Prevent

Have you heard of the above programme?  Probably depends on where you live - or more precisely, the sort of area you live in.  It is designed to try and prevent (geddit?) people being radicalised and going on to commit terrorist atrocities.  Can't argue with that?  Problem is, it is based on the concept of "tell tale twit" - it relies on people being prepared to snoop on their acquaintances and to report them to the authorities if they suspect them of being that way inclined.  And that has unpleasant connotations with dictatorships and secret police and all that.  So, can it work? - does it work?  We can't know of course - the intelligence services keep that information very much to themselves.  What is worth noting is that, in relation to recent home-grown terrorist attacks, there are now people coming forward to say that they tried to alert the authorities to the fact that the perpetrators were people who ought to be watched. Big part of the problem of course is that the people most likely to be reported are Muslims, and so the Prevent strategy can be seen - and is seen by many - as anti-Muslim.  I would like to end this post by coming to some positive conclusion - but I haven't got one except to say it might end up as a lesser-of-two-evils jobbie - the right of people to live their own lives as they wish, versus the safety of the rest of us.