Friday the 13th

After an incredibly slow news day on Thursday 12th November, Friday was excruciatingly packed, the despicable attacks in Paris justifiably crowding out everything else, with Russia being provisionally banned by the IAAF from all athletics a distant second (the Kremlin could not have asked for a better day to 'bury bad news', as was once catastrophically quoted by a former Labour special advisor in the transport department).

Of course, we must commemorate but continue to operate our lives as before, the ultimate defeat of the terrorists.  Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has wisely avoided seeking to make toxic political capital out of it for her 'snoopers' charter', unlike George W Bush and his team after 9/11.  But, leaving aside whether we get a 13/11 to add to the news lexicon, there is a law and order issue here and sadly if reflects badly on a Schengen system already creaking at the seams (it gives me no pleasure to articulate, as with the Euro, that British pragmatism has triumphed over idealistic integrationist policies).  You can go to, say, the Czech Republic and buy a high-powered automatic rifle, travel (back) to France without once being stopped and shoot up a town or city, no matter what gun laws are in place in France (as Illinois in the USA struggles).  If France is to have greater security, its temporary closure of its borders may have to assume a more permanent status.