Tony Blair described the struggle against terrorism as a "war on terror". Gordon Brown signalled an end to that language.
The British Government is not at war with terrorists, he said, and Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, insisted she wouldn't use the phrase "war on terror". The new line is that terrorists are "simply criminals": the best way to deal with them is to use the ordinary criminal law in order to bring them to trial and convict them.
