Sunday, December 11, 2005
Testing out fail-safe Britain
The big bang in Hemel Hempstead throws up a lot of questions. One of them is whether we do have fail-safe resources for our supply chain in Britain, a point I raised earlier with the correct definition of fail-safe.
If the M1 is closed for any appreciable time all those thousands of lorries carrying food in just-in-time delivery operations to supermarkets will have to find alternative routes. A second accident or even a non-accidential event could jam things up in all sorts of senses.
LibDems have quite rightly campaigned on the food-miles issue already but I think we do need to look at the security aspects as well. Real security includes building up robust and adabtable structures for our life-support systems and I don't think we as a country have paid enough attention to this. It is a hell of a lot more central to our ability to combat terrorism than prosecuting people for reading the names of recent war dead at the Whitehall Cenotaph.
Latest ( 2200h Sunday 11th) is that the M1 is open in both directions but may need to be closed again as the firefighting operation moves from containment to active supression of the blaze.
If the M1 is closed for any appreciable time all those thousands of lorries carrying food in just-in-time delivery operations to supermarkets will have to find alternative routes. A second accident or even a non-accidential event could jam things up in all sorts of senses.
LibDems have quite rightly campaigned on the food-miles issue already but I think we do need to look at the security aspects as well. Real security includes building up robust and adabtable structures for our life-support systems and I don't think we as a country have paid enough attention to this. It is a hell of a lot more central to our ability to combat terrorism than prosecuting people for reading the names of recent war dead at the Whitehall Cenotaph.
Latest ( 2200h Sunday 11th) is that the M1 is open in both directions but may need to be closed again as the firefighting operation moves from containment to active supression of the blaze.
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