Changing our lives is victory for terrorists, says Nigel Hastilow

The hideous truth, though, is that every murder of this kind hands a series of mini-victories to the mad fundamentalists, however much we may protest to the contrary.

Theresa May seemed to acknowledge this when she said: “At terrible times like this it is customary for leaders, politicians and others to condemn the perpetrators and say that the terrorists will not win.”

Yes, it is customary. That doesn’t make it true, it just means we expect to hear such comforting platitudes.

The reality is our world changes with every outrage.

For a start, there’s the extra security. Of course it is necessary. Occasionally – and occasionally is often enough to justify it – bag checks and body searches really do prevent a murderer from carrying out his plans.

Every airport queue or delay getting into a concert or a football match is justified by the need to combat terrorism.

We should at least admit to ourselves that previous outrages have, indeed, changed our way of life.

Every time we hesitate before we go to a big event, or worry about taking the train into town to go shopping, is a small win for evil.

If we are nervous, worried or even, in a small way, frightened, it’s a petty triumph for our enemies.

Every concrete bollard set up to stop suicide bombers in cars or lorries ploughing into an airport, council office or even Parliament is another sign all is not well.

Every time we make a phone call or visit a website, we know our activities are being traced and can be taken down and used in evidence. We’re innocent, so we don’t really worry about it.

But there was a time when the ceaseless surveillance of every citizen in the country would be an outrage to civil liberties.

Now we regard these constraints on our freedom as irrelevant, a price we must pay to reduce our chances of being blown to bits.

All these security measures are important. They help the police and our Government spies to keep tabs on many of our enemies-within and some of this activity has definitely helped to foil plots which might otherwise have devastated many more lives.

We are now forced to live in an era of heightened security and, if we were to be consulted on whether we approved of these limits on our liberty, I think most people would agree they were a necessary part of modern life.

They certainly make us more confident that we can go about our daily business with some sense of security.

Yet we all know there is no such thing as total safety from terrorists any more. Random attacks on the street, lorries ploughing into crowds, gunmen bursting in on rock concerts and opening fire on everyone inside – it is impossible to guard against such callous inhumanity.

So we exercise a little more caution. We accept a little more inconvenience. We subtly change our behaviour. And we accept the need for spies everywhere in the hope that this will minimise the risk to ourselves and our loved ones.

But let’s at least be honest enough to admit this means the terrorists are, if not winning, then at the very least forcing us to alter the way we live.

This is not the only success they achieve with each new outrage. When we say terrorists will never win, what exactly do we mean?

There are all the ‘little wins’ we hand then in the name of security but then there are the bigger ones they achieve in the end. In the case of Islamic fundamentalists, it is difficult to know what it is they really want other than the entire overthrow of Western civilisation.

In the short-term they will, doubtless, settle for the imposition of Sharia law, separate schools and courts, a nation within a nation, which we will ultimately concede in the name of multi-culturalism.

We do give in to terrorists.

The state of Israel was only founded in 1948 after a bombing campaign by Zionist terrorists while more recently the Northern Ireland ‘peace process’ is no more than the continuation of terrorism by other means.

The Good Friday Agreement has brought an end, more or less, to the fighting in Ulster but at a high price.

Murderers were set free, their blood-soaked bosses became politicians feted around the world and the unification of Ireland is now firmly back on the agenda.

The agreement may have achieved an end to the killing but only at the price of conceding to the IRA’s demands, if not immediately then in the near future.

The reality is that terrorists do what it says on the tin – they spread terror. And in doing so, they change our world for the worse. They call that victory.