I believe complacency is the greatest danger we all face as enemy forces gather and plan to destroy Western civilisation.
In the 1930s, we in Britain treated Adolf Hitler as something of an eccentric. A Donald Trump of his day perhaps. David Lloyd George visited Hitler in 1936 and wrote in The Daily Express about how little we had to fear from Nazi ideology. Hitler had no plans to expand the Reich. Meanwhile, Winston Churchill rested in the wilderness where his warnings about Nazi rearmament were dismissed. Extremist rubbish. The Jewish persecutions? Nothing to worry about. Not our problem.
So we became complacent and did not anticipate what was shortly to befall us all, namely the Second World War and the terrible destruction it brought about.
Today we have, of course, the nonsense of Brexit, which is based on a complacent view regarding European security. It threatens to hide much greater issues like the real danger we face from terrorism, which will increasingly hunt out the underbelly of European weakness as weak politicians debate trivial issues.
These issues include how to hold onto power, how to guarantee their own self-interest, and arguing about the terms and conditions surrounding Brexit. Daesh thrives on such ridiculous divisions. And we are complacent if we allow politicians to divide their valuable time arguing over such peripheral nonsense.
Our complacency in Europe was dashed on September 1, 1939, when other compulsions gained the ascent. Today in Britain, following the dreadful massacre in Manchester, we have suddenly realised that complacency means trying to manage lists of thousands upon thousands of people who we know are planning to bomb and kill us all – as circumstance allows. We are at war with terror.
After June 8 we may expect a return to Churchillian policy where I am afraid the rule of law will be suspended. Habeas Corpus could be a thing of distant memory. Internment of the suspect will be brought back – a routine where thorough interrogations will accompany ever more arrests.
Now it may be that others feel such draconian actions will not be needed in the UK and across Europe. However, as I write, states of emergency are being extended across Europe and these are for sure the precursors to draconian action later.
So complacency has died and everybody needs to consider the fallout and how they will manage their lives and their businesses. One thing is for certain. Travel by land and air across Europe will become increasingly fractured as we bolster security and move to exclude anyone who poses the remotest threat to us. So as things pan out, plan for greater scrutiny and ensure all your documentation is in full and proper order; wherever you are or plan to be on the morrow.