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See other news stories'No room for complacency' on terror threat
9 August 2006
In a major speech on security issues, Home Secretary John Reid warned that the threat from terrorists remains strong, and called for all citizens to remain alert to the possibility of terrorist activity in their communities.
Calling this an 'age of uncertainty' Home Secretary Reid said police and security services are working non-stop to prevent another terrorist attack, but that they cannot do it alone. 'While I am confident that the security services and police will deliver 100% effort and 100% dedication,' he said, 'they cannot guarantee 100% success'.
If more violent attacks on UK citizens are to be stopped, the public, corporations - everyone - will have to do its part to help, he said.
He called on the public to do all it can to stay alert and notify authorities of any suspicious activity, and warned: 'We are probably in the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of World War II.'
Post-Cold War confusion
Dr Reid said that much of the international problems that confront us now are part of a chain reaction set off by the end of the Cold War. The subsequent porous borders, failed states, civil wars and ethnic tensions made the world a very dangerous place. And globalisation ensures that decisions taken on the other side of the globe can have immediate impact right here at home.
The mass migration of recent years that concerns so many people brings big benefits, but also huge challenges, he said, and the sheer volume of international migration to and from the UK can 'carry insecurity into the heart of our communities.'
The government works very hard to ensure that genuine asylum seekers who really do need help are allowed to stay and start new lives here, but the system is plagued by fakes, many of them with dangerous agendas, and they use the country's free and open system to help with their plots. The new threat to the UK, the Home Secretary said, comes not from fascist nations but from fascist individuals who are not bound by international laws or treaties, but operate as freelance criminals.
Let's talk about immigration
Dr Reid called for an end to the notion that even just talking about immigration is racist, and he urged people to take part in a national discussion on the benefits and costs of a growing multi-national UK population.
'We need to have a mature discussion about all of this,' he said, in order to prevent this critical issue from being used as a political football by those with ulterior political motives.
In this conversation, he said, every citizen will ultimately have to answer these questions: How much of a price are we willing to pay for our own security? Or for the preservation of our freedom? How much will we pay as a nation if we make the wrong choices?
