Dad’s Army is no defence on new front line

OUR islands are not as safe as they used to be. The sea which protected our long and often lonely coastline against invasion is now all-too-easily crossed by small boats or light aircraft which evade the tight surveillance imposed at major ports and airports.

Experts such as David Anderson, a former government adviser on terror law, and David Bolt, the independent inspector of borders, have repeatedly warned us to turn our attention to this problem. Nobody in government can claim they have not been warned.

Without a seriously extended Border Force, we cannot be sure who is coming into the country. If there is an unlocked back door, then dangerous people are all too likely to sneak in through it.

Of course, resources are not limitless. And it is easy to see why someone in Whitehall thought it might be worth trying to deal with this problem by mobilising a ‘Dad’s Army’ of volunteers, said to lack powers of arrest or interrogation.

It is equally easy to see why this idea is wrong and foolish. Just because these poorly- guarded ports are small does not mean the danger is. On the contrary, very worrying individuals backed by considerable resources – including jihadis returning from the Middle East – could be using such routes.

To deter them, full-time professionals with extensive powers must be deployed on this new front line, in such a way that anyone hoping to evade border checks quickly realises the risk is too great.