Too much security makes us all a lot less secure

Here is a little paradox. For 30 years during the Troubles you have been taking the Belfast to Stranraer ferry. No one asked you for identification: you just bought your ticket and off you went, even though it is quite possible that among your fellow passengers on one of those journeys was a terrorist smuggling bomb-making equipment into mainland Britain. Eventually, peace is restored to Northern Ireland. And what happens? Suddenly you can’t travel without a passport or ID card, and all your luggage is scanned. Once in Belfast you decide to take a train to Dublin, a journey you have been making unhindered for 30 years. When you book your ticket you are, for the first time, asked your name, address, credit card number and 50 other pieces of data, including the purpose of your visit and details of accommodation you have booked. When you ask a security officer why the sudden need for the formalities you are told it is all because of the ‘terrorist threat’. You want to ask him where he was for 30 years of the Troubles.

Last week the Prime Minister announced a huge increase in security measures at transport hubs. Passengers passing through 250 railway stations will routinely have their bags scanned and searched as if they were passing through an airport — and in the case of ferries, they will require ID to travel. On the same day the Home Office announced that it had signed a £650 million contract with a consortium, Trusted Borders, led by Raytheon Systems, to install and run the first phase of the £1.2 billion e-borders project. This will scan the passports of travellers entering the country, match their details against police databases and analyse 53 pieces of data collected about them when they booked the tickets. Like the Automated Targeting System already used to analyse travellers entering the US, the information will be used to calculate a personal risk rating for each passenger.