Daily Prompt: Ripped from the Headlines!

I haven’t responded to a daily prompt for a few days as I really didn’t feel inspired to and today really isn’t that different but I thought I’d give it a go anyway.  Today’s prompt is:

Head to your favorite online news source. Pick an article with a headline that grabs you. Now, write a short story based on the article. 

To be honest I headed to the tried and tested BBC news and all I found was a British Airways employee who has won her discrimination claim, HMV going into administration, Lance Armstrong talking about his “cheating” and a whole load of other negative stories including the fact that apparently our government think that it is a good idea to reduce the starting pay for Police Constables by £4,000 to £19,000!

OK, so this is the starting salary for new recruits with no experience of policing but still it seems to me to be a bit of a kick in the teeth for individuals who are out on our streets to protect us.  No wonder they have a shortage of bobbys on the beat.  Sure, £19,000 is more than my salary (if I worked full-time) and I have over 20 years experience as a secretary/administrator but I work in the safety of an office and I have never pushed myself to make a career out of my job.

How do they compare to starting salaries for other professions?

  • Administrators/office juniors can expect to start at around £12,500 but they don’t have to qualify to enter the job or train before they are employed
  • A newly qualified teacher can expect a starting salary of £23,010 – I wanted to confirm this on the Department of Education website but each link I clicked came up with an error!
  • A regular soldier in the Army can expect £272 per week (£14,144 per year) whilst training and a minimum of £17,514 when trained (Army website)
  • An army officer can expect £16,073 whilst training, increasing to £24,615 when commissioned (Army website)
  • A newly qualified Registered Nurse is £21,176 according to the Royal College of Nursing’s 2012/2013 pay scales

Looking at this, it seems to me that the professions with the higher risks, ie police and armed forces are expected to do so for a lower salary than others.  Aren’t we lucky that there are still young people who want to risk their lives to keep us safe?

OK, rant over.

4 thoughts on “Daily Prompt: Ripped from the Headlines!”

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  3. Joe Owens

    I thin the word news should automatically warn us that their is unhappiness to follow. why is it we can’t ever see the positive news. Some of these things are of no interest, and i will certainly skim over them. I mean Mr. Armstrong has been considered gulty for so long that I am sure the majority of folks reall do not care any more.

    1. fisefton Post author

      I couldn’t agree more, especially with regards to Armstrong. Can we please move on now?

      I don’t watch the news or look it up on the Internet very often. I just catch up by listening to the radio – they keep to the most important headlines and fit everything into about 5 minutes.

      Thanks for visiting my blog.

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