The Standard View: Holiday e-gate nightmare must not be repeated

If Border Force e-gates suffer a nationwide meltdown leaving thousands stranded, but Chinese-sponsored hacking isn’t to blame, does anyone in government make a sound?

It is the nightmare scenario for holidaymakers returning to Britain after a relaxing trip, only to find themselves sleeping on the hard terminal floor, without food or water. Given “no indication of malicious cyber activity”, according to the Home Office, it shows how vulnerable our systems are to simple breakdown. Nor is this the first such occasion. Only last year, the UK’s e-gates system crashed, leading to similarly dystopian scenes.

Delays aside, at stake is the integrity of our national security processes. Clearly, the system must be more resilient. And with the busy summer season fast approaching, airports and passengers alike will want reassurance that a repeat performance can be avoided.

Prepare to crane your neck: London is reaching for the skies. The capital is on course to become something of a “Manhattan-on-Thames”, with nearly 600 more planned skyscrapers set to plug the gaps in our already crowded skies, according to a new report. That is more than double the 270 built over the past decade, the 10th annual Tall Buildings Survey from architectural think-tank NLA finds.

There have been 71 skyscrapers completed in Tower Hamlets alone over that time, more than in any other borough. And while not every design can satisfy all tastes, construction of these giant projects provides the commercial and living space the capital desperately needs. As the old truism goes, the health of a city can be seen in the proliferation of cranes in the sky. In an ambitious city with finite space, the only way is often up.

It is a victory for the brave men who joined the Garrick years ago in full knowledge that it did not admit women, and have been (secretly, apparently) working to change the rules from the inside.

The private members’ club has voted to allow women to join for the first time in its 193-year history, following months of pressure. The motion was passed with nearly 60 per cent, a rare landslide victory these days for Oliver Dowden, Michael Gove and numerous other Conservative MPs who are members.

Admission to a private members’ club established during the reign of William IV may not sound like a pressing human right. But exclusion and discrimination of half the population is philistine, not least for a club dedicated to those in the arts.