Don’t blame the intelligence agencies for jihadism

We have refined our collective critique of Big Brother with the precision of picky consumers rather than principled citizens. Most of the time we don’t want BB around and complain of his intrusions, real or imagined. But when things go wrong – when a young Londoner suddenly becomes a global figurehead of murderous Islamism, for instance – we resent the state even more. To put it plainly: the only thing we object to more strenuously than MI5 taking action is MI5 failing to do so.

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