What a wonderful time of year this is. The clocks go forward over the weekend – spring forward, fall back as the Americans say – and suddenly the grey, drab, cold days of winter are just a memory. The days are longer, the light nights have arrived and spring is in the air.

If winter represents death then spring represents birth or rebirth when life begins to awaken and assert itself once more. The birds sing with a greater urgency as they look for their mates, the flowers, already showing since February now begin to spread and the colours brighten up our world filling us full of optimism and positive thoughts of the warmer days ahead.

We have a lot to look forward to in Britain this year, what with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June and the Olympic games in the summer and whilst these events should be occasions of joy and exuberance we must guard against complacency. The events in France this week, when an Al Qaeda operative murdered innocent men, women and children, should help us keep our focus and remind us (if we needed reminding) that there are those who would deny us our peace and happiness.

The French security and intelligence forces have come under scrutiny and have been criticised for letting the killer slip off their radar, having correctly identified him some time ago as being a security risk. We mustn’t think for one moment that our own security and intelligence services are any more efficient or competent for they are probably not. We in the West are facing a determined, cunning and unscrupulous enemy and if we are to enjoy the freedoms provided by our democratic way of life then we must, collectively as a nation and as individuals, remain vigilant at all times.