Paul O'Connor
The crisis in the UK Border Agency has attracted much media commentary and coverage over the past two weeks. The vast majority of this has focused on the “she said/he said” spat between Theresa May and Brodie Clark. Sadly, this misses the real story.
The government is cutting the UKBA workforce by a third from 2010 to 2015. The simple fact is that they do not have enough bodies to do the job. That is the entire rationale for the Agency’s move towards the “risk-based” security controls at the heart of the spat. Both May and Clark have an interest in maintaining the lie that the pilot has improved efficiency. In reality, it has always been about keeping down queues at ports and airports because there are not enough staff to process them.
