SMT Online Editor's View: SpongeBob’s on Border Control

09 Dec 09

Unbelievable. Outrageous. Crass. Deeply insensitive. Idiotic. Extraordinary.

These are but some of the adjectives that sprang to mind last night as I attempted to digest the strident comments made yesterday by immigration minister Phil Woolas. Comments relating to desk-bound immigration bosses and details of the bonuses they’ve received in return for – as Woolas tells it – “putting their lives on the line” for this fine country of ours.

Perhaps Woolas felt he had to try and defend the indefensible while speaking on BBC Radio 4, knowing that a highly critical report has just been published in which selected MPs are outwardly scathing about the same UK Border Agency that Mr Woolas obviously feels is doing a tremendous job.

The Home Affairs Select Committee’s diatribe suggests that the Agency in question is still not ‘fit for purpose’ and has “a long way to go” before it can be deemed to be operating “as efficiently and effectively” as possible.

The Government has had 12 years to do something about border control, and yet look at the mess sprawled out before us... There’s currently a backlog of 450,000 claims made by asylum seekers. In 40,000 instances, the immigration service bosses – 29 of whom, it has emerged, have (on average) been paid a cool £10,000 each in bonuses for the year 2007-2008 – are either unable or unwilling to say whether or not these individuals are still here.

Might some of those who’ve escaped the net be active terrorists, or at the very least individuals looking for salvation by way of radicalisation? Surely that has to be a possibility?

Rewards for abject failure

Frankly, it’s astonishing that such a large number of case files have seemingly been abandoned, and even more galling that those responsible for them are being rewarded for what is, in effect, abject failure to do their job.

Chaired by Keith Vaz, the Home Affairs Select Committee has also disclosed that nigh on 90,000 files adjudged to have been ‘concluded’ were subsequently found to contain errors of one kind or another. Why are we rewarding such blatant mismanagement?

Talking to respected journalist and ‘Today’ host John Humphreys, Woolas commented: “The UK Border Agency should be praised. It deploys very brave men and women who protect our borders, and they’re getting on top of the situation. Frontline officers work 24/7 at our ports around the country to protect our borders, and in daily operations and partnerships with the police to arrest and deport foreign criminals. Often, they work in difficult and dangerous situations.”

I’ve no doubt the frontline staff members are facing danger on a daily basis, Mr Woolas, but they’re not the ones receiving fat bonuses for sticking their necks on the line, are they?

You’re giving the wedge to people who sit behind a desk. The type whose only danger on a daily basis is that Pret A Manger across the road might run out of Posh Bacon Baguettes before they decide to trot over for breakfast.

Woolas may not have directly compared his immigration service chiefs with our troops in Afghanistan, as many of the broadsheets and tabloids were suggesting, but said comparison is almost inevitable.

On the very same morning that Woolas spoke to Humphreys (and presumably the intelligent layer of this nation’s populus), news broke that the number of British service personnel killed in the Taliban’s back garden this year rose to 100. In fact, 2009 has been the bloodiest 12 months for our brave soldiers since the Falklands conflict of 1982.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown wasted no time in trotting out all the usual bland platitudes, stating that his thoughts are with the families and friends of those fearless young men and women. People who really have put their lives on the line for our freedoms, and (more often than not) without support from their political paymasters when it comes to proper equipment.

“We will never forget those who’ve died,” said Brown. I’ll never forget the ways in which your administration has let them down in a big way, Prime Minister, and neither I suspect will those family members and their friends whom, I’m certain, will take your words with the proverbial pinch of salt and find them hard to swallow in the extreme.

Stretching credibility to breaking point

Flying in the face of all facts before him, Woolas insisted that the UK Border Agency has made “considerable improvements” and is “a world leader”. He cited biometric visas and identity cards for foreign nationals as if to cement his woolly beliefs.

The national ID card scheme is now a busted flush, amply evidenced by the true fact that only 10,000 citizens have registered their interest in any such scheme out of a population that’s expected to reach 70 million in the not-too-distant future. As I’ve previously stated on info4security, that’s hardly a resounding vote of confidence.

