The Guardian view on terror: keep calm and carry on

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/27/guardian-view-on-terror-keep-calm-carry-on

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Whatever happened to that once celebrated British stiff upper lip? New police leaflets advising citizens caught up in a terror incident to “Run, hide and tell” suggest our prized national imperturbability may be in decline. But the leaflets got the thumbs down from many recipients on Wednesday. No wonder.

Faced with an existential threat, is hot-footing it out of there always the right thing to do? Sometimes, of course. But in some cases it isn’t. The brave Ingrid Loyau-Kennett who calmly confronted Lee Rigby’s killers in Woolwich while they ranted over his body didn’t run and hide. In so doing she helped to ensure the killers were arrested while providing the nation with an inspiring counter-example of how to behave under fire.

The police mean well – and their advice is certainly not stupid. But they underestimate the public. If there is one thing the British like about their self-image it is the ability to stay cool. This is, after all, the nation that went to war in 1939 with the slogan “Keep calm and carry on”. Even in the face of the nuclear threat the message was “Protect and survive”.

Nor is “Run, hide and tell” in the spirit of, say, Horatius guarding the bridge. Or Henry V at Agincourt, It does not compare flatteringly with La Pasionaria’s “They shall not pass”. Nor stiffen the sinews like Martin Luther’s “Here I stand, I can do no other”. And goodness knows what a latterday Churchill would say. Presumably he would not promise to fight on the beaches, on the landing grounds, in the fields, in the streets and on the hills. Instead the advice would be to desert the beaches, keep your head down in the fields, stay off the streets and lie low in the hills. It might ensure a safer Britain. But not necessarily a better one.