After the tears we must act to fight this evil

OUR shocked and sickened minds struggle to know what to think about yet another mass murder of innocents in Spain. But to reassure and strengthen ourselves, we still need, as always, to say what must be said.

To those who mourn, we share your grief and we seek with renewed determination to stop these atrocities happening again. To the twisted people who dare to excuse or incite such horrors, we despise your cruel and heartless spite, and contrast our free, happy society, which is all too easy to attack, with the dark repressed misery which you seek to impose on us.

But we must also admit the failings of our precautions. We have now seen enough of these vehicle murders to know that the rapid installation of bollards and barriers in vulnerable places – especially on internationally famous streets such as Las Ramblas in Barcelona – cannot wait.

Our surveillance of potential killers has not been good enough. Known supporters of Islamic State can still walk free, and the increasingly obvious connection between the world of Islamist fanaticism and of petty crime is not getting the police attention which it deserves.

The giants of internet social media have yet to grasp how much responsibility they now carry. They need to co-operate far more with the security services in the struggle to detect murder plots before they come to fruition, and to uncover communications between terror suspects.

Total security is never possible. But we can be safer, and the world’s grief and anger over Barcelona will not be wasted if they lead to more serious and effective measures against these homicidal fanatics. The resources of civilisation are not yet exhausted.