Stretching credibility to breaking point, Woolas then said: “I believe it’s right to reward staff for outstanding work. Bonuses are only ever rewarded to those who have performed to a high standard.”

In the last 12 months alone there has been a staggering string of examples of ongoing incompetence some three years and more since (then) Home Secretary Dr John Reid described his department’s immigration arm as being ‘not fit for purpose’.

No wonder the Government cannot control the obscene amounts of money still being trousered by the fine dining, high-living bankers – Brown and Darling ought to call the bluff of the RBS bosses and let them walk, but they’re too weak to do so – when, at the same time, it’s ladling out fat wads to public sector employees.

To cover these perks, you and I and every other hard-working taxpayer collectively coughed up £128 million in 2007-2008 alone.

In defence of the staff

Woolas has already been criticised for suggesting that, at least in part, our soldiers are in Afghanistan to help control immigration, but this latest outburst really beggars belief.

To the best of my knowledge (because the Home Office steadfastly refuses to issue such statistics), there hasn’t been a single fatality among frontline officers working for the UK Border Agency, and certainly not among the ‘desk jockeys’ currently sitting back and planning a very nice, suburban, Waitrose-rich Christmas courtesy of us mere plebs.

Woolas wanted to defend his staff. Nothing wrong with that in commercial business circles, but in public office it’s not his job to do that. Rather, like every other Government minister Woolas is there to remind his charges that they work for – and are paid to work for – us, the general public.

Strictly speaking, Woolas’ key function as immigration minister is to ensure that the incumbent bureaucratic regime dutifully follows the voters’ agenda as opposed to its own.

If Woolas genuinely believes that a core element of his role is to defend his officials against mass public opinion then he’s very much mistaken. What he should be doing is something to make our borders a little less porous than the pineapple deep beneath the sea in which SpongeBobSquarePants resides.

Might I suggest that, if he hasn’t already done so, Mr Woolas ought to read CONTEST2. There’s a serious counter-terrorism agenda in this country just now, and the immigration service needs to be doing a hell of a lot more to assist its realisation and development if we don’t want another 7/7 bloodbath (or, God forbid, much worse) on our hands.

Sending out the wrong message

Like Keith Vaz, I too am astonished that huge bonuses can be paid when the details of tens of thousands of immigrants have been lost in the ether. What sort of message does the latter send out to would-be terrorists from afar?

Who better to comment on the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report than a certain Damian Green. You remember him. Woolas’ opposite number in the Tory party who, not so long ago, had his life unceremoniously turned upside down (quite literally, if you’re talking about his home and Parliamentary office) by Brown and Co with a little help from the Met.

“This report,” Green tells us, “is further confirmation that the chaos inside the immigration system is not being sorted out”. Too true it isn’t. “Ministers have had years to deal with the backlog created by the collapse of controls after 1997, but it’s clear they haven’t succeeded.”

That’s probably why the immigration service bosses have pocketed the filthy lucre. In this country, whether it be public or private sector, we just love rewarding bungling failures of the highest order, don’t we? Managers are somehow able to put every foot wrong in the surety that it’s their workaholic, downtrodden soldiers who’ll end up carrying the can.

The Home Affairs Select Committee is said to be “most dissatisfied” with officials’ deadline of 2011 for clearing the backlog of applications. The Committee members want to see all cases going back three years and more completed more swiftly, and certainly by September next year.

Not unreasonable. If that doesn’t come to pass then, far from being rewarded with a bonus, those responsible for this potentially dangerous and terror-laden mess ought to be summarily chopped off at the ankles.

In praise of RUSI

A few short weeks ago, RUSI – the Royal United Services Institute – was deservedly recognised by Prospect magazine as Foreign Policy Think Tank of the Year. RUSI’s director Michael Clarke must be a very proud man, and rightly so.

