My old man was a military fireman based at Woolwich Arsenal and attended many of the IRA atrocities and other dangerous happenings across the city. To be honest, we were all glad when he finished his long service and joined civvy Street.
DEI has destroyed the police as an institution. All shapes & sizes allowed in, educational & fitness standards dropped …all in the name of equality.
He was on the scene for the Airey Neave assassination in 1979. The car had to be drained of blood, bone and bomb fragments, which was a military fireman's job back then. And then the bombs in pubs when the terrorists would set secondary explosives with the aim of killing the first emergency services on the scene. Like you say, a completely different scenario than today.
Even in my day we were stoned on arrival to “Micky” calls - once we were threatened by a machete wielding thug in Peckham because we got his flat/squat wet putting his front room out !! Never had the threat of bombs though ! Your old man was a different breed
One of my cousins has just retired from H*mberside police, he told me the standard of recruits is abysmal. One complained about having to work nights! The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.