BOOKS ON (IN)JUSTICE AND LAW

NO WAY UP THE GREASY POLE
The fight for equality

Written by Alison Halford
with Trevor Barnes
249 pages
Published by Constable • London
ISBN 0-09-472380-X

Reviewed by Tom Watkins.

For thirty years as “one of the boys” Alison Halford did all that was required of her. Rising through the ranks until as an accoutrement to the male ego she became one of four Assistant Chief Constables of the Merseyside Police. Just two steps from the top job. Allowed to make it this far she then found it was not “what you know” but “who you know” that really mattered. Nine times she tried to reach the coveted rank of Deputy Chief Constable to find she was being undermined by those in power, in spite of being very able and qualified to do the job.

Immensely brave she risked all by taking them to court. Wow! This really brought out the long knives. The Home Office, The Police Authority and senior colleagues set out to ruin her. The corrupt practises and dirty tricks used against her all come out in this book. Who needs fiction with a story as good as this? Once started I found it impossible to put the book down.

Backed by the Equal Opportunities Commission and her legal team Alison not only stopped them destroying her but gained back the entitlements that went with her job, in spite of the vilification, humiliation and psychological pressure heaped upon her. She was cross examined for a gruelling fortnight in the witness box in a case that was abandoned before any of her opponents could be subjected to the same treatment. The settlement cost the British tax payer over one million pounds. In spite of this I couldn’t help feeling that still, they not only robbed her but raped her as well.

However her bravery and tenacity in taking the establishment on, did not go in vain. During the month I read this book (June, 2000) it was on TV news that another police woman had won a settlement package worth one million pounds as a result of discrimination She will not be the last. Thanks to Alison Halford it will not only be women that will benefit but I am sure men who do not fit the macho mould as well. The characters at the top of this greasy pole are under siege.

Read in this book of the bizarre selection procedure she and other young women had to go through when she first joined the police force and of the truth about the so-called topless swimming party used against her at the tribunal, proving once again how there is one law for men and another for women.