Saturday 22 March 2008

Dont Panic!


Like an incompetent Captain Mainwaring, Gordon Brown intends to resurrect “Dads Army” in the form of a civil defence network and national alert register. The plan is for members of the public to join in and help local authorities during times of national crisis. Such emergencies will include terrorist activities, Cyber war fare, pandemics (flu), climate change and “suspect visitors to the UK”.

With MI5 staffing levels to rise by 4000 and terrorism analysis budgets to rise by 10%, Brown also wants to create a civilian counter terrorist force capable of “going anywhere in the world”.

Oh dear, the British obsession with committees, groups, lists associations and clubs, all designed to tackle problems which frankly, we don’t even no if they exist. Put it this way, if a flu pandemic does break out, by the time “Browns Army” has had its meeting, produced its report, printed it in duplicate, risked assed the findings, put the tenders out for scrutiny, sourced the PFI funding and ratified the final version – we will al be dead.

May I be the first to nominate an entry for the national threat register – Labour.

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