Politics

 

Britain's government is exploiting fear to suit its actions, whether on Covid or terrorism

The home secretary told me this week that I faced a terrorist threat that was “severe” and an incident that was “highly likely”. I should be “alert”, she said.

What is the difference between likely and highly likely? Should I fear to leave home? Should I run for my life if I see a man with a backpack? Priti Patel also tells me to be “not alarmed”. So why does she try to scare me? Is she on the terrorists’ side?

If I were able to ask the recent murderers in France and Austria what they hoped to gain, I know what they would say. They would want their blood-curdling killings to spread fear among the French and Austrians, to instil antipathy towards Muslims and inspire more acts of terror. Above all they would want their deeds publicised and politicised, to seem heroic to their kind. President Macron duly obliged. Now Patel has given them a bonus. She has offered to make Britons equally afraid.

There is nothing an ordinary citizen can do about terrorism – except not be terrorised. Patel is just blowing a trumpet for her department and for MI5 which recently boasted of foiling 27 late-stage terrorist attack plots. The implication was that without the Home Office, hundreds would have died. I don’t need to know that. I pay the government to make me feel secure, not to be reminded that assassination lurks round every corner. I am left suspecting my fear is merely being exploited by the home secretary to squeeze more cash from the Treasury.