Romseyredhead

Monday, October 04, 2004

It's all hush hush

I thought I was privileged to have Roke Manor Research in the patch. The local newspaper once wrote about them and compared them favourably to Q branch in the James Bond films. So, I was quite surprised to visit a business this morning and discover that they specialise in security - particularly secure buildings.
Learnt a lot about the lack of legislation to ensure that safety is incorporated in to our public buildings from the outset and came away with a number of action points.

I also learnt that there are very few organisations in this line of work and it made me wonder who was looking after parliament. This is not the place for me to give the lowdown on security at the Palace of Westminster but it doesn't inspire confidence when it took the House of Commons authorities several months to realise that anyone delivering to the kitchens in Portcullis House had access to the whole of the parliamentary estate.

We now have a swipe card system but as most MPs seem incapable of remembering to carry their card with them it is not uncommon to see British politeness coming to the fore and doors being held open......
And they wonder why people get in so easily???