Government changes its tune

The critical line taken by the government towards the Fire Brigades Union during the campaign contrasts with its view of the fire service as set out in a draft 'White Paper' produced prior to the general election of June 2001.

According to the FBU, the document praised the fire service as one of the most consistently high-performing services in local government, which had already made considerable progress towards modernisation: "This 'succeeding' service is highly effective in its work of responding to fire and other emergencies and widely admired by the public. Certainly the Audit Commission Performance Indicators for 1999-2000 published in January 2001 fully bear it out.