Where you sit is where you stand Another of the Tory "policy" groups has reported this time on National and International Security Policy. Now i'm sure there will be others who will mention the breathtaking volte face on Iraq.

The bit I wanted to comment on was the idea for the creation of a national security council not because the idea is intrinsically bad but because of the work of Graham Allison who wrote a book called Essence of Decision which if I paraphrase correctly, it has been a long time since I read it, argues that people will argue the solution to a problem is what they offer. For instance the general will say we need a military solution, the diplomat will argue for more talks.

The funny thing is that the chair of this Tory group is Dame Pauline Neville Jones a former political director of the FCO if memory serves correctly and certainly a former chair of the Joint Intelligence Committe. This JIC is a kind of national security council for spooks. So given the work of Prof Allison is should come as no suprise that the recommendation her group is putting forward is for a jumped up JIC. Genius.

There is also the delicious irony that the party that is supposed to be against government dominating people lives has come up with a solution that is setting up another section of government. Double genius.  ¶ 1:19 pm