I notice that the police are not treating the killings of those children in Southport as a terrorist attack. While the principal suspect has been charged with allegedly producing ricin and allegedly possessing a PDF document called ‘Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: the al Qaeda training manual’, we have been told that no terror motive has been established.
My friend and colleague Douglas Murray dealt, admirably, with the Southport business last week. But speaking more generally, the suspicion many people have that we are being treated as children who cannot be trusted to control ourselves when we are presented with information that may gravely disappoint us seems to be correct – and it has ramifications for the unspoken contract between the people and the government and indeed beyond.
It has long since got past the point where we simply nod wryly when informed that the perpetrator of some atrocity was a ‘Norwegian’ when we have seen the photographs and arrived at the conclusion that he was the least Norwegian-looking chap one could ever imagine.
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