Perhaps there are no coincidences in the world of state security, but the near-simultaneous warnings from the new head of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, and separately from Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, chief of the defence staff, must certainly represent something of a pincer movement so far as their political chiefs are concerned.
The government is, of course, well aware of the multiple threats to the security of the UK and of what we used to call the West – including the kind of atrocity committed on Bondi Beach. But there is no harm at all in Ms Metreweli and Sir Richard stirring a complacent public to add to the pressure on ministers to react more decisively to the worsening situation, particularly in Ukraine.
