It's no surprise that Prevent has gone to the dogs

Conquest’s Second Law states that the behaviour of an organisation can best be predicted by assuming it’s controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies – and that certainly seems to apply to Prevent (although it’s a ‘programme’ rather than an organisation). Prevent is a key strand of the counter-terrorism framework introduced after the 7/7 bombings and aims to stop people becoming radicalised. Given the historical context – and the fact that 75 per cent of MI5’s counter-terrorism work involves monitoring Islamist extremists – you’d think the main focus would be radical Islam. At least, you would if you weren’t familiar with Conquest’s Second Law.

Is Prevent actually controlled by a cabal of Britain’s enemies?

Of the 6,817 people referred to Prevent in the year ending 31 March 2023, just 11 per cent were suspected of Islamist extremism, compared with 19 per cent in danger of succumbing to ‘extreme right-wing terrorism’. And according to a Prevent Refresher Awareness Course on the Home Office website, one of the three most common subcategories of extreme right-wing terrorist ideology is ‘cultural nationalism’.