Birmingham’s links with jihadism continues, as scary looking Parviz Khan, the man who plotted to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier, gets jailed for life.

On a local radio station today I heard an interview with one of Alum Rock’s councillors, who knew Khan, saying that we needed more action and less talk from the government to win the hearts and minds of Muslims. Whilst making it clear that this was a dreadful and shocking thing, he continued to say that the government must engage with the “grievances” of such people, then finished with the usual flourish along the lines of “the longer we stay in Iraq” etc… you know the rest.

No, Mr Councillor, whoever you were, what we do with these people is bug their houses, track their movements, show the evidence in our courts and then jail the would-be-murderering scum. That’s what we do. Lock them up. Not sit around with them having a nice cup of tea and a chat.

Not yet heard from the famous Cllr Salma Yaqoob on this. Seem to remember she was very vocal when these arrest took place. As I recall she got her fizzogg all over the TV quite concerned about how this would harm community relations - not the murder plot itself you understand, but the press reporting it. She didn’t want trial by media, you see.

Well, I hope Salma’s happy that in the end they were they were tried by Leicester Crown Court, and the evidence was so strong against Pavid Khan and his co-defendants that they all pleaded guilty. Clearly, we now see, the danger came not from freedom of press but from the men who were arrested. Fancy that.