DEMOS

Richard Norton Taylor trails the Demos annual security lecture in today’s Guardian. His main focus is on a presentation by the Conservative Party’s policy group on national and international security, led by Pauline Neville-Jones. One of the recommendations of the policy group is that ‘a powerful national security committee of senior ministers to counter domestic and foreign threats’ should be created.

Pauline suggests that, "it's been clear for some time that the capacity of the UK system for long range strategic thinking needed strengthening."

I’ve got a bit of a problem with more committees and new structures not least because I don’t think the main problem when it comes to the government's security policy is an institutional crisis. I think it is one of culture. That is not to say the two are mutually exclusive, and I think the system needs change. But  I sense that advocating institution building as a response to system failure is a relatively easy option for the short term – but it doesn’t necessarily lead to extra capacity in the system – let alone support strategic thinking. Instead it can, and I think will, lead to a mess, of messages, of structures, and of accountability while serving to strengthen a civil service culture that is resistant to adopting new ways of thinking. 

What is needed is a culture founded on openness and transparency – and while I understand that some secrets must be kept private we should question the validity of the phrase – ‘on a need to know basis’. The present system is opaque, both for those people who work in it and for the wider public – changing that must become a priority.