Check my location, Bratty.

But, I was referring to the United Kingdom. Good point, though. Where's the Welsh representation on the Union Flag?

Ah. but it's easy for armchair heroes to say what they would do...

Regrettably for the Welsh, in terms of flags, Wales is considered part of England (it's a principality IIRC) and as such isn't included. Scotland, England and Ireland are included as the three countries were united under a single Crown by James the VI/I in 1603. Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England in 1282 (Edward I) and hence is included in the English flag.

Not saying it's right that there is no Welsh in the Union flag. I think a dragon on there wouldn't be a bad thing, would make it a bit of a bugger to draw freehand though.

Goes with the territory. What's more surprising is that I've only been to two successful ones in all the time I've been in the ambulance service. I've been to a few half-hearted and half-arsed ones.

Half-hearted and half-arsed hangings, but still successful? Otherwise it would be attempted hanging wouldn't it?

Half-hearted and half-arsed attempts then. It's like the people who say that they've just electrocuted themselves.

tbh, a lot of suicide attempts seem to be of the cry-for-help nature or otherwise totally impulsive tablet swallowing, for example. I've even been to more than one person who's taken extremely dangerous anti-depressants, which are not theirs, without any idea of what the medication will do to them (kill them).

I've been to a few attempted suicides of people who genuinely wanted to die, but went about it the wrong way and a few where someone has intervened. I can only recall five definite suicide incidents where the attempt succeeded. It is one of the saddest aspects of the job.

There are loads of great Monty Python sketches on Youtube. I won't list them as I'm sure you all have a favourite. Mine is the Sergeant Major sketch from The Meaning of Life.

"LEARNING THE PIANO?!!?!"

I disagree, TBH. Who knows what lurked in that pond - there's no point, as a PC or PCSO, putting yourself in a position where you're going to kill yourself rather than helping the person in trouble. If you can do a better job by co-ordinating a response from the bank then so be it.

To put the shoe on the other foot, two PCs once entered into sea at Penzance to rescue some people who were in trouble. The PCs drowned, the other people were washed in alive and well by the tide.

You simply can't use case studies to determine "the correct response", it's a lot to do with instinct, it's a lot to do with team work and co-ordination, if everyone's working efficiently to raise the alarm and move people from danger, while avoiding any silly risks, it doesn't matter if it was all text-book THE thing to do or not, it's probably going to be worth doing.

And how are you supposed to assess the risk if you don't know what's in there? It's one thing if there's someone else with you to help out should things go wrong, but IMO if you're on your own it's suicidal to jump in after someone, with no-one to help you should things go wrong.

"who knows what lurked in that pond"?

ponds are safe, jump in, if a shark attacks you, it was fate.


Of course, it's possible to come up with one case study that shows people can drown in ponds, this ignores the thousands of other instances of people jumping in to ponds and suffering no negative side-effects other than getting a bit gunky. To focus on "the headline grabbing" cases merely instils an overly-hesitant outlook on life. Life is safe until you die, deal with it, to never expose yourself to a bit of risk is to never live. The same people who think plastic bags are unsafe are the same people who think it's worth buying a national lottery ticket. Someone once suffocated with a plastic bag, someone once won the lottery.

using rationality like this also allows you to live without the fear of a terrorist attack ever affecting you directly, it also means you don't have to read The Daily Mail to find out what you should worry about next.

Taking that argument then Ann Timson should have stood back, waited for "someone" to call the police who would then presumably have been despatched from whatever other busy duties they had to attend to...... by which time the thieves would have been well away.

It's a judgement call. I hope I'd have the courage to do likewise if I found myself in her position.

Ohhh... The incident where the child drowned was attended by 2 pcsos. How fortunate that the 2 elderly fishermen were there... presumably they DID have "training".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563718/Boys-drowning-sparks-demand-to-scrap-PCSOs.html

It's not about courage, it's about sense. A drowning kid, I'd jump in, a jewellers being robbed for money, nah. Money is money afterall, not worth it.

Now if they were attacking the shop workers that would be a different matter but anyone working in a shop knows the insurance will cover it so they wouldn't have a go.

The thing is it's easy for many of us to say we'd jump in to save a kid or whatever but then over the winter a number of people died trying to save their dogs. It's up to the individual to choose and they shouldn't be judged on their decision. That said, well, if you work for the Police you are in a position where you are the ones that people turn to and should do that that only some of us would.