England's Foreign policy needs reassessing

Having spent a week away from the frantic furore and chaos of England's terror alerts - it has suddenly dawned on me what is wrong with this country.

When John Reid, Home Secretary labelled the situation 'critical' and then downgraded the threat to 'severe,' I was exasperated by the instant assessment that there no longer is a 'critical' threat to our nation.

Suddenly, talk on the streets about the terror threat from Muslims and immigration and the recent knee jerk reactions to the situation have foregrounded my ever disgust in this Government.

The reason why we are involved in an ever insecure world and are at 'threat' from terrorists, is not primarily to do with AL QUAEDA or indeed Islamic terrorists, but from the Foreign Policy pursued by Western countries with the main contenders being Bush and Blair.

The Heathrow fiasco has caused much chaos in the system. A system which at the best of times fails to operate fully.

Having returned from Valencia to Heathrow with a friend, I was amazed at the pertinent tightened controls in security, but not surprised at the disorganisation. I thought the Europeans were disorganised, but our Airport controls make a mockery of the system.

Politicians dream up ideas in fancy hotel rooms or indeed from plush offices in Whitehall, but rarely do they visit an Airport and see how the system operates from the ground.

The same can be said about our public services, including England's transport system.

My friend, along with a host of other airline passengers, was unable to locate his bag at arrivals and as reported via the Daily Mail, 10,000 other bags were lost in different parts of the world.

Politicians have a great habit of responding to situations with solutions that seem to make a melting pot of current laws. For example, the confusion surrounding what you may take onto the plane as hand luggage, confuses most people at the best of times.

I'm not for one minute suggesting that it was not neccessary to implement these strict guidelines for passengers, but if the Police and indeed the Home Office had maybe issued a statement prior to the terror plot being thwarted, then maybe the furore that occurred last week would not have panicked parents with young babies having to taste Baby milk in front of security guards.

Finally, if the Government are to get tough with terrorism and fight the terrorist threat a reassessment of their own foreign and defence policy is vital.