British embassy in Paris. Credit: Getty
Complaints from Carrie Gracie, the estimable and now outgoing BBC China Editor, that she is paid half the salary of her male peers led the new Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Matt Hancock, to deplore the fact that: “BBC foreign editors can earn more than Her Majesty’s ambassadors in the same jurisdiction”. Ms Gracie’s £135,000 a year is more than Dame Barbara Wooding earns as UK ambassador to Beijing (£120-124,000), while North America Editor Jon Sopel receives £200-249,000 as against the £180-184,000 salary range of our man in Washington, Sir Kim Darroch.
Apart from the disgrace of paying women less than men to do the same job, the Gracie Affair raises tricky questions about pay differences, between career reporters and those who have been more highly-paid presenters, like Gracie versus Sopel. Not to mention between those who have learned Mandarin to operate in a police state, vis-a-vis the greater air time expected of those who report from Washington, Brussels or the Middle East compared with reporting from China. That last issue perhaps reflecting how slow the BBC has been to catch up with where global power is tangibly migrating.
No sooner had we absorbed this shocking news about pay inequality at the publicly-funded BBC, than President Trump cancelled his visit to Britain because of the $1 billion cost and “off location” of the new US embassy at Nine Elms, a glass cube we can see a mile away from the back of our house, where I was planning pre-demo sharpeners for friends from out of town.
Trump misleadingly blamed President Obama for this move from Grosvenor Square – where residents have long objected to impossible security – despite the decision being taken under George W Bush. Although Trump regards himself as a hotshot real estate developer, the fact that Vauxhall and Battersea (not to mention Elephant and Castle) are the most dynamic developments happening in central London has escaped his attention – like so much else.
These two overnight media sensations indirectly put the spotlight on how much – or how little – we value diplomats and their embassy operations in the contemporary world.
While most historians could name various ambassadors in the years before 1914 or 1939 – names like Maisky and Ribbentrop come easily to mind –I would be hard pressed to name a single foreign ambassador to the Court of St James’s, excepting H.E. Liu Xiaoming who was kind enough to send a three page critique of my latest book last week. I am vaguely aware that a man called ‘Woody’ (with a fortune from Johnson Baby Oil) is the US ambassador too, but he is eclipsed by each Tweet from Trump. I had to look up the identities of our ambassadors to Beijing and Washington, though I have met some of their august predecessors, together with three former ambassadors to Moscow.
The downgrading of traditional diplomacy is partly technological. It is surely telling, I am reliably told, that our secret intelligence services get 90% of their information on the cheap from sophisticated trawling of online data, before they decide to commit the much more expensive human resources (spies) for the last 10% of what they need to know.
In the past, Foreign Secretaries relied on exquisitely crafted telegrams recording a UK ambassador’s hour long meeting with the French or German foreign minister. Nowadays, the frequency of international and EU summits mean that prime ministers and presidents (and their foreign ministers) commune face to face, or via their own encrypted mobile phones. Ambassadors have ceased to be crucial to these encounters, rather they are just more cogs in a bigger wheel. Like it or not, the EU has also intruded itself into diplomatic relations between nation states. The EU’s External Action Service (created by Baroness Ashton) has a budget of approximately £420 million, with 1,457 staff in Brussels and 1,960 spread around 140 delegations and consulates. One in twelve of the ambassadors are British nationals.
Apart from technology, other factors have led to the downgrading of our ambassadors, leaving aside their universal resentment about representing a boss who is widely regarded as a buffoon and clown. Pity Andrew Patrick the ambassador to Burma who in September had to stop the clown reciting Kipling’s ‘Road to Mandalay’ in a Yangon temple. “Not appropriate,” Patrick hissed. “Great stuff,” replied Johnson.
Modern ambassadors are overburdened;
- A long-term emphasis on selling things has led to diplomats becoming a glorified sales force for UK plc;
- While there has been a surge in having to deal with immigration issues or doped and drugged Brits needing consular assistance in jails.
- Calls from whizz kid diplomats for embassies to become all-tweeting enthusiasts on social media have not gone down well among FCO traditionalists, though it is interesting (having been a minor victim of it) that Moscow’s man in London seems to have gone down this road with great relish, backed up by an army of robotic trolls.
