Don't mention the ideology

Max Kaye

It is very worrying when one's own security forces are in denial.

Augustus

Whilst there may be 'no single pathway to extremism', terrorism, on the other hand, can only be fought on facts and not based on emotion. Gut feelings can only lead to wild and irrational speculation of suspects and motives.

It will be interesting to see how the world perceives the way Britain deals with security measures during the 2012 Olympics. A good opportunity to show the world how a police presence can still foster an atmosphere of calm and not one of anxiety.

Chuck Unsworth

Is this yet another example of the gross politicisation of the Civil Service? After all, spooks they may be, but public servants they certainly are.

Herbert Thornton

Interesting as Alasdair Palmer's piece is, it is significant that the strictures of political correctness continue to compel both him and others to bend over backwards to avoid identifying Islam as the origin and essence of the problem, so that they instead to always refer to "extremist radical Islamism", "extreme forms of Islam" and so on.

We are beset by religious fanaticism on the one hand, and by politically correct fanaticism that undermines our own defences on the other. This determination to suppress realism makes political correctness as perverse, as great a danger, and as evil, as religiously inspired terrorism itself.

Tiberius

James; with your pieces in this week's magazine and in today's ST coupled with your bringing Alasdair's article on to the blog, one could be led into thinking that you are embarking on a narrative about the existential threat to Britain.

Incidentally, the Tories' three primary policies (on education, welfare and the family) would reinforce some of the pillars necessary to combat that threat.

Okay - I'm reading too much into all this. I'll go and revise the Northern Cities report.

Bobski the builder

I think that terrorists tend to be people that are fed up with the way western and colonial powers past and present have behaved in the last 200 years or so.
A lot of "islamic" states are a product of European colonial interference and American manipulation.
If they'd been "voodoo" countries you'd have voodoo terrorists.
I think we all deserve it really.
Read your history books, look at your atlas then imagine it happening to your own country.
The West has an obsession with sticking it's nose into everyone elses affairs trying to manipulate things to it's own advantage. Are we so naive to be surprised when some people resist and say no?

Chris M

It's all our fault. Islamists have no responsibility - because it's all down to the West.

The Happy Carbon Footprint

Hands up everyone who believes in the "leaked" MI5 report. Chuck Unsworth makes the point.

Bobski the Builder, also known as Bobski the Wrongski - you are naive if you think that a single terrorist, including Osama bin Laden and his rich pals, sits around feeling aggrieved that we got involved in ME affairs a century ago. It not about revenge, it's about conversion by the sword and it is sponsored by extreme Islamic states and taken up by primitive Islamic states that do not understand the concept of the West. Mainstream Islamic states are perfectly content to work with the world the way it is.

It has zero to do with our earlier history in some ME countries. We were involved in Jordan, don't forget, and the late King Hussein and the present King Abdul went to Sandhurst and are friends of Britain.

Your theory is naive, irritating and panders to the Britain-haters of the left.

Austin Barry

What's happened to our security services? They can't seem to identify an obvious enemy. The SIS used to be run by men of integrity and common sense like Philby and Blunt. But now?

Verity

Austin Barry, you ask, "But now"?

They've been co-opted. Be alert.

ToMTom

Is MI5 actually on the ball anyway ? So many of the leads are Pakistani tip-offs, or FBI sourced intelligence that it may be that MI5 is as clueless as when Stella Rimington was around and Algerian deportees from France were allowed to colonise London.

I am not at all confident that MI5 knows much about places like Bradford, Leeds, Oldham, Burnley and what is really going on - nor am I confident that the ocal police establishment is very clued in other than in superficial ways.

Had we some of the Field Intelligence Officers from the days of the Raj I might have more confidence, but I fear it is the incompetence of the terrorists rather than super-sleuthing that has prevented major problems...plus the interrogation techniques used by some regimes to extract information. I doubt this society could resist terrorism without the assistance provided by the latter

Commondog

Bobski the Builder.

"Read your history books, look at your atlas then imagine it happening to your own country."

Imagine what precisely?

Verity

ToMTom - I don't think we need hark back to the days of our involvement in the Middle East (the Raj was rule in India) for assistance. There are very able British Muslims working for our intelligence services. It is the intelligence services themselves which lack the will. (And the support of the British government.)

Nicholas

Bobski with the dodgy notions of history. There were not many colonies in the ME. Most of it was under the rule of the Turks (an Islamic nation) until after the First World War and then there were a few mandates.

In some cases the West assisted Arab countries to maintain their independence (Oman) from colonisation by the soviet bloc.

So your self-flagellating Leftist history lesson is largely bunk. I hope you're not a teacher.

Roy

An excellent post by Herbert Thornton, along with - what can only be termed - a prefabricated botch-up by Bobski the builder. Bobski is a good representative of the misled, misaligned and misguided. Nice guys perhaps but really needs a quiet time with a few informative books and some travel experience for the next few years.