You know, I don’t specifically go looking for government acts to annoy me. I don’t dig deep, searching for titbits. If you analysed the links on this blog, you’d probably find that the vast majority of links go to either the BBC or The Register; most of the stories that really annoy me have been front page at one or the other of them.

And so it is with the latest brainfart from the Home office.

UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is to announce 300 new police-service posts specifically targeted at preventing terrorist radicalisation in Britain.

The BBC reports today that Ms Smith will announce the new jobs later today in a speech to police officers. The extra staff will be a mixture of plods and civilian support personnel.

Smith is expected to say: “We recognise that we can neither arrest our way out of the problems we face nor protect ourselves to the point where the threat disappears.

This threat (which is apparently ‘worse than ever’, ‘a constant companion’, ‘a must see among terrorist threats’, ‘if you only see one continuing bogey man this year, see the UK terrorist threat’) is being talked about rather a lot. And yet, it’s come down to someone driving a burning car at a heavy door and someone else trying to redefine explosive chemistry in a plane. That is to say, this threat has come to precisely fuck all since the July bombings.

Which suggests to me one of two things:

1. That the security forces have been on top of any serious threats; or
2. That the threat has been over stated.

Personally, I say 25% of one, 50% of the other, and 25% blind luck.

So what benefit is to be offered by a further 300 people on the case? Apart, of course, from trying to sound tough on the causes of terrorism. And whadda ya know, it’s election time… What are the chances of electioneering slogans being rolled out during election time?

Listening to such silly statements, knowing that such silly statements are expected to get people voting for the ruling party, and knowing that it’ll likely work, is very tiring. And enough to make you despair about a great many things.