Did you shut the door?

Photo Source: prado

You can see why a pilot scheme was launched to try and speed up the process. The scheme was a success, so the man in charge of border controls decided to extend it. Without mentioning it to his boss: the Home Secretary. Politics isn’t known for rewarding taking a major risk, never mind doing it in secret, so this decision has understandably created a massive row.

Britain’s borders are mostly defined by the sea. We’re not a part of Europe’s Schengen Zone, which allows free travel across much of Europe, we still have border and passport controls that mean we can know who’s just crossed the border, if you’ve ever crossed from Belgium to France you’ll have seen little evidence of a border at all, whereas the checks at Heathrow are stringent.

Or at least they were supposed to be. However recent revelations about security at both airports and ports have led to a very great deal of concern. If the people coming into the country aren’t being checked for warrants against them and other important information it means that there’s a serious risk somebody who is a danger to the public could slip into the country. The fact that passport checks in Dover became very basic and didn’t bother to check the database of people to not let into the country for four years meant that the country found herself with essentially the door in left wide open.

Whatever your views on immigration, the fact that no security checks were being made on people at some of the busiest entrances to the country is bound to cause a little concern. That the situation at Dover only came to light after the scandal about airports hit also raises a broader question, what else did the last government do that the present government doesn’t know about?

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