Joined-up government

On page 18 of yesterday's Independent was a story reporting a speech given by John Reid on Wednesday, in which he attacked the "politicians, judges and liberal commentators" who have the temerity to cast a critical eye over the government's so-called 'anti-terrorism measures.' Rather than explaining how government policy reduces the threat of terrorism, Dr. Reid appealed to the scale of the threat, falling back on the standard vacuous warnings which characterise the political discourse of anti-terrorism in this country - it represents 'the greatest threat to Britain since the Second World War.'
As yesterday's events illustrate, the scale of the threat is serious indeed; there is very little discussion to be had about this. So the question turns to what needs to be done to stop it. A glance at the morning's news might suggest that the government's anti-terror strategy is basically working if they successfully foiled a plot of this scale, and this will certainly be the line which the government tries to pursue in the coming weeks, probably with a view to presenting the ludicrous ID-card scheme as a necessary tool in stopping terrorism.
As reports on last night's Newnight made clear, however, the information came from Pakistani intelligence - who do a great deal of the leg work in the 'war on terror.' The truth about the government's anti-terror strategy is that it is as incoherent and counter-productive as the rest of New Labour's policy-making. Endless extensions on the capacity of the police to arrest, detain, or perhaps even shoot 'suspected terrorists' leads to clumsy policy which exacerbates the impression of a war on Islam, alienating young Muslims and making UK-based terror plots more likely. We are forced to rely on Pakistani intelligence to save us from the mess our own government has created. That this can be morphed in to an argument to support the government's "anti-terrorism" programme suggests we are not paying enough attention to the details.