There is no doubt that David Cameron is having a “good war”. I say this without flippancy. The PM has risen to the occasion and given leadership to the nation at a time of international crisis and uncertainty. And he’s good at this stuff. He speaks well in a crisis and in urging the British people to show “resolve” and “carry on with our lives”. He’s been honest, too, in saying that these attacks could reach Britain. Cameron is also taking steps to minimise the possibilities. But will they be enough?
Funding for the three “spooks” services (MI5, MI6, GCHQ) has been dramatically increased, allowing for the recruitment of a further 1900 officers. All well and good, but they will not just walk into their new jobs and get up to speed in a few weeks. Vetting new staff alone can take many months, maybe even years, and that’s after what is always a lengthy recruitment process. These are long term solutions, not a quick fix. In the meantime, we are going to be in the same place as we are now for a very long time. So what can we do straight away?
Firstly, the government must be persuaded to stop and then reverse the enormous cuts to policing. I have had close professional and personal links with the police and since the slashing of police numbers began, we are as a society far less safe than we were before. We have always been fed the line that by cutting “back office” bureaucracy, funding can then be directed towards the frontline, but that’s only partly true. In the police, that has meant that frontline officers have been forced to carry out vital “back office” functions instead of investigating crime. In other words, the work still needs to be carried out, it has not gone away. I am loathe to go into details of what I know, but let me just say that if people knew the levels of policing, which sometimes are non existent, at major transport hubs at certain times of the day and night, they would probably never travel anywhere.
The reality is that no amount of precautions will make us 100% safe and secure, but if we keep cutting the numbers of those who protect us, it is obvious that we will be in more danger.
Secondly, we need long term solutions. Cameron has rightly observed that before any long term solutions are possible, civil war in Syria must end. For that to happen, Russia must be broad onside. To date, their unilateral actions have made things worse, not better. The UN, woeful in its performance to date, remains the only vehicle for progress. No solution in Syria is possible without the removal, phased or not, of Assad and his poisonous regime.
Thirdly, military action. Cameron believes we should join the bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria but to date he has not built a credible case for so doing. So he needs to do so. I have always been of the view that you cannot bomb your way to peace, but if Cameron has a clear strategy and vision as to how military action can improve matters in Syria, he has to make that case and soon. He needs to persuade the House of Commons of his case but mainly those in his own party. He has a majority in the Commons, so surely that should not be too difficult. We know that in Jeremy Corbyn, we have a Labour leader who is as near to a pacifist as you can get, but that is not to say that many other Labour MPs could not be persuaded to support a heightened military campaign.
There may come a time when boots will be needed on the ground or at the very least protective boots to preserve peace and protect people. Once the civil war in Syria is ended, the rest of the world will be able to concentrate all its efforts on ISIS, without distractions. There could be no fly zones, for example, policed by our aircraft. If we can prevent the need for Syrians to abandon their country because of Assad and ISIS, we can stop the refugee crisis that is overwhelming Europe.
Doing nothing is not an option, but acting unilaterally, as Putin’s Russia is doing, merely makes things worse. First, the civil war must be ended and then everything becomes slightly less difficult.
At home, the government needs to protect us as best it can. If money can be found to pay an enormous increase in MOD bureaucracy, as it has been, then it can be found to ensure our police and security services can operate properly. I hate to say it but if only you knew how thin the blue line was you might be extremely shocked. All I can say is that it’s even thinner today and soon it will not be there at all if we carry on like this.
Yes, Cameron is having a good war. His words have been strong and now he needs to prove that his actions are strong too because words alone will not be enough. I believe he is sincere but he just needs to persuade the bloke next door who holds the purse strings.
