Today in Politics: Terrorism: who's in charge?

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown's Commons statement on the Government's counter-terrorism strategy was so detailed that, despite the importance of the subject, he lost the attention of MPs, who mumbled amongst themselves, and he had to edit it as he went along. It was like listening to a Brown Budget, complete with machine-gun delivery; you almost expected him to announce the public borrowing figures in his next breath.

Ironically, at Prime Minister's Questions earlier, Brown claimed he allowed his ministers to get on with the job when he implied that he didn't need to be told that thousands of illegal immigrants were working in the security industry because his Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was on top of the problem.

Aides say the PM is doing the fine print on terrorism to ensure a more co-ordinated approach by all Government departments. This is puzzling. When the Home Office was split in two this summer, the reason given was to allow the Home Secretary to give top priority to...co-ordinating the fight against terrorism. On that basis, today's statement should have been made by Smith not Brown.