Stephen Pollard

to forget it. Perhaps it’s human nature – that we try to expunge from our consciousness the thought that there are those among us who are capable of such unspeakable crimes.

But the authorities and security services don’t forget this. They know that they face a non-stop battle to prevent such outrages and that however brilliant and wonderful they are – which they really are – they cannot win. As the cliché has it, we have to be lucky every time and they have to be lucky only once. If, that is, you define luck in the sick mindset of those behind the terrorist attacks.

Last March, Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said that there were jihadis in the UK trained in Syria and Iraq to paramilitary level. Nothing new there, of course.

But he went on to say that Islamic State had widened its targets: “In recent months we have seen a broadening [with] more plans to attack Western lifestyles.”

That certainly fits Monday’s murders, which IS has said it was behind.

The problem is that no matter how often we repeat the mantra that we will never be defeated (which also happens to be true) we rarely acknowledge the other truth.

That other truth is that we simply cannot defend ourselves fully against murderers so evil, and such losers, that they are willing to die in the process. We cannot defend every arcade, every town square, every sports ground. We cannot make the country into a giant secure zone.

We can do our best and there is a lot more we should be doing. But even that will not be enough. The figures show that at least one suspected jihadi is being arrested every day. And we are not even close to the real numbers.

So we have to look at other tools beyond security cordons and the like. That means looking at how these groups attract their followers and how they gain the space in which to operate. And still, even after all the evidence of the threat here and abroad, still we are operating with at least one hand tied behind our back.

Take prisons. Report after report has shown that prison is one of the most fertile breeding grounds for Islamists and radicalisation. Ministers grasp it. MPs grasp it. But speak to anyone in Whitehall who grasps it and they will tell you that however well intentioned ministers and MPs may be, there is a huge block.

OUR civil service is institutionally incapable of dealing with the problem and there are even those within the civil service who sympathise with Islamism. And nothing is done to root them out. That is just one, small example. Others are simply in denial. David Davis, the Brexit Minister, said this last year, opposing new powers for the security services: “Only by engaging with extremist views, opposing them and defeating them through debate can we hope to deal with the threat of extremism.” Debate!

But he is far from alone. What world do these people live in? Not the world where 22 people are murdered for daring to go out one night to sing and dance and enjoy themselves. The evil losers who killed them are not interested in debate. Nor should we have the least interest in debating them or their allies. Our only interest should be in destroying them.

‘Victims included an eight-year-old girl’