Players and Plonkers of the week

This week in news saw the swine flu toll rising further, the continuation of the trial of Clayton Weatherston and the funeral of King of Pop Michael Jackson. But enough about them, here are my picks for this week's Players and Plonkers.

Players of the week: The Kiwi charity rowing team who despite bad weather, capsizing and a complete loss of communication with the outside world managed to race across the Indian Ocean, finishing second overall, and all for prostate cancer.

The Rowing For Prostate crew put in the hard slog and must have had some scary moments, but they made it through and more importantly have done great work for their chosen charity. Prostate cancer is a serious problem, but it gets a lot less play in the media than breast cancer, so what these men have accomplished should be shouted from the rooftops.

Plonker of the week: Michael Laws for continuing to make personal attacks on two senior Fire Service members, even after complaints against him were upheld. Apparently he doesn't have to apologise "because he's right". Actually, when the authorities say you're wrong, you're wrong. And when you refer to men and women much braver than you, who are working to save people's lives, as "fire ghouls" and "arseholes", you're wrong.  End of story.

Poor service of the week: Police 111 call centre staff - four of whom, over an 18 month period, have been disciplined for incidents in which they failed to answer calls, swore at callers, and used the police database to spy on people.

This system was earmarked for overhaul back in 2005 after the Iraena Asher fiasco, but it seems some bad eggs are still slipping through. Of course there must be many dedicated and hard-working staff at those call centres.

Now, as many people have said in the comments on this story, if you look at the volume of calls received (including hoaxes and timewasters) the statistics don't look so bad. And if these were simple cases of human error, that would be an acceptable excuse. But when we're talking about emergencies - where people's lives literally on the line - there is simply no way you can justify telling someone police cars are on their way and then not sending them. How would you like it if that was you or someone you loved on the phone, being lied to or sworn at during a potentially life-threatening situation?

Who are your Players and Plonkers of the week?