Borders chief quits saying
Discussion
[quote=Mojooo]
At a time when they are going through big cuts are they going to fire and hire new staff with all the associate costs?
Yes they are, and again i repeat that experience staff have been made redundant, staffing levels have been declining since 2002. I post a link from a Commons Select Committee report, with evidence being presented by customs staffs Public Services Union representative.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/...
CUSTOMS COVER
26. PCS have consistently expressed concern about the inadequacy of resources to provide Customs cover at ports and airports in the UK. Our concerns support Lord Carlile's comments made to MPs in March 2003, repeated more recently, that Customs officers are spread too thinly, and that security at small ports, airports and coves should be tighter. He said: "We have to remember that lethal material could be brought into this country on a small yacht into a small harbour anywhere around the coastline." The Maritime, Aviation and Intelligence Team (MAIT) were the only such intelligence team in any law enforcement agency, and were looked on as the leaders in this field by other agencies who called on MAIT for intelligence and support. The MAIT have now been specifically directed away from uncanalised work. With no equivalent law unit there is effectively nobody proactively looking for intelligence in relation to anything other than the very major canalised ports and airports, and nobody identifying and cultivating sources in these areas.
27. There is now no permanent customs cover across hundreds of miles of UK coastline, notably in Devon and Cornwall, where permanent Customs cover was removed in 2003, and along the Welsh coastline, where there are no uniformed front line Customs officers from Cardiff to Holyhead or from Holyhead to Liverpool. There is clear evidence that this has led to an increase in smuggling of drugs and firearms as well as people, cigarettes and alcohol. The Department's Annual Report shows that only 21 tobacco gangs were disrupted in 2005-06 as compared to 87 in 2002-03, with lost revenue from tobacco fraud running at over £3 billion.
At a time when they are going through big cuts are they going to fire and hire new staff with all the associate costs?
Yes they are, and again i repeat that experience staff have been made redundant, staffing levels have been declining since 2002. I post a link from a Commons Select Committee report, with evidence being presented by customs staffs Public Services Union representative.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/...
CUSTOMS COVER
26. PCS have consistently expressed concern about the inadequacy of resources to provide Customs cover at ports and airports in the UK. Our concerns support Lord Carlile's comments made to MPs in March 2003, repeated more recently, that Customs officers are spread too thinly, and that security at small ports, airports and coves should be tighter. He said: "We have to remember that lethal material could be brought into this country on a small yacht into a small harbour anywhere around the coastline." The Maritime, Aviation and Intelligence Team (MAIT) were the only such intelligence team in any law enforcement agency, and were looked on as the leaders in this field by other agencies who called on MAIT for intelligence and support. The MAIT have now been specifically directed away from uncanalised work. With no equivalent law unit there is effectively nobody proactively looking for intelligence in relation to anything other than the very major canalised ports and airports, and nobody identifying and cultivating sources in these areas.
27. There is now no permanent customs cover across hundreds of miles of UK coastline, notably in Devon and Cornwall, where permanent Customs cover was removed in 2003, and along the Welsh coastline, where there are no uniformed front line Customs officers from Cardiff to Holyhead or from Holyhead to Liverpool. There is clear evidence that this has led to an increase in smuggling of drugs and firearms as well as people, cigarettes and alcohol. The Department's Annual Report shows that only 21 tobacco gangs were disrupted in 2005-06 as compared to 87 in 2002-03, with lost revenue from tobacco fraud running at over £3 billion.
Victor McDade said:
Theresa May would not be the Home Secretary had she been a man. Irrespective of whether she is to blame for this specific fiasco, I hope she's replaced by someone more competent sooner rather than later. She is the Tory version of Jacqui Smith.
if she had been Labour this thread would be 20 pages long by now and calling for her to resign and a general electionSo here is a bloke having served forty years, commendations and even a CBE and we are expected to believe that he suddenly decided to ignore instructions from the Home Secretary. Beggars believe. Lets see how a politician wiggles away from this one. Or alternatively the Civil Servant suffered some type of brain lapse recently.
crankedup said:
So here is a bloke having served forty years, commendations and even a CBE and we are expected to believe that he suddenly decided to ignore instructions from the Home Secretary. Beggars believe. Lets see how a politician wiggles away from this one. Or alternatively the Civil Servant suffered some type of brain lapse recently.
I certainly will be interesting to see how this pans out - it seems that May had a 'kneejerk' reaction to potential bad headlines and acted before she should have. Either way, it seems we have yet another useless HS.crankedup said:
So here is a bloke having served forty years, commendations and even a CBE and we are expected to believe that he suddenly decided to ignore instructions from the Home Secretary. Beggars believe. Lets see how a politician wiggles away from this one. Or alternatively the Civil Servant suffered some type of brain lapse recently.
