[Tibby Baggie]

Beefy, I applaud you for your efforts but ....... and this is defiantly not sour grapes ....... I have to agree with young Mr Salop. I am employed within the emergency services, due to the nature of the work and the dangers involved there are various levels of commendations awarded for outstanding work, bravely, dedication to duty etc etc, for example things like major fires ... entering burning buildings to save people, events like dealing with the poll tax riot in 1990, responding to train crashes, terrorist incidents on the tube, bomb explosions in Manchester's shopping centre, police officers racing to help at firearms incidents not knowing if they will be a rescuer or another victim, plus the families at home not knowing if their loved ones will walk back thorough the door or be in a box the next time they see them, this is to name but a few ..... these are all incidents for which all 999 services attend .... when the public are running for safety the brave crews of all services are running the other way ....... into the danger zone, FAB, just to lighten the post for us oldies, if I waffle I promise there is a relevant point at the end.
A lot of the first responders who were knee deep in blood, guts and body parts missiles petrol bombs flames and heaven knows what else were awarded commendations from their head of service be it a chief fire officer or a chief constable or director of the ambulance services, for bravery good work etc ..... they are proud to receive them, a rep point if you like, then they see colleagues getting the same awards for producing a new shift pattern , running a tidy office, completing paperwork correctly and on time, the people that put their necks into harms way feel less valued and the whole award means nothing.

I say this from first hand experience .... having received the third highest award available in my service for dealing with a life or death incident where colleagues had been threatened by a man with a gun only to see a suit wearing office waller receive a higher award for doing good paperwork ...... how did I feel.  Well I am no longer on the front line response of my service .... why bother, darned if you do darned if you don't.

So again Beefy I applaud your efforts but I have to side with Salop. No offence matey.

As analogies go 4eva that's quite an extreme one haha.

In all fairness though do the guests and posters on this site, regular or not, actually look at the number next to someones name and put more value in that than the content of what they're posting? I doubt they do.