Originally Posted by
ATNotts
Talking casually to someone fairly high up within the civil service about matters customs and border related in the last couple of weeks it was clear that they are trying to plan for life after we leave the EU (whenever that may be, depending upon transition, how long any transition actually would be, or no transition) and it was clear that they are trying to get government to understand that a sudden exit would leave them incapable of managing borders or customs, having got too few staff, insufficient trainers experienced in customs procedures in particular, and currently absolutely no idea what they are planning for. Even the hoped for transition ending December 2020 may be tight.
It is our illustrious leader who stopped management at the Border Force from using their common sense, which experienced officers have in spades, and targeting arrivals based upon profiling. At the same time, the numbers of people working in front line border force positions has fallen, whilst the number of travelers has increased exponentially. If HMG is going to parachute 200 extra officers into LHR (they say "deploying" when the word is actually "redeploying"), one assumes that will be to the cost of longer delays at Eurotunnel, Manchester, Birmingham, Luton etc., which solves nothing - except of course looking after London (as per usual where the UK government is concerned). Then again, how may MPs and government ministers ever use an airport that isn't LHR?
A friend of mine works for the Border Agency and I don't think morale there is that good with turnover quite high.