...There are some more antisocial things than fighting foreign wars that citizens do without fear of losing citizenship. Sorry, it's late - I need to think about this more.
ah, i fear we're at cross purposes - i'm not
that fussed what people do when they aren't in the UK, thats for the legal systems in the countries they visit to deal with (ok, if they go somewhere without much of a legal system with the intention of just being vile to the locals then we may have to act on behalf of those people who don't get protection in their own country, but in principle..). my concern is what happens when they come back.
at present, if they come back they'll do 5-10 years in Belmarsh, wear a tag and not be allowed on the internet for the rest of their lives. they'll never be allowed a passport or to get on a plane, and they'll never work again. Belmarsh is £80k+ a year per jihadi and theres perhaps a thousand who are either on a sunny camping holiday, or have come back. from recall MI5 reckon they spend about £500,000 a year to monitor a jihadi reasonably closely... most of these people are in their early 20's. we may well still be be paying to monitor these people when we have a PM who's parents haven't been born yet.
so much for the cost to us all - lets go to the risk. these people were motivated before, now they are motivated, trained and brutalised - do you fancy living down the road from a bloke who is reckoned to have beheaded 10 or so people? do you really think MI5 will either have the resources or get every decision right to closely monitor a thousand jihadists who've come back?
principles, and being 'bigger' than our enemies is great - but my, and perhaps your, children will be getting on tube trains in London or Glasgow or Newcastle for the next 60 years. personally, if it reduces the risk of some beardie nutter getting on the same tube train as them with an explosive rucksack i can happily live with making the consequences of going to join these groups unpleasant..
