All that is needed for the police to get the FULL payrise is for the armed officers guarding the High and Mighty (Brown and his ilk) is to hand in their firearms certificates.
It would frighten the life out of people like Hazel Blears when they knew they had to go into a Kebab house without an armed Copper.
If the government puts in place a pay board and the cops stick to its recommendation then so should Government. NOW the government cannot be trusted even to keep their protectors on side who can trust them ?

Howard, Basildon, England

Did the protesting police pay for their travel to London?
They don't usually pay to use public transport, but rarely declare this as a taxable benefit.

Chris Mullarkey, Leeds,

The police get paid far more than our troops and our infantry go through a hell of a lot more than the police! There is a 1 in 12 chance of death in the army. I think there should be a larger focus on pay for the infantry, the police get enough anyway

C, nottingham,

J Roberts, Manchester, UK, if you don't engage in CRIMINAL behaviour, you will NEVER get fined. If you've had one, you deserve it! You've got a chip on your shoulder - get over it!

James, Preston, UK

Police who wade in and sort out yobs, catch thieves, and risk their own lives for others demand our support and respect. Pay them the money as agreed.

Police who are well paid for filling out forms are lucky their jobs have not already been outsourced to India, and deserve no special treatment. Pay them whatever you can get away with.

I think the most powerful law is the law of unintended consequences By well meaning MPs). It's about time the country had a debate about what we expect from our Police and what needs to be done, or undone, to fulfil our expectations.

A.C. Harper, Leicester,

Give the Police the pay rate they deserve. About 12 thousand a year should cover it. Sorry plod but looking at the crime figures you don't have my sympathy.

Cromwell, Leeds, England

Recommendation 61 of the McPherson report was a big mistake resulting in less police intervention and more weapon carrying youths. Not just opinion, it is obvious. PACE has been shown to make the lives of front line officers so burdened with paperwork and restricting, thus rendering those officers almost powerless in comparison to other Police in Europe. And as well as all the above, the actual numbers of Police OFFICERS are far too low. Hence why you rarely get your calls answered. (Note the term used across the despatch box, is just "police" and that includes civilians) So how do you build up the numbers? With cheap and powerless PCSO's; most of whom are abused on a daily basis from those they are meant to "police" and are powerless to do anything. And what do some cynics do? Blame the police themselves.
How many of those attending today had not slept from a night shift?
Imagine how the Liverpool strike of 1919 will look in 2008?
We need them! I know, I am a prosecutor.

James, Birkhampstead, Buckinghamshire

Police who wade in and sort out yobs, catch thieves, and risk their own lives for others demand our support and respect. Pay them the money as agreed.

Police who are well paid for filling out forms are lucky their jobs have not already been outsourced to India, and deserve no special treatment. Pay them whatever you can get away with.

I think the most powerful law is the law of unintended consequences (by well meaning MPs). It's about time the country had a debate about what we expect from our Police and what needs to be done, or undone, to fulfil our expectations.

A.C. Harper, Leicester,

Dai from Stoke clearly thinks that all of those police officers who are currently in their 20s and 30s were baton-charging miners back in 1984.

He's the sort of person who votes Labour. Speaks volumes, doesn't it?

Matt, Bristol,

Having just been burgled I found the local police responded more quickly than I expected - 10 minutes. They won't get the burglars but then half the problem relates to the law which appears to support criminals; the old EU Human Rights. The EU and the present UK puppet government lead by Brown do nothing to ensure the protection of the Human Rights of law-abiding subjects and citizens, only criminals!

M. Cawdery, Portadown, uk

Police who wade in and sort out yobs, catch thieves, and risk their own lives for others demand our support and respect. Pay them the money as agreed.

Police who are well paid for filling out forms are lucky their jobs have not already been outsourced to India, and deserve no special treatment. Pay them whatever you can get away with.

I think the most powerful law is the law of unintended consequences (changes to the Police Force by well meaning MPs). It's about time the country had a debate about what we expect from our Police and what needs to be done, or undone, to fulfil our expectations.

A.C. Harper, Leicester,

The police claim to have been 'betrayed' because the Government has restrained their pay this year. From the perspective of a council tax payer it looks very different, the cost of the Thames Valley police has exceeded inflation (and my pay rise) every year for the last six years at least. The level of service is abysmal. It seems they just cannot be bothered to do their jobs, probably 'too busy' working out their allowances and assisted housing benefits. So if they are looking for sympathy from public, I suspect they might be asked the question "who betrayed who?"

