Jokers

The Batman affair has provided the nation with a lot of laughs although I'm afraid that folk abroad will see it as an example of British incompetence. The Telegraph's Janet Daley asks some pertinent questions:

How on earth could this ridiculous thing be allowed to go on for such an interminable length of time? What in the name of God was that little clutch of hopeless "security officials" doing, chatting to this exhibitionist on the balcony for hours on end?

And this:

Instead of spending hours chatting to him, offering him glasses of water and talking into their mobile phones (to whom, one wonders), the police might have issued an immediate ultimatum: he was to agree to be brought down within five minutes or officers would come up and carefully but forcibly remove him

Some are asking how Batman was able to gain access to the Palace so easily and others think that he should have been shot immediately. I agree with the first point and have some sympathy with the second. But Janet Daley is absolutely right to ask why the intruder was allowed to remain on his perch for so long. I also think that David Blunkett should have publicly fired the head of the Metropolitan Police on the spot - and I say that as someone who loathes Mr Blunkett. The most ludicrous aspect of the whole affair was that Batman was made to wear a safety helmet when being brought down from the parapet. Presumably London terrorists will be left free to ply their trade so long as they give the appearance of complying with the Health and Safety regulations. Truly, you couldn't make it up.

It's no wonder that Prince Charles thinks that royal security should be taken over by the army, but Tony Blair is precluding that option by abolishing the army altogether.