The public must never forget about the insidious threat terrorism poses.
With war raging in Ukraine, the potential for horror and destruction posed by jihadists, extreme right-wing terrorists, left-wing extremists and incels is not at the forefront of our security discussions.
But it should not be far away.
Right now, extremists are becoming self-radicalised by vile propaganda on the internet.
While the world focuses on the war, terrorists operate in the darkness, plotting atrocities and seeking the means to carry them out.
The UK’s head of counter-terrorism outlined an astonishingly varied list of threats. Islamist extremism and terrorism is still the biggest – but there is an “unprecedented threat” from foreign enemy states, including Russia, China and Iran. Then there are right-wing and neo-Nazi extremists, incels who are capable of carrying out atrocities and, alarmingly, those who take an interest in school massacres.
Security sources have also warned of a growing number of “mixed” or unclear ideologies. These are complex cases as there is no clear motive, just a morbid fascination with violence. The internet offers unlimited opportunities for extremists to satisfy their sick interests.
The internet, including many social media sites, are awash with videos of brutal violence. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the interest in school shootings, because the vast majority of these happen in the US.
We are becoming desensitised to the violence we witness online. The challenge for counter-terrorism police and MI5 is to work out which extremist will try and carry out their fantasies.
Investigators often see loners urging each other to carry out atrocities while they themselves are almost certain to never actually do so. But someone could, so MI5 and the police cannot take the risk. It is like finding a needle in a haystack.
With so many threats present and constantly evolving, terrorism will never be truly gone.
We must not be complacent. What the eight late-stage foiled plots show is that terrorists will always be trying to attack the UK and the principles we all hold dear.
Michael Knowles is the Daily Express Home Affairs Editor
