Terror threat

UK intelligence services urged to change tactics

After 12 years of relative calm, 2017 was a shocking wake-up call for the UK with 36 deaths from four terror attacks — the deadliest year since the 7/7 London bombings. With the release of the official report on this year’s attacks in Manchester and London, the UK’s security services were this week given a sharp reminder of the enormous challenge they face in tackling a new generation of lone wolf extremists, often radicalised online and increasingly difficult to detect. “Up to the beginning of this year, the security and intelligence services had their hands around this issue,” says one former security official. “We have to rethink what we need to do to get our hands back around this problem.” Despite this challenge, David Anderson, the former terror legislation watchdog who wrote the report, concludes that there is “no cause for despair”. But his recommendations indicate just how much MI5 and the wider UK security apparatus will have to change if they are to ensure the future is less bloody than the past 12 months.