The truth is that since September 11 Islamic militants have killed about 70 people in the UK. That's 12 people a year in a country of 60 million. Every death is terrible, but a threat to our existence it is not. You have a much better chance of drowning in your own bath, of being struck by lightning or of winning the national lottery than of being killed by a terrorist. But that wouldn't persuade you to give up your civil liberties, or that we have to invade more oil rich countries for our security.
And from a commenter to Murray's post:
Perhaps the government could give us a fear list, from 1 to 10, of the things we should fear most. Then we'd know where we are, and could start some serious and structured fearing without having to worry about whether we're fearing about entirely the wrong thing.
Comments