DEMOS

A week is a long time in politics, just over a month must be considered a life time. And trying to remember what has been said by one’s boss must be difficult, nigh on impossible. Back in November David Cameron gave a speech on security to the IISS. In his speech, he said, “We must not allow the security of this country to become a political football – either between the parties or within the parties.... The two main contenders for the Labour leadership (Brown and Reid) are vying to outdo each other on how “tough” they can sound on security”.

Fast forward to today and Patrick Mercer has accused the government of being "hugely complacent" about a further terrorist attack on London. In an interview with the Parliamentary Monitor magazine, Patrick Mercer has condemned Labour for failing to appoint a cabinet level figure in charge of anti-terrorist measures. "The government does not have anyone prepared to take on this job with both hands, and that is why we need a single minister at cabinet rank to deal with this."

The problem I have with calling for a Minister is that it is fundamentally a political not operational issue. The Government has a plethora of people prepared to take on this job with both hands, in the Cabinet Office, Home Office, Ministry of Defence, DCLG and the Treasury. Herein lies the problem. We know the system is not working as it should. The UK’s ability to foresee and respond to increasingly complex and networked threats is handicapped by an archaic and compartmentalized interagency system that dates from before the Cold War. We need to think about redesigning the system.

The Conservative Party really believe that having a Minister in the Home Office (at Cabinet level) will solve the problems of coordination, collaboration, mixed messages from departments, the duplication of resources, all the while reassuring the public that all is in hand (or not). It is an ill thought out, short term and unworkable solution to the greater problem of system reform.