Nowhere is safe from terrorists' extremism

For those who regarded terrorist attacks as something that happen in London, in other places, but not in Scotland, the attack at Glasgow Airport is a rude awakening that nowhere is safe from terrorists' extremism. With the government last night raising Britain's official level of alert to its highest level, critical, there is now an expectation that we can expect further attempts to disrupt everyday life. The message is that we need to be vigilant, aware and focused.

What we should not do, however, is jump to immediate conclusions that the attempts to bomb central London and now Glasgow Airport were part of a wider al Qaeda-Islamist attack on Britain. If there is a connection, the forensic material taken from the two cars in London and the burned out Cherokee Jeep at Glasgow airport will prove that link. It may be that the attacks have a common theme: we have a new prime minister and he is Scottish. The Queen was in Scotland to open the Scottish parliament. And we are days away from the anniversary of the 7-7 bombings in London.

To the political conspiracy theorist that is all the evidence needed to mount an attack on weakened laws which don't, they believe, allow the intelligence services ample room to do their job. We hope this is not the reaction the government has to these two outrages. The planned London attacks were stopped by luck, not by intelligence. The attack at Glasgow Airport looked horrific, but it also seemed shambolic and far from a sophisticated operation.

We know Gordon Brown's government intend to revisit the failed policy of being able to hold suspects without charge for 90 days, not the 28 days which parliament finally decided on. We also know the new PM is in favour of the introduction of identity cards. But how would the two outrages we have seen this week have been halted by either holding suspects for longer or by them having identity cards? It would have made little difference.

There is always a temptation when we are perceived as being under attack to seek a greater degree of security by isolating strangers. But we have to wait till we learn more of what went on in both the London car attacks and in the attack in Glasgow before we reach for solutions that may ultimately prove ineffective, but which come with a heavy price in terms of eroded civil liberties.

It may well be that the men in the Cherokee Jeep at Glasgow Airport were as angry as they were ill-prepared. What would have happened if they had simply walked through the terminal doors and threw petrol bombs inside the main building? What security measures were in place to stop them entering the building? These are questions that have to be answered if we believe our airports have suddenly come under a new form of attack, be it from a solo nutter or a group of determined extremists. But perhaps the worst fear we can have is that there is no protection from the mad extremist who spontaneously decides to take lives.

It may well be that the new Brown government is determined to show its resolve and introduce new measures it believes will protect, even if that does mean giving up further civil freedoms. We would urge caution on this. A change of government is a critical period, with plenty of groups spotting an opportunity to make their point.

But equally, a new government has to show calm and resolve, rather than simply make a reflex reaction designed to please in the short term. Brown, and his new home secretary Jacqui Smith, may be in for a rough ride over the next couple of weeks and months. Britain, if it ever was, is not an isolated country now. And just as Brown urged us yesterday to "stand together" and be "vigilant", we trust his government will do the same and react not for the moment, but for the longer term interest of all British citizens.

If as Lord Stevens, Brown new security adviser, suggests, the two attacks are part of a wider and intensified attack on Britain, there will be new pressures on Brown to react and deliver new ways of combating a heightened threat. He should not, however, be pressured to react without knowing the full background of these two attacks.

This is new territory for Brown and, indeed, new territory for the SNP-led government in Holyrood. We hope both of them think hard before they come up with remedies that play to the crowd rather than to the long term needs of Britain.

(Courtesy: Sunday Herald)