Last year I obtained a leaked copy of the new government’s ‘counter-extremism sprint’. It caused a huge political backlash – and was disowned by ministers within hours – for saying the UK’s approach to extremism should no longer be based on ‘ideologies of concern’, such as Islamism, but on a very wide range of ‘behaviours’, including misogyny, violence against women and spreading conspiracy theories.

The BBC’s real crime is its relentless political bias

What if the UK hadn’t voted for Brexit?

Fourteen months later, we risk sliding back into the same folly. In a report this week, the Commons’ home affairs select committee says Britain’s ‘failure to move on from a counter-terror mindset’ has made Prevent, the main counter-extremism programme, ‘outdated’, and ‘left the country ill-prepared to deal with new forms of extremism’.

The MPs took far too much evidence from the kind of activists who deny jihadism as a threat, the kind of pressure groups whose idea of ‘hate’ is opposing net zero, and the kind of academics who go on for pages about the far-right with barely a mention of........

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