The new reviewer of terror legislation has landed in his big comfy chair with a bang and his first announcement in his new job was to declare that the UK faces terror threat from Isis not seen since the IRA were blowing things up in the UK.
I'm sure that he has his own reasons for making a comparison to ISIS who have launched no terror attacks here the IRA who planted bombs regularly and murdered scores over decades but it does give us a chance to show how times have changed when it comes to dealing with terrorism.
These days we are raining down bombs on countries that host terrorists but back in the day bombing Ireland was never mentioned.
Today Muslims are treated to extra security measures and surveillance but i don't remember seeing a Catholic having extra checks done on them.
The regular mantra is that we won't deal with terrorists but not only did we meet with the IRA but we made them part of the Government.
Finally the 'threat' has seen draconian security measures spring up everywhere to limit our freedom in the name of security but it was very much different during the IRA bombing campaign where it was very much 'stay calm and carry on, don't let them disrupt our lives'.
A cynical person would say that the Government hype up the threat to justify increasing surveillance, war and the inhibitive cost of the military, including nuclear weapons, while the countries economy gurgles down the plughole but those of us who lived through the troubles and came within a whisker of being an IRA victim, know that the threat from ISIS today and the IRA back then is not only frivolous and lazy but just plain scare mongering.
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