A German court has handed down a life sentence to the perpetrator of last year's Christmas market attack, a judgement that sends a clear signal on judicial severity but does little to soothe the frayed nerves of European security establishments. For the UK, already on a heightened state of alert, this verdict has prompted an immediate review of domestic security protocols. The attack, which claimed multiple lives and injured dozens, exposed vulnerabilities in soft target protection across Europe.
The British government's response, as ever, raises questions of fiscal efficiency: how much public money must be spent to guarantee safety in public spaces? The answer, uneasy for a Chancellor watching gilt yields, is probably more than we would like. This is Alastair Thorne, and the bottom line is that the cost of security is a premium we cannot avoid paying.
