Somebody give that man a degree.

I understand that PC Ian Dibell intervened after seeing a gunman chasing a couple up his road.  Most of us would probably have run the other way. 

Under Tom Winsor's reforms, PC Dibell would be paid several thousand less if he joined the police nowadays. We don't yet know what previous career he had, what "qualifications" he held, what personal circumstances let him to the police.

We do know that Tom Winsor does not want "jobs for life".  He wants a more highly educated recruit, on a lower salary, carrying out only front-line duties requiring warranted powers.  An older man or women, with a previous career and perhaps a family to support, will not be attracted by Tom Winsor's pension offer, nor the lack of career progression. 

It is unlikely that these things would have stopped Ian Dibell from joining the police.  Nor prevented him running into the street to try to save lives.  But as a neighbourhood officer with ten years' service, he would have been paid less overall, and in the next few years would have had a decision to make about whether to keep working on the front-line into his sixties, or start planning a career change to secure a pension for his future.  If there's anything likely to instigate the "clock on, clock off" culture that Cameron bemoans, it's being underpaid and a lack of prospects.

If Cameron wants to keep seeing brave, mature men/women with life experience, putting themselves in the line of fire whether on or off-duty, he needs to look again at his plans.

For now, the story is about a brave individual, who lost his life trying to help others, who happened to be a police officer.

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'Diary of an On-Call Girl' is available in some bookstores and online.