One subject always conspicuously omitted from discussions of diplomacy is also the power of direct foreign lobbying operations which simply by-pass the FCO by directly interfering in government and the legislature. One thing I would ban straight way would be all Conservative or Labour ‘friends of X or Y’ country with their endless possibilities for bribes and freebies.[1]
Nor are embassies fully in the policy loop back in Whitehall. One effect of increased digitalisation has been paranoia about leaks. This means that more business between No10 and the FCO, or between the Cabinet Office and the departments of state is done verbally, so that written information is not automatically circulated between departments or shared with those who toil on our behalf abroad. A foreign government wanting to know about the UK can probably get more accurate information from open source material on the internet than from anything they might glean from a British embassy.
Part of me is still romantic about having distinctive, cultivated personalities as a kind of prism through which our government appraises foreign countries. A beautiful new coffee table book by James Stourton reminds us too of the architectural glories of British missions on the Nile and Seine. People like Rodric Braithwaite, David Hannay, Christopher Mallaby and Robin Rennick are difficult to reproduce as ambassadors of distinction.
The obvious risk is that such elite figures are ill-equipped to pick up the subterranean turmoil which produced a Donald Trump as US president. Indeed, just after his election, an acquaintance joked that the FCO probably had better contacts within Hizbollah than in Team Trump, though to be fair, that probably also reflects the extent to which our foreign policy has become captured/obsessed with the most backward and hopeless of the world’s major regions. This is not solely a British problem since I can recall the incredulity on the face of South Korea’s ambassador to the UK (a former banker of course) when I casually suggested he might like to visit other parts of Britain in order to meet people who were not City financiers. “What would be the point?”, he replied.
Brexit is likely to further accentuate this country’s loss of international standing, if only because Britain was a major Atlanticist influence within the EU and an English-speaking commercial gateway to it. The world is already weary of reading our domestic political ‘quirks’, and with the crass behavior of the present Foreign Secretary (although Chinese intelligence officers are convinced it must be an exceptionally cunning move they cannot yet fathom).
Attempts to revive the prestige of former times, whether by appointing colourful eccentrics in the Johnson mould, or serving English wines in settings blessed with Tracey Emins’ and Damian Hursts’ on the walls and Oasis on TV screens, will be just painful reminders of His Excellency’s decline in status. Maybe, as I have long argued, we should follow the US example in selling off the edifice in King Charles Street to a Gulf hotel chain (or maybe to Donald Trump), relocating the FCO to a new bloc in the Elephant, as part of a more radical rethink about where this country wants to position itself in coming decades, and more importantly perhaps, what face we wish to show to the wider world.
Michael Burleigh is an historian and commentator on world affairs. His 12 books include The Third Reich: A New History (Samuel Johnson Prize 2001) ; Moral Combat; Small Wars and Faraway Places and The Best of Times, Worst of Times: The World As It Is which appears in November.
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SubscribeThere was a strong current of authoritarianism in New Labour, which Starmer has embraced, albeit a little gingerly.
In 2008, Labour proposed to allow people to be detained for six weeks without being charged. David Davis, the then shadow Home Secretary, was so outraged that he resigned his seat, fought and won a byelection on the issue of liberty. I travelled 200 miles to help his campaign- the least I could do. It worked: Labour dropped the idea.
So we should be suspicious of Starmer’s ploy, and debate it fully. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
I wouldn’t say Starmer’s approach to authoritarianism has been ‘gingerly’; he seemed very enthusiastic about it after Southport last summer
He learned nothing then. People are entitled to protest the murder of three girls and several stabbings of other girls without going to prison, even if it is Islamic crime. I see no justice there and no climb back which is ominous. He has obviously got a plan and it is frightening to imagine what he is up to.
The current laws are already being misused,for example to charge Tommy Robinson for a terrorism offence for not revealing the PIN number of his phone.
With 2TK it will only worsen.
Why is not revealing the pin number of one’s phone a terrorist offence? Can we not have any privacy anymore? The sentence is like smashing a nut with a sledge hammer. Solitary confinement in a high security prison. If this is used as case law we are all in trouble. In Europe you are guilty until proven innocent. Traditionally in Britain you are innocent until proven guilty. It would appear that they are wishing for the European model instead of the world renowned British model.
Most fair minded people……..? Great turn of phrase considering the levels of state repression of free speech, ethnic white hatred, Hamas supporting govt ministers and decades of anti Christian policy in schools, taxation regimes…….Now ID cards and an “FBI”? Quangos abound…..glad i won’t be around when it all inevitably goes pop….
4th turning – I don’t think you will avoid. It’s nearly upon us.
I think that as well but I am still concerned for the country. We all need to do our bit before we lose everything Britain represented, not just for our sakes but for the sakes of those to come.
