Jacqui Smith's Priorities are Wrong on Terrorism

The Telegraph reported yesterday that eleven terror suspects are still in the United Kingdom five months after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith vowed to deport them.

All charges have been dropped against one of the men and he has been released, although Smith won't reveal which one or why.

Today, she's at it again - revealing that up to 60,000 British workers, including shop and hotel staff, are to be given special training to help them deal with the aftermath of a terrorist incident. This is a central plank of her updated 'counter-terrorism strategy', which includes throwing people into prison without trial and various other tough-talk-no-action nonsense.

Apparently these measures will make Britain's ability to respond to terrorism 'the most comprehensive in the world'.

Here is a small taste of what we're talking about:

'The updated strategy will increase the focus on challenging individuals and groups who undermine the UK's "shared values" - even if they are not breaking the law.

Gordon Brown said tens of thousands of civilians had already been trained in how to look out for suspicious behaviour in crowded places and to react in the event of an attack.

The prime minister told the Observer: "Today, not only the police and security and intelligence officers and our armed forces, but also the emergency services, local councils, businesses and community groups are involved in state-of-the-art contingency planning.

"Tens of thousands of men and women throughout Britain - from security guards to store managers - have now been trained and equipped to deal with an incident and know what to watch for as people go about their daily business in crowded places such as stations, airports, shopping centres and sports grounds." '

It sounds like some sort of North Korean labour mobilisation march. As safe as I now feel knowing that 'tens of thousands' of British people had to receive special training to spot suspicious behaviour, here's a really radical thought (and not in the 'please lock me up for 42 days without trial' sense):

Why don't they actually address potential terrorist activity at its very root? By that I mean taking back a degree of control over our borders and preventing these people from entering Britain in the first place.

Smith and countless other Home Secretaries have admitted that not only do they have no idea at all who is in this country, they have also struggled in vain against EU and UN human rights legislation to deport any identified as a threat, either through violent criminal behaviour or Islamist rhetoric.

The Mail has published several articles this week about how easy it is to sneak into Britain from Calais. Lorry drivers are threatened, middlemen try the doors of trailers as the French police sit by and do nothing.

They only get lucky about one time in ten, but on that occasion as many migrants as possible will flood into the lorry and take their chance through Customs.

Nearly all of these migrants are young Muslim men. A large number come from Iraq and Afghanistan, lands were British men are still dying to fight Islamic terrorism.

As soon as these people arrive in Britain, they know that they can only be removed after a protracted legal battle, normally at the expense of taxpayers.

Many will be economic migrants, but who knows? Who are they, what are their intentions?

This is the front line in the War on Terror as far as I'm concerned, not the Brixton branch of Sainsbury's, and it's about time Jacqui Smith and others accepted the fact.