This morning I joined a number of colleagues in an introductory tour of the Committee’s new, high-tech ‘dispatching centre’. When we moved into the Jacques Delors building in 2004 we inherited several separate security systems governing our six buildings. Now we have one coherent, coordinated command centre, staffed 24/7. Building this ops. room has represented a considerable investment but the savings in terms of financial savings and efficiency gains make it very worthwhile. It goes together with a series of other actions designed to raise the overall level of safety and security for our members and our staff. In my picture a guard sits before the screens that show the views from a series of cameras giving a complete panorama of the perimeters of all of the Committees’ buildings. The screens have a sort of eerie beauty to them.