Downing Street Says » Beverley Hughes

Asked if it was within David Blunkett’s remit to say whether Beverley Hughes would remain in her post, the PMOS said that Ms Hughes continued to retain the confidence of the Prime Minister in the same way she had last week, the week before and the week before that. He believed that she was doing a difficult job well and should be given credit for the achievements on asylum which had been notched up in the past year. Asked if the Prime Minister believed that it was time for Ms Hughes to be removed from her post, the PMOS said that as the Home Office had made clear yesterday, the BRACE system, as a method for clearing backlogs, had been applied by successive Administrations. Indeed, all Governments, going back at least as far as the 1980s, had had to address this problem and had followed similar procedures. Ms Hughes, herself, had told Parliament last week that, “Over the years it has been accepted that making decisions on the basis of the information already available to the caseworker can sometimes be justified as a means of tackling backlogs. This is because long backlogs make immigration controls less effective, as it becomes more difficult to take action against people whose applications have been stuck in the system”. Asked if that meant that anyone applying for immigration status, and who had been in the UK for only a few months, could apply without fear of any checks being made on them, the PMOS said that it was important to be clear what the BRACE system was about. It used information provided with the application in order to make the final judgement. It was not a rubber-stamping exercise. Cases continued to be refused under this system too.

4 Comments »

If ‘she was doing a difficult job well’ it raises two questions (at least):

1) How’s it gonna feel when you, the government, finally track down the slackers?

2) Why is the job so difficult? It can only be that an attempt has been made to legislate for common sense. Instead, we get the Common Market Sense (har-de-bloody-har). But nothing surprises us anymore, so we just and carry on.

Loads of migrants, loads of fear and suspicion engendered by drip-fed terrorist-psychosis and paranoia, loads of plans for databases, ‘increased efficiency through technology’, identification-mania, bombs in your dreams every week…you get the picture. And so many bloody inquiries, all the time, non-stop; never the outcome: incompetence or corruption or treason. Heads must be stuck on with Commons superglue these days, you never see any roll. Always, "No, told you, we were right, again". If you were so right, Gov., why are so many complaining? And if so many are complaining, why aren’t you curious enough to find out why?

What’s that you say? No one’s complaining? Hey, you’re right. Again. Silly me.

To understand the undercurrent of control, one has to appreciate that protocol is the best material by which to imprison real inquiry. There are few in ‘power’ who are not considered as ultimately expendable by those who have quietly shaped their careers, in favour of ‘progress’ on their terms. Psychology is just the next layer, beyond the events. The patient is very sick – because there are so many different sets of symptoms.
Comment by HH — 29 Mar 2004 on 10:50 pm | Link
Not long now Beverly…
Comment by DEGREEK — 29 Mar 2004 on 10:51 pm | Link
The Gvt. are riding the tiger of the right’s racism and paranoia. And now the tigers are getting hungry.

It’s time for the Gvt to take a stand on the issue, rather than on technicalities about B Hughes’s role in some procedure or other.
Comment by Marek Ostrowski — 30 Mar 2004 on 12:18 pm | Link

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» Monday, March 29, 2004

Beverley Hughes

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