Counter-Terror: MI8 or MIA?

Counter-terrorism policy in the United Kingdom has become intensely politicised. The centralised role that Dr Reid intends to fill with a new Secretary of State for National Security presents another step into the fantastical world of V for Vendetta. Labour is so divorced from Orwell that they are unable to view the authoritarian discourse that they habitually extend to everyday life. Reid has run into opposition from other Departments who view the step as an ejection seat at escape velocity from the Home Office debacle and robbing the robes of Cameron's Homeland Security policy. It is not Reid a' robbing from the Etonian to the poor ex-communist, as Homeland is not National.

The police are also unable to agree whether there should be a national co-ordinator for counter-terrorism, fingered as the current co-ordinator at the Met: Peter Clarke, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Met in charge of counter-terrorist policy. The new institution would be composed of three hubs has run into opposition from the Chief Constables in England and Wales. There is also no question over how Scotland would fit into this structure, giving the lie to devolution at work. Surely this issue is too important to leave Scotland or Northern Ireland out of the loop?

On a day when we learn that the United Kingdom is facing the greatest terrorist threat ever according to the nameless ones, our counter-terrorist strategy is politicised, hostage to the career of John Reid and conducted on a devolved basis. This is not MI8, but MIA.