I’ve said before that I think merging the Inland Revenue with Customs and Excise wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but shifting the Law Enforcement side over to the Border Force helped to unbalance HM Revenue and Customs moral compass.  Even so, while researching the HM Customs on TV articles, I’ve been struck by the antagonistic attitude of the press. In 1986 the Sunday Mirror trailed The Collectors TV series by asking readers if they’d, “ever tried to smuggle a bottle of booze or packet of ciggies through the customs? And cursed the peaked-cap Customs man for an interfering busybody?” And in the Belfast News Letter, columnist Charles Fitzgerald began his review of The Duty Men by saying, “If you believe that Governments should not interrupt the free circulation of such indispensable items by imposing monstrous taxes on them and pricing them out of reach, then like me you’ll not think beating the Revenue to be much of a crime, “ and boasting, “many’s the bottle of good French...

 Earlier this week, The Times revealed that plans for five cutters and six patrol vessels to replace the current Border Force fleet have been delayed until 2030 due to post-Brexit trading rules. After Britain left the EU in 2020, it signed up to World Trade Organisation rules which state that Government contracts must be open to international competition. Instead of excluding construction of civilian ships from the list, trade secretary Liz Truss replicated the EU’s terms of accession to the EU with the only exemption being warships. Truss is blaming her predecessor, the disgraced Sir Liam Fox.  The current cutters were built in the Netherlands, commissioned by HMCE in 2001, and transferred to UK Border Agency (as was) in 2005. Procurement of replacements has been repeatedly delayed since 2020. The fleet must now be redesigned to include military modifications, so that the vessels can be made in British shipyards. The use of cutters on Customs duties dates back to the 1600’s b...