February 23: Can Britain win the war on radicals?

The Dewsbury-born former Conservative Party Chairman laments the lack of engagement with Muslim communities, especially the readiness to write off groups and individuals as being, as she puts it, “beyond the Pale”.

Of particular concern is her contention that Britain is currently waging an “ever-losing battle” to counter the pull of Islamists, such as the so-called Islamic State, who would seek to recruit ever more numbers of disaffected young Muslims to their cause.

However, while there is a great deal of validity to Baroness Warsi’s argument, there must be a question as to how far the Government should be prepared to go in its efforts to reach out to disaffected groups and individuals whose viewpoint is so diametrically opposed to its own.

For instance, during her time within Government, Baroness Warsi set up a working group to tackle “anti-Muslim hatred” within Eric Pickles’s Department for Communities and Local Government.

Its members include individuals with links to Islamist groups, the very organisations that have been identified as posing a threat to Britain. It begs the question as to at which point “engagement” crosses over into entryism, the process by which an institution is infiltrated by groups with a radically different agenda.

One point on which many will agree with Baroness Warsi is in her call for more emphasis to be placed on the role played by the internet. As she rightly says, many youngsters are not radicalised in the local mosque or madrassa but in their bedrooms over the computer.

Just as there is no single definitive answer as to why a person is driven to become radicalised, there are many means by which that process takes place. However, the question is not whether the Government is alive to those means – it insists it is – but whether it has the wherewithal to negate their evident effectiveness.

Dangerous Dogs: A question of responsibility

AGAINST a backdrop of stringent budget cuts, the issue of dangerous dogs might not be considered one of the more pressing that currently faces the region’s police forces.

However, welcome changes to the law which now make it an offence for a dog to be out of control on private property as well as in a public space are among the factors contributing to a dramatic increase in the number of dangerous dogs being seized across Yorkshire.

Purchasing new kennels to house these animals while their owners proceed through the courts is perhaps an expense local forces could do without.

Nevertheless, given the recent appalling catalogue of dog attacks in the region, it is clear that this hardline approach is necessary to maintain public safety.

There is a distinction to be made, however, between those otherwise responsible owners whose animal has unexpectedly snapped, whether it be at the postman or a young family member, and those who wilfully break the law by breeding and keeping dogs that are known to be dangerous and are in fact banned in this country.

This latter group of individuals pose a clear danger to the public – their crime is one of selfishness and stupidity. Unfortunately, unless courts are prepared to hand out stiff penalties in the form of imprisonment for those who continue to flout the law in this way, the task facing the police will only become more onerous.

Return of Two Jags: Prescott makes for unlikely hero

ONE of several policy areas where Labour is a victim of its own muddled thinking is the environment. There was no little irony, for instance, in Ed Miliband’s pledge that if he became Prime Minister he would freeze energy bills.

Leaving aside the question of whether such an idea is remotely feasible, the fact is that it was the Labour leader himself who sent bills through the roof with his introduction of the Climate Change Act during his stint as Secretary of State for Energy.

The decision to now turn to Lord Prescott, who will act as a “key adviser” on climate change in a surprise return to frontline politics, therefore smacks of desperation. The Hull MP’s remit is to “knock heads together” to secure a global deal for zero carbon emissions for the second half of this century.

So there you have it. A pledge to cut gas bills from the man responsible for their rise and a climate change policy driven by a man who recently claimed he had done his bit for the environment by going from two Jaguar cars to one. You simply couldn’t make it up.