The challenge for the identitarian progressive Left is to shut down the nationalist Right before they make a nativist challenge to mass immigration that sticks politically.
That is Keir Starmer’s only role, and so it’s apt that he is a former lawyer embedded in the international human rights complex and with his own authoritarian tendences.
yet every one of their actions, actually makes that inevitable, when you have the RAF , West yorkshire police saying Whites should not apply, when you have legal racial discrimination set in law. a Proposed Blasphamy/ Misogyny law.
Then you see 1 group that is being treated differently White straight men, it’s no longer conspiratorial , it’s in Legislation
Germany went to war against a powerless minority , in the West these people want a war against the capable majority, it does’nt end well for them, as the people who not say, they will demand and enact to get rid of a system that activelly hurts them.
they can ban political parties, won’t matter, people have no faith in these people and will not support them, without that support, the system cannot stand and will be replaced.
The real problem here is that the Police along with the Civil Service are one of the last completely unreformed Trade Unions. As such their mantra is ‘maximum pay for the minimum risk/work’ So far thanks to a succession of feeble governments, both Tory and Labour, both have ‘got away with it’. This must stop.
Thus for the Police, their detection rate of say fraud is simply appalling, in fact almost laughable particularly so when you consider that in the ‘good old days (GODs) it was a capital offence. When it comes to violent crime, disproportionately ‘black on black’, again perhaps understandably, but certainly not acceptably the record is poor.
However as graphically shown in the recent TV series ‘Adolescence’ when it comes to a ‘soft’ serious crime arrest the response was ludicrously disproportionate. The
Stow-on-the-Wold SWAT* team seemed to think it was in Harlem, New York. Would that ever have been tolerated in the GODs? Off course not.
Now alarmingly they have set their sights on ‘thought crime’ and to lapse into the vernacular, a ‘cushy number’ if ever there was one! We have already had plenty of examples of how this new obsession is being abused as ‘they’ rush to emulate the Gestapo or NKVD.
Finally, as they contemplate forming a National Police Riot Force** they would do well to recall how some 55 years ago the most heavily armed Police Force in Europe*** fled in abject panic like so many terrified rabbits before gangs of young, enraged, working class white men who had simply had enough of their incessant bullying and harassment. “They have been warned”.
*Special Weapons and Tactics.
**Or whatever they are going call it. Perhaps Dixon Force?
*** Equipped with Armoured Cars no less!
Totally agree with you today on this one Charles.
Your first sentence cannot be repeated enough. We knew that there were unreformed trade unions left in situ even when Mrs Thatcher was in power. Absolutely nothing has been done since then about them. And they are more numerous than you list – anything to do with trains, the health service and civil service. Probably much of teaching too. These groups effectively get to “mark their own homework” and aren’t properly accountable to their users/customers/whatever they call us.
It’s not only that – they increasingly get to choose the marking scheme used to judge them. So if they want to redefine “policing” to be more about policies and administrative excellence (sic) and less about hands-dirty frontline work, they do so.
Yes I was very irritated at the time by the ‘Tory Wet’s’ lie that Margaret Thatcher had gone completely mad* and had to be replaced by one of them.
As you rightly say there was so MUCH more to do with bringing the NHS, Teachers, Transport idlers and many others to heel, and she was the only person capable of doing so.
Rather like Caesar before her, she was ‘assassinated’ in her prime when she had so much more to accomplish, and consequently ‘we’ have been the losers ever since.
*The imposition of the so called ‘Poll Tax’ on wee little Scotland being the excuse!
Margaret Thatcher has never been bettered from my point of view having lived through her three election wins. Maybe she is turning in her grave about what happened after her.
They don’t have to make a profit so they don’t have the discipline of the real world. I just hope that at least some like to do a real job and be worthy of their positions.
55 years ago, sry what’s that a reference to
Belfast & Londonderry.
if young White men have no stake in society, your in very interesting ground. These are the people who conquered the world and pretty much invented everything,built society and beat everyone.
As a society do you really want these super capable and resourceful people with no aim, no stake in society.
They are not the type of people to pick cotton
Charles, it is worse than you think.
The Civil Service lacks the Chartered Engineers who have experience of designing, building maintaining roads, railways, airports,docks, ships, planes, power stations and infrastructure in general plus equipment. Hence the mistakes since 1945. The aeroplanes which won WW2 were designed and built by private companies and likewise the Mulberry Harbours.
