Yesterday Gordon Brown announced his initiative on border policing – an idea originally proposed by the Conservatives. After initially being welcomed by the Tories it was attacked by David Davis for excluding the police. The Independent also found a delicious quote from Labour minister Liam Byrne when the Tories first proposed the policy:
"The chaos of a damaging, distracting and disruptive reorganisation of three agencies on the front line into a single border force. That idea is outdated and is rooted in a concept of a frontier that is long past. It is simplistic and dangerous in the disruption that it poses. The number of people who seek to come to this country might double in the next 10 to 15 years, and I simply cannot think of a worse use of time than to consume front-line staff in the process of reapplying for their own jobs in a reorganisation, the benefits of which we are already achieving by equipping different agencies with the powers to do each other’s jobs."
Today is the Conservative Party’s turn at presenting their ideas on homeland security. Dame Pauline Neville-Jones will present the findings of her policy group on security. Here are some expected highlights: