Gordon Brown has a new plan to beat terror. This is what he should do

Austin Barry

We are currently in a "phoney war" phase, because we've been lucky. I suspect, or rather expect, that within the next year or so there will be a number of successful Islamist terrorist attacks in the UK. When that happens all bets will be off, and if Brown and Smith think that pussy-footing around the issue with the semantical designation of the Jihadists as criminals is going to keep the lid on things they must be dafter than they seem.

mark

I reckon that the UK as essentially a liberal democracy requires to be pushed a little bit more before it finally wakes up to the threats and takes the necessary steps to address them. Democracies are resilient and whilst loath to strike the first blow, when pushed to the wall will eventually win in the long term. Which begs a question - is Islamist terrorism an existential threat against the fabric of the nation - or will it "only" be a long running, and occasionally tragic, annoyance. Do we really think it possible for the green flag to fly over parliament? I think not.

EyeSee

Brown's response to the failed bombings was to do nothing, something he is supremely good at. The intellectual elite don't think the teror is Islamist in origin. Brown (or you) may claim that his reviews are far reaching and with good cause, but they all seem to end up with the innocent general public being harrassed and constrained and no reduction in risk or threat. 4000 terror suspects. Really? Or maybe, or maybe not. We don't know and my money is on, nor do they. Brown and his caste are useless and have infected all around them with inertia and incompetence. Look at the contempt heaped on our soldiers.

Iftikhar Ahmad

Salaam Muslim community was and still victim of Paki-bashing for the last 50 years in every walk of life. Now the Muslim youths born and educated are victim of terrorism. Thousands of them are being searched in streets and hundreds are behind the bar without any trial. Britain is becoming a more racist society. Media and the Government policies play a major part in encouraging racism, prejudices and fears. After 9/11, 7/7 and Glasgow Bombing the climate of hatred and erosion of human rights are common part of every day occurance. Communities are more devided than ever. Anti-terrorist legislation is creating further resentment, alienation and criminalisation.

Colin-Stuttgart

Why should a Homeland Security Dept. be able to do any more that the security agencies that already exist? Some else that the Government should consider very quickly and that is the repatriation of any immigrant refugee or other wise who commits a crime in addition to those who are trying to slip into the country. They should not be kept in holding cells or wherever but deported immediately!

Ian

Iftikhar Ahmad, 'Hundreds behind bars without any trial'!? Prove it. Evidence please? There are enough PC liberal lawyers, some of the Muslim, to invoke Habeas Corpus (before the EU makes illegal) if that were true.

Chris

To be quite blunt, you can take all this "war on terror" drivel and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. We got through the attacks of the IRA without all this. The attacks being made by the security junkies on our way of life are much more serious than anything threatened by the largely made up terrorists they aim to frighten us with. We don't need to import US ideas on so-called homeland security, which have never been anything but an excuse for bullying authoritarianism.

Herbert Thornton

As I recall, some bigots in Britain, who didn't believe in multiculturalism - & didn't want to accept even Nazi culture being imported into Britain - had the nerve, between 1939 and 1945, to shoot down a large number German bombers over Britain.

This resulted in many poor, innocent German aircrews, who were merely sincerely acting in accordance with Nazi culture, being killed in what can only be called an orgy of Nazi-bashing.

I am surprised that there has been so little outcry from the politically correct about this gross violation of the aircrews' human rights.

To echo Iftikhar Ahmad's perceptive observation, - by shooting down all those Nazi bombers, we merely created further resentment and alienation.

There has not even been a apology. Is it not time for somebody like the Archbishop of Canterbury to take the lead?

Craig

Throughout history there have always been groups who have felt the need to resort to whatever tactics will achieve their ends and however we call them – terrorists, rebels, freedom fighters, guerrillas – the result to innocent life has never changed. Since the attack on the World Trade Centre on 11th September 2001 (I’m using the UK calendar system here) ‘terrorism’ has taken the limelight in popular politics and the media solely (I believe) because it was the Americans that suffered this time. Let us not forget that for decades before this many nations were plagued by terrorist activity and no ‘War on Terror’ was ever declared. Indeed, the Americans insisted that we meet at the peace table with the IRA (whom many Americans saw as freedom fighters) and applauded when Nelson Mandela (labelled as ‘terrorist’ by the official, South African government) was elected president. However, putting the past behind us; while we focus our efforts on this – and other, global – issues we seem to be ignoring matters closer to home. More and more I pick up the papers and read of our youths terrorising local communities with anti-social and violent behaviour; more and more I hear of firsthand accounts of youths vandalising property or thumbing their noses at authority and the victims being told little or nothing can be done. What we need to be doing is putting our own house in order before we try to police the rest of the world or dictate to other nations how to rule their populations.

Davo

Smith's discourse does on the non existence of Islamic terrorism puts Neville Chamberlain's "peace in our time" comments to shame, And all those anti Nazi bombings during the London blitz . Goodness me! one rediscovers the truth every day.

Davo

Nice one Herbert yes the wonders of cultural equivalence will enlighten us all!

David Morrison

Con Couglin’s wrote: “Jonathan Evans, the newly appointed director-general of MI5, revealed in November that the number of terrorist suspects active in the UK had more than doubled to 4,000 in the past year”. That is not true. He actually said: “You may recall that in her speech this time last year, my predecessor, Eliza Manningham-Buller, pointed out that this country was facing an increasing threat from Al Qaida-inspired terrorism. When she spoke, MI5 had identified around 1,600 individuals who we believed posed a direct threat to national security and public safety, because of their support for terrorism. That figure today would be at least 2,000.”

Ian

This all sounds very similar to what is happening in the USA and is designed to engender fear in to the public such that when necessary the government will be allowed to invoke special powers without recourse to the people. It is about control and part of the New World Order objective. All very sinister. Wake up!!