The attack on Salman Rushdie reminds us that the fight to defend free speech is a long one

There is a special horror reserved for the long-anticipated strike from an unknown quarter

If Sir Salman is still alive, he, and we, are lucky (AP)

The dictum of the terrorist, expressed by the Irish Republican Army after its attempt to assassinate the British prime minister in 1984, is: “We only have to be lucky once – you will have to be lucky always.”

That was a truth that those of us who stood by Sir Salman Rushdie knew. We knew that he – and we, the defenders of free speech – would pay a price for that defence. He knew that his life would never be the same again. That he would be in hiding for a long time, and that he would need intrusive protection for the rest of his life.

We knew, as the British people, that it was our duty to protect him, and to bear the cost of that protection, for as long as he chose to live in Britain. And we knew, always, that the day might come when the terrorist got through.