So what do we do to protect ourselves?
The Americans have a very strict border control system ( obviously excluding the Mexican border, but as an island we should not have that particular problem). The Americans have already said that the Paris killers were on their own no fly list and have just announced that the latest Jewish supermarket hostage taker is also on their list.
we need effective border controls like the American system. They'd probably even give us their software if we asked
We need to account for people leaving the country and record those when they re enter. We can then identify those we believe are leaving for military training / terrorism purposes and those who have returned after a significant absence should provide evidence of what they've been doing.
we should significantly increase counter terrorism resources and recruit more surveillance officers
We should remove the ban on phone tap evidence in court
We should cease incarceration without trial and bring suspects before the courts to be tried and sentenced. If we don't have enough evidence we should either let them go and surveillance them until we do
We should introduce a visa system so those who wish to travel and live in this country can be scrutinised for criminal records
We should make it clear that we expect people to report any suspicions of terrorism planning
We should hold to account those who enable and support terrorism
We should tell Saudi and Qatar that funding terrorism must stop
We should close any institution that we discover has indoctrinated people in extreme fundamentalism and supported terrorism or provided funding
We should apply the law without fear or favour.
I don't think that any of those measures are extreme when you consider that we are now facing assymmetric warfare on the streets of our capital cities and that innocent people are being slaughtered
These are not terrorists like the IRA with whom we eventually negotiated. These terrorists demands are that we give up our very country to a global caliphate. That's non-negotiable
There is no point in having nice big aircraft carriers and flashy warplanes when you have already admitted you cannot defend your own citizens in their own country The dats if pretending you need these military capabilities to prevent terrorists coming to the UK are over. That lie is dead.
Defence starts at home. This is a crisis and in a crisis the shutters need to come down Even if we have to turn this country into fortress Britain ( as we did in the 1940s) I believe this is the price we will have to pay to retain our right to live in our country without fear of extremist attack