This is a superb organisation providing cutting-edge analysis, in-depth research and incisive insight that underpins the vital, wider public discussion being had on national defence and security issues.

At present, RUSI is leading the defence review debate. According to the latest papers published as part of the Future Defence Review series, Britain must face up to hard strategic choices in the very immediate future regardless of the cuts made by the Government in relation to our defence budget.

RUSI argues that Britain simply has to reappraise the ‘fundamental propositions’ that define its global strategies. You’ll not hear any argument from this corner on that statement. The body also argues that our Armed Forces ought to consider “a radical new mission” of working to reform and assist international institutions. Again, that assertion’s right on the money.

On top of all that, RUSI is calling for “increasing co-operation” between the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force. The Government is always banging on about ‘joined-up thinking’, so let’s have some where it arguably matters most.

You’ll be interested to learn that RUSI has just issued the first edition of its Focus Newsletter, at the same time redesigning its website.

The Newsletter contains updates on the latest research initiatives, publications and events (the organisation recently held a superb conference on security issues surrounding the 2012 Olympics, for example) as well as highlights of commentary and analyses posted online.

Take a look at the improved website, apply for membership, access the Newsletter and take part in the debate about our national security.

The more high level practitioners that involve themselves in these talks the better – this issue has never been more important than it is today.

Gone... but never, ever to be forgotten

To finish this last SMT Online Editors View prior to the Christmas break, permit me to pay tribute to my long-standing colleague and great friend Alan Hyder, the Editor of Security Management Today’s (SMT) sister publication Security Installer these past 15 years who departed UBM Live’s offices last Friday having presided over the magazine’s final print edition.

When I was deliberating whether or not to take on SMT in late 2000, it was Alan’s wise counsel that really tipped the balance. I can only thank him for helping me to make the best career move of my working life.

Alan eased me through ‘The Early Stages’ of my tenure when I knew little of this wonderful industry and profession in which we all find ourselves. He skilfully advised me on which hooks I might like to hang SMT’s collective hat. Those words of wisdom were invaluable, and helped me so, so much.

Not long after I started working in tandem with him, Alan became the first journalist in this sector to win an editorial gong – the BSIA Chairman’s Award for Security Installer’s excellent ACPO Unscrambled campaign which I know was of massive benefit to so many engineers and contracting managers.

In terms of the world of work, Alan’s tenure on Security Installer was characterised by his studious nature, and the ease with which he engaged so professionally with colleagues. He never missed a deadline on anything – be it the journal, newsletters, marketing collateral, reports. Juggling 20 plates at the same time was a doddle for him. It’s not a common skill by any means.

The best magazine ever for engineers

Alan made Security Installer his own. It stands today as easily the best journal ever produced for engineers and contractors in this country and, I would argue, worldwide. It has never been surpassed, and never will be.

That’s all down to Alan and the excellent articles written by himself, Anthony Hildebrand (his deputy editor until i4s came along!) and the many regular contributors commissioned down the years. Among them Gerard Honey, Mike Lynskey and Alex Carmicheal (not to mention the product Bench Testers who played such a vital role in the magazine’s content).

In this materialistic, ‘I’m alright Jack’ era there are not many people whom you would or indeed could call a true Gentleman, but Alan Hyder is one of them. Hugely respected and admired by his peers at UBM and everyone in the security sector, this is a man who holds all of the right values and always conducts himself in the best possible fashion.

I shall miss the after hours banter in the office here at Blackfriars when Alan and I would be working late, interspersing editorial tasks with discussions about the current news agenda, the industry itself, politics and policing, climate change and one of Alan’s great loves – music.

Alan... I know you’ll be reading this, so let me once again – publicly this time, and on behalf of your colleagues both here at UBM Live and across the industry at large – wish you the very best of success and good fortune in the years ahead. You deserve both in bucketloads!

I trust you’ve enjoyed this year’s SMT Online Editor’s Views, and I look forward to engaging with all of you once again come the New Year.

It just remains for me to say that I hope you, your families and friends have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2010.

Until next time...

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