UK Borders Agency

[Horace]

Who was right?

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk...litics-15750722

 

I watched the live coverage of the Commons Committee "grilling" of Brodie Clark and his ex boss Rob Whiteman yesterday (sad git that I am!). Before seeing this, I believed that it must be Theresa May who was being less than truthful, but it is now clear to me that it was Brodie Clark who was culpable.

 

Giving a superb "Sir Humphrey" performance, Clark managed to avoid answering fully, and despite the Committee supposedly being fearsome to appear before, they still managed to let Clark slip through their fingers. They also failed to ask Whiteman directly "Who first raised the question of early retirement?" when he continued to dodge their less than direct questions.

 

Clark is yet another of the hoardes of Scots involved in the admistration/government of the UK, despite Scots making up less than 10% of the population (well, the ones that actually live in Scotland that is). He has been caught bang to rights being disingenuous to say the least, and is now acting the big girl's blouse because he's probably lost his enhanced pension deal.

 

It's clear to me that Clark didn't actually know of the extent of the relaxation of checking, and equally clear to me that Theresa May had never explicitly been told that there was an over-riding get out clause (approved by the previous Labour administration) in being which allowed Border Agency staff to abandon checks on Health and Safety grounds if there were long queues.

 

Clark now appears to be trying to cover his ar$e.

 

p.s. What a wonderful performance later, on the news, by the Borders Agency TU rep! Bob Crow could learn a bit from her! When asked whether Clark had performed well, she eventually said "I think that he was very careful what he said!" and would not be drawn further.

Edited November 16, 2011 by Horace

[missunderstood]

To me it seems unbelievable that Theresa May didn't know the full extent of what was happening, and if she really didn't, she should have done. Agree that Brodie Clark seemed a bit evasive in answering questions fluently, but the level of competence in the civil service is so low that it shouldn't surprise anyone, and an early retirement package is only what he would be entitled to under his terms of employment, and rightly so. I don't understand how anyone can expect a high level of security when staff numbers on the ground are being cut, and in my experience security measures are pretty stringent when a UK citizen boards a plane to leave the country, and about the same as other countries entering the UK through an airport. Ferry travel though is not so good.

 

I don't understand the remarks about Bob Crowe as IMO he is always forthright and honest when answering questions, and he always acts in the best interests of his members, which is exactly what he gets payed for doing.

[Rhodes]

I also watched the riveting Commons Committee coverage yesterday, Keith Vaz is always good value even though he’s as crooked as they come and still good mates for example with Ali Dezaei and Shahrokh Mireskandari. I actually thought Rob Whiteman was given a thorough grilling, particularly by Vaz who was not amused when Whiteman was clearly reluctant to forward an e-mail to the Committee following the proceedings, I think this one will run and run but agree that Theresa May’s position is now untenable.