We never had an officer corp in the Police but we had many Chief Constables who were rank of colonel and above and many ex sergeants from the Guards and Royal Navy entering the Police plus a few officers of Captain and Major rank entering the Police. I think a Captain entered as an Inspector or Chief Inspector a major as Superintendant. There were ex Colonial Police. Colonial Police were often ex Officers. The result was that up to the 1960s and perhaps 1970s there were senior Police ofiicers who had served in India and Africa and spoke the local languages.
What we have in the Police are large numbers of unfit suburban clerks who have no knowledge of other religions, languages, history or culture. Hence the Police appear totally ignorant of the Islamicism which has been permeating the World since 1924 and especially post 1974 Yom Kippur war, funded by GCC money and Zial al Huq in Pakistan. Additionally they are ignorant of the nature of organised crime coming from Eastern Europe. SOE officers such as P Leigh Fermour and Monty Woodehouse spoke French and German and could read and write Latin an Greek so rapidly learnt the languages of the Balkans.
What the Police need are people of the calibre of former SOE officers such as Paddy Leigh Fermour, Nancy Wake, Monty Woodehouse, David Smiley and Arabists such as Gertrude Bell and Lt Col H R P Dickson who are physically tough, trained in unarmed combat speak the languages, understand the religion, customs , history and particularly importantly the family connectins. Many criminal and terrorist groups have family connections and to understand how these connect is vital to understanding how they operate. For example the Krays come from the East End while Charles Richardson came from South London which influences connections.
What is needed is quality, not quantity. Recruiting people the lack the ability to speak the languages, understand the nuances of religion and navigate family/tribal loyalty is a waste of money. Dickson was so so effective because he spoke Arabic and understood family ties. In the Arabic World where a man has several wives, seniority of the son is based upon seniority of Mother and also age.
Thanks for that erudite and in depth response and I couldn’t agree more!
You can bet that any national police force created by Starmer will put “diversity” at its heart.
If any straight white men are allowed in the officer corps, they’ll have been vetted to ensure they’re woke to the core.
If foot soldiers are needed to suppress Southport-style disorder, they’ll find no shortage of willing applicants among the thousands of fighting-age men who crossed the channel.
Local bobbies are already enforcing the unwritten laws of DEI. What’s it going to be like with three tiers of lunatics running the madhouse?
“thousands of fighting-age men who crossed the channel.” history show’s they can neither fight or have the guts for it. Lets face it , when it comes down to it, it’s no contest
“He may not mean to”
Does Adler really believe this is a possibility?
“we have a Prime Minister whose views on the subject largely seem influenced by Netflix.”
Only a fool would believe this. Starmer isn’t some hapless idiot, swayed by popular culture. For decades, he has been a member of societies that want to transform Britain.
“and potentially more unintended consequences: ID cards”
100% intended.
It appears we have to sit idly by and watch the disaster happening. Many of our council votes have been cancelled and a national election is years away if we ever get one. Or will he cancel that as well?
I wouldn’t put anything past Starmer.
Votes for 16 year olds.
Citizenship for all illegals.
Starting a major war.
Releasing a bioweapon on Britain.
When revolutionaries get power, they don’t give it up lightly.
Starmer like Blair and Corbyn are Trotskyists. Trotskyists have taken over the Labour Party. Keir Hardie, Clem Attlee, Ernie Bevin and J Callaghan would not recognise it.
Lenin created the Okhrana. Stammer has to have his own version. Those damn white Kulaks won’t repress themselves.
I encourage everyone to watch, re-watch, the excellent film, The Lives of Others.(edit)
Set in communist East Berlin when it was still a harshly run police state. Too many have forgotten the terrible reality of life that saw many risking their lives in attempting to flee to the West.
The writing on the wall could not be clearer. This is where we are heading if we are not very very careful.
Do you mean ‘The Lives of Others’? Which is, indeed, an excellent film.
It is a wretched film; it sets out to show that if only the thugs employed to enforce the police state were exposed to the discourse of liberal-arts inteligencia, they would immediately become reformers, having experienced a higher plane of existence.
Ah, I had forgotten that, as indeed I had forgotten the correct title! Nonetheless, I remember it had had a searing effect on my understanding of life in a totalitarian communist state and had considered myself lucky that such a fate would never befall Britain. I still think it is an important film to watch.
I did indeed! Thank you, have edited.
Most of us are trying to be careful but we have no power it would seem.
