A trouble shared is a trouble halved

Well that's the idea of John Reid, the British Home Secretary, anyway who has decided to split the massive Home Office into two separate departments, the existing Home Office retaining responsibility for the prevention of terrorism and for immigration control while the newly created Ministry of Justice will deal with offending, prisons and probation.



I have grave doubts about whether this will stop the downward spiral in the current Home Office which, over the past 12 months has a) admitted they didn't know which Britons had been convicted of serious offences abroad b) Had no idea how many probation offenders were violating their orders c) Failed to check whether over 1000 foreign born prisoners were suitable for deportation before releasing them.

I don't believe this is done in the public interest at all, simply a ruse by Read to hive off the bits of his job which are so inefficiently run that they drag him down politically. And anyway couldn't they have thought of a less sinister name for the new department than the 'Ministry of Justice' ?

It smacks of some secret police HQ in one of those authoritarian states where human rights have been subordinated to the demands of state control, where people are monitored by phone taps and CCTV 24/7 and where you can be arrested for just being from the wrong religion! Oh yeah right, of course, sorry! Fits the nation perfectly!