The death of a Greek politician’s mother in a targeted arson attack is not merely a tragedy: it is a symptom. A symptom of a Europe that has forgotten how to be civilised. The flames that consumed her home were not the work of random criminals, but of a political malignancy that masquerades as activism.
And now, in a twist that would make Gibbon smirk, British counter-terror experts are being dispatched to Athens. Because of course, when the Continent’s house is on fire, it is the British who must carry the water. This is not charity.
This is the price of decades of moral cowardice. We have allowed the rhetoric of grievance to replace the grammar of reason. We have permitted the fringes to set the agenda.
And now, a mother is dead. Let us not pretend this is an isolated incident. It is the logical endpoint of a culture that treats arson as a political statement and murder as collateral damage.
The Greeks are in shock; they should be. But the rest of us, in our smug, insulated enclaves, should be asking: when will our own mothers be at risk? The offer of British support is well-meant.
But it will not solve the rot. For that, we need less therapy and more backbone. We need to stop treating barbarism as a legitimate opinion.
The Victorians knew that civilisation required a clenched fist. We have forgotten. And this is the result.
