive our thanks and our admiration.
Or
so you’d think.
Despite
the sacrifices they make for us, some idiots choose to abuse emergency workers
– from drunks assaulting nurses in casualty units, to addicts robbing
ambulance crews for their drugs, to neds throwing bricks at fire-fighters.
Last
Wednesday, therefore, the Scottish Parliament passed the Emergency Workers Bill,
which makes it a specific, more serious, offence to assault or obstruct
emergency workers, or anyone helping them, when responding to an emergency.
Further, it will apply to the most at-risk workers at all times while on
duty.
Of
course everyone should be free from violence at work. But there is a case for special protection for the emergency
workers who regularly place themselves in life and death situations on our
behalf.
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