Current Events > Ex-MI6 head: Terrorism not 'systemic threat' (to the UK)

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-42345888/

Speaking exclusively to Newsnight, the former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove said terrorism did not present a "systemic threat" to the UK and that the media had overreacted to terror incidents.

In his first ever UK broadcast interview, Sir Richard told Newsnights Evan Davis that, "the chances of getting caught up in a terrorist attack... are relatively low".

Sir Richard ran MI6 from 1999 until 2004.

Although it's little comfort to the victims of terrorism, I have to agree with him. That doesn't mean that terrorist attacks aren't awful when they happen and that we shouldn't take the threat seriously, but the danger is *relatively* small in the UK. You don't even need to go back that far to reach a time when the threat was much greater (see: the IRA), but we got through it, albeit with a fair few deaths.