It almost beggars belief that, for a period of two months in the summer just gone, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) relaxed its security checks at UK ports of entry potentially allowing all sorts of  undesirables to enter unmonitored. So bad is this latest governmental cock-up that Home Secretary Theresa May, has had to admit that she has no idea how many foreign nationals escaped those security checks before they blithely entered the country. And this, at a time when the world, in general, and the West, in particular, remain at great risk from the threat of global terrorism.

The whole purpose of immigration and security controls is, of course, to screen those who wish to enter the country by firstly examining their paperwork and then, if necessary interviewing them to ascertain whether or not they pose a risk to national security. This was not done and we need to know why not and who was responsible. Of course, ministers are rarely personally to blame for such faux pas but ultimately they must take responsiblity for the incompetence of the civil servants working beneath them.

This is not the first time that such an incident has occurred in recent years though it usually happened on the watch of the previous bungling Labour government. Sadly, the present incumbents seem to be no better. Oh dear, if only we had an alternative!