In these times, security agencies as important as free press

John Lloyd says the work of security agencies can jar with the values if democracy but in this time of threat, security and intelligence agencies are vital 

IF there’s anything we’ve learned from horrors like the nightclub shootings in Orlando, the truck attack in Nice, and the beheading of a priest in St-Étienne-du-Rouvray, it’s that our security services are far from perfect.

We have learned, for example, that Adel Kermiche, one of the killers of Father Jacques Hamel, wore an electronic tag because he had been recognised as potentially dangerous, but a judge had allowed it to be turned off for four hours, time Kermiche used to murder the priest.