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Gordon Brown - countering terrorism with more quangos ?

Gordon Brown's Security Statement in Parliament this afternoon probably deserves some proper analysis later..

The existing CONTEST counter terrorism strategy has been a disaster on the "hearts and minds"and propaganda front, so it was interesting to hear Gordon Brown announce a flurry of activity involving departments other than the Home Office.

Is Al Quaeda really going to be defeated by a vast array of new and existing Quangos and Non-Departmental Public Bodies, Councils and Special Units etc ?

Is this a further expansion of Government patronage for Labour apparatchiki, with our public money ?

What measurable effect will roping in the National Gallery and the British Museum have on preventing the radicalisation of extremists ?

How is the mechanism of "twinning of schools" going to achieve this ? Are there really going to be student exchanges between British schools, and those in, say Pakistan, Afghanistan or Somalia ?

As with all of Gordon Brown's announcements, we will not be surprised if it turns out that the sums of money mentioned in this statement have already been announced or spent, and that there is nowhere near as much "new money" as he pretends.

More red tape and snooping on financial transactions, supposedly against terrorist financing, seems to be threatened, although how there is scope for more bureaucratic red tape than what Gordon Brown has already introduced when Chancellor of the Exchequer is a mystery, for now.

More thoughts later.


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