We partied through New Year thanks to thousands of armed cops – but a terror attack is still virtually inevitable

IT is not down to luck that Britain partied through New Year without a terror attack.

It is down to the best intelligence ­services in Europe and the thousands of armed cops on the streets.

Our hearts go out to the victims of the Istanbul nightclub massacre. But we cannot be complacent — an atrocity here is virtually inevitable.

Indeed, Security Minister Ben Wallace insists ISIS wants to unleash chemical weapons on us. There are 200 British jihadists already here willing to do it.

What concerns us are the hundreds more Mr Wallace says will be driven out of Syria and arrive back here this year.

There is surely a solution, since our spooks have identified so many of them.

If they cannot legally be barred from Britain, they must be arrested immediately, tried for terror offences and locked away for many years.

Nothing less will keep the public safe.

Compo cops

IT is right to compensate cops for life-changing injuries sustained tackling crime or through a force’s genuine negligence.

But some of the claims The Sun exposes today are a sick joke, a vivid illustration of a compo industry police are only too eager to cash in on.

A grand for a cut finger, £14,000 for a bad back caused by lifting boxes, £2,000 for an elbow hurt by a road barrier.

Some accidents are just accidents — no one deserves a four-figure payday.

But forces find it cheaper to settle than to fight, which encourages even more “victims” to try it on.

This is taxpayers’ money — £32million nationwide over three years — at a time when police complain they can’t afford the manpower to attend burglaries.

It has to be reined in.

Basket case

SET against our vast foreign aid budget, a wasted £2.5million may seem small beer.

It still could have done far more good here. And it should anyway have been funded entirely by our highly profitable supermarkets, since the project’s aim was to train their overseas suppliers.

As it was, it flopped . . .

Like so many schemes hosed down with public money due to our insane aid policy.

Foolish betrayal

EXPOSING those who blew the whistle on Birmingham’s “Trojan Horse” schools can only harm the fight against extremism.

The staff and governors were rightly promised anonymity over their ­evidence that claimed kids were being indoctrinated into Islamism. Now they say they fear for their safety.

How does the Government expect others ever to come forward if this is the shabby treatment they can expect?