Wasn't he governor at HMP Whitemoor when the IRA smuggled a gun in and six prisoners used it to escape?ninja-lewis said:
Wasn't he governor at HMP Whitemoor when the IRA smuggled a gun in and six prisoners used it to escape?
Yes I do believe your right, still fair play, we are all allowed one or two mistakes in a life time of work. 
Maybe they might allow the H.S. some slack on this one.ninja-lewis said:
crankedup said:
So here is a bloke having served forty years, commendations and even a CBE and we are expected to believe that he suddenly decided to ignore instructions from the Home Secretary. Beggars believe. Lets see how a politician wiggles away from this one. Or alternatively the Civil Servant suffered some type of brain lapse recently.
Wasn't he governor at HMP Whitemoor when the IRA smuggled a gun in and six prisoners used it to escape?After that he was put in charge of Yarl's Wood Immigration Centre.
Which then burned down.
maix27 said:
She's got one of those faces you just want to hit, doesn't she?
I just can't listen to her without thinking 'you're lying' or 'you haven't got a clue what you're talking about'.
Before her we had: Blunkett, Clarke, Reid, Johnson and Jacqui Smith.I just can't listen to her without thinking 'you're lying' or 'you haven't got a clue what you're talking about'.
To be honest she'd have to go some to be worse than anyone on that list. Except maybe Charles Clarke. I had a soft spot for him. The others were just prize cretins.
Riff Raff said:
Before her we had: Blunkett, Clarke, Reid, Johnson and Jacqui Smith.
To be honest she'd have to go some to be worse than anyone on that list. Except maybe Charles Clarke. I had a soft spot for him. The others were just prize cretins.
Blunkett was the worst of that lot. The legislation he pushed through was poorly worded and in some cases against the law. I had to write a report on his Criminal Law Act and I was a bit confused. I went to see the resident judge of East Sussex and he told me not to bother as the act would be binned in six months. It took a little longer but not much.To be honest she'd have to go some to be worse than anyone on that list. Except maybe Charles Clarke. I had a soft spot for him. The others were just prize cretins.
Mojooo said:
0a said:
This isn't correct. Getting rid of incomepetent staff, retraining and changing procedure is what it's all about. I was present at a talk by the most senior guy at a UK airport and they had massive, massive improvements after looking at this. No staff increase.
At a time when they are going through big cuts are they going to fire and hire new staff with all the associate costs?It annoys me that people think it's a numbers game. It isn't - sometimes getting rid of people will make the public safer and the service more efficient.
Derek Smith said:
Blunkett was the worst of that lot. The legislation he pushed through was poorly worded and in some cases against the law. I had to write a report on his Criminal Law Act and I was a bit confused. I went to see the resident judge of East Sussex and he told me not to bother as the act would be binned in six months. It took a little longer but not much.
Surely the poor wording is dow nto the lawyers that draft the law? Couldnt find an Act of that name so recently - can you be more specific?
crankedup said:
ninja-lewis said:
Wasn't he governor at HMP Whitemoor when the IRA smuggled a gun in and six prisoners used it to escape?
Yes I do believe your right, still fair play, we are all allowed one or two mistakes in a life time of work. Maybe they might allow the H.S. some slack on this one.The previous governor, who'd got himself a tidy berth lined up doing a (paid) criminology degree at (I think) Cambridge University, ended up on jankers instead and was sentenced to a long period of time in a small dark room at HQ as Deputy Head of Paperclips or somesuch.
The gun used during the escape had been secreted inside long before Clark's arrival. As had the semtex, discovered a little later. That was a fun few weeks. The reason that these items had got in was deeply infected with politics, mainly surrounding a recently declared IRA ceasefire and the arrangements for IRA prisoners' visitors.
Clark, in my experience, is/was one of the good guys. He was a very hard bloke: in his first few weeks at Whitemoor, he single-handedly floored and restrained a prisoner who had kicked off in a wing office.
It is far from normal for a No1 Governor to do something like this.
Derek Smith said:
Riff Raff said:
Before her we had: Blunkett, Clarke, Reid, Johnson and Jacqui Smith.
To be honest she'd have to go some to be worse than anyone on that list. Except maybe Charles Clarke. I had a soft spot for him. The others were just prize cretins.
Blunkett was the worst of that lot. The legislation he pushed through was poorly worded and in some cases against the law. I had to write a report on his Criminal Law Act and I was a bit confused. I went to see the resident judge of East Sussex and he told me not to bother as the act would be binned in six months. It took a little longer but not much.To be honest she'd have to go some to be worse than anyone on that list. Except maybe Charles Clarke. I had a soft spot for him. The others were just prize cretins.
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