During the course of a World Cup qualifier, Thierry Henry of France handled the football twice enabling him to successfully pass the ball across the face of the goal to a teammate who scored.  The consequence of this goal was that France qualified for the World Cup Finals in South Africa and the Republic of Ireland did not, causing much angst within their support.

Monsieur Henry has admitted that he did in fact handle the ball but did so unintentionally. Monsieur Henry is now advocating a replay, safe in the knowledge that there is not a snowballs chance in Hell that such a rematch will occur. You see France is a big noise in the football world; the ROI is not. You can rest assured that if an Irish hand had reversed the result the replay would have already taken place - again and again if need be to ensure the powers that be got their desired result.

Whilst the aforesaid is grossly unfair, most certainly not "sporting", no-one died as a result.

Scenario two.

You are the top man or woman in any political party in the British/Scottish political process. You advise the voters that you are tough on crime, the causes of crime and so on. You advise the general public that the Police are safe in your hands and that no other party has the interests of peoples' safety higher in their list of "top" priorities.

Sufficiently persuasive sound bites convince enough of the voting public to support you come election time.  They support you "safe" in the knowledge that their streets, communities and lives are going to be looked after.  After all you the (insert name of political party) have made promises that you will keep. After all you will abide by the rules of the game and participate accordingly.

Once in power the (insert name of political party) decides to change the rules a bit.  It becomes less clear in communicating its intentions and then advises that budgets for Policing are to be cut, not just a minor trim, but a severe dunt causing each and every Chief Constable to significantly review how they can maintain sufficient levels of Police.

When you think about both scenarios there are striking similarities. A nation has been cheated.  The powers that be have chosen not to do the right thing by the rules of their particular game to the detriment of those who deserve better.

The differences are also clear.  In one case the villain is readily and easily identified.  In the other it is less clear. In one case the outcome is not a matter of life and death.  The same cannot be said in the other.

Note: The views expressed in The Station Blog are written by neither a Federation representative nor an employee and are not necessarily those of the Joint Central Committee of the Scottish Police Federation.  If you want to comment on the content please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it