Despite former senior law enforcement and intelligence chiefs voicing their opposition, the United Kingdom is moving to end its participation in upwards of 130 European Union justice and home affairs programs. The EUobserver reports that “The list includes the European arrest warrant and European criminal records information system, as well as future schemes to create an EU-public prosecutor and a European investigation order, a protocol on EU countries’ exchange of evidence in criminal cases.”

Opponents of the proposed move, such as Vince Cable, the Liberal’s business minister, said that “dismantling the EU is a dangerous business. We tend to forget, until we were reminded last week of that Nobel Prize, the European project was constructed in order to rescue Europe from extreme nationalism and conflict. There is no automatic guarantee that won’t return.” Lord Blair, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and Sir Stephen Lander, former chairman of the UK’s Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) and a former Director General of the Security Service (MI5), both of whom oppose any opt-out on the part of the UK, warned that, “Responding to an increasingly international criminal environment requires modern international legal and policing tools, fast, effective cross-border co-operation, and the ability to raise standards and share best practice with our closest security partners.”