Jihad

May’s and Corbyn’s descent to bickering over the response to jihadist terrorism shows their mutual mediocrity

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Theresa May  is under pressure  even in her supposed area of expertise. The attacks on her for “police cuts” are election chaff. Her real defence  that cuts  that seemed sensible in 2010 are less so in the light of recent events doesn’t work in the climax of an election campaign, and Jeremy Corbyn’s call on her to resign is almost  laughably hypocritical. Even so she has only herself  to blame  for misfiring in her reaction to London bridge outside No 10 …

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They will have to shed cherished illusions about how to deal with jihadist terrorism. We were different, but we know the feeling

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Since the Manchester atrocity a lifetime ago on Monday night, we can hear echoes of the Troubles every day.   The elevation of suicide into martyrdom is a common theme but very differently enacted and  very differently received; passively- aggressively by  hunger strike  thirty five  years ago  and bitterly dividing opinion to this day: aggressively only  by the IED of militant jihad today; generally condemned except by their own but probably secretly admired by more than we care  to acknowledge. The …

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We should envy the people of Manchester their sense of solidarity, but defiance in the face of killers is not enough

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British reaction to the Manchester atrocity has not yet reached the level of reproaching the authorities for “ the one that got away.” But it soon will, if the reaction to 7/7 is followed. MI5’s investigation into Crevice threw up 55 individuals associated with the plotters. MI5 said it would have liked to have pursued all of them. But it was a matter of resources and only 15 were seen as “essential” targets. The remaining 40, including those later identified …

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