Iran attacks: Why can’t Trump get his head around the difference between a death-cult and a serious state?

‘The Iranian people are moving forward, and today’s fumbling with firecrackers will not affect the will-power of the people… the terrorists are too small to affect the will of the Iranian people and the authorities.’ There is something to be said for this imperious fly-whisk response, delivered by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, in reaction to yesterday’s double-suicide attack on Tehran, which cost at least 12 innocents their lives and caused dozens of injuries. Whatever therapeutic good it may do for the survivors of attacks on our own soil, there is for the IS barbarians and their would-be emulators a dangerous validation in our flags at half mast, our interrupted sporting programmes, and our wall-to-wall media coverage. Rather than congratulate ourselves on staying calm and carrying on, why don’t we just stay calm and carry on? There won’t be any such rigmarole in Tehran over the next few days.