There needs to be grown up conversation about policing. If we want crime stopped we need to empower and equip the Police to do it . We need to understand that stopping bad people doing things needs the police to know that are not going to be disciplined every time some yob complains the Policeman was nasty to him. And we need enough policing folk to police the 70m in the country. At least double current numbers.
And we should promote Policemen for preventing crime – not getting diversity badges.
I agree with the diversity badges or policing one’s pronouns. How would that stop crime?
While they’re under the current leadership, I want police as *disempowered* as possible.
The last thing we want is a fit, fighting force willing to do Starmer’s bidding.
it’s true i was thinking this a couple of years back, the more DEI the police, army get,the less effective they become, the easier it is to disregard them
5ft Obese Black Lesbian coppers do not instil fear in me
it’s a general problem for the Left, they don’t like hiring on Merit, so they intentionally make themselves weaker, less capable. That’s why i don’t fear them, because they put in the variables that make them easy to counter
how many cops are fit, have the nerve, are not obese 5ft women who run away and need the public to save them , as seen recently
The UK has 170k cops, most are not operationally fit. as we saw in Leeds with Lesbian Nana, 1 Karen cop, got upset by a 15 year autistic girl and they needed 8 cops to deal with it
Who actually fears the cops, and that’s an issue, because before we had policing by consent, people willingly supported the police as they where seen as doing their best, that’s no longer the case, so the police need to instill fear.
I’m sorry i’ve had wet farts more fearsome
This isn’t the USSR, East Germany, the Police need the public’s support and as we see with West Yorkshire Police not hiring any Whites, who they expect support from , Islamists, Antifa.
The UK’s counter-terrorist policing network is vast, involving everything from the surveillance of Islamists to so-called “domestic extremism” — both of the far-Right and law-breaking protest group variety.
This may be true on paper, but how about in reality? We see everyday Brits arrested for daring to think out loud while thing like the grooming gangs were ignored for fear of offending the group to which the criminals belonged. We saw how the protests following the Hamas attacks played out and we heard Starmer talk about a system that bases punishments on skin color. Far from being secret, it looks like Keir’s ideas are out in the open, so what are you folks going to do about that?
ID cards have a place but they’re not magic. Here in the US, we just kicked out an administration that was giving social security numbers to illegals, opening the door to their receipt of taxpayer-funded benefits in a country with an enormous debt. We have also experienced prosecutors who will not prosecute because too many black people might be imprisoned, as if that makes criminality acceptable.
You have come out tops over there because of Trump and his followers who put a stop to the Bidenites. Thank God for the big change but unfortunately we are not in your position now.
We can’t deport illegal migrants now. What difference will an ID Card make? Is it suddenly easier to deport someone because they don’t have an ID Card?
We seem unable or unwilling to use stop and search. So again, what difference will an ID card make to that? By showing your card will it by some miracle tell the policeman whether an individual is carrying a knife or not!?
The police have still got to do the job of policing. The very thing they seem rather reluctant to do. A card is not going to change that.
The digital id will become necessary to go online and to spend money. It will soon leave a record of every online visit and conversation and a persons whereabouts at all times.
If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.
Starmer is a true fascist / Nazi, i.e. a national socialist,
Maybe it is a way of identifying and knowing what you have said online so you can be charged with free speech or not thinking the way you was told. Who knows.
It’s just a pretext. It doesn’t have to make sense. It just needs to be plausible enough to convince the brainwashed masses, with a bit of help from the BBC and tabloids.
Look at what people accepted in COVID times.
Starmer has a distinct character trait that he can never accept anyone who desents from his view or position. It flashes across his eyes and face “how dare they question” me.
Have we ever seen this in a PM, I do not believe so, we may well have seen it if Corbyn had ever been elected. Then there is of course the background to Starmer which is real hard left.
Starmer would no doubt state that the facists of Germany and Italy were far right, they started as socialists and it does not take much to drift across the junction of the circle that ends up joining the far left and the far right in their certainty of control od their citizens. Are we starying to see this it certainly seems to appear so.
A national Riot Squad, what would have been the impact of that during the Miners Strikes of the 80’s and the undercover operations of police forming relationships with vulnerable women to gather information, as secret police type policy if anything. Starmer now wants to go further!!!
A lot of Americans see what is happening in Britain and sympathise with us as they had to go through this uncertainty with Biden.
Nazi’s , anti Jewish, Pro Islam, pro state control of the economy, yep they socialists
The biggest trick was making people think Hitler was on the right. He was’nt for a very good reason, the Right at it’s worse see’s people as resources, you don’t eliminate resources, you exploit them.
