Sneak managed to watch Labour Home Office Parliamentary undersecretary of state and MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch Meg Hillier on the news last night, squirming when asked about when the UK could connect to the EU equivalent of the Police National Computer (PNC) database, the Schengen Information System (SIS).

Political considerations aside, readers may remember exactly why the UK hasn't been able to connect to the system since Sunday 11th December 2005. When Sneak woke up on that Sunday morning and looked North over White Hart Lane football stadium a dark cloud could be seen filling the sky.

This wasn’t due to an upcoming attack by Sauron’s forces on North Tottenham, but the Buncefield Oil Depot just inconveniently exploding. Sneak says inconvenient, because the Police National Computer (PNC) backup site was located there along with the systems meant to connect to SIS. The SIS kit deployed by the Police at Buncefield unfortunately wasn’t backed up, unlike the PNC, which had the main site at Hendon as a safety net.

Of course readers may remember that the Police nearly had to issue a ‘BPAR' order (Brown Pants All Round), when the office block opposite the only site left with a copy of the PNC database caught fire, threatening a catastrophe for law enforcement in the UK. Luckily the Hendon site got away with only £30,000 of damage and Police were allowed to remove said brown pants and nip down to the pub for a few stiff whiskies.

21 Aug 2007