Peter Sorrill, Hermitage, UK

I find it unbelievable the police have so much bad feeling against them. They certainly deserve the pay in my view. Im sure the authors of negative comments such as "They only deserve my contempt", wouldnt hesitate to call should his or her home / family come under any kind of attack or damage.
Great Britain has one of the best police forces in the world. That fact should be respected and the officers who work very hard under difficult circumstances deserve the pay increase.

Colin., Shropshire.,

Who's going to baton charge and beat the police like they did to the miners. Perhaps they can outsouce to foreign police forces and save money.

Dai, Stoke,

Ahh! there they are, well well well, Ive been looking for them for 6 years now. Please could they hold their next march in Cardiff on any Friday or Saturday night. Excellent seeing you again guys, thought you'd emigrated.

John, Cardiff, Wales

It simply is not the fault of our police forces that the UK is the way it is, that people are scared to go out of their houses at night or that pond life are able to make good at others' pain.

Thanks to the police working overtime those who have been sent to prison are in prison. The government has failed to provide enough space for prisoners and british police cells are being used to house those who should be in jail.

The police do not sentence criminals, prosecute them or run their rehabilitation programs. Judges pick the sentences, MPs make the laws, social services and prison officers run the rehabilitation. The police repeatedly arrest the same people and spend days ensuring the most straight forward cases of beatings, robberies etc are taken seriously by the courts and lead to convictions. Then the same people come back out of prison and it is down to the police to catch them again.

Stop being ignorant and realise who is keeping you safe, it's not MPs or well wishers.

Matt, Hemel, Herts

I just got back from watching the 'protest' in its entirety. First off, I don't know where this figure of 18,000 comes from, I would put it at half that, and that's being generous. I was surprised at how quickly it was over, how quickly they had all passed me. Secondly, this wasn't a protest. I've seen snowflakes have more impact than that. There was no chanting, about three placards, no messages, nothing. To the independent bystander you wouldn't have known who they were or what they were marching for. At the end, at Parliament, they all just sort of confusedly wandered off in different directions with a look of vague emptiness on their faces. One took a photo of her companion officers and said: "Try and look angry, look mean." - Just like the march they didn't try and they didn't succeed. This march went through pathetic and out the other side and on this showing they clearly neither want a payrise or care about it *at all*. Whenever you call them they don't turn up, just like today.

DLH, London, UK

Come on, Gordon, get your hands out of your pockets, PAY the Police a decent wage, and the rise that they are entitled to. No doubt you would not like to be treated in this fashion, so do what you should have done and PAY up. Your present action is a disgrace, it is growing only resentment and bitterness in our Police, who as far as I am concerned, are the best in the world. Start treating them as such, even criminals would have the backing of a Human Rights commitee if you attempted to pull a shoddy trick like this on them. How do you sleep?? Safely, I expect, thanks to them.

Jo , Scarborough, UK

Well I hope the protesting policemen were filmed and harassed by officers on duty like all other protestors are.

Davie, London,

Why should they be end of Gordo Brown Eras, it's not reached
to the Coservatives eras of Poll-Tax or Norman Lamont's-
Black wednesday, you may have a support of media, but you-
need support of Voters-UK citizens, Keep dreaming, it's good
for you :Cllr Ken Tiwari(Oxford UK)

Cllr Ken Tiwari (Independent), Oxford, United Kingdom

The police are either unwilling or unable to prevent crime in this country, their sole remaining task is to collect fines from law-abiding tax-paying citizens whilst they leave the streets to the criminals, thugs and young hooligans.

If I actually felt safe walking the streets of Britain and didn't have to cross the road regularly when I see large gangs of young thugs in order to avoid a beating, then maybe the police would deserve a pay rise. As it is they deserve only my contempt.

J Roberts, Manchester, UK

Could this be the end of Gordon Brown's government?If this and the Northern Rock fiasco are insufficient to lead to the demise of his government, I wonder what will.

Femi Akinsola, Essex,

Our police have a difficult enough time without being damned for protesting. Pay them a fair wage, get them away from the burden of paperwork and put more police on the streets rather than the powerless Community Police Support Officers - even a Special has more power than them.. Get our streets back to being safe, and stop smart arse lawyers finding loop-holes to stop criminals from being sent down - tough if they have to sleep in crowded cells, they should have thought about that before doing the crime. And lets make sentances stick, too many go inside and get time off for good behaviour, then re-offend. I'm fed up with do-gooders talking about crims coming from socially deprived backgrounds and broken homes. Bang em up, tag em on release and ANY re-offence, double the sentance. Maybe even stick em on an uninhabited island off teh coast of Scotland, where they can fend for themselves for a year or two!

Ron, Milton Keynes, Bucks