Admiral Sir Alan West has been appointed to the newly created Home Office post of Under-Secretary for Security, Counter-terrorism and Police of the United Kingdom.
The former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff will need to be made a Life Peer in order for him to serve as a Minister in Gordon Brown’s government.
I’m bothered that we now have a former senior military officer in a post as a Government Minister without him ever having to be elected by the voters. He will however have a great deal more experience in matters of security to call on than his colleagues at the Home Office.