Britain needs a counter-radicalization program for its politicians, says terrorism expert

‘A counter-extremism scheme similar to the government’s Prevent program should be introduced to monitor politicians to make sure they don’t become radicalized, a former diplomat has suggested.
Charlie Bird, who spent time attached to the military in Iraq during the 2003 invasion, wrote on the Cable website that a counter-extremism program to monitor politicians might be worth considering.
Such a program was controversially introduced to monitor school and university students who might be at risk of radicalization.
Former Foreign Office diplomat Bird, who lectures on terrorism at St Andrew’s University in Scotland, said he was in no way comparing leaders like Tony Blair with the jihadists of Al-Qaeda or Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), but said there might be “certain parallels in process.”
Evidence of this could be found in the comments of Sir John Chilcot, who lends his name to the massive and highly critical 2016 report into the war in Iraq. In a recent interview, Chilcot said Blair had acted on beliefs rather than facts.’
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