by Freddie Attenborough, The Critic
The grounds for a referral are dangerously broad
The government’s counter-terrorism Prevent programme tends to hit the news only when it fails to prevent things, as seen most recently when we learned that Axel Rudakubana had been referred to it on three occasions before murdering three young girls in Southport.
But perhaps it’s precisely because Prevent reaches public awareness only in such circumstances that most people don’t appreciate how wide-ranging its day-to-day concerns and activities are. or how in the last couple of years they’ve become more wide-ranging still. You may not realise, for instance, that the 2023 online Prevent Refresher Awareness Course — hosted on gov.uk and completed by thousands of public-sector professionals — includes among its subcategories of terrorist ideology something called “cultural nationalism”: a symptom of which is the belief that “Western culture is under threat from mass migration and a lack of integration by certain ethnic and cultural groups”.
One problem with this belief qualifying as a danger sign is obvious: that it’s not only widely held but increasingly part of the political mainstream. It’s also, needless to say, perfectly lawful. Another problem, though – which I’ll come on to later – is more hidden: the way Prevent functions means that a single referral can have serious, long-lasting consequences.
