Spot-On, Marina!

Marina Hyde, in this piece for the Guardian’s Comment is Free, muses about the reports that terrorists have not only been training in far-off Pakistan, but also on Beatrix Potter’s doorstep, in England’s Lake District.

I share her view that really, there is something risible about these narcissistic losers bonding in the daffodils on the shores of Lake Windermere. But her point is absolutely to the point:

It does not belittle murder to admit that that murder is being planned by a bunch of intense, lost, silly boys. But it should absolutely affect our response. Is it truly worthy of us to dismantle long-cherished legal freedoms for this lot?

Absolutely not, is of course my reaction. And I totally agree with her when she writes:

This should not for a moment suggest that the danger from such people is not real. But being unable to laugh at it is a danger itself. It implies a critical lack of self-belief, suggesting virtues and values to be so tenuous that they can be shaken by Mittyish socio- or psychopaths, when the reality is that we will never be able to fully protect ourselves against some kinds of ingenuity.

Er, Tony, are you listening?