The Left at it’s worse see’s people as a barrier to your plans, you eliminate that problem
Look at Hitler’s plan’s post WW2 if victorious, they are socialist ideas, he did’nt want the Free market, he wanted a state governed economy
So what makes him ‘Far right’ , Nationalist, you can have Nationalists on the left. Racism , again very common the left. pro War, imperialistic, someone think of the Soviets
So if it talks, quacks, and looks like a Duck , it’s probaly a Duck, i mean the clue is in the name, National Socialists.
In a world of mobile phones, bank cards, NI records etc – what do identity cards add ? Is it to control access to public services like the NHS (see NHS numbers) , Local authority (see electoral roll) etc. No one is ever asked to prove their status in a A and E dept in real life.
And what are you actually going to do when the state comes up with a person without one ? In practice today the state provides Hotel accommodation food heat medical services and legal advice – but only if you shouldn’t be here- you wouldnt get those services if you had an ID card.
Prior to the 1970s Westminster in general had very little interest in Policing policy.
The Home Office did not even play any role in appointments of Chief Constables and only a minor interest in appointment of Chief Commissioner of The Metropolis
The big internal administrative changes to the whole of the Police came in the late 1970s and have in fact continued apace ever since
To put it bluntly the Police are now no more than the Law enforcement arm of The Home Office and politics is the priority.
They will have trouble recreating the Stasi. As per DEI mandates they will have to have a full quota of the stupid, lazy, morbidly obese, wheel-chair bound, neurodiverse, graduates, blind, criminals, the heavily tatooed and the congenitally terrified.
It will be perceived white rightwing terrorists that the police go after, they did so under the Tories, and it has become a badge of honour under Labour.
It seems that they cover up, or even fail to police Muslim terror crimes.
Believe me, you don’t want a knockoff of the FBI in Britain. As the recent record shows, it inevitably becomes a Stasi and a tool of the rulers.
Starmer’s Secret Police. Match made in Heaven.
The contradiction over ID cards will remain. The government will know everything about most of its citizens but won’t know the identity of the people who have invaded this country.
around 95% of Terrorism comes from Islamists and Far left sources, the nonsense that we have a problem with ‘far right’ terrorism is just that. People will say well there was those Soho Attacks in the 90’s and the Finsbury Park Mosque, what 10+ years ago. Yeah you have to stretch back to find such examples
Of course the British Establishment with the help of it’s propaganda arm , the media, will tell you no it’s White men , boys who are the problem, they the ones stabbing youths daily in London, planning to blow up Stadiums, they are the ones with the Grooming gangs problem.
Look at Anti Semitic attacks , the vast majority from Muslims and Far left sources
But Prevent, the Police, the Goverment will say don’t look over there, look at our made up problem
There are dozens of hate crime arrests every week in Britain now. None will go to court but the intimidatory power of the liberal state is affirmed- the authoritarianism replicated of Starmer’s friends and allies in China.
The general slant of recruitment by the State since 1939 has been on quantity , not quality. Recruitment should be based upon selecting , training and testing people who can face up to the challenges, overcome obstacles and solve problems.
The problem for those running organisation who are over promoted is that if quality is recruited, their lack of competence will be spotted and these people can leave for other employment. Therefore if one recruits people inferior to oneself they will not challenge one,be grateful for the work, docile and obery orders no matter how stupid. Unions will not complain as the pay of union leaders depends upon income which is proportional to number of people paying subscriptions.
In short public sector becomes confederation of dunces.
If say the Police did recruit a ex Special Forces person with say 10 years experience, fluent in Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and Pushtun with an in depth knowledge of Sunni and Shia Islam, Muslim History , modern Islamic Thought and groups such as Tablighi Jamaat and Hizb ut Tahrir they would make Chief Constables look inept.
As A Special Forces officer seconded to the Met’said to me ” If I am dealing with the creme de la creme of the Met G.., knows what the dregs of the county forces are like !”
Good article, thanks. But are ID cards that much of an issue? These days, there’s so many ways agencies can locate you, largely through your phone and your spending patterns. So why the big deal about the card?
Good point.
I was dead against them when BLair tried to introduce them. Now I think that ID cards would at least remove one incentive illegal immigrants and they could stem the number of foreigners obtaining free treatment on the N(ill)HS
they will be offering them at the beach , maybe they say here have this one Abdul, you are now Steve Smith, 30. He won’t be needing it we arrested him for liking saving private ryan, you know that’s a gateway to the Far right