The Glasgow airport attack (updated)

Were they Scottish? The response to the failed Glasgow airport attack will be dictated by the identity of the perpetrators. Early reports say Asian men were seen leaving the car, and Glasgow certainly has a large Asian community – more akin to that that of Bradford than London, ie, poorer and perhaps more susceptible to Al Qaeda’s message.

This attack makes it harder for those who blame Blair and the Iraq war for making England the target of attacks. Scotland is run by a nationalist government and its first minister Alex Salmond was vehemently against the Iraq war. And still the jihadis target Glasgow airport.  Further macabre proof that the terrorists’ only guiding principle is that of psychotic bloodlust.

MI5 opened a bureau in Glasgow recently, which surprised me at the time. But its ten years since I left the city. It seems the jihadi menace is more widespread than we had feared.