Red tape not red ribbons are the mark of Theresa May

Our Home Secretary, who had fleeting fame as Gadget’s red-tape slicing paramour, has gone to ground.  One of the last ones fades in memory as supplier of pornography to husband on the tax-payer and routine second-home expenses thief.  Had the News of the Screws still been with us we might now have some dreadful headlines of a very politically uncorrect nature on the international love affair of the former defence secretary.

The Brodie Clark affair isn’t the sort that sells newspapers.  He just doesn’t look the sort to have blue-rinsed and had the misfortune to live next door to a murder.  Our press and sadly our own desires for scandal remain pathetic.  Apart from dire human nature, I wonder whether one of the reasons for this is the general secrecy that pervades our system – pace Heather Brookes.

Even Keith (reformed) Vaz’s parliamentary committee can’t get to see relevant documents in the Border Agency scandal and it seems some of them will be suppressed until January.  Sky News – between ‘Scumbagaloan’ adverts – is saying Brodie did breach his instructions from the Home Secretary by not doing fingerprint checks as this was not spelled out in health and safety drivel.  Far from cutting red tape, the gone to ground Home Secretary (doing the opposite of PACE in relying on not saying anything now or indeed until January if she can get away with it) is relying on it.  The first thing we have to do when queues at our major airport get restive is whip out reams of paperwork on health and safety, ensuring the means to deal with the problem are contained within?

The message, part from the dire ‘falling out’ amongst these gawps, is that you’d better forget any discretion and pay attention to the detail in page 21, paragraph x, clause y.  Or we’ll nail your career if it suit our purposes.  What can we expect such an existential mortgage-payer like Gadget to do under these pressures?

There can be no excuse for keeping the evidence secret whilst what’s in writing is poured over to save Ms May and vilify Brodie Clark.  I’d sack the CEO now on the basis that he wasn’t on the ground himself, given what was happening at the airports.  I believe Ms May has lied but don’t consider that much of an issue given the paucity of our politicians – I  think her mistake is in not sacking a swathe of the management for being so hapless.  Surely it can’t be that the job can’t be done because of cuts!

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Farewell to the ASBO and Welcome to the ‘New ASBO’

The Home Secretary sounded rather good when she spoke of ‘making antisocial behaviour non-routine’.  The ZanuPFNulabour legislation was hopeless, but I find the notion that these problems can be sorted out by legislation stupid and something of a pointer that we have a ZanuPFCountrillition in place (one can drop the ‘o’ – but they do have a horsey, county-set feel).

What’s good in this legislation is that eviction has been brought in, but one wonders whether it has been in practice.  The ‘reason’ this obvious sanction was not available in the past was that it was thought people would start making false complaints just to get rid of people they didn’t like (some clown cross-party group of MPs – JUSTICE).  The real issues have never been addressed, and we continue now with statements that we should be making earlier intervention (true, but how without real resources and training) and simplifying legal processes, engaging communities and other blather that flies in the face of real practice.  What of ACPO and other high ranking local authority and other jerks who lied to us for so long that the system was improving things to satisfy political masters and their highly inflated pay?

I see nothing that addresses the real problems.