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Up to five of those involved with the al Qaeda airline bomb plotters remain at large after the jury failed to convict them on all the charges brought in a £10 million trial, raising questions about how these proceedings should be conducted in future. Three British Muslims, Tanvir Hussain, Assad Sarwar and Abdulla Ahmed Ali, have been convicted of conspiracy to murder, besides admitting conspiracy to cause explosions.
However, they and four other men may face a retrial over charges of conspiracy to detonate explosives on aircraft.
The police are blaming the US authorities for putting pressure on Pakistan to arrest the al Qaeda contact there at an early stage, when sufficient evidence to guarantee convictions was not yet available. This may represent an attempt at scapegoating after the biggest counter-terrorism operation in British history failed to deliver all the hoped-for convictions.
However, as the seventh anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks looms, it is a reminder of the difficulties of co-ordinating the fightback against al Qaeda across several jurisdictions, including still unstable Pakistan.
Similarly, there are criticisms over the performance of the jury — but such problems are inherent in the system of trial by one's peers. This is no time to question that principle.
More difficult is the question of phone tap evidence, which it seems might have helped secure more convictions. MI5 remains reluctant to allow this to be used in court, arguing that it might compromise its techniques and personnel. The service needs to look again at whether disclosure might have helped in this case.
As for the ban on liquids in hand luggage, responsible for many an airport queue, it looks premature to relax the rules, disliked though they are. BAA and the airlines must do a better job of reminding passengers to pack correctly, and developing technology to improve screening.
The police and security services deserve congratulations for disrupting the plot. However, all the authorities concerned must look hard at the lessons of the investigation's messy outcome for the continuing fight against terrorism.
£2bn Tube hole
THERE is a £2 billion gap between what the Tube Lines consortium says needs to be spent on the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines from 2010 and what the Underground's statutory arbiter, Chris Bolt, says this programme should cost.
The two will now battle it out over the next two years to determine the right figure, and with it the prospects for better service for travellers.
This bizarre procedure, in which a public sector official has no ability to end the contract and go to other suppliers to get a better offer on behalf of Tube users, is the product of the Public Private Partnership. We can only hope that, following the collapse of Metronet, the consortium for the Circle, District and remaining parts of the Tube map, the outcome is an acceptable one.
But this is no way to run a railway, and Gordon Brown, who brought us the PPP when he was Chancellor, is the man responsible.
Listen to winners
Olympic medallists in cycling, rowing, boxing, sailing, canoeing and athletics, including Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins and Sarah Ainslie, have all lent their weight to this newspaper's campaign for an enduring legacy of participation in sport.
Some have some good ideas about how to open up their chosen pursuit to new blood by promoting it in schools, as our charter demands; others want to see better facilities, as we do, too.
These voices deserve to be listened to as ministers, town halls, schools and sporting bodies look at how we can make 2012 an Olympics with an enduring legacy as well as medal winners.
